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glenatronKathleen was one of the first clinicians I ever wrote an LJ report about and seven years on from that, it was nice to ride with her. We've both progressed a lot in that time- Kathleen was very much teaching like Mark Rashid who she had been travelling with for a few years prior to working in her own right. Since then she has been studying with a lot of different teachers including people like Martin Black and Buster McLaury, focussing lately on Buck and Jeff Sanders ( that guy again ) so very much travelling in the direction that I want to be. Because she has a background in English riding and jumper hunting she also has more in common with the average rider here than many trainers who come directly from that western tradition, so she is in a good position to bring concepts across.
We started each day with an hour of groundwork, with everyone working on different things- as a general exercise Kathleen suggested people work on a pattern she calls "the dance" but which I know as "falling leaf" where you send the horse forward in a semi-circle, yield the hindquarters then turn the shoulders around the hindquarter and send them forward in the opposite direction. One should be able to do this while walking steadily forward so the horse is constantly coming forward and around.
The exercise is useful because it includes directing the horse forwards, controlling the hindquarters and controlling the shoulders separately. That is a lot of what you need to have working in order to have a good connection to the horse's feet.
Iris and I have worked on that quite a bit, so we were working on trying to balance out her feet a little and make sure her inside shoulder doesn't always fall in. Kathleen is very analytical and she suggested paying very close attention to where she was getting stuck so that we could find the exact point and free her up. She observed that even when the shoulders were getting level, her back end was dragging, which gave us things to work on. Over the next two days we worked more on developing side pass on the ground. I realised that Iris tends to get stuck on her right shoulder ( which is more developed than the left ) and that by focussing on moving that I could get a lot more activity in general, which was interesting.
Over the course of the clinic there were quite a few things that came up and rather than going through it session by session I'll try to pick out a few of the important ones and comment on them a little.
Kathleen observed that whenever she comes here she sees a lot of horses that are really locked up in their left shoulder. Her suggestion is that this comes from the standard British way of leading, holding the rope under the horse's chin and standing close in to them. Because this is traditionally done from the left it is almost inevitable that horses handled this way will end up getting stuck in that shoulder.
Any time a horse is pushing on the bit they are also pushing down onto their shoulder- our job in working with them is to ask those shoulders to lift, raising the base of the neck and placing the horse in correct carriage. Consequently most tools and approaches that involve strapping something to the bit - particularly draw reins- also cause the horse to drop their shoulder. This is partly a consequence of the angle of operation- a flat or downward pressure will ask the horse to lower themselves- the rider's hands can offer more of a lifting feel, but none of the standard tie-down tools can do this.
This is also an area where one has to really experiment around to find what will work with the current horse- if you get firm too quickly you don't give them a chance to come through, if you ask too softly and don't firm up an older horse will probably ignore you. Finding the balance is a matter of testing and finding what works with this horse.
Working in balance is not easy for a horse because it requires them to use different muscles to their day today meanderings in the field, consequently we need to allow them to build up to be physically able to work this way.
Kathleen riding Danny - normally she doesn't ride people's horses in clinics, but here she was just testing to see what his regular rider was feeling and to help him pay a little more attention to the bit.
When I was working with Iris, Kathleen talked about how a horse works on two axes - the feet and the topline. At first you need to be working with the feet so that your horse can follow the direction of the rein ( something a lot of people here find very hard to do ) and body. Once that is reliable - which is where Iris and I are at - you can start working on the topline.
Maintaining a soft feel, asking the horse to lower or raise their head without locking up their neck and developing relaxed lateral flexion are all steps towards releasing the topline.
To my horror on the second day of the clinic I picked up the rein a couple of times and got a totally dead feel back, Iris just holding the bit and not responding. I was baffled because don't pull on me has been the law for as long as I have owned her, but after thinking for a while I realised that on our epic walk to the clinic I had spent some time leading her on the mecate with the reins hooked over the saddle horn and because she was dragging behind that would have ended up creating a pull against the rein in her, so I had totally inadvertantly taught my horse to pull. I was gutted about this, but actually by the next day she seemed to have let go of the idea, so hopefully it wasn't too deeply engrained.
Iris does not want to be a saddle horse today - for some reason she decided the last day was the time to show off her heels a little.
Working on developing a more relaxed topline.
Using lateral flexion to ask her to soften and engage her hind end a little.
With all the horses, but particularly with Anne's mare Heidi who reacts very badly to trot transitions, Kathleen was very focussed on collecting information about what brings about changes and what affects the horse. With Heidi she suggested Anne avoid using her legs altogether for the transition and so on, narrowing it down to a response to the rider's left leg.
