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Many people are confused about the aid for the canter. What follows are some common questions about the canter and my answers.

Q. I know to ask for the canter it is outside leg behind the girth and inside leg at the girth, however during the canter is your outside leg supposed to stay back or do both legs then become neutral at the girth once the canter is achieved?”

A.Swing your outside leg back ONCE, and then bring it back to its normal position on the girth. Think of it as a spring-loaded action or a windshield-wiper-like action. If you wait for your horse to answer, he’s not listening to your leg aid. If he doesn’t canter right away, give him a little bump with your outside leg or tap him with the whip. (Carry your whip in the outside hand for the canter work so you can use it to reinforce your outside leg aid.)

As soon as he does the canter depart, reward him.

You can teach him to canter by holding your outside leg back, but when you start doing half passes in the trot, your horse might get confused. He won’t know whether to stay in the trot and go sideways for a half pass or to pick up the canter.

It’s easier to teach him to canter from an aid that ONLY means canter depart than to teach him to canter from that aid and then have to reschool him when you get to trot half passes.

Q. Are you saying that the canter depart is achieved with the legs only? Or, were you just addressing your reader’s concern about her legs? I thought the canter depart was achieved by a slight turn of the wrist on the inside hand, weight on the inside seat bone, AND the windshield wiper outside leg. Is that correct?

A. Yes! I was just addressing her concern about the legs…But you’re right about the rest of the aids. I also push that inside seatbone toward the inside ear and support with the outside rein so I don’t get too much bend in the neck.

Q. How do I use my hands and seat in the canter depart?
What rein aids, if any, should be used?
Do I stay centered with my seat or shift my weight to the inside or outside when I cue for a canter depart?

A.Your weight is on your inside seatbone. When you ask for the depart, push your inside seatbone toward your horse’s inside ear.
Ask for flexion at the poll to the inside with a slight indirect rein aid, but support with the outside rein to keep your horse from over bending his neck to the inside.

Q. How do I keep the canter depart from being hollow?

A. Your horse is perfectly justified in coming off the bit if all you do is give the aid for a transition. To do a transition on the bit, you need to give two sets of aids at once–the transition aid AND the aid to tell him to stay on the bit–the connecting half halt. When you give these two sets of aids at once, you’re telling your horse to “do a transition on the bit”.

* Essentially, you’ll superimpose the connecting half halt over the aids for a transition. That is, you’ll give the connecting half halt before, during, and after the transition.

* In this case, the connecting half halt lasts longer than three seconds. It might even last six, seven, or eight seconds.)

* Apply it lightly before, during, and after the transition so that you “bridge” the transition with your connecting half halt.

* Start the connecting half halt before the transition. (Close both calves as if you’re asking for a medium gait, close your outside hand in a fist to capture and recycle the power back to the hind legs, and vibrate the inside rein to prevent your horse from bending his neck to the outside.)

* Keep giving the half halt while you add the aids for the canter depart.

* AND keep giving the connecting half halt for two or three strides into the next gait.

Q. What aid do I use to go from canter to trot?

A. The primary aid for any downward transition is a “stilled” seat.

* Sit with equal weight on both seat bones, and stretch up tall so you have a gentle curve in the small of your back. I call this posture a “ready” back.

* Brace your lower back in a stopping, non-following or retarding way by tightening your stomach muscles like you’re doing a sit-up.

* When you brace your back, your hips stop following the motion of your horse. Your non-following hips signal him to drop down to the next slower gait.

* To learn the feeling of stopping your hips, simply sit on your horse at the halt. Focus on the immobility of your seat.

* When you ask for a downward transition, mimic the way your seat feels in the halt.

* To practice your stilled seat, pick a point in the ring or on the trail. As you pass this spot, make your body immobile.

Q. How do I keep my horse on the bit during the transition back down from canter to trot?

A. Let’s say you want to do a downward transition from canter to trot on the bit. Remember, if you want to do a transition on the bit, you need to give two sets of aids at once.

* Ask your horse to stay on the bit during the transition by giving the connecting half halt before, during, and after the transition.

* While you’re in the canter, start your connecting half halt.

* After giving the half halt for a couple of seconds, add the aid for the downward transition by tightening your tummy muscles.

* In the beginning, it may take a few seconds for your horse to respond to your seat.

* No matter how long it takes, keep giving the connecting half halt until he listens to your seat and drops into the trot.

* Maintain the connecting half halt until you’re trotting for at least two strides.

