Tag: horse training

Every Opportunity to Praise- the power of positive feedback

Finding every opportunity to praise- the power of positive feedback, and the soundbite that summarises my current training philosophy.

I don’t get too hung up on R+, R-, I do use so-called aversives like spurs and whips and bits but I try to use them in the non-aversive way that we are taught is possible by 2000 years of classical tradition. And I am willing to learn and evolve, with the horses as my most reliable and honest teachers. So this article summarises where I am now. It’s a long way from where I was 10 years ago. And we may all read this in another 10 years and think what nonsense?

I seek to share my current understanding because writing it down helps me to clarify my thoughts, and because occasionally it seems to help other people too.

So, I seek every opportunity to praise…the horse, the junior doctor, myself. It becomes a way of being, seeking the opportunity to praise the positive in every action or interaction

As some of you will already have read, my glorious warmblood was recently diagnosed with a kissing spine.

https://www.nelipotcottage.com/the-rocky-road-to-rehab/?fbclid=IwAR0j8hIJFXag31z0ciYySH4UgIRnTSgVYgTPgnoKqFIlU3NaPQslSuz77Ho

As he is still young, green and growing, and as my personal circumstances have been a bit complicated recently, I have made a conscious decision to take his rehab very slowly. To allow the growth spurt to complete, to let him down and let the spasmed muscles relax, to get him pain free and in good shape physically and mentally and then to start again from the beginning. This time I will pay meticulous attention to posture and correct muscle usage and see if we can end up with a better back that will allow me to sit on it without causing trouble or pain.

This rationale also gives me time to completely rebuild our training relationship, from the ground, so we have trust and a good communication system in place before I get back on. And this process has set me thinking about how I train: what is my methodology?

And I have arrived at the soundbite; seek every opportunity to praise.

Proud pony loves praise

I’m not very good at clicker training. Currently I don’t own a horse that is more motivated by food than by praise, so the premise of training to a click backed up by food doesn’t work for my current equine partners. I’m also not as quick to click as I am to praise with my voice, so for me it is much easier to ‘mark’ with my voice. And as horses are basically telepathic, even if they don’ t hear the word, they hear the thought…so for me a clicker just introduces a layer of delay.

I’m also put off by the tragic story of Tilikum- when clicker training goes wrong, the result can be dangerous frustration for the animal.

https://youtu.be/fLOeH-Oq_1Y

I’m sure the horse will come along one day that forces me to learn clicker training and I will have to eat these words, as I have so many others!! But life is a journey…

The key question is what to praise. Now the horses and I are back in company rather than living at home in our little private bubble, we are once again exposed to other humans and their relationships with their horses. One can learn a lot by listening.

The other day our neighbour was grooming her pony. Every other word seemed to be a No, or a Don’t Do That, or a Stop That, or another No.

Now I am a proud survivor of surgical training; in the good old days, you knew you were doing well if the boss kept quiet, and you only got spoken to, or rapped on the knuckles, if you were doing it wrong. When we read about how to raise children, we read that “the average toddler hears the word “no” an astonishing 400 times a day, according to experts. That’s not only tiresome for you but it can also be harmful to your child: According to studies, kids who hear “no” too much have poorer language skills than children whose parents offer more positive feedback.”

Disciplining Your Child Without Saying No. – Redbook

https://www.redbookmag.com/life/mom-kids/advice/a2560/how-to-say-no/

But if we just randomly say Good Boy, how will the horse, or the child, learn what was good or desired?

It’s all about timing.

Here’s an example. Rocky, the young warmblood, has really mobile shoulders and very expressive front legs. His reaction to food, to buckets, to grooming, to challenge, is to wave, particularly his right, foreleg around, and for me the waving is often at waist height. There is no point telling him not to do this; by the time we are saying No Don’t Do That the foot is already up in the air. He doesn’t choose to do it, it’s a reaction, an instinct. Horses don’t reason or plan, they react. There is no possible way of teaching the horse Don’t Do That once the action has already occurred.

Instead, how about we teach him to put the leg back down on the ground on command? At first this is opportunistic training; every time the leg hits the ground as he’s scraping or waving, I praise- “Down- Good”. Eventually, we just have to say ‘Down’ and the leg will land.

I don’t want to teach him not to wave the leg around; who knows, we might want Spanish Walk one day, although I’m not sure gymnastically that this particular horse will ever require that exercise LOL; his shoulders are already mobile enough. 

Goofball Rocky with his very mobile shoulders

So the principle is: rather than trying to teach a negative after the unwanted behaviour has occurred, instead we teach a positive correction to the unwanted behaviour, a correction that we can cue and then reward. This has the advantage of not preventing a behaviour or movement we may want to access again in the future, and also gives us the opportunity to praise our horse rather than rebuke him. Horses, like children, respond much better to positive feedback than negative. They enjoy being right, and being rewarded for being right. 

Another common misconception is that we can get a horse to calm down by stroking or patting them when they are on high alert.

Effectively, what we are doing here is rewarding the horse for being anxious or fractious. We are reinforcing the unwanted behaviour. Far better to change the mood and then reward the following calm, which is the desired behaviour. How do we change the mood?

Laughter or yawning are my two favourite strategies here. When Cal was a youngster and we were hacking around Kingsley as the annual scarecrow competition hit full swing, I used to giggle at the crazy stuff in the hedges. The best one was a pair of legs, sticking up out of the hedge, as if diving into a pool; I think it must have been London Olympic year. Cal would be eyeballing the scarecrows and sidling past at speed and I would be chuckling and giggling, but with hands loose on the reins and concentrating on loose legs and relaxed seat. He’s pretty bombproof now.

At competitions with Cal, or handling Rocky recently when he’s been in pain having physio, I focus on boredom and yawning. Boredom slows your heart rate and lowers your energy, while yawning relaxes the jaw and the neck, and therefore the hands, as well as changing the frequency of your thoughts. When the horse comes down in energy, relaxes or yawns, then we can take the opportunity to praise the relaxation and the calm, because that is the desired behaviour.

Now I’m far from perfect. I’m not trying to preach, just to share some stuff I have learned. Tonight was worming night, and Rocky still had me swinging around the stable because yet again I didn’t do enough prep work in between wormings. But I will do the prep work, and it will get easier. 

Butter wouldn’t melt

When I’m riding nowadays, I’m alway looking for the moment to praise, the topline stretch or the moment of throughness or relaxation that I can mark as desirable so I might get offered it again. I am also careful to praise myself- although that’s much more subtle. I don’t vocalise those moments so much, although maybe I should, but a turn in balance or good use of a seat aid will get noted as a nice feeling, or a good moment, with a nod or a smile.

More importantly, I don’t beat myself up for the not perfect moments anymore- I have a giggle, regroup and do it again, better. I no longer hate my disobedient legs, or my flappy elbow, or my gripping left hand, instead I notice them, change them, forgive myself, correct them again…until the corrections become fewer and further between….and then you notice your flappy knee or your sticky out toe and move onto to the next bit of homework.

Finding every opportunity to praise, ourselves and our horses, keeps training fun and rewarding, and beats the winter blues.

So here’s some homework. First spend an evening wth your horse just listening to what you say to him, is it no or is it yes, is it don’t do that or clever boy?

And then spend an evening being really careful to look for the moment to praise, both you and him, for the good stuff, and to replace a Don’t with a Can You Do this instead. And then observe both your moods. I predict your horse will be proud and puffed up and loving at the end of a positive session.And you will go home energised and enthused and looking forward to the next session, no matter what has occurred, because you have both had more fun.

And then suddenly might just happen over a very long time 😉

https://www.nelipotcottage.com/suddenly-happens-over-a-very-long-time/

Because there is pure magic in the power of perfectly timed positive feedback.

