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glenatronBefore 2010 grinds to a halt, I shall endeavour to catch up on some of the clinic write-ups I've been meaning to do all year. We'll start with the first, which was a horsemanship clinic with Tom and Sarah Widdicombe way back in April.
Zorro and I began by working on asking for bend in Zorro's neck. Specifically Tom wanted a bend in the C1 ( atlas ) joint, which is the joint that allows the head to turn to the left or right while staying level with the ground. Asking the horse to release to this is a pretty big deal for them. Zorro was very quick to offer to move his feet around when I asked on the rein but more reluctant to offer that bend. It didn't take long to find that change and for him to remember that he can bend to the rein if asked to. Tom mentioned that this was a kind of head-oriented riding, something I've been aware of and trying to move away from. In a way this is a likely effect of having done a lot of groundwork because you mostly have contact with the head there and taking that into the saddle is going to give you a horse that responds very well to the rein, more so than to your body. Which is, of course, why we need to learn to push rather than to pull in our groundwork.
Zorro would prefer not to bend at the trot.
Sunny, the big palomino Section D, also needed to release that C1 joint and get bending. He was really resisting any requests to flex. Tom and Sarah did some work on leading with the bit ( literally taking a bit ring in each hand and just asking the horse to follow it wherever they lead with it ) to help get him feeling for the bit and thinking about it as meaningful. In the saddle Danielle needed to work on lifting the rein rather than pulling back. In terms of rein contact there is never a reason to pull straight back from your neutral hand position. Tom suggested a couple of the other people riding on the clinic got to sit on Zorro so they could experience how it feels to have a horse that is soft to the rein. I thought that was a pretty high accolade for Zorro and I'm always happy for other people to see how he feels to ride as it is, in my opinion, pretty good. Rosemary and Danielle both got to feel how he follows the rein, how it connects to his feet and how it feels when the horse doesn't pull on their rider. I'm glad to say they had nice things to say about the experience.
Seamus crosses a tarp quite happily.
Sarah riding Sunny to work through some of his confusion regarding the rein.
With Seamus they were teaching this work as well - being young and only recently started under saddle, he doesn't have resistance built up, he just doesn't quite know how to do it yet. Tom talked a little about how they used to use vertical flexions in the past but actually these lateral ones are slightly less of a blunt instrument and they don't risk teaching the horse to fall behind the bit.
Another topic we worked on was sharpening up our cues to make sure that when I asked for forwards I got an instant and correct response. This is a process that Zorro and I are quite familliar with but it tends to slip when we are concentrating on other things, so sharpening this up was necessary for the other work we needed to do. Danielle with Sunny and Janet with Seamus were tending to nag with her legs rather than asking the horse to enter a gait and then expecting them to stay there. This is a pernicious habit that ends up desensitising the horse to the rider's leg and making their job harder as they try to separate out signal from noise in our requests. It's also difficult to break, being something that many people are taught to do when they are first learning to ride. Instead of working this way it is easier for everyone involved if you have a single cue to change gait and go straight to your secondary cue if the horse starts to slow down or change down a gait without being asked to. It isn't the rider's job to keep pushing every step.
Asking Zorro to go faster and he starts to hollow a little because goodness knows a horse isn't supposed to move forward when they are asked to.
Clinic in progress
This was a theme that came out in Rosemary's work with Celebrity as well- Rosemary has her own arab but as she's based in Scotland, way out of Tom and Sarah's travelling range, she was borrowing Celebrity for the weekend. She needed to sharpen up her cues, keep everything absolutely black and white and work to bring his attention to her rather than letting him stare off into the distance. Maintaining the horse's attention is so important and Tom talked about how you might aim to be kind to a horse and keep everything light and hands-off, but end up being unkind because we don't offer them direction and if we can't hold their attention we can't be there for them when they need us.
Tom talking about working with Celeb's attention.
Rosemary rides Celeb.
Going for a canter.
We spent some time working on one of my main objectives, getting control of Zorro's shoulders. He's been reluctant to allow me much control of those, liking to stumble around corners looking out of the arena rather than moving around on a nice bend following his nose. After a bit of time demonstrating the problem- annoying but correctable in walk, more awkward in trot. It's not that I wasn't able to correct it, but that the fact I was constantly needing to correct indicated that I wasn't getting to the root of the problem, just fixing the symptom.