Kathleen told us that when she takes horses in for retraining, she is often simply collecting information for the first thirty days or so. Then she knows enough to be able to decide what to do next. Obviously that isn't quite so possible in a clinic environment, but the very analytical approach is certainly informative.
With quite a few of the horses the topic of following a feel came up, the importance of the horse being able to follow the lead rope when it is picked up in whichever direction it is moved. This follows through to how well a horse will respond to the rein and how well they tie up. Kathleen puts a lot of importance on having horses that tie up nicely- she uses a series of steps to teach them to tie calmly and safely ( including using a high line ) and particularly to be aware they can move their feet while tied but not pull back, which is where most problems arise.
One of the horses who had most trouble following a feel was Ozzy, a young appaloosa belonging to our clinic organiser. He had recently been off to be started and done tremendously well, but then they had got in some trouble when he came home and some of the work was around getting him ready to ride again. Ozzy was quite happy to lean on a lead rope and just try to ignore it. This type of bracing against direction is a good indicator of not being ready to ride and Kathleen observed that ideally she would get him ponying off a saddle horse. As I happened to have a saddle horse there ( albeit one whose entire ponying experience was a couple of circuits with the mule ) I offered Iris for the job and Kathleen ended up using my mare as a work horse to get Ozzy ponying, which was a useful exercise for both of them.
Ozzy reluctant to follow a feel on the rope.
Ozzy doing a way better job - the first part of developing this was to explain to Iris that even though he was young and insolent she didn't need to be threatening him with her back end or trying to kick him, she could let Kathleen worry about the pony and concentrate on following her direction. Once she figured out that she had a job to do, she was pretty great about it.
It was really nice to be riding with someone who is teaching the good stuff and having had two clinics ( my year's supply for this year ) within a fairly short period has set me up with plenty of homework for the year ahead. This time next year, I hope to have a horse who is consistently soft and relaxed through her topline and able to move smoothly from forward into lateral movement with no loss of power.
We started each day with an hour of groundwork, with everyone working on different things- as a general exercise Kathleen suggested people work on a pattern she calls "the dance" but which I know as "falling leaf" where you send the horse forward in a semi-circle, yield the hindquarters then turn the shoulders around the hindquarter and send them forward in the opposite direction. One should be able to do this while walking steadily forward so the horse is constantly coming forward and around.
The exercise is useful because it includes directing the horse forwards, controlling the hindquarters and controlling the shoulders separately. That is a lot of what you need to have working in order to have a good connection to the horse's feet.
Iris and I have worked on that quite a bit, so we were working on trying to balance out her feet a little and make sure her inside shoulder doesn't always fall in. Kathleen is very analytical and she suggested paying very close attention to where she was getting stuck so that we could find the exact point and free her up. She observed that even when the shoulders were getting level, her back end was dragging, which gave us things to work on. Over the next two days we worked more on developing side pass on the ground. I realised that Iris tends to get stuck on her right shoulder ( which is more developed than the left ) and that by focussing on moving that I could get a lot more activity in general, which was interesting.
Over the course of the clinic there were quite a few things that came up and rather than going through it session by session I'll try to pick out a few of the important ones and comment on them a little.
Unlocking The Shoulders
Kathleen observed that whenever she comes here she sees a lot of horses that are really locked up in their left shoulder. Her suggestion is that this comes from the standard British way of leading, holding the rope under the horse's chin and standing close in to them. Because this is traditionally done from the left it is almost inevitable that horses handled this way will end up getting stuck in that shoulder.
Any time a horse is pushing on the bit they are also pushing down onto their shoulder- our job in working with them is to ask those shoulders to lift, raising the base of the neck and placing the horse in correct carriage. Consequently most tools and approaches that involve strapping something to the bit - particularly draw reins- also cause the horse to drop their shoulder. This is partly a consequence of the angle of operation- a flat or downward pressure will ask the horse to lower themselves- the rider's hands can offer more of a lifting feel, but none of the standard tie-down tools can do this.
This is also an area where one has to really experiment around to find what will work with the current horse- if you get firm too quickly you don't give them a chance to come through, if you ask too softly and don't firm up an older horse will probably ignore you. Finding the balance is a matter of testing and finding what works with this horse.
Working in balance is not easy for a horse because it requires them to use different muscles to their day today meanderings in the field, consequently we need to allow them to build up to be physically able to work this way.
Kathleen riding Danny - normally she doesn't ride people's horses in clinics, but here she was just testing to see what his regular rider was feeling and to help him pay a little more attention to the bit.
The Axes Of A Horse
When I was working with Iris, Kathleen talked about how a horse works on two axes - the feet and the topline. At first you need to be working with the feet so that your horse can follow the direction of the rein ( something a lot of people here find very hard to do ) and body. Once that is reliable - which is where Iris and I are at - you can start working on the topline.
