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glenatronTom Widdicombe is the author of one of my favourite books on horsemanship and with his wife Sarah he runs clinics aimed at applying some simple principles in logical ways that really help the participants and their horses improve their communication. Tom originally trained with the Monty Roberts organisation but his approach now has a lot more in common with the work of Mark Rashid, having a general approach, a philosophy rather than a specific set of exercises. He's also a cheerfully grumpy old hippy who uses phrases like "a lot of people worry that they are laying a trip on their pony" with more than a hint of the west country in his accent.
Tom hates mysteries, or at least he hates the air of mystique some trainers try to create around their work, as far as he's concerned, there's nothing mysterious or particularly complicated about training horses- after all, the objective is to communicate ideas to horses. For all their glory and majesty horses aren't necessarily smarter than us and the key to this way of working is to find way to make everything clear and logical to the horse. As always, the key principles of horsemanship; timing, patience and consistency are at the heart of most work. Tom comments that you can't make rules for horses because there will always be one horse that you have to break them for, but I don't believe he would find those overwhelmingly disagreeable.
We began with Lou (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sleepsy_mouse) and Small pony, who regular readers of this journal will recall was very unhappy about going into the school- not flipping out, but showing a lot of more subtle signs of anxiety. Tom started out by having them working together on the ground, making the point that although small pony is very sweet and soft and nuzzly he is also pushing boundaries by inviting himself into Lou's space even if it is just for hugs. The behaviour isn't a problem, but he needs to know what the boundaries are because if he doesn't he starts to feel he might be in charge. It's very unsettling for a horse to be the leader, especially in a situation where they are on unfamiliar ground or unfamiliar things are happening.
Tom felt that Lou needed to set up a clear and simple boundary that both of them could recognise, so that they could both see where they stood. She wanted to be soft and kind with Small Pony but what Small Pony wanted was for her to be authoritative and to show that he didn't have to worry about who was in charge. It's fine to be friendly and huggy with your horse but it needs to happen on your terms not on the horse's- you can go in and ask for a hug, they can't come in and demand one. To this end he had Lou working to lead pony around and when she halted just moving pony back to the boundary they had chosen whenever they stopped. He set up cones for them to work around, observing that having a definite task and purpose to do, even if it's just moving from cone to cone, really helps the horse and handler to get things done. It means that if the horse starts playing up the handler can just keep going with a "do what you like, we've got a job to get on with" attitude and this can really help, especially with a more flustery horse.
Small was tending to pay attention to everything that was going on outside the school rather than paying attention to Lou as she was leading him, so Tom had her just asking him to come back to her every time he showed that he was losing concentration or his attention was wandering. At first this was very short, but he started moving his attention in to her rather than being away with the fairies half the time as she persisted in asking for it. While they worked on this Tom made a few interesting observations on lunging- if you aren't careful by getting your horse to just keep going around you all you are training them to do is ignore you. That's going to show in everything else you do together and the horse may well get unnecessarily strong handling because they are ignoring you, just like you taught them to.
By the end of the session Lou had made a few small changes to how she was with her horse and it was already starting to really show in his attitude. He seemed more content and more attentive to what she was asking from him.
Next up was Sarah and her horse, a gorgeous 15 month old Section B filly called Phaedra. They arrived with a slight problem in that Phaedra just didn't get leading at all, she was charging about, flattening Sarah and generally being a menace. Tom talked about how horses grow up and how they find at around the Phaedra's age that they aren't foals any more and they have to learn their place in the herd. He really backed Phaedra up, pushing her strongly out of his space with strong body language and a lot of movement. He says that in the situation where he was confronted with a bargy horse he would do anything to back that horse up. One of the things he agrees with about the Parelli system (which he claims to know nothing of, but may be being a trifle disingenuous there) is that once they decide the horse is going to do something then they will make sure that horse does that thing. If you don't have that commitment you won't get the result- if you think "I can only push this so far" the horse knows it. Conversely when Tom would go to any length to back the horse up they pick up on his conviction and react to it more easily.
It took no more than a couple of minutes to get Phaedra to understand that she didn't have to be in charge and once she realised that she really settled down. They then went on to work on pressure and release, starting by just staying still with the horse and letting her choose to move if she wanted, which being young and full of beans she did. Moving into the handlers space got her backed up strongly, moving away put pressure on the rope. At first the horse tries to pull on the rope but as long as the pressure isn't released they will eventually discover that they can find their own release by moving back to where the rope is slack. Sometimes that might involve quite a lot of pulling and moving around and it's important to be able to stay with that movement enough that you keep the tension in the rope. If they get release by pulling back they will learn to pull back and it will be much more difficult when it comes time to learn about tying them up.
Having got the point where Phaedra understood about pressure they went on to leading work- when she decided to stop (and she would sometimes do this by almost bowing forwards with her front legs very straight and her quarters up in the air like a playful dog) all that was needed was to let the tension stay in the rope and to wait for her to find her own way out of it. Sometimes her feet would get a little stuck and it might be necessary to step a little bit off to one side to help her move them again, but by this simple pressure and release work they got her starting to follow nicely behind Sarah and to stop without crowding her.
The third pair of the day were another young horse, Seamus, and his human Janet. Seamus was very different from Phaedra, a little less extroverted and hectic. He was very squeaky with curved and furry ears like a creature from some medieval beastiary. Again they started by working on personal space and getting him used to leading, concentrating on getting Janet's asks crisp and clear. She had been taught to ask with a modulation on the rope and Tom suggested that maybe a constant pressure would be a clearer way of presenting her ask to the horse. They worked on setting a fairly large boundary for personal space because although Seamus is small and adorable now he's going to be big in a couple of years time and if he is to stay adorable he'll need to do it from a safe distance.
Tom talks to Janet and Seamus
They also worked on being still together- they had got into a habit of Seamus coming in and fiddling with the rope or licking at Janet's hand and although it was quite bless Tom suggested they stop doing it as it was a habit Seamus was using to come into Janet's space and it was another thing that, while engaging in a young horse, would be a real menace in a large animal. Tom commented that the habits you teach a young horse are the ones they continue to have so if there is something that you don't want your grown horse to do, make sure they aren't doing it as a young horse. Of course, with a yearling there is plenty of time for this as they don't have to really be working for another three years. Tom speaks against desensitising the young ones too far because it can make them a bit leaden and hard to work with when they are older. They need to still be sensitive enough to work with cues when you begin going towards ridden work with them.
In the leading work they began work with a pole on the ground, having Janet ask Seamus to stop by the pole then to put one front foot over it. To start with he was getting both front feet over and that was fine - the aim of this exercise was to get Seamus to start looking for the right answer. If you can instill a willingness to look for answers and to learn in the young horse then you are setting their mind up for all their future education and you are showing them that you will present things in a logical way that they can understand.
