Yesterday I had the unique pleasure of watching a demonstration by John Lyons at the Novi Equestrian Expo. He did his stuff, western style, and of course the horse responded beautifully, because John Lyons knows what he is doing. I made a few notes from the hour long demonstration:

•  To make an "extraordinary" horse (dressage) you first have to get him to the level of being "ordinary." In other words, you can't start at the top of the training pyramid and hope the lower levels will just fall into place. And "extraordinary" horse is built upon mastering the ordinary.
• Moving "the tail" (the hunches) moves the feet. "Moving the neck doesn't move the feet." A lot of riders focus on what the neck is doing when they need to be concerned about what the hunches are doing.
• "When you pick up the rein it needs to mean something." Put pressure in the rein, pick a spot on the horse you want to move, apply pressure until he thinks about moving and instantly release. Example: walk forward, lift up on the rein (pressure) until "the tail moves over and stops," and then do the other rein.

John Lyons is a natural horsemanship trainer. But good training carries across disciplines, because it's not about the method used, but about the communication. 

In the spirit of natural horsemanship, I tried a little groundwork with Risonho this morning. I grabbed the whip, and Risonho walked right beside me, not having a clue what was coming. Neither did I. I picked up the rein, and moved his hunches over with the motion of the whip and suddenly wondered: "What's my aim here?" In all honesty, I couldn't remember much about the previous day's seminary, and I wasn't quite sure what my aim should've been. I figured the best thing was to put the whip away and just climb on and ride--something we both understood.