Although we're on the circle here, you can see Zorro's shoulders inclined to move across to the inside. Also where I'm looking...
Working on a circle, where Zorro was quick to show off his shoulder-dropping skill, Tom suggested we use the bend we had been working on already and get him going around the circle deliberately counterbent, so he was travelling around the circle bending in the way he had been when he was dropping into the circle. Firstly this stopped him dropping into the circle by assuming that position and secondly, by putting the pattern on a cue I was establishing that I could take control of it and that if I wasn't offering that cue, then I wasn't asking for that shoulder to drop in. We worked on coming around a half circle counterbent and then switching to a regular bend for the next half. Fairly quickly we started to get the idea that a cob could go around a circle without needing to dive into the middle of it.
Moving up into trot the same thing was happening only more so. I had spent some time trying to figure this one out over the preceding few months and in the end decided that there most be some technique I would need to use. Working with Tom and Sarah I realised there was no secret technique I had never heard of, all I really needed to do was to make it absolutely clear what I wanted and what I didn't want. Really that was only a case of firming up a little when he was doing the thing I wasn't looking for and making sure I gave a clear release when he was. Tom observed that really by constantly correcting him I had been stage managing his circles rather than teaching him to do them correctly of his own accord. By making things more black and white and just showing him what I want we get a much better result.
Zorro bending better and balancing better.
I also needed to let up earlier when we were getting it right - much better to get half a circle of correct work than to push on for longer and end up getting it wrong or having to struggle to get the thing we had back. If I'm waiting for him to get it wrong it's going to slow down our progress in the long run. The judgement call is knowing how much you can get to ensure you release in time, but if in doubt, doing less but doing it successfully is a good strategy. We did some work on things like working on a circle in shoulder in and then spiralling in to the centre staying on three tracks, which is the kind of careful footwork that is Zorro's forte. We also used this approach with regard to our canter - aiming for a few balanced strides after the transition and then gently going back into trot so we stay with the gait being comfortable.
Lottie was in a similar place- Kerin was tending to want to supervise her every step when really what she needed was to set it up for Lottie to do her own job. A little like Zorro but for entirely different reasons, Lottie tends to draw her rider in to doing more than necessary. If we are constantly having to correct the horse not only are they clearly not learning - we have to make it clear to the horse what we want and set it up so they want to find that. If we keep just making a small adjustment and we keep needing to then we're not changing anything, just responding to the status quo.
Lottie has a bit of a Lottie moment
Looking a lot softer on the rein.
A useful exercise to develop this bending and balance is using two circles and riding a figure eight, paying close attention to the change of bend at the point where you change circle.
Towards the end of the clinic Zorro and I were focussing on varying gaits - trying to maintain the same footfall but change the speed so we are covering more ( difficult with Zorro ) or less ( easy with Zorro ) ground in each stride. It was interesting to see how subtle the cues could be in this situation, although the flipside of that is that it can be quite hard to feel a subtle response enough to reward it when you're developing the try.
Also, for one of our sessions, it rained. Zorro is not too keen on the rain and I thought it would be prudent to turn him loose before riding.
I was right!
One of the things I really took from this clinic ( and from working with these ideas since ) was how much difference a correct bend makes- just the feeling as the horse gives to the rein and suddenly their whole body is upright underneath you is a really clear illustration of the importance of this for working the horse in balance. That was really interesting and useful and this has become core to a lot of the way I ride now.
You can find more about Tom and Sarah and what they teach over at their website - I think if you want to learn from them in person you will have to travel Devon now as they are preferring to teach at home.
Zorro and I began by working on asking for bend in Zorro's neck. Specifically Tom wanted a bend in the C1 ( atlas ) joint, which is the joint that allows the head to turn to the left or right while staying level with the ground. Asking the horse to release to this is a pretty big deal for them. Zorro was very quick to offer to move his feet around when I asked on the rein but more reluctant to offer that bend. It didn't take long to find that change and for him to remember that he can bend to the rein if asked to. Tom mentioned that this was a kind of head-oriented riding, something I've been aware of and trying to move away from. In a way this is a likely effect of having done a lot of groundwork because you mostly have contact with the head there and taking that into the saddle is going to give you a horse that responds very well to the rein, more so than to your body. Which is, of course, why we need to learn to push rather than to pull in our groundwork.
