WORKSHOP REFLECTIONS
REVIEW: We hosted another fun workshop over the weekend. The
focus was to “jump start your horsemanship in 2018.” We achieved this by first
working on some essential groundwork exercises that helped the human use better
timing and feel (people struggle with this a lot even if they don’t want to
acknowledge it) and the horse looking for “softness and clarity.” We covered six
groundwork exercises, worked on the human’s communication through body position
and language (act and passive) and offering a release quickly. It never ceases
to amaze us how the horse begin to change. They relax mentally, they try to
find the answers for themselves without being “micro-managed” and then offer up
trust more willingly.
Under saddle we really wanted to focus getting the human’s
hands out of the horse’s mouth. This is where everyone struggles. They “think”
they ride with “soft hands” but their horse’s is showing something different.
The horse’s heads go up, their mouth gaps and you can see the stiffness occur
throughout their bodies. It happens all the time. We worked on gaining better awareness
of our hands and gaining better communication through the use of seat and leg.
Some humans may have been riding the mouth for MANY years and often get
frustrated when we point out this habit and how it is impacting their
partnership with their horse. Still if they truly want to improve (and not just
have their ego stroked) they have to invest the time (in the form of application
of instruction and real practice) to change how they do things. The horses
appreciate it. We dived into ten exercises under saddle. That is a lot of
information to process! Hopefully the handout helps.
There were lots of wins for both horse and human. The
training was concentrated and the work was productive. The weather was great
too! Not a bad way to spend a Saturday!
REFLECTIONS: We have all heard it said the horsemanship is
not an exact science, it is a series of small adjustments, moment to moment,
that helps to create the partnership. While there are common factors in horse
behavior (and training), every horse we meet is different. They need different
applications (and levels) of pressure and release to learn something. They need
different amounts of time too. Seriously. I had two horses that I wanted to
help understand the same exercise. One horse picked it up in about ten minutes.
The other horse took over an hour. I did my level best to remain consistent in
my approach too. It proved that PATIENCE is needed to better communicate and
you have to wait on the horse a bit to help it understand.
Don’t let anyone “bully” you into doing something you feel
is not right for the horse. Don’t “just get on and ride it” until you have done
your preparation. Stay true to your process and celebrate the small victories
because the will led to overall success. Remember, horsemanship is not a race! It
is a journey made one step at a time. Your ego is your enemy when working with
horses. It stops you from seeing the truth of the situation. It is wiser to
take time and prepare yourself and the horse for success by working on feel,
softness, release/reward and awareness.
Observation, awareness, connection, communication,
release/reward, preparation, leadership and partnership…these elements need to
be fully present in the human and horse to achieve goals and help find full
potential. Seek and offer softness to the horse by giving it softness. So many
of us fail (and then get mad at the horse) because we want to “go faster” and
then – because we are not aware (or willing to change) – that we are hitting
the gas pedal and then stomping on the brake! Of course this leads to
frustration and “poor behavior” on the horse’s part! Why? Because we failed to
be kind, clear and fair. We have to ride in balance with our seat/leg and not “ride
the mouth”. If we do pull we then need to give back. Think about how the human’s
action impacts the horse’s behavior and then adjust how the interaction feels
to achieve “softness.”
PS: Sorry..no pictures this time.
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