Seek every opportunity to praise xxx

The Myth of the Alpha

Or busting the myth of the alpha! I’m learning energy work at the moment. The first few sessions with a new teacher, even one infused to the hilt with energetic information, are always about seeking a common language. No matter how connected or enlightened we are, as humans we still need a framework of communication, and that communication can occasionally be clumsy. Sometimes one might drop a complete clanger.

It may occur as an attempt at shorthand, to convey a feeling, or it may reflect confusion stemming from a different understanding of words. My teacher’s clanger today was “the horse trusts you….you are the alpha in the herd.” There we have it, the myth of the alpha!

Now first, let me just clarify; I’m not bitching here. I spoke up at the time and between us, we found a different set of words that conveyed the feeling required in the moment. But it did get me to thinking…..

The myth of the alpha or herd leader is all pervasive. Depending on who you read, it may be the alpha male, the stallion or herd defender, who fights off all comers to protect his harem of mares and pass on his genes. Or it may be the alpha mare, the real herd leader, who makes all the important decisions in the herd, including when to move, when to drink, eat and sleep.

So much training methodology, in equine and canine training, is based on this flawed concept. We are told we have to be the pack leader, to dominate, to demand respect, if we expect to earn obedience or cooperation. The whole Natural Horsemanship movement is based on repackaging this belief in various shiny guru-based guises- “control the feet and you control the horse”, the use of “pressure release”, the “round pen” work and “join up”.

None of this methodology really stands up to scrutiny if your primary aim is a willing partner, either equine or canine. When an animal shows aggressive behaviour, the others will quietly choose to remove themselves from the aggressor’s proximity. When humans use coercive or alpha based training methods, the animal is never given the chance to remove himself from the unpleasant stimulus. Instead, he is subjected to ongoing dominance behaviour with no release or reprieve. What’s natural about that? The round pen work particularly, if you watch carefully, shows stressed horses, running around, demonstrating displacement behaviour not submission. And who wants submission anyway?

Modern cross country training ethos seems to rely on the fact that the horse will be more scared of the consequences of not jumping the fence than he is of jumping the scary fence. How many sales adverts say “never stops”? Personally, if I completely miss at a fence, I would rather my horse save us both rather than turning himself inside out to take off and hopefully get to the other side. I want him to trust me so when things get scary he asks me, are we ok, are we going, what do we need to do, not just to launch himself in desperation. 

Training classical dressage, especially, can not be done by force. We are incrementally teaching the horse to experiment with new and different ways of using his body; the reward is that the new muscle usage feels better and so the horse will spontaneously offer it again. This relaxed experimenting on the horse’s part simply cannot occur in a coercive relationship.  Classical training, similar to dance, is the very antithesis of the myth of the alpha.

I have spent many hours observing my horses in the field, while doing pooh picking and fencing and other jobs. They are three geldings, a bachelor gang, that have been together now for 5 years, mixed up with various short term visitors. Paddy, the eldest, is 23, Rocky is the youngest at 6. There really is no clear leader among them. They definitely all have different jobs. Paddy is the sentinel- I cannot get within half a mile of them in any situation without him fixing his eyes on me and saying Hi! I have owned him the longest, and the bond is close, but not as close as the bond I have with Cal. Still, it is always Paddy that announces my presence to the herd.

Cal is very controlling about food. He really flexes his muscles and his teeth at meal times; I have always fed him first for ease and safety. This doesn’t necessarily make the others want to hang out with him, and often when he is snoozing, or if I take him out to ride, the other two will spend the Cal free time stuffing themselves at the Haylage feeders. Cal is Irish born and bred, so I guess food has been scarce at some point. That’s resource guarding, it’s not leadership. 

Rocky still loves to play, mostly on two hind legs. Cal and Paddy take it in turns to entertain him, and to chastise him when he gets too annoying. No one in particular decides when to move, or when to drink, or when to go for a mosey to the vantage point; those decisions seem to occur organically and any one of the 3 horses can take the lead.  When we had a little mare in with the boys, she did move them around a lot, I guess because she liked to prove that she could!

All these observations however are based on horses in captivity. No matter how much we had enriched our field environment, it still had fenced boundaries, Haylage feeders and limited grass when they were allowed on the middle; i.e. rationed resources.

Lucy Rees has studied horses extensively in the wild.

“There’s a lot of fiction written about wild horses” says ethologist Lucy Rees. By that, she means that many books and even scientific studies describe horse behaviour in terms of “dominance hierarchies” – something which has never been observed in horses living under truly natural conditions, but which nevertheless form the basis of many schools of horsemanship… even ones purporting to be “natural”.

Her fascinating series of videos can be accessed for free. They should be required watching for all horse owners and horse lovers.

“In this video series, we meet the Pottoka ponies of the Gredos mountains in Northern Extremadura in Spain. The ponies lead a natural life in over 1000 hectares. The purpose of the project is to study natural horse behaviour and also to keep the mountains clear of shrubs which can start forest fires.

 https://www.epona.tv/real-ethology-with-lucy-rees

Briefly, where there are adequate resources, and adequate space, there is no dominance behaviour demonstrated. The wild horses live in peaceful, co-operative family groups, and show cooperative bonding behaviour and virtually no aggression. There might be some posturing at breeding time, but there is no true conflict. Humans could learn a lot from horses.

Likewise the seminal study that led to the myth of the alpha wolf, was based on an observational study in the 1940s, performed on wolves in captivity. Mech then published a book on the theory in the 1970s, which he has recently been trying to get withdrawn! A wolf pack in captivity, a bit like our domestic horses, is a group of disparate individuals who have been forcibly grouped together by their human owners, with no family relationship or accounting for personalities, and who are then made to compete for resources which are controlled and rationed by the humans.  Funnily enough, the captive wolves fought a lot. The study has been compared to learning about the behaviour of human families by observing people living in refugee camps! 

http://www.sketchyscience.com/2014/08/the-alpha-myth-real-science-of-wolf.html

It is not just our animals who suffer from our obsession with this flawed paradigm

https://qz.com/910561/the-myth-of-the-alpha-leader-is-destroying-our-relationships-at-work-and-at-home/ 

Imagine how much less stressful and more fun life at the office could be if we all worked together for the greater good rather than allowing behaviour that would not be out of place in a small shark tank!

So if we are not to be their alpha animal, what role can we assume? How about being their most trusted human? How about an equal relationship between two different species of animal based on mutual trust and affection? Believe me, these animals know you have two legs. Of course large animals need to understand physical boundaries, for everyone’s safety, but we can set those parameters with energy and intent as well as very simple training- rewarding the behaviours we like and either not rewarding or discouraging the behaviours we don’t like. 

Positive reinforcement does not have to involve treats; dogs and horses are first sentient: your approval and love is reward enough. (Although treats do help in the early days when puppies are super distractable.) I’ve never yet had a horse for whom I needed to use treats for simple training tasks. I’ve used food as a distraction e.g. when clipping and trimming, but not as a specific positive reinforcement training aid. I’m not saying I will never need to, but in my current skill set, with my current equines, my timing and marking is best done with verbal praise and a pat or a stroke. Horses are so good at understanding intent, they know when they have done well. 

So please do your animals a favour. Look your horse or dog in the eye and try communicating with the smallest possible whispers or signals. Imagine you are in a war zone, or out hunting, and need to communicate with silent gestures and just a thought. Once you start to whisper, they will start to listen more closely. And once you observe them carefully, and try to only praise rather than constantly saying “NO don’t do that”, you will be amazed at how they blossom. 

So please, join me in going out and help us all bust the myth of the alpha. The world will be much better for it.

Another useful article with a load of references to boot

http://www.eurodressage.com/2018/12/27/usemisuse-leadership-and-dominance-concepts-horse-training?fbclid=IwAR1s4Y325sjrJdoTlMrdUMORX1kP1t7H3mevxQxp4_XNwGD4HKrAcaLkbVQ

Suddenly happens over a very long time…

Suddenly happens over a very long time… this is another of those annoying contradictions that is so true of dressage training, of deep learning, or of developing expertise. How many times have you heard someone say- “we were stuck for ages and then suddenly, it just happened, as if by magic.”

