Here at Satori Center, principles of mirroring, body mapping, and "visualization" are used in the education of the horse.  This is the foundation for the relationship between the horse & rider.  It is how that relationship is created and sustained.  For this reason, riders will also be asked to commit to learning this method of communication with their horses.  It is not fair to the horses to become accustomed to one type of relationship and then be expected to enter into another kind without any preparation.  Reiki, Resonance Repatterning, Psych-K, and other modalities may be used at times to help with the learning.

'Training' begins with groundwork - proper leading, proper standing, moving away from direction aimed at the shoulder (turn on haunches) or hip (turn on forehand) or both (legyield) and coming in.  This work may be done with a string halter and lead and 'wand' first or it may be done in the round pen first.  This can be accomplished rather quickly usually.

The first mounted work is done in the round pen at the walk and progresses from simply going and stopping to turning now and again to squares and inverted cloverleaves.   Leg yield and shoulder fore in the walk will probably also be introduced as well as trot and some canter.  The length of time in the round pen is variable and dependent upon the temperament of the horse.  I want start, stop, steering, and sanity before heading out to the arena!

While preserving the aspects of takt, losgelassen, anlehnung, schwung, versammlungen, und geradericthe, I teach the movements first at the walk, then the trot, then the canter, overlapping but developing them at the slower gaits first.  This allows for much more organized progression although it may mean spending a little more time at the lower competition levels while the canter work catches up with the trot work.

For instance, leg yield and all lateral work are first taught in the walk, during which time the musculature for trot & canter are developed.  When the horse can trot with a steady tempo, then leg yield and lateral work are introduced in trot, along with lengthening and shortening.   At this time, we continue with general canter work utilizing transitions within canter and between walk to canter and trot to canter and back to develop some balance and carrying capacity.

When the horse is sufficiently balanced in the canter work, we begin working more steadily with modifying the length of stride and with the 'leg yield' and lateral work in canter.