Note: If your horse does the downward transition from the half halt itself, you’re either using too much hand and not enough leg or he’s behind your leg. He should wait to do the downward transition until you actually still your seat. The connecting half halt is just for keeping him on the bit. It’s not the aid for the downward transition.

Q. When we’re cantering my lower leg and knee creeps up and my stirrups dangle on my feet (both left and right). What can I do while I’m working alone, which is most of the time, to improve my leg position at the canter? I realize lunge line lessons would improve my position, but that’s not an option right now.

A. It sounds like you’re gripping with your knees and thighs for balance. Think about relaxing your knees and thighs and letting your legs hang loose so that you feel your feet supported by the stirrups. Sally Swift has a great image for this. She says to imagine that your legs are so long that your bare feet are dangling on the ground, and you can feel mud squishing between your toes.

Q. I was initially taught to ask for the canter with the outside leg, as are most people. However, as I progressed in Dressage, I was taught that although my outside leg was behind the girth in the canter transition (to tell the horse which lead I wanted), I actually asked for the canter with my inside leg, at the girth. Is this right?

A. Absolutely. The outside leg tells the outside hind to strike-off. (The outside hind leg needs to strike off first for your horse to end up on the correct lead.)
Your inside leg at the girth tells your horse to go forward into the canter.
So, you do end up using both legs although the emphasis changes from your outside leg to your inside leg as you and your horse become more advanced.

Q. I unconsciously lean forward as I ask for the canter. Should I stay upright? Should I lean back?

A. Stay upright, but push your inside seatbone toward your horse’s inside ear during the depart. As Kyra Kyrklund says: Pretend there are arrows extending down from your seatbones. You’ll push your horse’s hind legs in whatever direction your seatbones are pointed. So when you lean forward, your seatbones point backwards, and that’s the direction you’ll send the hind legs. By pushing your inside seatbone forward, you bring the hind legs with you and underneath your horse’s body.

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They sound like characters from an action video game – Orange Monster, Black Samurai, White Knight – but in fact, they’re three of the hippest watches made by Seiko and are much sought-after by wealthy enthusiasts and collectors, particularly in Asia.

This may come as a surprise, but Seiko watches are gaining an image as hip and collectable. In many parts of the world, the Seiko watch brand has been seen as reliable, but unremarkable. But look closely and an exceptional story begins to emerge.

Seiko burst onto the international watchmaking scene in 1969, when it caught off-guard and almost destroyed the Swiss watch industry with the launch of the Astron, the world’s first battery-powered quartz wristwatch. The Astron was more accurate and durable than the hand-wound mechanical Swiss watches costing several times as much. Overnight, demand for mechanical watches plummeted.

Many watchmaking innovations over the past three decades are probably due to Seiko: the first quartz watch; first quartz LCD with six-digit display (hours, minutes and seconds); first calculator watch; first quartz with day and date; first quartz chronograph (date, stopwatch and alarm); first TV watch; first thermic quartz watch (powered by the wearer’s body heat); first kinetic quartz watch (powered by the wearer’s movement)… and the list goes on. Seiko watches have been at the center of watch evolution, and its influence extends far beyond watchmaking: the LCDs in your clock radio, microwave oven or CD player all owe a debt to innovations made by Seiko.

Seiko, in fact, has been the innovator of so many industry “firsts” that it’s difficult to name them all. Recently, for example, was the 40th anniversary of the first quartz chronometer, launched at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Used to time marathons, it brought unprecedented precision to sports timekeeping, being accurate to within 0.2 seconds a day. Just a few years ago saw the 10th anniversary of the world’s first kinetic chronograph, the quartz watch powered by the movement of the wearer’s wrist, thereby eliminating the need for a battery. To celebrate the event, Seiko launched the Arctura Kinetic Chronograph, which takes kinetic movements to a new level of precision, being accurate to within 15 seconds per month.

While innovation and continuity rarely go together, Seiko has both. The company, founded in Tokyo by Kintaro Hattori in 1881, is still a family business. Although part of the business is a publicly traded company, the current president of Seiko Watch Corporation is the founder’s great-grandson, Shinji Hattori, who is also the nephew of the current honorable chairman.

Given Seiko’s history of producing revolutionary products and ideas that are emulated everywhere, you might expect that it would enjoy a reputation similar to that of Apple or Sony. Yet many people don’t few even realize that Seiko is the world’s leading manufacturer of watches, selling over 14 million watches annually. It also annually sells more than 350 million quartz movements to other watch makers. Here again, Seiko has revolutionized the watch making industry. Previously, only Swiss and Japanese companies could make reliable watches. But now anybody can simply add a dial, case and strap to a Seiko quartz movement and sell it under their own brand name. Although it doesn’t want to name companies it provides movements to, Seiko’s quartz movements are at the heart of many watches sold by some of the biggest name brands in fashion and sports.