Maintaining a soft feel, asking the horse to lower or raise their head without locking up their neck and developing relaxed lateral flexion are all steps towards releasing the topline.
To my horror on the second day of the clinic I picked up the rein a couple of times and got a totally dead feel back, Iris just holding the bit and not responding. I was baffled because don't pull on me has been the law for as long as I have owned her, but after thinking for a while I realised that on our epic walk to the clinic I had spent some time leading her on the mecate with the reins hooked over the saddle horn and because she was dragging behind that would have ended up creating a pull against the rein in her, so I had totally inadvertantly taught my horse to pull. I was gutted about this, but actually by the next day she seemed to have let go of the idea, so hopefully it wasn't too deeply engrained.
Iris does not want to be a saddle horse today - for some reason she decided the last day was the time to show off her heels a little.
Working on developing a more relaxed topline.
Using lateral flexion to ask her to soften and engage her hind end a little.
Collect Data
With all the horses, but particularly with Anne's mare Heidi who reacts very badly to trot transitions, Kathleen was very focussed on collecting information about what brings about changes and what affects the horse. With Heidi she suggested Anne avoid using her legs altogether for the transition and so on, narrowing it down to a response to the rider's left leg.
Kathleen told us that when she takes horses in for retraining, she is often simply collecting information for the first thirty days or so. Then she knows enough to be able to decide what to do next. Obviously that isn't quite so possible in a clinic environment, but the very analytical approach is certainly informative.
Following A Feel
With quite a few of the horses the topic of following a feel came up, the importance of the horse being able to follow the lead rope when it is picked up in whichever direction it is moved. This follows through to how well a horse will respond to the rein and how well they tie up. Kathleen puts a lot of importance on having horses that tie up nicely- she uses a series of steps to teach them to tie calmly and safely ( including using a high line ) and particularly to be aware they can move their feet while tied but not pull back, which is where most problems arise.
One of the horses who had most trouble following a feel was Ozzy, a young appaloosa belonging to our clinic organiser. He had recently been off to be started and done tremendously well, but then they had got in some trouble when he came home and some of the work was around getting him ready to ride again. Ozzy was quite happy to lean on a lead rope and just try to ignore it. This type of bracing against direction is a good indicator of not being ready to ride and Kathleen observed that ideally she would get him ponying off a saddle horse. As I happened to have a saddle horse there ( albeit one whose entire ponying experience was a couple of circuits with the mule ) I offered Iris for the job and Kathleen ended up using my mare as a work horse to get Ozzy ponying, which was a useful exercise for both of them.
Ozzy reluctant to follow a feel on the rope.
Ozzy doing a way better job - the first part of developing this was to explain to Iris that even though he was young and insolent she didn't need to be threatening him with her back end or trying to kick him, she could let Kathleen worry about the pony and concentrate on following her direction. Once she figured out that she had a job to do, she was pretty great about it.
It was really nice to be riding with someone who is teaching the good stuff and having had two clinics ( my year's supply for this year ) within a fairly short period has set me up with plenty of homework for the year ahead. This time next year, I hope to have a horse who is consistently soft and relaxed through her topline and able to move smoothly from forward into lateral movement with no loss of power.
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Date: 3 Aug 2014 04:41 (UTC)no subject
Date: 3 Aug 2014 08:57 (UTC)no subject
Date: 4 Aug 2014 18:10 (UTC)no subject
Date: 4 Aug 2014 22:12 (UTC)no subject
Date: 4 Aug 2014 22:25 (UTC)no subject
Date: 5 Aug 2014 03:57 (UTC)Ponying is good for both horses involved I think. Iris appears to have settled well into her job in the second image.
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Date: 5 Aug 2014 07:40 (UTC)Mark Rashid's books are great reading- really easy going and readable. I love Life Lessons From A Ranch Horse but he is a good storyteller with a point to make and he does pretty well. I also recommend Tom Moates' books about Harry Whitney- avoid his first one unless you really like cringing - which reliably cover some very thought provoking ground.
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Date: 5 Aug 2014 11:57 (UTC)no subject
Date: 5 Aug 2014 18:53 (UTC)I have Dorrence's "A Good Horse is Never a Bad Color" that I might tackle after I work throu D'Endrödy. Rashid's work has been on my list a while. I'll look up Moates.
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Date: 5 Aug 2014 21:50 (UTC)no subject
Date: 5 Aug 2014 21:56 (UTC)no subject
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Date: 5 Aug 2014 11:57 (UTC)no subject
Date: 5 Aug 2014 21:33 (UTC)Surviving the Perfect Storm
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