Or the converse, “everything was going so well and then suddenly, out of nowhere, it all went horribly wrong. ”

Suddenly happens over a very long time.

Watching good dressage training

can be like watching paint dry. Cal and I have a fairly predictable school routine now; first we cover the arena with many random footprints, changing direction, weighting different hind legs, suppling the shoulders and the barrel.

All the while, I run through my position; are my legs kicked out of my hip sockets, are my knees down, are my calves long, are my seat bones open and my pelvis neutral, have I got 3 good spines, a good flat back, a solid frontline, and most recently, a seat that moves through my hands.

Then we move on to checking the 4 corners of the horse, have I got control of the 4 corners, is the weight equal between sides, is the bend even in both directions, have I got directional control, is he full from tail to poll, have I got lift and stretch?

Then we start doing laterals, in walk first and then either focus on trot or canter work. We pick an exercise to use as a test, then another to improve on the dilemma we find, then test again. Suddenly happens over a very long time.

It sounds very serious but we actually laugh a lot together, Cal and I. He is much less perturbed these days about having to be right all the time. The key for me is not to mind the moments where we lose balance, or lose steering, or just lose everything. I practise non judgmental observation, then make the change required (hopefully- there’s a 50-:50 chance of being right usually)  and then test the result. It’s taken me a long time to get to that stage- I used to get annoyed by our mistakes, or frustrated by my incompetence, or so focussed on achieving the task that I was rigid in my aiding and obsessed with task completion not quality of gymnastic (riding the exercise not the horse).

I rode last night in my winter jodhpurs, which don’t have a sticky bum, and I’ve been a bit short on riding hours the last couple of weeks. So, when I lost my rhythm, I slithered all over. I’m sure Cal was giggling, but he kindly didn’t drop me, or object!

Now these days I know that while it is important to complete the exercise, because there is magic in the patterns as well as in the aiding,  it is also important to be able to notice and change each step….or at least some of them. Suddenly happens over a very long time.

Every moment I am asking what do we have, what do I like, what do I want to keep, what do I want to change? I say every moment, in horse time it’s probably every 600 moments, in between running the human position check program, doing the steering, checking the bend, the weight, the back, breathe, check my position…you get the idea. We take frequent rest breaks and we accept one or two steps of good initially because we know these few steps will build up to a whole long side one day.

The last time I went to watch Charles de Kunffy teach, I had been playing with canter half pass on the long diagonal the day before. Cal could do about 3 steps of canter half pass before it all fell apart. I practised a good few times across the diagonal and then when we got to 4 passable strides I stopped. Charles asked for 3 strides canter half pass, then 3 straight then another 3 strides canter half pass. The horses were empowered, rather than pressured, and the few strides requested got better and bolder with each repeat. Such a simple lesson, and such a good reminder.

Likewise with your baby horse, if you only have 4 reliable strides of canter, take the 4 strides, ask for the trot, then ask again. The magic is in the transition, the taking weight behind occurs in the moment of change, the shift in the back occurs in the switch of rhythm,  not in the lolloping around.

The trick to make suddenly happen over a very long time is to notice the quality of each moment and then to make the appropriate change. As Charles says so eloquently in “The Ethics and Passion Of Dressage”-

‘There is no neutrality in riding: you are either actively improving your horse or actively breaking him down’

Cal’s neck has ‘suddenly’ got huge. Over the space of a few weeks, it seemed to deepen by about 3 inches. Did I do anything differently to cause this sudden change?

No- we were doing the same work, the same basic regime, although the exercise are getting more advanced, laterals on a circle or curving line, transitions in shoulder in, smaller patterns.

Building muscle, and building a horse is incremental, and exponential. If the foundations are good, and the details attended to at the beginning, then latter progress can be rapid.

Charles writes about this too-

‘we remember that the “finished horse” is born of daily attention to minutia in schooling. Careful consistency, repetition and elaboration are part of that daily work which produce the supple horse.’

I have really done my homework over the last few years. I have worked on my position with every spare brain cell and bit of muscle memory I could muster, I have used any precious arena time as efficiently as possible, I have done thousands of transitions, of bend, of weight, of speed, of topline…

I’ve had a lot of fun as well, farm riding, eventing, charging around the forest, but every moment on the horse I have genuinely tried to ride as well as possible, in that moment.

And suddenly my horse is looking really fancy. Suddenly, over a long period of time, my horse has become magnificent.

And in the process, I have learned a huge amount, about positive thinking, about discipline and change, about body and mind, and about life.

Because once you have seen something, you cannot unsee it. Once the feeling of true flow has been experienced, nothing else will do. Suddenly happens over a very long time. You are either improving something or breaking it down. You get to choose which, every minute, every day. I would recommend that, rather than coasting along, you focus on improving the daily details, the gymnastic, the posture, the flow, so that you suddenly find magic, not despair.

And if you get into the habit of checking every moment for what do you like, what would you keep, what would you discard, some unexpected patterns emerge, in human life as well as in the arena.

And when effecting positive change, in the moment, by choice, becomes a way of life, then the world might just shift on its axis.

Good riding should be therapeutic. It turns out that good horsemanship can also be therapeutic, for the human as well as the horse.

Suddenly happens over a very long time….and then nothing will ever be the same again.

“The horse is indeed the only master of his forces that our own strength is quite unable to augment by itself alone. It is hence up to him to use them to his liking and to determine the way to employ them in order to respond in the best way possible to the rider’s indications. Should the latter want to act by himself, the horse lets himself be carried and adjusts his efforts to those that the man makes him feel. But if the horse knows that he can rely upon his own means only, he will use them without expecting anything but indications, and then he uses them in full, with all his stamina.”

Beudant

Change is inevitable. You can choose

The Rocky Road to Rehab

It’s taken me a few weeks to be able to write about our glorious youngster’s diagnosis and the Rocky road to rehab.

I know all about the road to rehab- it’s almost 7 years since Cal fractured his carpal bone. And I completely believe a good outcome is possible – Cal’s fracture taught me to trust the process and detach from the outcome. He has become the most fabulous horse you could wish for. And the fracture, although well healed, made sure he was another horse I could never sell. (How does anyone manage to sell a horse?)

I clearly remember the early uncertainty, the agony of box rest, the hundreds of miles we walked in hand, and then finally the relief when he jumped his first course and stayed sound.

I just never expected to be on the road to rehab with Rocky.

We bought him as a yearling.

Well bred, well handled, but completely unspoilt, from a trusted source. He came home with us from the South Coast, after Paddy dumped me in the ditch at Longleat. Paddy did share some wise words with him on the trip home though- he travelled like a pro and learned to eat out of a haynet on the way.

We turned him out with another colt at a friend’s place and let them be boys, living out and razzing around together. We brought him in to the livery yard aged 3, a couple of months before we moved into our own place. Once our land was sorted the three horses went out together full time, and gelled as a little herd straightaway.

Paddy was hiding – Ernie thinks they are his brothers anyway

The pity party

The reason it’s taken me a few weeks to share a bit more is that I have been having a proper pity party. Everything we have learned about over the last few years, the entire focus of our horsey learning, has been about correct classical training, that is meant to preserve the health of the horse and prevent this type of injury.

The stages of balance, from Egon Von Nendirf’s beautiful book. Rider is Melissa Simms, who passed away only recently.

Good work is meant to be therapeutic. Rehab is really just about going back to absolute basics, working on the ground for now, opening up those intervertebral spaces and building the muscle in between. It’s basically what we should be doing all along.

Rocky had the joint space medicated, and this was followed up with some ultrasound to the muscles of his lumbar region, as these also were in spasm.

Rocky working at camp this spring

The ODGs knew all about kissing spine- correct classical training focuses on opening the back, elongating the top line, thereby preventing them occurring. Piaffe, the test of collection, also shows maximal length from tail to poll, when done correctly, along the arch of the top line.