The last pair in the morning were Lottie, a very dramatic black Trakehner, and her human Kerin. Lottie was fresh off box rest so she was a bit exciteable anyway but she also has a very strong flight instinct that she uses as one of her default responses to anything new or that she doesn't understand. Over the years Kerin has learned to avoid triggering this but it has certainly impaired the things she could do with her otherwise charming and beautiful horse.
Tom discussed the two common approaches to this kind of problem, one of which is to systematically desensitise the horse to things that might make the horse feels it has to run, the other being to learn that if things are a bit anxious it can delegate to the human and let them worry about the problem. Both will help the horse feel more safe but the later case is perhaps a little more reliable if it can be achieved. It is simple enough to describe but that doesn't make it easy to do.
As an approach to the problem Tom thought a good starting point might be to do some work on long-lines, to find an anxiety trigger and then show her that if she wants to run she'll have to do some pretty sharp turns and it will be hard work for her, just to help shift that dangerous flight behaviour and help her look for other solutions to her concerns. It turns out that although she was used to her white long lead rope a blue longline was enough to send her completely ballistic. The moment Tom picked up the lines she left at speed around the school pulling free of him and trailing the long lines behind her.
Lottie goes charging off
Still unsure about the lines but not breaking free.
After a couple of circuits around the school and around a largely static Tom, she came to a stop and he retrieved her and changed tack, moving to putting a single line on the opposite side of her from him, going over her shoulder and then moving it back along her body. When she got too anxious and ran she would reach the end of the line and the line would straight like a lunge and turn her. Once she moved back to halt, he would start the process again. After a little while she got more used to the line along her side and they went back to the long lines. Once again that caused a bit of running but she didn't pull right away this time and soon enough she was long-lining quite calmly around the school.
Long-lining nicely.
Lou and Small in front of a picturesque autumnal oak tree.
After lunch Lou and Small were back in the school with Lou riding and Sarah leading the session. Mostly they focussed on getting and holding Small's attention, which will be key to keeping him happy and working rather than being anxious about what is going on outside the work area. In order to do this Lou had to make sure she was giving crisp and definite instructions- it doesn't matter what they are, but you need to know exactly where you are going. When his attention started to wander she could just give him a new instruction to give him something to think about and to remind him that she was there.
They moved on to rein-back, to test how good Small was at it, which turned out to be not good at all, pushing his nose forward when asked for backward pressure and generally not going anywhere. This is typical of a horse that has never learned how to respond to the bit (something that, when you know how to look for it, afflicts a vast number of horses) and so they started working on that. Once you have it, asking the horse to soften to the bit is a very good way to get their attention back to you rather than wandering out towards the horizon.
The start of this was to just have Lou put constant pressure on the rein and keep it there. It didn't have to be much at all, just enough that pony wants to find a release from it. Small responded in what is apparently a typical way by trying to push his nose forward, move his head around, brace his neck and drift around on his feet a little. Before a horse offers you something it's not done before it will typically offer things it knows how to do already to see if they solve the problem. Given time they will try bringing their head down and back a little, at which point they will release themselves, although at first it is well worth releasing the rein a bit as they start going in the right direction just to make it clear that they are doing the right thing. The critical point about this type of work (and it became one of the mantras of the weekend) was the phrase don't release on a brace. Once as the horse knows that they will be working against pressure while they stay braced and that it will be released when they soften they will start to consistently offer softness.
Next up were the Phaedra and Seamus, who were both working at the same time- one with Sarah and one with Tom- to make the most of the afternoon and because they were doing much the same work and having the distraction of another horse is another useful experience, especially if they are likely to be showing over the next few years.
Once again there was an emphasis on being businesslike - when you have a young horse there will always be a certain amount of titting about and generally you want to ignore this as much as possible and get on with the job in hand. By avoiding focussing on anything that the horse was bothered by and keeping your attention on what you are doing you show them that there's no need for concern. If the problem is the centre of attention then it's much more likely to become a sticking point.
Phaedra crossing a pole.
They were working with poles on the ground, starting from the "ask for one foot" exercises and then moving onto leading over and around them. Tom added a tarp into this mix as well as another interesting thing for them to work on leading across. Both horses tended to get their feet stuck from time to time, seemingly unable to work out how to move them. To help move on again while leading the handlers either needed to just keep the tension on the rope and give the horse time to think their way out of it or move off line so the horse was a little unbalanced, moving their feet to catch themselves was enough to get them moving again. If they stayed stopped for any significant length of time they would tend to drift off into their own reveries and lose focus entirely so it's important to keep their attention on the job.
In all this work, but particularly with the young ones, starting a new task is very much a case of breaking it down into small steps so they can get plenty of rewards to show them the direction you are asking them to go in. It becomes a little like a game of hunt the thimble, with you offering the "warmer... warmer... colder..." feedback through pressure and release. Once again we were reminded that you should only stop when you get what you want- the point at which you release sets the standard for the future.
When Lottie came back into the school for her second session of the day she had clearly had time to think the morning's events through and decided things weren't so bad. They started on long-lines again, which she was fairly much unperturbed by so Kerin did some riding and they worked on softness and communicating with the bit. Much like Small pony, Lottie didn't necessarily understand the bit. Tom explained how the important thing was to make the bit logical, so that the horse can understand how it works and knows what it is for. They worked at asking her to yeild her head at the halt and then on asking for softness before moving off and again when they came to a stop.
The working of the bit is a big deal for most horses, once that makes sense to them it really helps them to feel brave- I guess if someone is giving you instructions to do something it is reassuring if you understand the language they are using. What I really noticed was just how many horses I see (including mine) who show the same reactions as Lottie and Small to the bit and how simple it is to show them how it works. It's not necessarily a quick process, but it is not a complicated one.
For the end of the day Lou and Small rode again- they were keeping things short to save on unnecessary anxiety for the pony. As they got started Kerin's husband walked past carrying a cat, which caused Small pony a moment of plot loss during which he decided to charge off. Lou just tightened her rein to put him on a tight circle and let him run himself round until he decided to stop, which he chose to do directly. Sarah observed that he needs direction to feel safe- if the horse panics and he feels that you're not there he will get more anxious. Lou was very aware that if anything happens she tends to take her legs off pony's sides for fear of giving him more instructions that may make him more worried, but could be making him feel a little bit more abandoned.