Zorro would prefer not to bend at the trot.
Sunny, the big palomino Section D, also needed to release that C1 joint and get bending. He was really resisting any requests to flex. Tom and Sarah did some work on leading with the bit ( literally taking a bit ring in each hand and just asking the horse to follow it wherever they lead with it ) to help get him feeling for the bit and thinking about it as meaningful. In the saddle Danielle needed to work on lifting the rein rather than pulling back. In terms of rein contact there is never a reason to pull straight back from your neutral hand position. Tom suggested a couple of the other people riding on the clinic got to sit on Zorro so they could experience how it feels to have a horse that is soft to the rein. I thought that was a pretty high accolade for Zorro and I'm always happy for other people to see how he feels to ride as it is, in my opinion, pretty good. Rosemary and Danielle both got to feel how he follows the rein, how it connects to his feet and how it feels when the horse doesn't pull on their rider. I'm glad to say they had nice things to say about the experience.
Seamus crosses a tarp quite happily.
Sarah riding Sunny to work through some of his confusion regarding the rein.
With Seamus they were teaching this work as well - being young and only recently started under saddle, he doesn't have resistance built up, he just doesn't quite know how to do it yet. Tom talked a little about how they used to use vertical flexions in the past but actually these lateral ones are slightly less of a blunt instrument and they don't risk teaching the horse to fall behind the bit.
Another topic we worked on was sharpening up our cues to make sure that when I asked for forwards I got an instant and correct response. This is a process that Zorro and I are quite familliar with but it tends to slip when we are concentrating on other things, so sharpening this up was necessary for the other work we needed to do. Danielle with Sunny and Janet with Seamus were tending to nag with her legs rather than asking the horse to enter a gait and then expecting them to stay there. This is a pernicious habit that ends up desensitising the horse to the rider's leg and making their job harder as they try to separate out signal from noise in our requests. It's also difficult to break, being something that many people are taught to do when they are first learning to ride. Instead of working this way it is easier for everyone involved if you have a single cue to change gait and go straight to your secondary cue if the horse starts to slow down or change down a gait without being asked to. It isn't the rider's job to keep pushing every step.
Asking Zorro to go faster and he starts to hollow a little because goodness knows a horse isn't supposed to move forward when they are asked to.
Clinic in progress
This was a theme that came out in Rosemary's work with Celebrity as well- Rosemary has her own arab but as she's based in Scotland, way out of Tom and Sarah's travelling range, she was borrowing Celebrity for the weekend. She needed to sharpen up her cues, keep everything absolutely black and white and work to bring his attention to her rather than letting him stare off into the distance. Maintaining the horse's attention is so important and Tom talked about how you might aim to be kind to a horse and keep everything light and hands-off, but end up being unkind because we don't offer them direction and if we can't hold their attention we can't be there for them when they need us.
Tom talking about working with Celeb's attention.
Rosemary rides Celeb.
Going for a canter.
We spent some time working on one of my main objectives, getting control of Zorro's shoulders. He's been reluctant to allow me much control of those, liking to stumble around corners looking out of the arena rather than moving around on a nice bend following his nose. After a bit of time demonstrating the problem- annoying but correctable in walk, more awkward in trot. It's not that I wasn't able to correct it, but that the fact I was constantly needing to correct indicated that I wasn't getting to the root of the problem, just fixing the symptom.
Although we're on the circle here, you can see Zorro's shoulders inclined to move across to the inside. Also where I'm looking...
Working on a circle, where Zorro was quick to show off his shoulder-dropping skill, Tom suggested we use the bend we had been working on already and get him going around the circle deliberately counterbent, so he was travelling around the circle bending in the way he had been when he was dropping into the circle. Firstly this stopped him dropping into the circle by assuming that position and secondly, by putting the pattern on a cue I was establishing that I could take control of it and that if I wasn't offering that cue, then I wasn't asking for that shoulder to drop in. We worked on coming around a half circle counterbent and then switching to a regular bend for the next half. Fairly quickly we started to get the idea that a cob could go around a circle without needing to dive into the middle of it.