Seiko doesn’t really get the respect it deserves. The product quality is phenomenal, but there’s a misperception of their brand.

Some people believe Seiko offers too many budget-price models. Cheap, in the public’s mind, means poor quality even if that’s not the case. Also, Seiko’s watch designs change too often. Some of the best Seiko watch designs never get the chance to develop a following, whereas the best Rolex or Omega watches stay in production for 20 or 30 years. For collectors, it’s a problem, and collectors add value to brands.

One Seiko executive recently stated the company is in the process of refining its brand. “We have very strong brand awareness, with around 70 per cent recognition of Seiko as a watchmaker. But there was some confusion about the brand. The company’s pioneering history, our dedication to producing elegant watches, wasn’t really understood. We’re proud of the company, so we decided to streamline and focus the branding, and emphasize our legacy.”

Until recently, regional Seiko companies sold the brand according to local tastes. But just recently the Japanese parent, Seiko Corporation, decided to overhaul its branding and marketing strategies. The company’s position is that customer perception of the brand should be the same in Tokyo, London, Paris, New York or Sydney. That means building a brand image that conveys core values, no matter what the market. Over a period of several months Seiko has revamped its public profile, from billboard and TV advertising to in-store presentation and packaging.

So far, the strategy has been successful. In line with company expectations, Seiko is gradually being seen as a premium watch brand. Not just trustworthy and reliable, but a real status brand. Technological innovation is at the heart of company, but Seiko watches have a certain refinement that they’re trying to emphasize also.

So, how might Seiko improve its brand status? Being the largest watch company, with an excellent line of products and constant innovation, perhaps Seiko could start by being a little less modest about their product.

Watch Source Guide is a comprehensive source of information about watches for enthusiasts, or for anyone planning to purchase a watch and wants to make an informed decision. Includes sections on watch functioning, maintenance, articles and more. More information on this and other related topics can be found at http://www.watchsourceguide.com

How Does Clothing Affect Us? Without a doubt, clothing is the most prominent facade of our well being in society. It can camouflage, it can cover-up and it can build as much as it can destroy our image. It tells others what we want, our talents, our needs, our personalities, our dispositions and our destinations. Clothing is silent but very powerful communicator. We’ve all experienced better treatment when we look especially well and what it’s like to be treated badly when we don’t. We can get attention when we enter a room or attract people with the same interest. That is because people relate to the way we wear our clothing. Clothes are said to make “fashion statements.” By overlooking, we’re suitable to convey uncertainty and confusion. By emphasizing we can enhance our look, strength and success. Clothes can create positive aspects of ourselves it sparks self assurance and confidence. It can make people respond and be excited to be in our presence. At times, clothes are the only visible clues to our personalities.

You are what you wear. It’s like a wrap of a beautiful gift. The wrapper represents your clothes and gift represents your body. So, no matter how good looking you are inside if you fail to present yourself outside, your inside would be presumed like your outside. The key is to wear cloths that fit your body and that inspire confidences.

Whether it’s fair or not, a person’s first judgment of other is based on clothing. Clothing is the first clue absorbed by the eye before the brain judges’ first impression. Clothing has become the most important judging factor of first impression. The rest including intellectual appreciation comes only second.

Your image is showing when other people look at you, they make judgments about you based on what they see. Appearance creates a picture of who you are. When other people lack personal information about you, they may use your personal appearance to judge your character. They may judge your ability and disposition by that first impression. By changing any part of your appearance such as hairstyle, grooming, or clothing, you can change the total image others have of you. Appearance can be a powerful and useful tool in controlling the kind of message you send to others.

When you first enter a room, an office, a bus or a business meeting, you only have one free moment, one great instant in which you receive the complete and undivided attention of those around you. In that instant, the people observing decide whether you are a threat or an attraction, whether you are of interest to them or not. If you mess-up that moment, you will have to work awfully hard for the next. When you see a beautiful woman wearing something really odd you’d say “she’s beautiful but…” and when you see a very handsome man wearing wrinkled trousers with dirty white socks, you don’t approach them nor say hi.

Michael is a fashion expert with over eight years of experience, who’s mission is to teach people how look and feel their best! For the latest fashion advice and tips, eco-chic updates and much more visit http://www.Voiceoffashion.com