While they were riding, Sarah had Lou say what part of pony's movement she could feel- interestingly she could only really feel the movement of his barrel on one side, something sarah observed indicates a brace in the rider. Lou needed to help her shoulders and upper body relax and breathe more deeply to help pony to breath- when you breathe into the top of your lungs it tends to convey nervousness (this is how you breathe when you grab a quick gasp in a nervous situation) whereas a deeper breath helps you relax your shoulders and the rest of your back and when you are relaxed it is easier for your horse to relax.
That was the end of Saturday's studies but a lot of people stayed around for tasty barbecue and solving the problems of the world over a few glasses of wine, which made for a lovely evening.
First team of the morning were Lou and Small again. Tom started out by having them do a little on the ground, asking Lou to really focus on being assertive with her pony as he really needs her to take charge. He commented that it's not a case of fixing up the horse, it's a question of finding a way to be that lets them sort things out for themselves.
Small pony needs constant direction to feel he's not been left on his own, at which point his attention will be wandering off to the distant horizon. There was a lot of focus on Lou making things really crisp with him- not allowing any drift or fuzziness in their approach, asking for definite and accurate work.
They worked more on backup- again small was braced at first, so Tom just kept him backing up until he stopped bracing - if he was released while braced he would just learn to brace more. Tom had put some poles out and while they were leading Lou was able to lead Small straight over them, which in a horse who would pretty much freeze up at the sight of a pole a few weeks ago and then fly into a panic was a really big step. It really showed what you can accomplish with a totally businesslike attitude, although most people had no idea who flustered Small had been in the past so I'm not sure the achievement really registered with everyone.
After that they went on to do a bit of riding- once again Small got into a spin as Lou got on and she had to turn him to a stop but it was a lot quicker for him to come down from it this time.
They continued to work on finding softness from pony, asking him to let go of his brace when he halts- you want the whole horse to stop when you ask for halt- if they are pushing onto the bit what is effectively happening is that the feet are stopping and the head is keeping going. They continued with asking with a gentle but constant pressure on the rein until pony softened. The other objective that continued from the groundwork was that of accuracy. You need to know exactly what you want and then focus on making sure you get that. If you don't know what you want how is your horse supposed to be able to do it accurately? You don't need to be asking for anything complex but you do need to be definite about what you are asking for. Another phrase that we heard a few times over the weekend was you get what you settle for - if you accept fuzzy indefinite work from your horse then you will get that, if you ask for clear and crisp work you'll get that instead.
From the halt they moved on to rein-back, more or less as an extension of the softening in halt by just keeping that pressure there until the pony backed up. At first he needed a bit of help from Tom on the ground but he started to get the idea very quickly. Once you can get the horse to concentrate on moving softly and staying with the bit you've got a great way of holding their attention and of asking them back if they are getting a little anxious about things around them.
Small braces against the bit.
Tom helps him to back up.
Working more softly.
Tom also talked about the importance of not worrying too badly about mistakes- if you spend all your time trying not to make mistakes you're more likely to break your focus on the job in hand. When things are looking like they aren't working it's worth having a little faith that you're getting it right as well- if you stick to your guns and keep presenting the thing you're asking for then there's a good chance the horse will come through with something close given a bit of time. Like the saying goes, "set it up and wait."
Next up were Phaedra and Sarah. Tom began by talking about how to move around horses, about keeping your movements flowing to keep the horse moving with you. This was particularly noticeable with Phaedra who could do the baby "legs everywhere" thing very well when she started getting flustered. They worked more on the importance of nothing- if you can be quiet and calm then your presence becomes a bit like a release from pressure in itself. There was a lot of focus on trying to do a small and simple job- if you are asking for two things at once, especially with a young horse, it's just going to cause more confusion.
They did more work on just being still and letting Phaedra discover that if she tried to pull away she would put pressure on herself and if she came back or stayed still the pressure would be released and Sarah would just be still with her. Tom observed that he has never heard of a way of working with horses that encouraged the horse to pull on the lead rope so no matter what work you had planned in the long run for the horse, teaching it not to pull would be a big advantage.
Working on leading they got some lovely work over the polls and the tarpaulin- sometimes Phaedra got a bit anxious and Tom really made the point that if the horse is worried it's important to offer them a way out that isn't through you, otherwise you're going to end up a bit flatter than you started. As she got braver and started to walk over the tarp he was making sure that Sarah was giving Phaedra a good pause to relax and think about what she had just done as a result. Phaedra was a very different filly from the decidedly scatterbrained creature who bundled into the school on Saturday morning, a whole lot calmer and really looking for instructions and trying to follow them.
Phaedra experiments with flying as a way of crossing the tarpaulin.
Seamus and Janet were next in and again the initial theme was accuracy. Seamus is the kind of horse who will take as long as you give him to do things, which isn't a problem now, but if it can be fixed now it won't become a problem for later when he could otherwise become rather unresponsive to cues or develop the "instruction lag" that means you ask now and get the result at some unspecified future point, something I'm very familliar with from riding Zorro, who appears to ignore your first couple of asks then throws a big hump as he finally follows your instruction as though to say "I was just getting round to it!"
Tom suggested using a rope halter for clearer direction on the ground- he doesn't hold with pressure halters because they give a false message, a rope halter will tighten in the direction you're asking the horse to go whereas a regular pressure halter will tighten without necessarily communicating a clear instruction. Certainly Seamus seemed to find things a bit easier with the rope halter, following instructions more quickly. It's important to work on quick responses because once a horse has become really lumpen it's very hard to reverse it.
They did a lot of the same work as they had with Phaedra, asking for stillness and working as a human "patience post" to encourage him not to pull on the rope. Tom suggested that if the horse is strong enough to pull back against you it's just a question of persistance- every time they run into that pressure it seems to demoralise them a little and they will lose a little belief that they can pull away until you can get the work on a regular track. You need that faith there in yourself as well though- if you go into anything with horses (or most other activities) thinking "this won't work" you are almost certainly going to prove yourself right.
Lyn and Namara, who we know from many past Silversand clinics managed to come over for the Sunday of the clinic, so they were around for two sessions. Namara is a beautiful arab who has a wonderful partnership with Lyn so it was interesting to see how Sarah approached some of the more advanced work with them. Namara was working very well and maneuvering beautifully, but Sarah was observing a lot of braces there and that Namara wasn't always giving Lyn her full attention. They started working on absolute precision, making sure that Namara was listening to Lyn's exact instructions not a general guess as to what she may be asking for.
Lyn and Namara
Because Namara tends to blur things together they worked on simple sequences, aiming to get (for example) 10 steps forward followed by 3 steps back and making sure that they matched those exact counts. They moved on to add a bit of trot into the equation, so it might be 15 steps of walk followed by 6 strides of trot and then 5 of walk and so on. This became very much a question of rhythm- Namara was picking up speed with her trot and so they worked on trying to get Lyn's asks slightly more subtle so that the tempo of the trot was the same as the tempo of the walk, she was just moving in a two-point rather than four-point movement.