Nuno showing an exemplary piaffe- all on the seat

Levade requires even more topline

Einsr Smit-Jensen archive
The lumbar back is curved, the loins coiled, the hind legs and hocks flexed.

We’ve taken it really slowly

We did 6 weeks of in hand work and sat on him briefly at 3, did about 3 months in hand work and rode him away for 6 weeks at 4, and then did a bit more with him in his 5th summer, a few fun rides, a bit of light schooling and hacking, a bit of polework.

This year, his 6th year, was meant to be when the work got a bit more consistent. As often happens, our working lives have been the limiting factor, as well as Rocky’s ‘tricky nature’.

Do we even believe horses can have tricky natures?

https://sophieshorsetales.com/done-with-well-behaved-horses/

This is not a young horse that has been over-worked…

Or was he?

I was starting to use judgmental words about him though- ‘backward’, the ‘work ethic of a flea’, because he would stop dead when tired and have a little buck when asked to go forwards.

I’ve written about this before

https://www.nelipotcottage.com/use-your-words-carefully/

I should have known better.

So the pity party has been all about where did we go wrong?

Have we done too much ridden work with him?

http://www.equinestudies.org/ranger_2008/ranger_piece_2008_pdf1.pdf

Have we ridden him too much, when we should have been building a stronger horse with good in hand work and just riding a little?

Is the injury the result of an unfortunate conformational glitch?

Did the injury occur when he got stuck under the partition in the truck a couple of years ago? He didn’t thrash around or panic but still…

And then after a couple of days madness, I gave myself a slap and a talking to. It doesn’t matter how it happened- we just need to focus on the rocky road to rehab.

Rehab is a rollercoaster of emotions, hopes and dreams, where actually we just have to knuckle down, do the work and trust the process. All the previous learning, all the work on posture, timing, training, helping horses find biomechanically correct movement, will surely get put to extra good use now.

The value of good in hand work

The value of good in hand work can not be overstated. I never manage to do as much as I should. Only last week, Cal, my supposedly advanced horse, was the demo pony for a Patrice clinic, which meant I was the demo human (gulp). We found a few holes in the simple work- for example the SI left has too much neck bend, and so doesn’t weight the inside hind or stretch along the outside, and leg yield left, he doesn’t actually choose to step past his barrel with his hind leg-the mistakes are much easier to feel and correct from the ground if we are observant and honest enough with ourselves.

It’s also important not to pussy foot around with the rehab horse. We mustn’t look at them as if they are broken- they find this really disconcerting. Instead we should look at them with soft eyes, taking in the details of the movement, the stretch needed here, the balance needed there. We should do all the best work, asking nothing less than enough, yet noticing and rewarding every try that gets us towards better. We should remind them of their magnificence, encourage them to use themselves fully and correctly, and welcome the moment when the whole fabulous horse turns up.

In hand work also teaches us about our horses’ training brain. Rocky has always thrown his whole genetically gifted body at any task. When I ask him to slow down and actually work within himself, paying attention to the details of which leg goes where, he then needs to work really slowly, with lots of breathing and thinking breaks. This is timing and observation I will need to take forward to the ridden work once we get back on.

Some vets recommend a Pessoa or similar training aid when rehabbing a horse with kissing spines. The advantages are that it stretches the horse ‘over the back’- that horrid modern phrase. The disadvantages are that any training aid attached to the mouth only serves to teach the horse to avoid the bit- imagine jagging yourself in the teeth every time you move a leg?

In classical training, the bit belongs to the horse.

The horse has to learn to trust the bit, to take it forwards, to use it as a point of reference to reach towards and work around. The bit should never be used against the horse, neither as a means of control nor as a tool to ’round the neck’. Even the subtlest of left/right actions backwards on the bars of the north or downwards on the tongue teach the horse to avoid the aversive pressure and duck behind the bit to relieve the pain. Working them in a training aid that attaches to the mouth isn’t subtle, and there is no way the bit can act in the corners of the mouth, as it should, when the head is strapped down.

I have been using the equi-bands, to encourage Rocky to lift his tummy and round his back – this specific training aid has no front part so all influence on the head is from the human hand to the front of the cavesson, teaching the horse to stretch forward over the topline. The connection to the cavesson should be like the connection to the rein- and the line held like a rein- it only acts forward and up, and continually places the contact in front of the horse so that he learns to take the contact forwards.

Manolo- the photo shows beautifully how asking for a forward long neck extends the spinous processes. His contact is a bit vague in this moment but you get a good sense of elbow bent, line held correctly, lower arm opening forwards encouraging the topline to reach.

And perhaps most of all we should never underestimate the healing power of love, positive energy, and sunshine.

Rocky chilling out after a work session with his Arc gizmo on in the sun

The Buzz about the Fuzz

I started noticing the buzz about the fuzz a year or so ago. The fuzz is fascia, a part of the connective tissue that is generally ignored.

When we bought Rocky, our fancy warmblood, we bought a young horse with international standard genes. We had to have him gelded, and we were told to make sure we got some massage done on the gelding scar to preserve his fabulous movement.

We all know a little bit about fascia. It’s the stringy stuff in between the muscles in your chicken breast, or the marbling in your steak. It’s the layer that keeps healthy muscles separate so they can slide over each other and work independently.

In surgery, knowledge of fascia is critical- it’s fascia that determines the layers of anatomical cleavage where cutting should occur.

The French surgeons really get the buzz about the fuzz- they call it ‘cheveux d’anges’ or “angel hair”- a lovely romantic name for the delicate little tendrils we see when tissues are separated already by fascial planes act like a dotted line for bloodless and painless surgery.

Not that fascia doesn’t contain blood vessels and nerves- they are just fewer in number. If tissue is disrupted by injury, it’s partly the fascia that stabilises that injury, by thickening into a scar. That’s why it’s important to keep good mobility throughout life, and especially after injury.

Dr Hedley’s short film is a great celebration of the buzz about the fuzz

https://youtu.be/_FtSP-tkSug

So, when I was looking for a horse massage therapist, I remembered the lovely Babs, of Chester zoo fame, who happens to be incredibly local to us, and who we knew from the last livery yard (before we moved onto our own land).

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=522106882

Babs came to treat the horses and I asked her about Myofascial Release Therapy. Her eyes lit up and she started telling and showing me.

What struck me first was how subtle and gentle the manoeuvres were. She was using gentle finger pressure on acupressure and meridian points.

There is a theory that acupuncture actually works along fascial lines- no other anatomical highway explains the effects of acupuncture: it doesn’t work along the determined paths of blood vessels, nerves or lymphatics.

Had it not been for my horse’s dramatic reaction, I wouldn’t have known there was any treatment going on.

Not Cal, but another equally demonstrative horse

Cal is very demonstrative- in between manoeuvres he stretched, adjusted, licked and chewed. And got more and more soft blink sleepy.

And his posture improved, and the gymnastic schooling work went through better and better.

In a perfect world, correct schooling work in itself should be therapeutic. We all feel that our horses generally have a hollow side and a longer side. If we strengthen to equalise to the shorter hollow side we end up with stiff horses, equally contracted on both sides. If however we work on lengthening and decontracting the short stiff side to equal the length of the longer side of the body and then start to strengthen, we build strength on suppleness and the power can come through from behind without any blockage. The basic knowledge of gymnastic schooling is mostly lost now, in the rush for progress and prizes, few people know how to nor take the time to build the horse up into an athlete before using the power they offer. Hence why my search for a good instructor led me to a lady who lives on the south coast and visits us once a month for 3 day clinics!!

The hyoid and tongue apparatus of the horse is connected to the hocks by an uninterrupted fascial sheet, varying in thickness but nonetheless a pure connection. So any bit action which constricts the tongue and hyoid will also adversely affect the movement of the hind legs. This is the cause of the funky trots we see now in high level dressage horses: neck and head restricted, tongue tied down, hind legs strung out behind rather than coming through to take the rider up and forward.