Moving up into trot the same thing was happening only more so. I had spent some time trying to figure this one out over the preceding few months and in the end decided that there most be some technique I would need to use. Working with Tom and Sarah I realised there was no secret technique I had never heard of, all I really needed to do was to make it absolutely clear what I wanted and what I didn't want. Really that was only a case of firming up a little when he was doing the thing I wasn't looking for and making sure I gave a clear release when he was. Tom observed that really by constantly correcting him I had been stage managing his circles rather than teaching him to do them correctly of his own accord. By making things more black and white and just showing him what I want we get a much better result.
Zorro bending better and balancing better.
I also needed to let up earlier when we were getting it right - much better to get half a circle of correct work than to push on for longer and end up getting it wrong or having to struggle to get the thing we had back. If I'm waiting for him to get it wrong it's going to slow down our progress in the long run. The judgement call is knowing how much you can get to ensure you release in time, but if in doubt, doing less but doing it successfully is a good strategy. We did some work on things like working on a circle in shoulder in and then spiralling in to the centre staying on three tracks, which is the kind of careful footwork that is Zorro's forte. We also used this approach with regard to our canter - aiming for a few balanced strides after the transition and then gently going back into trot so we stay with the gait being comfortable.
Lottie was in a similar place- Kerin was tending to want to supervise her every step when really what she needed was to set it up for Lottie to do her own job. A little like Zorro but for entirely different reasons, Lottie tends to draw her rider in to doing more than necessary. If we are constantly having to correct the horse not only are they clearly not learning - we have to make it clear to the horse what we want and set it up so they want to find that. If we keep just making a small adjustment and we keep needing to then we're not changing anything, just responding to the status quo.
Lottie has a bit of a Lottie moment
Looking a lot softer on the rein.
A useful exercise to develop this bending and balance is using two circles and riding a figure eight, paying close attention to the change of bend at the point where you change circle.
Towards the end of the clinic Zorro and I were focussing on varying gaits - trying to maintain the same footfall but change the speed so we are covering more ( difficult with Zorro ) or less ( easy with Zorro ) ground in each stride. It was interesting to see how subtle the cues could be in this situation, although the flipside of that is that it can be quite hard to feel a subtle response enough to reward it when you're developing the try.
Also, for one of our sessions, it rained. Zorro is not too keen on the rain and I thought it would be prudent to turn him loose before riding.
I was right!
One of the things I really took from this clinic ( and from working with these ideas since ) was how much difference a correct bend makes- just the feeling as the horse gives to the rein and suddenly their whole body is upright underneath you is a really clear illustration of the importance of this for working the horse in balance. That was really interesting and useful and this has become core to a lot of the way I ride now.
You can find more about Tom and Sarah and what they teach over at their website - I think if you want to learn from them in person you will have to travel Devon now as they are preferring to teach at home.
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Date: 30 Dec 2010 14:49 (UTC)I don't want to push the horse into pressure because I don't want to pull on them. All that accomplishes is teaching the horse to pull right back. That doesn't mean I won't work on a contact- I'm starting to get back to that now, gradually - but I have been working so hard to quit pulling that I needed to go right to the other extreme to really get a handle on it. Now I'm starting to be in a place where I can think about exploring it again.
At the moment I figure if I can feel his tongue moving the bit around through the rein then we have enough contact that he can feel what I'm asking for without me needing to pull the reins around too badly, if he's inclined to...
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Date: 30 Dec 2010 17:12 (UTC)There's pressure and then there's pressure, and not all pressure is the same. Learning to ride with a fixed but following hand is a key skill set to have, and if you get the correct line from elbow to bit, you find that it comes much more easily. I don't know how stiff your rope reins are, too, but stiff reins can interfere with getting a good soft feel of the mouth. I'm picky but then Mocha is picky, and she wants soft reins rather than stiff (which is why I ride English with web reins, and why I forked out mondo buckos for a Dale Chavez kangaroo leather romal rather than the cheapo stiff reins I had).
It also helps if you have access to a good trainer on a regular basis, which I know you've said is an issue. I don't know what the attitude is toward Western disciplines in Britain, either--over here, one sometimes has to be picky because some will get snooty about Western.
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Date: 30 Dec 2010 18:09 (UTC)Also our impulsion is a tremulous creature and another aspect of that is not doing anything that might make him think I want him to go slower. Which given that he thinks he wants him to go slower is tricky in itself.