The last horse of the morning was Lottie. Because she was happy with the long lines now (one of her patterns is that she overreacts to things strongly but also quickly realises that they aren't a problem) Tom wanted to try adding a few more things in that she might find bothersome in order to continue working on curbing that dangerous flight instinct. He talked about how this was a long job that Kerin could expect to need to keep persisting with over the next few months at the least, probably longer. Working on the flight response is difficult because fleeing gives an escape from something that the horse finds frightening, which is a reward initself.
Tom worked on desensitising her, patting her all over and keeping patting and moving with her if she started moving away, stopping when she stopped moving so that she realised that him moving around her and patting her was not something she needed to move away from. This is another way of helping her to be a little braver. He described the process they were working on as a three stage approach:
Kerin long-lining Lottie. Her face says it all.
They went on to work on the long-lines. Lottie was quite happy with this by now and with Kerin she was doing some very nice serpentines and figures of eight around the school at walk and trot. In order to find the flight reaction Tom had Kerin tie a plastic bag to the saddle and a few other dangly items that might be anxious. Sure enough she reacted a bit to them, but only for a couple of steps, nothing like the way she charged off on Saturday morning. Soon she was padding round with a bag, a dangly bit of cloth and a few other things flapping around and not really reacting to any of them.
"WTF??? There's a $%#*%$# plastic bag on my saddle!"
Lou and Small were first in the school again and back to working on softness and backup. They also worked on trotting, turns on the forehand and on the quarters, which Small hadn't really done much before but he quickly understood and was able to do very nicely. Tom talked about the importance of separating things out so you are only ever asking for one thing at any given time so each action is clear and distinct and so pony can know he's getting them right. The session really consolidated all the work from the weekend and gave us work to be aiming for in future.
Namara was second in the afternoon and they decided to try working with her in a bridle- Lyn has been riding her in a halter for the last few years because she hasn't been very happy with the traditional approach to using the bit which always seemed a bit heavy handed for a sensitive horse like Namara. Sarah had them working on the similar softening exercises at halt that we had done with a few other horses and then moved on to asking for softness in walk so she had Lyn asking for three steps of soft movement, keeping the rein taut and starting the count when Namara softened onto the bit and only counting it finished after three uninterrupted steps without resisting or mithering at the bit.
Namara is learning about the bit.
As she got better at that they worked up to five steps of softness and so on. When they tried it in the trot Namara seemed to find things a little easier, possibly because her trot is already really moving from behind so it all adds up to a very nice picture. It's particularly important for her to be able to soften like this because along with the high head-carriage comes a likelihood of the horse phasing their rider out. When the head comes in the horse is listening to the bit and the rider at the other end of the rein. The aim in all of this is to have a minimal contact once the head is in position, just enough that there is clear communication with the horse.
Sarah felt that Phaedra was probably all worked out for the weekend and Seamus and Janet came in for a very brief session because he was quite tired too, just working again briefly on the importance of doing nothing sometimes and being dependable and consistent.
Finally it was Lottie and Kerin's turn and it was time for Kerin to get back in the saddle and work on softening to the bit and both horse and rider staying relaxed - it's hard to brace yourself and ask your horse to stop bracing, you need to be self-supporting but not braced. Again the essence of the work was keeping things black and white, making it as clear as possible to the horse what is being asked for. They did the same work as Lyn and Namara, asking Lottie to soften for 3 steps, then 5 and so on. It was interesting to see that at the end of those steps she would often keep her head in that position although she was no longer being asked to.
Once Lottie started to offer work with her head rounded and her neck soft Kerin said that it felt like there was nothing in her hands at all. Tom commented that this was the kind of work which a lot of people try and use side-reins for, but they can't do this job, they just mess up the horse's back. It's very important not to overdo things to start with- as the horse gets used to working this way they will start offering it more and more because it is actually more comfortable for them to move that way.
It was an amazing clinic- I was really impressed by how simple Tom and Sarah managed to make things, both for us to understand and for the riders and handlers to communicate to their horses. They didn't do anything complex or mysterious, just basic pressure-and-release principles applied in logical ways. They have a lot of experience and a lot of ideas to share, but as Tom said, part of what is inspiring about the way that they work is that anyone can do it. There's nothing complicated, nothing set and nothing mysterious, just consistency, clarity, a businesslike attitude and the will to see what you are doing from the horse's point of view.
Tom hates mysteries, or at least he hates the air of mystique some trainers try to create around their work, as far as he's concerned, there's nothing mysterious or particularly complicated about training horses- after all, the objective is to communicate ideas to horses. For all their glory and majesty horses aren't necessarily smarter than us and the key to this way of working is to find way to make everything clear and logical to the horse. As always, the key principles of horsemanship; timing, patience and consistency are at the heart of most work. Tom comments that you can't make rules for horses because there will always be one horse that you have to break them for, but I don't believe he would find those overwhelmingly disagreeable.
Saturday Morning
We began with Lou (
sleepsy_mouse) and Small pony, who regular readers of this journal will recall was very unhappy about going into the school- not flipping out, but showing a lot of more subtle signs of anxiety. Tom started out by having them working together on the ground, making the point that although small pony is very sweet and soft and nuzzly he is also pushing boundaries by inviting himself into Lou's space even if it is just for hugs. The behaviour isn't a problem, but he needs to know what the boundaries are because if he doesn't he starts to feel he might be in charge. It's very unsettling for a horse to be the leader, especially in a situation where they are on unfamiliar ground or unfamiliar things are happening.Tom felt that Lou needed to set up a clear and simple boundary that both of them could recognise, so that they could both see where they stood. She wanted to be soft and kind with Small Pony but what Small Pony wanted was for her to be authoritative and to show that he didn't have to worry about who was in charge. It's fine to be friendly and huggy with your horse but it needs to happen on your terms not on the horse's- you can go in and ask for a hug, they can't come in and demand one. To this end he had Lou working to lead pony around and when she halted just moving pony back to the boundary they had chosen whenever they stopped. He set up cones for them to work around, observing that having a definite task and purpose to do, even if it's just moving from cone to cone, really helps the horse and handler to get things done. It means that if the horse starts playing up the handler can just keep going with a "do what you like, we've got a job to get on with" attitude and this can really help, especially with a more flustery horse.