Funky trot- back is hollow, hocks out behind, head and neck restricted due to excess pressure on the bit

https://handshealinghorses.wordpress.com/tag/horse-hyoid-apparatus/

The tongue is also connected to the shoulders

https://www.facebook.com/339154063236779/videos/403549170130601/

In humans, our mostly sedentary lifestyles prevent us from riding well. We get told we need a strong core to absorb the horse’s movement, but actually it’s a stillness in motion we need to seek, not a stiff brace. Think walking along on a boat not surviving a ride on the Big One!

We need open flexible hip sockets, a nice flat back with good isometric tone of our front and back lines, as well as the line from armpit to hipbones. Most of us have over developed or tight back and shoulder muscles with weak contracted front lines. Strengthening a shorter front line will only increase the dysfunction- we need to open up the hip flexors before we can engage our ‘core’ to get the balance required between front and back lines. I found a human Physio to help with this- again with focus on MFR.

https://www.facebook.com/backinactionwarrington/

Matt from BackinAction isn’t quite as gentle as Babs; often it feels like a Chinese burn as he stretches creaky, stiff fascia, but after 6 months of breaking down the fuzz, I can now access front and back trunk muscles as required, and even use my hand or leg without the other joining in, and mostly without bracing or stiffness. This is progress indeed.

So quite rightly, there is a lot of buzz about the fuzz. Is your fuzz soft and pliable, or tough and stringy?

And how about your horse? Does his skin move smoothly over soft muscles or can you see stripes or striations in the muscle? Have you inadvertently strengthened a stiffness? Does he pound the ground or float softly?

Supple horses with soft pliable fuzz and efficient energy transfer last a lifetime- isn’t that what we would all wish for our dream partners?

How much attention do you pay to the fuzz? For you and your dancing partner?

Online dressage competition

I’ve been meaning to try an online dressage competition for ages, so when our blogging support group got an offer for free entries in return for blogging about the experience, I accepted with alacrity.

We were approached by Melissa of Dressage Riders Online.

http://www.dressageridersonline.co.uk

I chose to do a novice test- this month’s allocation was N24, a test I have ridden once before.

Now, the first advantage of doing an online dressage competition is that no plaiting is required- as Cal has enough mane for 2 horses.

Cal showing off his double mane at dinner

This grows at top speed, no matter how much I pull and tidy, I have resigned myself to sewing in 19-21 plaits for any competitive outing.

19 Plaits looking a bit flat after overnight attack of the Lycra hood

No plaits is therefore a huge treat for me, although Cal quite likes looking smart.

The other advantage of online dressage competition is that you get to use your own familiar arena, without any diesel costs.

We don’t have our own arena. My lovely neighbour has a fabulous arena that I am fortunate to be allowed to use regularly- it’s secluded and peaceful, more or less next door, I hack there and I quite often have the place to myself. Cal generally goes beautifully there.

Until we needed to mark out a 20m x 40m space. I enlisted Gary’s help as arena builder and camera man and he, being a perfectionist, brought his massive tape measure to make sure it was marked out correctly. So as I was working in, we had slithery snake-like metallic tape measure and moving poles to contend with. It was also quite windy so the hedge monsters were out in force and the new patio umbrellas were waving gently.

Cal kept it together remarkably well and was working nicely so we decided to go for the first take. I stopped at C to pass the phone over the fence to Gary, who had to crawl through the electric tape to take it off me, and Zap!!! He got a proper shock!

Gary yelled and jumped, Cal jumped and then decided that C was obviously a really dangerous place to be! Another 10minutes of working in at that end, I  eventually convinced him that it might be safe to approach the fence as usual.

After 3 takes we had a test I thought might be worth sending in. Just as well, it was the last possible filming day of the month- I’m a bit of a deadline queen.

I’m not the only blogger who benefited from the free trial of online dressage competition-

A Perfect Storm https://m.facebook.com/aperfectstormx/

was quicker on the posting trigger and even managed to share a clip of her test video, showing stretching on a circle.

‘Uh oh’ I thought, ‘I’m pretty sure there’s no stretching on a circle on my video?’

Sure enough there wasn’t- whoops!

With no judge to beep when I’d gone off course, I had merrily missed out a whole movement!

Too late- month over, video gone in.

On the Tuesday evening as I was heading towards Mostyn for an evening show jumping lesson, Melissa messaged me to say my WeTransfer link wasn’t opening properly, she was off to work and could I send my test to the judge directly? As I was headed into deepest darkest Wales on my own in the truck, this wasn’t the best news!

I had a couple more tries on arrival at Mostyn but I really could not get the WeTransfer app to work correctly from my phone.

I finally managed to send a link to my YouTube channel (get me- total technophobe dunce- YouTube??), when I got home at 930pm, convinced I would be too late.

But no, the judge was lovely and kind and accepted my video.

And we came 2nd!!!

The test sheet and the rosette arrived a couple of days later.

Gorgeous rossie 😀

Helen Copeland is a list 5 BD judge from the North East. The comments were really positive and helpful, with none of the usual meaningless phrases

(‘could be rounder’, and ‘needs to be more over the back’ in particular being two phrases that are guaranteed to send the test sheet into the bin without me reading further)

and I thought the marks more than fair for our rather challenging day at home.

The marks would have been even better was there not a big fat 0 in the stretchy circle box!

And I love Haribos!

So would I do it again?

Definitely.

I feel it is important to ride tests occasionally, in order to identify the challenges in the work and the next areas of focus required in the training. Along with the discipline of doing a particular movement at the marker as well as when the right moment arrives.

We’ve taped the marker spots on the neighbour’s arena fence so set up next time should be quicker.

My limiting factor will always be finding someone to video, preferably without electrocuting themselves first, but now I’ve got the technology sorted, actually submitting the video should be easier.

And most importantly, this is the the first judge for ages who has put useful specific comments that seem to demonstrate an understanding of correct training.

Because we train our horses classically, which to me means as ethically, and as biomechanically correctly as possible, the modern obsession with over tempo horses and false roundness in front, no matter what else is occurring, has actually properly put me off formal dressage competition. Obviously when Eventing we have to do a test so we can get onto the XC course.

So I’m encouraged to try online dressage competition again, hopefully with Cal in a calmer frame of mind next time, and see if we can improve our test riding. And hopefully see some progression in our scores as he improves.

So a huge thank to Melissa from Dressage Riders Online for the chance to try out online dressage competition.

You have hooked me in as a regular customer from now on in.

Here’s the link again

http://www.dressageridersonline.co.uk/

I thoroughly recommend this lovely site for friendly help and ease of use. If I can manage the technical video sending bit then honestly, anyone else will be fine.

Thanks to Gary for filming – please note no Garys were harmed in the production of this movie 😂😂, and to Stacey for being the best horsey neighbour ever.

And to Cal, for simply being the best teacher one could wish for 😍😍

Cal after Shelford UA ODE- his back looks amazing these days

“In the Middle are the Horsemen” by Tik Maynard

“In the Middle are the Horsemen” by Tik Maynard- a book review.

Image courtesy of Trafalgar Square Books

“He studied the horse, and human nature, and how the two can find balance. And in that journey, he may have found himself”

I was offered the opportunity to write this book review through the blogging support group #Horsebloggersmeetup.

“In the Middle are the Horsemen”

The title of the book was immediately alluring to me; my main obsession over the last few years has been to make myself into a better horse-person. This is a book I certainly would have bought for myself, had I not received a free copy courtesy of the fabulous Quiller publishing.

The blurb says “In 2008, 26 year-old Tik Maynard faced a crossroads not unlike that of other young adults. A university graduate and modern pentathlete, he suffered both a career ending injury and a painful break-up, leaving him suddenly adrift. The son of prominent Canadian equestrians, Maynard decided to spend the next year as a working student. In the horse industry, working students aspire to become professional riders or trainers, and willingly trade labour for hands-on education. Here Maynard chronicle his experiences- good and bad- and we follow along as one year becomes there, what began as a casual adventure gradually transforms, and a life’s purpose comes sharply into focus.”

