On the Straight and Narrow

Marijke de Jong is a horsewoman from the Netherlands that teaches "straightness training", and I absolutely love watching her work with horses. She had a horse who favored his right side and found bending/tracking to the left for any maneuver to be quite challenging, which made him difficult to ride or work in hand. Marijke began reading training books from some of the old masters and found that a horse's natural imbalance had been recognized for hundreds of years. Through reading these old books she found a polite way of communicating straightness and balance to her "problem" horse, and developed a training method she now teaches today. 

Inspirational photo from Marijke's FB page

There is something to learn from everyone, to limit your masters is to limit your learning. I personally look for horseman and women who have a light hand and a psychological and emotional understanding of the horse, and soak up any and all information I can that in my opinion is a polite and effective method. It can be scary to branch out from a training method you've been following for over a decade, afraid to trust yourself and not a proven master of horsemanship. However I believe once you have a good foundation and understanding of quality techniques, finding mentors is much like reading food labels. You find a product (or trainer) and look at the ingredients. Are they all natural, or are there more preservatives and chemicals than food in there? Trust your judgement, and broaden your horizons. No one person has all the answers. Plus, for me at least, it can get a bit boring, no matter how amazing the information. My LBE side kicks in, and I need a change of pace. I'm still learning and advancing, and I'm adding more maneuvers to my mental card file, more arrows to my quiver ;)

Below is a video of Marijke demonstrating her straightness training in a Parelli halter. I love watching all her cues, and how soft she is with the horse, and the horse's willingness to perform, to play. I think this would be really fun to try out, and would do wonders for my girls, especially Cheyenne, who naturally carries herself in a "bad banana" posture.


Marijke de Jong - Straightness Training