Small was tending to pay attention to everything that was going on outside the school rather than paying attention to Lou as she was leading him, so Tom had her just asking him to come back to her every time he showed that he was losing concentration or his attention was wandering. At first this was very short, but he started moving his attention in to her rather than being away with the fairies half the time as she persisted in asking for it. While they worked on this Tom made a few interesting observations on lunging- if you aren't careful by getting your horse to just keep going around you all you are training them to do is ignore you. That's going to show in everything else you do together and the horse may well get unnecessarily strong handling because they are ignoring you, just like you taught them to.
By the end of the session Lou had made a few small changes to how she was with her horse and it was already starting to really show in his attitude. He seemed more content and more attentive to what she was asking from him.
Next up was Sarah and her horse, a gorgeous 15 month old Section B filly called Phaedra. They arrived with a slight problem in that Phaedra just didn't get leading at all, she was charging about, flattening Sarah and generally being a menace. Tom talked about how horses grow up and how they find at around the Phaedra's age that they aren't foals any more and they have to learn their place in the herd. He really backed Phaedra up, pushing her strongly out of his space with strong body language and a lot of movement. He says that in the situation where he was confronted with a bargy horse he would do anything to back that horse up. One of the things he agrees with about the Parelli system (which he claims to know nothing of, but may be being a trifle disingenuous there) is that once they decide the horse is going to do something then they will make sure that horse does that thing. If you don't have that commitment you won't get the result- if you think "I can only push this so far" the horse knows it. Conversely when Tom would go to any length to back the horse up they pick up on his conviction and react to it more easily.
It took no more than a couple of minutes to get Phaedra to understand that she didn't have to be in charge and once she realised that she really settled down. They then went on to work on pressure and release, starting by just staying still with the horse and letting her choose to move if she wanted, which being young and full of beans she did. Moving into the handlers space got her backed up strongly, moving away put pressure on the rope. At first the horse tries to pull on the rope but as long as the pressure isn't released they will eventually discover that they can find their own release by moving back to where the rope is slack. Sometimes that might involve quite a lot of pulling and moving around and it's important to be able to stay with that movement enough that you keep the tension in the rope. If they get release by pulling back they will learn to pull back and it will be much more difficult when it comes time to learn about tying them up.
Having got the point where Phaedra understood about pressure they went on to leading work- when she decided to stop (and she would sometimes do this by almost bowing forwards with her front legs very straight and her quarters up in the air like a playful dog) all that was needed was to let the tension stay in the rope and to wait for her to find her own way out of it. Sometimes her feet would get a little stuck and it might be necessary to step a little bit off to one side to help her move them again, but by this simple pressure and release work they got her starting to follow nicely behind Sarah and to stop without crowding her.
The third pair of the day were another young horse, Seamus, and his human Janet. Seamus was very different from Phaedra, a little less extroverted and hectic. He was very squeaky with curved and furry ears like a creature from some medieval beastiary. Again they started by working on personal space and getting him used to leading, concentrating on getting Janet's asks crisp and clear. She had been taught to ask with a modulation on the rope and Tom suggested that maybe a constant pressure would be a clearer way of presenting her ask to the horse. They worked on setting a fairly large boundary for personal space because although Seamus is small and adorable now he's going to be big in a couple of years time and if he is to stay adorable he'll need to do it from a safe distance.
Tom talks to Janet and Seamus
They also worked on being still together- they had got into a habit of Seamus coming in and fiddling with the rope or licking at Janet's hand and although it was quite bless Tom suggested they stop doing it as it was a habit Seamus was using to come into Janet's space and it was another thing that, while engaging in a young horse, would be a real menace in a large animal. Tom commented that the habits you teach a young horse are the ones they continue to have so if there is something that you don't want your grown horse to do, make sure they aren't doing it as a young horse. Of course, with a yearling there is plenty of time for this as they don't have to really be working for another three years. Tom speaks against desensitising the young ones too far because it can make them a bit leaden and hard to work with when they are older. They need to still be sensitive enough to work with cues when you begin going towards ridden work with them.
In the leading work they began work with a pole on the ground, having Janet ask Seamus to stop by the pole then to put one front foot over it. To start with he was getting both front feet over and that was fine - the aim of this exercise was to get Seamus to start looking for the right answer. If you can instill a willingness to look for answers and to learn in the young horse then you are setting their mind up for all their future education and you are showing them that you will present things in a logical way that they can understand.
The last pair in the morning were Lottie, a very dramatic black Trakehner, and her human Kerin. Lottie was fresh off box rest so she was a bit exciteable anyway but she also has a very strong flight instinct that she uses as one of her default responses to anything new or that she doesn't understand. Over the years Kerin has learned to avoid triggering this but it has certainly impaired the things she could do with her otherwise charming and beautiful horse.
Tom discussed the two common approaches to this kind of problem, one of which is to systematically desensitise the horse to things that might make the horse feels it has to run, the other being to learn that if things are a bit anxious it can delegate to the human and let them worry about the problem. Both will help the horse feel more safe but the later case is perhaps a little more reliable if it can be achieved. It is simple enough to describe but that doesn't make it easy to do.
As an approach to the problem Tom thought a good starting point might be to do some work on long-lines, to find an anxiety trigger and then show her that if she wants to run she'll have to do some pretty sharp turns and it will be hard work for her, just to help shift that dangerous flight behaviour and help her look for other solutions to her concerns. It turns out that although she was used to her white long lead rope a blue longline was enough to send her completely ballistic. The moment Tom picked up the lines she left at speed around the school pulling free of him and trailing the long lines behind her.
Lottie goes charging off
Still unsure about the lines but not breaking free.
After a couple of circuits around the school and around a largely static Tom, she came to a stop and he retrieved her and changed tack, moving to putting a single line on the opposite side of her from him, going over her shoulder and then moving it back along her body. When she got too anxious and ran she would reach the end of the line and the line would straight like a lunge and turn her. Once she moved back to halt, he would start the process again. After a little while she got more used to the line along her side and they went back to the long lines. Once again that caused a bit of running but she didn't pull right away this time and soon enough she was long-lining quite calmly around the school.
Long-lining nicely.
Saturday Afternoon
Lou and Small in front of a picturesque autumnal oak tree.
After lunch Lou and Small were back in the school with Lou riding and Sarah leading the session. Mostly they focussed on getting and holding Small's attention, which will be key to keeping him happy and working rather than being anxious about what is going on outside the work area. In order to do this Lou had to make sure she was giving crisp and definite instructions- it doesn't matter what they are, but you need to know exactly where you are going. When his attention started to wander she could just give him a new instruction to give him something to think about and to remind him that she was there.