I’m still a kinaesthetic reader: the feel of a book in my hands is very important to me. This is a classy book: although paperback, the outer cover is glossy and sturdy, the front a peaceful photo, the paperback thick enough to look crisp for a good few years. The paper inside is good quality and the layout nice and clean.

He spares us the details of the injury and the break-up: the story of “In the Middle are the Horsemen” begins with the hunt for a job. Tik’s criteria are simple enough: a central riding location (in North American terms), the trainer must have a deep understanding of the classical foundation of horse training, and the trainer must be a leading rider or trainer in whatever discipline he or she practised. He starts writing to all the great and good, asking for a job.

Tik manages to land jobs at some of the best yards in the world. He works for Johann Hinneman, Ingrid Klimke (unpaid and all too briefly), the O’Connors, Ian Millar the showjumper, for a day, Bruce Logan the cowboy, Anne Kursinski, to name a few. He learns some hard lessons, from people and horses, and as with all those who reflect on their time spent with horses, the lessons help him grow into a better human, as well as a better horse-person.

“In the Middle are the Horsemen” started life as a series of magazine articles and this does leave the narrative slightly disjointed at times. Tik is a very entertaining writer, with a good eye for detail and an ear for dialogue which allows the stories to flow. I read the book in one sitting; it certainly kept me absorbed and entertained, I laughed with him as well as at him, and I liked him a lot more at the end of the book than I did at the beginning!

Photo by Kathy Russell, courtesy of Trafalgar Square Books

Tik initially struggles to separate good horsemanship from good riding; the crux of his learning and the theme running through the book is that you need to be a good horse-person to be a truly good rider. This is hardly a startling revelation, and his lack of clarity on this point, especially in the early stages of his story, leads to frustration for both author and the reader.

In the same way, he never truly defines classical horsemanship and he seeks deeper knowledge in trendy books and DVDs such as Mark Rashid, Buck, Parelli, Mclean: horsemanship and some attempts at science, whilst apparently bypassing the seminal books written by the truly classical trainers of recent times. For example, Rashid’s books get 2 mentions, Klimke only 1!

“You just need to be a better rider” does finally morph at the end of the book into “I wanted to be a great rider, now my ambition is greater, to be a great horseman”

His quest for adventure seemed to surpass the thirst for knowledge. He’s a young man, on a planned quest, who sometimes preferred to follow his master plan rather than go with the flow, leaving seemingly golden opportunities for unknown pastures greener. I wanted him to stay at Ingrid’s for longer; but I guess that would have been my dream, not his.

For a book about horsemanship, in the end, most of the lessons seem to come from people not horses. Most of the stories are about people and human-human interactions, not human-horse.

There are a few good quotes later in the book

“Then there was just the being with horses. Which is nice. But without the training, without the communication, we just happened to be with each other, there was no dialogue. It is like sitting next to Elizabeth Gilbert on a plane. Cool…but you are still strangers until one of you starts talking.”

I did get the impression that Tik would always be the one to start the conversation.

“A horse’s cost never reflects his worth”

And some great questions

“What’s good to a horse?”

It’s not a book about training, nor could it be used as a training aid. It is the entertaining, well told, rueful and truly funny account of of one young man’s learning. There are a few tips disguised within stories that might open the door to self reflection, to make people sit up and question aspects of their horse-human interaction.

The book ends where he finds love, and peace and purpose. And the horses in his part of the world are surely better for his quest, as it would seem he now works as a horse trainer, for competitive riders but with a strong Natural Horsemanship bent.

“In the Middle are the Horseman” is a good and entertaining read. The honest tales of life as a working pupil on an equestrian gap year or three made me wistful; what a wonderful dream to live out, and I’m so glad for him that it has had a happy ending. The writing is crisp, the pace lively and the book is peppered with good anecdotes as well as increasingly honest self reflection.

Is the book a keeper? Yes, for a while.

Will I read it again? Yes once or twice.

Will I pass onto a friend? Yes for entertainment value.

Would I recommend “In the Middle are the Horsemen” to my friends? Yes, as a fun equestrian book to buy for a holiday or a rainy weekend.

Would I read another book by him if he wrote one? Yes for sure

Thanks to Sam at #Haynet for organising me to write this review, to my virtual friends at #Horsebloggersmeetup for their group support and encouragement, to #Quillerpublishing and Trafalgar Square books for the gift of the book, and to all you readers out there for taking the time out to read my blog.

Buy the book- it’s a 3.5 out of 5

Buy the Book here

Operating within a false paradigm

Fallacies and paradigms- 2 of my favourite new words. Are you operating within a false paradigm?

First question – what is a paradigm?

operating within a false paradigm

Are you operating within a false paradigm, i.e. a false belief system? How does this relate to horses? I hear you cry…

Let me use a personal example of operating within a false paradigm.

Some years ago there was an incredibly successful black dressage stallion from the Continent. He and his rider posted record breaking scores. His movement was spectacular- his forelegs seemed to reach for the sky, stretching far beyond where his nose pointed, and the crowd gasped and cooed. And the judges also gasped and cooed. The record breaking scores led me to believe that this sort of movement must be sought, a result of the pinnacle of skilful and careful dressage training.

At the time, I wanted to learn more about how to train my horse, from scratch, all the way though to magnificence. At the time the black stallion was the epitome of competitive magnificence in my eyes. He was scoring over 80% and winning every gold medal around.

So my paradigm: because this combination was winning everything, he must be the most correct rider, and the black beauty the most beautifully trained horse out there.

As I read and learned more, I started to read about Rollkur. This rider is a well known exponent of Rollkur, or LDR, or deep stretching, or whatever fluffy name the proponents choose to use. This is an abusive training method where the horse’s head is hoiked in behind the vertical to achieve control and submission. This deprives the horse of his sight and also the use of his neck. It was first used by Nicole Uphoff and a big horse called Rembrandt who was too hot for her to handle in competition situations. Rollkur allowed her to ride him under control. And she won…lots.

Rollkur also has a strange effect on the movement of the forelegs. It accentuates flinging of the forelimbs while failing to engage the hind limbs. It creates or accentuates spectacular forelimb movement, but not in a biomechanically sound way.

Rollkur for prolonged periods of time was banned by the FEI in competition and warm up in 2010, on the basis that it is abusive, and that training in this position is bad for the horse’s health and soundness.

https://practicalhorsemanmag.com/health-archive/hyperflexion-in-horses

But the effects of Rollkur, the unnatural spectacular gaits on a hollow back and an overbent neck, continue to be rewarded.

So as an amateur learning dressage, I studied those high scoring tests. I tried to reconcile how this hero of dressage, a sport espousing harmony and partnership, could be considered abusive? How could the results of an abusive training method be winning rides, when dressage is an art as well as a sport, and is all about harmony, and improving the physique of the horse?

I did this weird thing in my head- maybe Rollkur done skilfully isn’t abusive? Maybe he wasn’t actually doing Rollkur, but something very close to it? Maybe it was possible to train a horse to show that degree of forelimb extravagance without using Rollkur? Maybe the horse was bred with that movement and he was simply harnessing it? May be we needed better horses to win, not to be better riders?

BUT DRESSAGE SHOULD BE A TEST OF TRAINING? Alerich, Wily Trout, these were thoroughbreds with ordinary movement, who were made more magnificent by correct training.

At my sister’s riding club in Germany, a Fjord pony used to win regularly at their equivalent of PSG, because he was trained to be the best athlete he could be.

I watched the black stallion’s tests on YouTube, over and over. And as I watched them more, and read more, and learned more, I began to notice other stuff.

The black stallion actually had very good, large moving, but correct gaits as a youngster. The trot in the later work wasn’t regular. The diagonal pairs didn’t match. The hind legs were uneven, one almost hops behind. The head is mostly behind the vertical, not mostly in front occasionally coming to the vertical as required in the FEI rules.

There was little harmony- the curb was torqued horizontally on tight reins and the stallion straining to escape. And his eye still haunts me, now I know what pain looks like.

I was struggling to understand how something that didn’t fit the FEI’s own definitions of the movements required could score so highly. The judges are the protectors and guardians of our sport- why would they reward incorrect work so highly?

When I want to learn something, truly learn and understand something, I go to the best textbooks.

I’m a surgeon- to know how to operate on a human, one needs to know the anatomy, the physiology, the function, and the likely effects of intervention. When we are schooling our horses, we are doing daily mini operations, working to improve the form and the function. To do that we do need detailed knowledge.

The first book in my dressage collection was a gift, and a key find.

Yet the details it contained of correct movements and exercises were not evident in the tests I was watching, nor in all the photos in this book.

Then came Aachen. The black stallion by now had another rider- who was struggling to ride him as successfully. More ominously though, his gaits looked very uneven by now. He was deemed fit to compete at Aachen, but the videos of that test show obvious lameness. How could the best equine vets in the world have passed him fit to compete?

http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2015/08/dressage-at-aachen-not-so-great-for-the-sport/

Then came Rio. Another Continental horse was passed fit to compete despite having been on intravenous painkillers and antibiotics overnight, having had a temperature of 40C and despite being in obvious, glaring pain in the warm up. The cause of the injury was first reported as fractured jaw, then a spider bite, but the cause is really immaterial. How could a true equestrian even contemplate competing their horse after a night like that? A human can choose to go out feeling ill, a horse needs us to speak for them.

And the vets should have spoken for the poor chestnut horse. The team vets did their best to get him into the ring- dubious but possibly understandable; their job is to look after the horses for the team, after all. But the official vets, those adjudicating, how did they let him warm up, let alone enter the arena?

http://taviannaomi.wixsite.com/indubioproequus/single-post/2014/05/01/The-Glass-Cieling

So the best vets in the world, employed by the FEI to monitor the competition, to make sure our equine partners are happy athletes as stated in their directives, allowed a very ill horse to be saddle up, ridden in obvious pain, and proceed to the competition.

My paradigm at that time- these are the best horses in the world, trained to the highest standard, protected by the rules and by the most experienced professionals in the world, whose job is to uphold the rules.

It would seem that paradigm was false…

Are you operating within a false paradigm? What are your beliefs regarding your role as a trainer, rider and protector of your horse? Have you examined those beliefs, checked them against your knowledge, discovered the gaps in your knowledge and sought to fill those gaps? Or do you blindly accept, as I once did, that the experts must know best?

And most importantly, have you twisted the observations of your own eyes, ignored your own feel, to fit in with your current belief system? I know I did, I denied the evidence of my own eyes, argued with others who didn’t know much about horses, yet who saw discomfort and weirdness more clearly,  until the cognitive dissonance within my own head was churning me up inside.

BTV, on the forehand, clawed left hand, C2/C3 highest point- at the time I was proud of this photo.

Luckily for me at the time, I had a very clear and outspoken horse, whose body and mind did not tolerate training that caused physical or psychological damage, no matter how much I loved him, and how genuine I was in wanting the best for him. For Paddy, and now for Cal and Rocky, trying hard wasn’t good enough, I have to learn to do it correctly.

BTV, short reins, short neck, hollow behind the saddle. Around the time of this photo we scored 72 in a test but Cal was turning his back on me when I presented him with a saddle.

Hands better, my position improving, neck coming out of shoulders correctly, chest broadening nicely, topline filling out, hindleg stepping through better

I was operating within a false paradigm.

I don’t have beliefs any more, or heroes, or idols. I have growing knowledge, an expanding skill set, and I have learned to listen to my horses.

Horses don’t have paradigms 🙂

Baby Rocky- neck and back need A LOT more muscle to support that head but floppy ears and nice steps. And I have elbows and a back!

Just do the homework

STOP PRESS UNTIL MAY 2022 ALL DONATIONS raised by readers of this blog will go to the Veloo Foundation, feeding and education the children in Mongolia who would otherwise scratch for survival on the refuse tip in UB Mongolia. The link to donate is to be found here

http://www.veloofoundation.com/fran-mcnicol.html

Just do your homework….right? It’s been a long hard year. I’m sure some of you have been really organised and managed to do lots of riding and training?!

I decided one winter that I would just be kind to myself: I gave the horses January off to concentrate on eating and keeping warm out in their field. Rocky, our 5 year old Hanoverian, did some extra growing, which wasn’t quite in the plan. Then the rain came.

What I did do that winter was lots of studying. Just do the homework. Riding is a purely physical activity but the art of training your horse correctly for longevity requires not only physical skills but

theoretical knowledge as well 

I read and re-read a few of the Classical Dressage texts: Charles de Kunffy is a perennial favourite: his concise prose is so clear and the illustrations chosen are always completely inspirational.

 

His little but perfect book “The Ethics and Passion of Dressage” should be in every equestrian’s library, in my humble opinion. I feel very fortunate to have audited several of Charles’ clinics, at Dovecote Stables and at the now defunct TTT, as well as riding with him for a couple of lessons.

Use on-line resources

I did quite a lot of Facebook discussing- on sites such as Classical Horsemanship. Contrary to the modern defensive dressage divas, I find these sites incredibly informative. Once you start to learn who to listen to, that is: there are some gems who really know their theory, and there are others who just spout catchphrases without really understanding the nuts and bolts of correct training. And those who do know their stuff will always answer questions, really helpful and unfailingly polite, while those just spouting politically correct jargon but not actually doing the do cannot explain themselves and get defensive or offensive when questioned.

Just do the homework.

Facebook and online discussion are a fascinating exercise in communication too- do I understand my problem or the horse’s dilemma well enough to phrase a question that will lead to a useful answer?

Thomas Ritter has done a fabulous series of “Facebook lives” over the winter- these are still available online as a really generous free resource, and some of the mini challenges have been great, even if I didn’t manage to do the physical manege work yet to make the most of the exercises shared. I will be doing more of that homework when we have some light nights to enjoy.

work on your own body

I’ve found a yoga teacher I like, and that teaches just around the corner, which is great. I will have functional, unlocked hip flexors one day before I die…

But the main thing I did was to just do the homework, to make sure every ride counted. I didn’t have an arena, so a lot of the winter riding I did was hacking in the forest, between snow and rain and hail.

#betweenmyhorsesears

I didn’t just slop around on a loose rein, enjoying life. Nor did I didn’t ride my horse around in an artificial outline, stifling his urge to go forward.

I made sure every step was taken with the longest possible forward and out neck that he could balance, with a relaxed jaw and poll, and I thought about my equitation absolutely every step that I could. Are my buttocks soft, have I got one on each side of the horse, are my knees level, are my legs rotated so I have thigh bones not fat in contact with the saddle, are my elbows pointy, are my upper arms a vertical part of my back, is my back flat not hollow, are my thumbs holding the reins, not fingers, are my fingers folded not grabbing….and most of all, can I stretch my lower leg back so it feels like my heels are collecting the hocks of the horse, I get a slight kneeling in church feeling and the angle behind my knee opens up??

None of these are positions to be held- the magic happens in the movement of change, the transition, so it is replace, replace replace, on a loop like a computer programme, round and round my body.

the magic is in the moment of change

I made sure Cal was straight from tail to poll, no funky kinky stuff, and I tried to think about him stepping with even weight through both forelegs, and I did a little bit of shoulder in, haunches in, half pass as we walked and trotted around, but mostly I just worked on me.

And a big change occurred, suddenly over a long winter.

A soft, inflated lifted top-line developed. His neck and lumbar back look amazing. The contact became incredibly consistent, although he still head shakes on windy days. His stride has got longer, he has cadence and suspension developing.