They moved on to rein-back, to test how good Small was at it, which turned out to be not good at all, pushing his nose forward when asked for backward pressure and generally not going anywhere. This is typical of a horse that has never learned how to respond to the bit (something that, when you know how to look for it, afflicts a vast number of horses) and so they started working on that. Once you have it, asking the horse to soften to the bit is a very good way to get their attention back to you rather than wandering out towards the horizon.
The start of this was to just have Lou put constant pressure on the rein and keep it there. It didn't have to be much at all, just enough that pony wants to find a release from it. Small responded in what is apparently a typical way by trying to push his nose forward, move his head around, brace his neck and drift around on his feet a little. Before a horse offers you something it's not done before it will typically offer things it knows how to do already to see if they solve the problem. Given time they will try bringing their head down and back a little, at which point they will release themselves, although at first it is well worth releasing the rein a bit as they start going in the right direction just to make it clear that they are doing the right thing. The critical point about this type of work (and it became one of the mantras of the weekend) was the phrase don't release on a brace. Once as the horse knows that they will be working against pressure while they stay braced and that it will be released when they soften they will start to consistently offer softness.
Next up were the Phaedra and Seamus, who were both working at the same time- one with Sarah and one with Tom- to make the most of the afternoon and because they were doing much the same work and having the distraction of another horse is another useful experience, especially if they are likely to be showing over the next few years.
Once again there was an emphasis on being businesslike - when you have a young horse there will always be a certain amount of titting about and generally you want to ignore this as much as possible and get on with the job in hand. By avoiding focussing on anything that the horse was bothered by and keeping your attention on what you are doing you show them that there's no need for concern. If the problem is the centre of attention then it's much more likely to become a sticking point.
Phaedra crossing a pole.
They were working with poles on the ground, starting from the "ask for one foot" exercises and then moving onto leading over and around them. Tom added a tarp into this mix as well as another interesting thing for them to work on leading across. Both horses tended to get their feet stuck from time to time, seemingly unable to work out how to move them. To help move on again while leading the handlers either needed to just keep the tension on the rope and give the horse time to think their way out of it or move off line so the horse was a little unbalanced, moving their feet to catch themselves was enough to get them moving again. If they stayed stopped for any significant length of time they would tend to drift off into their own reveries and lose focus entirely so it's important to keep their attention on the job.
In all this work, but particularly with the young ones, starting a new task is very much a case of breaking it down into small steps so they can get plenty of rewards to show them the direction you are asking them to go in. It becomes a little like a game of hunt the thimble, with you offering the "warmer... warmer... colder..." feedback through pressure and release. Once again we were reminded that you should only stop when you get what you want- the point at which you release sets the standard for the future.
When Lottie came back into the school for her second session of the day she had clearly had time to think the morning's events through and decided things weren't so bad. They started on long-lines again, which she was fairly much unperturbed by so Kerin did some riding and they worked on softness and communicating with the bit. Much like Small pony, Lottie didn't necessarily understand the bit. Tom explained how the important thing was to make the bit logical, so that the horse can understand how it works and knows what it is for. They worked at asking her to yeild her head at the halt and then on asking for softness before moving off and again when they came to a stop.
The working of the bit is a big deal for most horses, once that makes sense to them it really helps them to feel brave- I guess if someone is giving you instructions to do something it is reassuring if you understand the language they are using. What I really noticed was just how many horses I see (including mine) who show the same reactions as Lottie and Small to the bit and how simple it is to show them how it works. It's not necessarily a quick process, but it is not a complicated one.
For the end of the day Lou and Small rode again- they were keeping things short to save on unnecessary anxiety for the pony. As they got started Kerin's husband walked past carrying a cat, which caused Small pony a moment of plot loss during which he decided to charge off. Lou just tightened her rein to put him on a tight circle and let him run himself round until he decided to stop, which he chose to do directly. Sarah observed that he needs direction to feel safe- if the horse panics and he feels that you're not there he will get more anxious. Lou was very aware that if anything happens she tends to take her legs off pony's sides for fear of giving him more instructions that may make him more worried, but could be making him feel a little bit more abandoned.
While they were riding, Sarah had Lou say what part of pony's movement she could feel- interestingly she could only really feel the movement of his barrel on one side, something sarah observed indicates a brace in the rider. Lou needed to help her shoulders and upper body relax and breathe more deeply to help pony to breath- when you breathe into the top of your lungs it tends to convey nervousness (this is how you breathe when you grab a quick gasp in a nervous situation) whereas a deeper breath helps you relax your shoulders and the rest of your back and when you are relaxed it is easier for your horse to relax.
That was the end of Saturday's studies but a lot of people stayed around for tasty barbecue and solving the problems of the world over a few glasses of wine, which made for a lovely evening.
Sunday Morning
First team of the morning were Lou and Small again. Tom started out by having them do a little on the ground, asking Lou to really focus on being assertive with her pony as he really needs her to take charge. He commented that it's not a case of fixing up the horse, it's a question of finding a way to be that lets them sort things out for themselves.
Small pony needs constant direction to feel he's not been left on his own, at which point his attention will be wandering off to the distant horizon. There was a lot of focus on Lou making things really crisp with him- not allowing any drift or fuzziness in their approach, asking for definite and accurate work.
They worked more on backup- again small was braced at first, so Tom just kept him backing up until he stopped bracing - if he was released while braced he would just learn to brace more. Tom had put some poles out and while they were leading Lou was able to lead Small straight over them, which in a horse who would pretty much freeze up at the sight of a pole a few weeks ago and then fly into a panic was a really big step. It really showed what you can accomplish with a totally businesslike attitude, although most people had no idea who flustered Small had been in the past so I'm not sure the achievement really registered with everyone.
After that they went on to do a bit of riding- once again Small got into a spin as Lou got on and she had to turn him to a stop but it was a lot quicker for him to come down from it this time.
They continued to work on finding softness from pony, asking him to let go of his brace when he halts- you want the whole horse to stop when you ask for halt- if they are pushing onto the bit what is effectively happening is that the feet are stopping and the head is keeping going. They continued with asking with a gentle but constant pressure on the rein until pony softened. The other objective that continued from the groundwork was that of accuracy. You need to know exactly what you want and then focus on making sure you get that. If you don't know what you want how is your horse supposed to be able to do it accurately? You don't need to be asking for anything complex but you do need to be definite about what you are asking for. Another phrase that we heard a few times over the weekend was you get what you settle for - if you accept fuzzy indefinite work from your horse then you will get that, if you ask for clear and crisp work you'll get that instead.
From the halt they moved on to rein-back, more or less as an extension of the softening in halt by just keeping that pressure there until the pony backed up. At first he needed a bit of help from Tom on the ground but he started to get the idea very quickly. Once you can get the horse to concentrate on moving softly and staying with the bit you've got a great way of holding their attention and of asking them back if they are getting a little anxious about things around them.