And he is absolutely just a pleasure to ride. Keen, alert, fun, sensitive, self motivated, jumping all sorts of awkward crazy logs off a one stride turn, just for fun.

Just do your homework folks- it’s worth it.

But do the right homework- practise only makes perfect if the practise is correct.

You are either improving your horse or breaking him down.

and there is no try, only do or don’t.

Your horse will tell you when you are doing enough.

Enough is always much more than you think- if it ain’t changing, you ain’t doing it.

And don’t bullshit yourself, you are doing yourself and your horse a massive disservice if you do anything less than your best.

Just do the homework with a big massive smile 🙂

buy the book- “Bare Hooves and Open Hearts”

If you have enjoyed this blog then please consider buying an author signed paperback copy of my recent book. It contains more of my philosophy on husbandry and training, based on my experience, research and learning. Price includes 2nd class postage to anywhere in Europe. Other regions may cost more- email me and we can always arrange.

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The Unbeatable Lightness of Being- Seeking Lightness in Riding

The unbeatable lightness of being that we can achieve with our horses, for me, is the absolute goal of classical riding and training. One you have felt the unbeatable lightness of being, it becomes addictive, and nothing less will do.

I hold cherished memories of a lesson a couple of months ago. The gait was canter, the exercise was 3 strides shoulder fore, straighten to the diagonal for 3 strides, then plié back to the track for 3 strides and repeat. The difficulty, high, the execution imperfect but the effects were the unbeatable lightness of being.

I can still remember the feeling –

Cal under but mostly in front of me, shoulder apparatus maximum width, withers lifting me up, huge neck up and out in front of me, the bit felt light yet firm in my hands, he felt completely balanced between hand and seat. In that moment, I could have put him anywhere in the arena, speared my enemy, jumped an enormous hedge, asked for a flying change, or halted him into a levade, if I had those skills. He was completely engaged, completely available, completely “on it” and completely with me. That is my current definition of lightness in riding, the unbeatable lightness of being.

It was a surprise, because it wasn’t soft.

Having had a previous horse that had been extensively ridden behind the vertical, I had come to associate that evasion with softness, an empty hand felt soft, but actually was an empty hand, a horse curling behind the vertical to avoid bit pressure. This time it was a more tangible contact, like holding hands on a summer’s day, not restrictive but there was a definite sensation of holding something precious, something that must not be dropped. And it was about much more than the hand; my seat was filled with my horse’s back, wide and firm but comfortable and malleable. My back was straight, my legs stable. I guess it was an adhesive seat on an inflated back; it felt like sitting on firm memory foam, totally comformable, comfortable, but active as well.

It only lasted a few strides of course; in training at our level these moments are fleeting. But it was enough to know that I would seek that feeling, every day in every ride, until that is our normal way of going. Had we been in a double bridle, we would have been on a loose curb, because in that moment, he filled the rein, it wasn’t me seeking him.

I have felt it a few times since. Last time it occurred we got our first clean canter to walk transition. I’m still amazed at how much horse it requires to achieve lightness. Cal the grey is quite soporific to ride; his mind is hugely powerful and he’s quite happy working on low revs. I call him the hypnotist; I get on determined to access the whole amazing war-horse body and get off having had a lovely ‘nice’ ride!! For him to be fully light, he needs to be fully engaged, brain, body and soul. He doesn’t yield (or step up?) to that easily. Therein lies our biggest homework. When he does turn up he is huge, in body and in personality.  He and I aren’t quite comfortable with that… just yet.

Lightness in riding is the ultimate goal. The pinnacle of classical training at the old school SRS was the solo display, birch upright in one hand, the snaffle rein loose and the curb reins held lightly in the other hand. The display would typically include all the Grand Prix movements and finally Piaffe to Levade, without a single aid being visible, horse and rider as one, effortless centaurs, mind meld and body meld, in the unbeatable lightness of being.

How do we get there?

First we need an independent balanced seat – we need to look to our own riding. A good seat, the sort developed on the lunge in days of old, an adhesive seat with a supple back and allowing joints, with each leg and each arm able to act independently, in several parts, to aid each footfall if required. The upper arms are part of the back, the hands and the bit belong to the horse; we receive what he offers, never taking or restricting. The neck is allowed the length the horse requires for balance: when the balance is good, the hindlegs will flex, the croup will lower and the topline will reflect that. Two to four years on the lunge, as an apprentice in a good riding academy in days gone by. My sister, growing up in Germany, spent four years on the lunge, as a learner amateur rider. Klimke was lunged once a week all the way through his career. A good seat takes work. Why do we think we can do away with these basics these days?

gymnasticise your horse

Next gymnasticise your horse. The two sides have to be equalised; the overbent side decontracted to the same length as the long stiff side, the weight in the footfalls equalised, front to front first then front to back, then eventually the back will take more weight than front (not there often yet). The back has to be both strong and supple, the front and back of the horse connected, the neck coming UP out of the withers strong and long before it can help lift the back into collection. That alone could be years of work, for the part-time amateur rider with no arena and limited riding time.

The school exercises are designed to strengthen and supple your horse, to teach him better balance, to empower him to control his body better and become magnificent. We have forgotten their purpose, these strange exercises that appear in our dressage tests. Learning their purpose and their criteria takes study, i.e. reading, practise, analysis, and educated application. It’s not about how they look, it’s about how they make the horse feel, how they develop his body, which muscles and joints they target. Putting the head and neck over a specific hind leg is like power lifting for a horse, developing the strength in his haunches. Half pass is like the ultimate cross trainer, the Carlsberg of exercises, it reaches parts other exercises cannot, the reach of the outside hind leg, diagonal power, open shoulders, squats on the inside hind leg, WHEN DONE CORRECTLY.

the horse needs to trust your body

And most importantly you need your horse’s mind. He needs to trust your seat to be stable, to trust the hand, to reach forward willingly into an allowing contact that offers him a point of reference without restricting his balance. The aids are aids that offer the horse space to move into, a point of balance to move across to, not a shoving or a pulling or a pushing that contorts him into a certain shape. It becomes a dance, between partners.

A really useful note on the hand position from the greatly missed Sandy Dunlop – this is regarding the line from elbow to bit:

“The key of that line, a line which most people do incorrectly, is that the line is along the underside of the lower arm, NOT the upper side. Most people have their third finger pressing down on the rein when they think they are straight line from elbow to bit. A correctly bent elbow with the correct line can look to many modern riders as if it is a high hand when in fact the line from horse hip to rider hip through elbow to bit is unbroken. 

During the learning process all riders find and lose that connection angle. In general there need to be phases of temporary exaggeration of the articulated elbow in order to prevent the erroneous muscle memory which keeps ‘relaxing’ the hand down onto the old line which causes pressure on the bars and tongue of the horse. This becomes an elastic thing where the temporarily high hand is no longer needed. Sadly, people often mistake the temporary for the permanent. 

This single, simple error of line is the common cause of the mild to medium btv posture we see in most horses i.e. that btv posture which prevents throughness and correct biomechanics of postural usage.”

I love internet discussions on training. I have learned loads from international virtual friends who are incredibly generous with their experience and expertise and are well practised in the black art of explaining training principles in writing. The Masters are all but gone, but those who trained with them are still with us and working really hard to keep the Art of Dressage alive, despite modern competition aberrations.

The truth is often uncomfortable, but it’s still the truth.

And the two bodies together become more powerful and more beautiful, and the human should become invisible because the horse should dazzle and shine.

Just a small ambition for life then!!

I hope you too all find moments of the unbeatable lightness of being.

A willing dance partner- seeking lightness in riding Carlos Caniero

I have a new favourite video- feast your eyes and then go and emulate this and you won’t go too far wrong searching for the unbeatable lightness of being.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpyO3B5dHmQ

An exemplary line from elbow to bit
Huge horse, light on his feet, light in the hand Pollay at the 1936 Olympics – youngest rider competing and Gold medalist