Small braces against the bit.
Tom helps him to back up.
Working more softly.
Tom also talked about the importance of not worrying too badly about mistakes- if you spend all your time trying not to make mistakes you're more likely to break your focus on the job in hand. When things are looking like they aren't working it's worth having a little faith that you're getting it right as well- if you stick to your guns and keep presenting the thing you're asking for then there's a good chance the horse will come through with something close given a bit of time. Like the saying goes, "set it up and wait."
Next up were Phaedra and Sarah. Tom began by talking about how to move around horses, about keeping your movements flowing to keep the horse moving with you. This was particularly noticeable with Phaedra who could do the baby "legs everywhere" thing very well when she started getting flustered. They worked more on the importance of nothing- if you can be quiet and calm then your presence becomes a bit like a release from pressure in itself. There was a lot of focus on trying to do a small and simple job- if you are asking for two things at once, especially with a young horse, it's just going to cause more confusion.
They did more work on just being still and letting Phaedra discover that if she tried to pull away she would put pressure on herself and if she came back or stayed still the pressure would be released and Sarah would just be still with her. Tom observed that he has never heard of a way of working with horses that encouraged the horse to pull on the lead rope so no matter what work you had planned in the long run for the horse, teaching it not to pull would be a big advantage.
Working on leading they got some lovely work over the polls and the tarpaulin- sometimes Phaedra got a bit anxious and Tom really made the point that if the horse is worried it's important to offer them a way out that isn't through you, otherwise you're going to end up a bit flatter than you started. As she got braver and started to walk over the tarp he was making sure that Sarah was giving Phaedra a good pause to relax and think about what she had just done as a result. Phaedra was a very different filly from the decidedly scatterbrained creature who bundled into the school on Saturday morning, a whole lot calmer and really looking for instructions and trying to follow them.
Phaedra experiments with flying as a way of crossing the tarpaulin.
Seamus and Janet were next in and again the initial theme was accuracy. Seamus is the kind of horse who will take as long as you give him to do things, which isn't a problem now, but if it can be fixed now it won't become a problem for later when he could otherwise become rather unresponsive to cues or develop the "instruction lag" that means you ask now and get the result at some unspecified future point, something I'm very familliar with from riding Zorro, who appears to ignore your first couple of asks then throws a big hump as he finally follows your instruction as though to say "I was just getting round to it!"
Tom suggested using a rope halter for clearer direction on the ground- he doesn't hold with pressure halters because they give a false message, a rope halter will tighten in the direction you're asking the horse to go whereas a regular pressure halter will tighten without necessarily communicating a clear instruction. Certainly Seamus seemed to find things a bit easier with the rope halter, following instructions more quickly. It's important to work on quick responses because once a horse has become really lumpen it's very hard to reverse it.
They did a lot of the same work as they had with Phaedra, asking for stillness and working as a human "patience post" to encourage him not to pull on the rope. Tom suggested that if the horse is strong enough to pull back against you it's just a question of persistance- every time they run into that pressure it seems to demoralise them a little and they will lose a little belief that they can pull away until you can get the work on a regular track. You need that faith there in yourself as well though- if you go into anything with horses (or most other activities) thinking "this won't work" you are almost certainly going to prove yourself right.
Lyn and Namara, who we know from many past Silversand clinics managed to come over for the Sunday of the clinic, so they were around for two sessions. Namara is a beautiful arab who has a wonderful partnership with Lyn so it was interesting to see how Sarah approached some of the more advanced work with them. Namara was working very well and maneuvering beautifully, but Sarah was observing a lot of braces there and that Namara wasn't always giving Lyn her full attention. They started working on absolute precision, making sure that Namara was listening to Lyn's exact instructions not a general guess as to what she may be asking for.
Lyn and Namara
Because Namara tends to blur things together they worked on simple sequences, aiming to get (for example) 10 steps forward followed by 3 steps back and making sure that they matched those exact counts. They moved on to add a bit of trot into the equation, so it might be 15 steps of walk followed by 6 strides of trot and then 5 of walk and so on. This became very much a question of rhythm- Namara was picking up speed with her trot and so they worked on trying to get Lyn's asks slightly more subtle so that the tempo of the trot was the same as the tempo of the walk, she was just moving in a two-point rather than four-point movement.
The last horse of the morning was Lottie. Because she was happy with the long lines now (one of her patterns is that she overreacts to things strongly but also quickly realises that they aren't a problem) Tom wanted to try adding a few more things in that she might find bothersome in order to continue working on curbing that dangerous flight instinct. He talked about how this was a long job that Kerin could expect to need to keep persisting with over the next few months at the least, probably longer. Working on the flight response is difficult because fleeing gives an escape from something that the horse finds frightening, which is a reward initself.
Tom worked on desensitising her, patting her all over and keeping patting and moving with her if she started moving away, stopping when she stopped moving so that she realised that him moving around her and patting her was not something she needed to move away from. This is another way of helping her to be a little braver. He described the process they were working on as a three stage approach:
- Helping the horse to feel brave.
- Making it harder to run than to stay still.
- Getting the horse soft and understanding the bit.
Kerin long-lining Lottie. Her face says it all.
They went on to work on the long-lines. Lottie was quite happy with this by now and with Kerin she was doing some very nice serpentines and figures of eight around the school at walk and trot. In order to find the flight reaction Tom had Kerin tie a plastic bag to the saddle and a few other dangly items that might be anxious. Sure enough she reacted a bit to them, but only for a couple of steps, nothing like the way she charged off on Saturday morning. Soon she was padding round with a bag, a dangly bit of cloth and a few other things flapping around and not really reacting to any of them.
"WTF??? There's a $%#*%$# plastic bag on my saddle!"
Sunday Afternoon
Lou and Small were first in the school again and back to working on softness and backup. They also worked on trotting, turns on the forehand and on the quarters, which Small hadn't really done much before but he quickly understood and was able to do very nicely. Tom talked about the importance of separating things out so you are only ever asking for one thing at any given time so each action is clear and distinct and so pony can know he's getting them right. The session really consolidated all the work from the weekend and gave us work to be aiming for in future.
Namara was second in the afternoon and they decided to try working with her in a bridle- Lyn has been riding her in a halter for the last few years because she hasn't been very happy with the traditional approach to using the bit which always seemed a bit heavy handed for a sensitive horse like Namara. Sarah had them working on the similar softening exercises at halt that we had done with a few other horses and then moved on to asking for softness in walk so she had Lyn asking for three steps of soft movement, keeping the rein taut and starting the count when Namara softened onto the bit and only counting it finished after three uninterrupted steps without resisting or mithering at the bit.
Namara is learning about the bit.
As she got better at that they worked up to five steps of softness and so on. When they tried it in the trot Namara seemed to find things a little easier, possibly because her trot is already really moving from behind so it all adds up to a very nice picture. It's particularly important for her to be able to soften like this because along with the high head-carriage comes a likelihood of the horse phasing their rider out. When the head comes in the horse is listening to the bit and the rider at the other end of the rein. The aim in all of this is to have a minimal contact once the head is in position, just enough that there is clear communication with the horse.
Sarah felt that Phaedra was probably all worked out for the weekend and Seamus and Janet came in for a very brief session because he was quite tired too, just working again briefly on the importance of doing nothing sometimes and being dependable and consistent.
Finally it was Lottie and Kerin's turn and it was time for Kerin to get back in the saddle and work on softening to the bit and both horse and rider staying relaxed - it's hard to brace yourself and ask your horse to stop bracing, you need to be self-supporting but not braced. Again the essence of the work was keeping things black and white, making it as clear as possible to the horse what is being asked for. They did the same work as Lyn and Namara, asking Lottie to soften for 3 steps, then 5 and so on. It was interesting to see that at the end of those steps she would often keep her head in that position although she was no longer being asked to.
Once Lottie started to offer work with her head rounded and her neck soft Kerin said that it felt like there was nothing in her hands at all. Tom commented that this was the kind of work which a lot of people try and use side-reins for, but they can't do this job, they just mess up the horse's back. It's very important not to overdo things to start with- as the horse gets used to working this way they will start offering it more and more because it is actually more comfortable for them to move that way.
It was an amazing clinic- I was really impressed by how simple Tom and Sarah managed to make things, both for us to understand and for the riders and handlers to communicate to their horses. They didn't do anything complex or mysterious, just basic pressure-and-release principles applied in logical ways. They have a lot of experience and a lot of ideas to share, but as Tom said, part of what is inspiring about the way that they work is that anyone can do it. There's nothing complicated, nothing set and nothing mysterious, just consistency, clarity, a businesslike attitude and the will to see what you are doing from the horse's point of view.
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no subject
Date: 14 Sep 2007 13:42 (UTC)Interesting as always to see different viewpoints within "natural horsemanship" and also what those different perspectives have in common with each other.
Tom sounds like a very grounded individual, and with horses excelling at reading body language, our energy, and our emotions, his common sense approach and calm persistence sound fantastic.
I had never really thought about Parelli that way, but I would say he's right; in Parelli work when you decide the horse is going to do something, eventually he does it. The caveat to that is there is no time limit. I think having a clear goal in mind helps us humans be convincing and have clearer body language for our horse, but honestly in Parelli, whatever goal you have in mind, you may not even get there in that session...it may be in 3 days or 3 weeks, Parelli counsels that the human sets the goals, but the horse sets the time limits.
I totally agree that horses need good leaders. It seems like a lot of the stuff that came up in this clinic is humans who confuse their horse's attempts to push boundaries with overtures of affection. Horses are so good at disguising their attempts as such. I see that pitfall come up again and again, and Sage does that too...I wonder if they stop doing it if you have satisfactorily shown them you are their leader?
I also like the way Tom has people set up pressure and release as warmer and colder. They do that in Parelli too, and I do find that making a simple game of it keeps it fun, keeps the human from getting too emotional (angry, frustrated), and makes the boundaries very clear.
Also, Parelli talks about "the better a horse can back up, the better it can do everything else." I see that in Tom's work too. (I'm not saying Parelli INVENTED all these concepts, just that I am familiar with them through Parelli and I like those concepts.)
OH! And horses that panic...and then the rider tries to leave them alone when really the horse needs some structure and boundaries. That's good stuff too. Its so strange to me because I used to ride quite difficult horses as a teenager, when I took dressage lessons, and this was back before I had ever heard the words "natural horsemanship" and I was great at giving flighty horses boundaries, it's what my instructor told me to do, and it also seemed to be my natural instinct for it. Now that I am older I am much more educated on the importance of such boundaries, and I have a fairly calm and reliable horse...and whenever he does spook at something (which is really pretty rare, I guess I mean when he lifts his head suddenly and something captures his attention outside the ring) what do I do??? I TURN AND LOOK!!!! (palm * forehead). Arggghhh. I guess its either because Sage is so calm that if HE finds it scary, well then, I BELIEVE him, or that I've gotten less confident in my old age. I do wonder how I would be now with the flighty horses I used to ride as a teenager. Needless to say, I think setting boundaries for them and staying calm when they have a moment like that is so much easier said than done.
With the idea of accuracy...#1 the lady who started Sage under saddle was a Monty Roberts freak (worse than some of the PQ's I've met) and she really said that horses are yes or no animals. Either you ARE in charge, or you're not. There is no maybe. That was really valuable for me to hear. The other cocept that I find goes well with that is Sally Swift's centered riding stuff...because she talks about how horses think in pictures, and if we can VISUALIZE clearly in our minds what we want the horse to do, then chances are better that the horse will do it.
Small looks great by the third backing up picture!!! (And I love the hot pink helmet...)
And...the whole don't worry so much about past mistakes thing...that's been such a tough lesson for me, but I like his philosophy on it. That's another thing my MR fanatical trainer used to say last spring.
WOW! What an improvement Lottie made...that's a whole different horse! Tom's principle of moving if the horse moves and releasing if the horse stays still is similar to Parelli's concept of "approach and retreat" too...unless I'm understanding it wrong?
Overall sounds like a very enlightening clinic...
no subject
Date: 14 Sep 2007 14:56 (UTC)I would certainly say Tom's way of working, which is really coming from a Mark Rashid direction (I'm guessing you've read Mark's books?) is quite different from either Monty's approach or the Parelli side of things in that it's very much not a system, more like a toolkit for solving problems with horses.
I've read all of Mark's books, but it wasn't until seeing Kathleen Lindley a while back and now seeing Tom that I started to really understand what his way of working might look like. I'd certainly recommend going to see any of them at work if you get the chance ( Mark has been taking a year out but Kathleen may be passing (http://www.kathleenlindley.com/Clinic%20Schedule2.htm)) - it's very non-denominational as horsemanship goes, all about getting the job done and I think there would be something to be learned from it no matter what your background is.
no subject
Date: 15 Sep 2007 13:32 (UTC)If he or Kathleen ever come this way...I'm there!!! Although for me personally, I like having a system...it helps me to organize the different tools and concepts. Obviously though, you still have to be VERY flexible and really adjust to each and every horse. (Which is why it was so fascinating to work with my mom's Mustang mare.)