Learn horse behavior, communication, and improve horsemanship skills in weekly articles by Alternative Horsemanship™ with Samantha Harvey the Remote Horse Coach. Coaching riders of all experience levels in clinics worldwide, distance horse instruction, and consults. 200+ video catalog has webinars, courses, livestreams, classes, and more. #alternativehorsemanship
Clarity of Trust- Outside of Horses- Great Video
Please take a minute and click the following link Trust it will help you appreciate the communication and trust that goes into a relationship beyond people and horses!
Games Day- Another Success
Light morning clouds coveted the sky but we all vowed to ignore them and continue on. I was proud of the group that participated- in their ability to "help" their horses through different tasks and their "open mindedness" for trying a few new games.
I will run through the list of classes to give you an idea of the point of a Games Day. As I told all of the riders, the point of that day was not for "training" but rather to allow an assessment of their own partnership with their horse and the level of communication with horses and people.
Game 1- Musical Stalls- same as musical chairs but with poles on the ground to make the "stalls"- one less stall than the number of riders. Each round the music stops, the rider who has not found a stall is eliminated.
Object: We hold this class at a walk- it's amazing to see the most "sluggish" horses suddenly wake up when their rider has intention about "getting the job done" and finding a stall. If more people worked on their own energy levels in the saddle to range from 1-10 our horses would be more responsive.
Game 2- Water Cup Handoff Relay- Team of three riders who must move at the same pace (walk heading out and trot and the return trip) and must handoff a cup of water to their team mate. Whoever has the fastest time AND the most water wins.
Object: Intention when riding, finesse when one hand is off of the rein, communication to their team mate when passing off the rider, and relaxation while carrying the cup of water so as not to spill it.
Game 3- Carrot on a stick Team Race- Rider has no reins and is being "led" by the person on foot that is holding the carrot- except they have to navigate obstacles while doing so. Then team switches for return trip home. Whichever team has the most carrot remaining and the fastest time wins.
Object: Although I don't personally choose to feed my horses treats because I don't want my horse to be with me for the sake of "food motivation," many horses at some point in their life have been "bribed" with treats. Ideally, if you are playing at liberty your horse should follow you because he wants to be with you. In this case we happen to have MANY food motivated horses and one Percheron thundered her way around the "course" to win the class.
Game 4- Follow the Leader- Most trail classes have the person riding the course, so this time I set up obstacles that included: Walking on tarp, walking on empty plastic bottles, dragging a 8' tree branch (still with the leaves on it,) backing the horse through an L, carrying a heavy duty black garbage back (had to let the air get inside so that it was inflated while being carried,) and dragging a sled across the finish line.
Object: Many people handle their horse on the ground by "working around the horse" instead of having their horse "work around them." The point of this game was to show when you had to accomplish a specific task, using only physical communication through the reins or lead rope, could the person effectively direct their horse's brain, head, shoulders, ribcage, hindquarters, and could they increase and decrease their horse's energy all with the distraction of "stuff" happening (bags, branches, tarp, etc.) close by.
Game 5- Sit A Buck- Bareback class where the rider places a dollar bill under the inside of their thigh. Announcer asks riders to demonstrate tasks, slowly increasing the difficulty until all riders are eliminated except one. This particular class increased to where riders were jumping fences and doing flying lead changes.
Object: Too many people are "reliant" on equipment to keep them on their horse. Pulling off your saddle is a great way to assess just how balanced you are.
Game 6- Banana Race- This was a literal race where riders could go as fast as they wanted- while carrying a peeled banana that had been dipped in water. Whoever finished with the fastest time and most banana won. There were three obstacles in the arena that the riders had to go around- the original winner did not pay attention and go around all three.
Object: Moving one's horse out at speed, feeling balanced riding with one rein, maintaining clear communication with your own horse while having the distraction of passing other horses at high speed and still having to ride accurately.
Game 7- Horseless Race (Partners)- This is one of my favorite events, and I actually do this as an exercise in some of my clinics. One person who will be "the horse" is blindfolded. The second person is the "rider." The rider only has "reins" (in this case a piece of baling twine that is held by the horse) to communicate. The rider must then steer the horse over a jump, weave cones, back through poles, etc.
Object: This is a great way to find out if you are a "heavy" or unclear rider. It forces the "rider" to have to assess how to communicate with their "horse" in a way that the "horse" can differentiate between slow, fast, turn, etc. It's great for the "horse" to feel what it's like to be "lost" due to unclear communication from their rider.
Object: Riders have to communicate with one another and their horse. They have to "plan" when they are going to ask what of their horse. They also must be clear to ride accurate so they don't accidentally "bump" their partner. Their timing must be accurate in order to work together.
The wind started to pick up by the end and we did get weather in the afternoon. It was another great experience that riders and horses both seemed to come away the better for!
See you next time
Sam
Word of the Day: Directing a Horse's Thought
Directing a horse's thought- communicating a person's intention to the horse's mind. The person's ability to have the horse literally look towards the planned direction of movement or focus. This also leads to re-direct ability, or getting the horse to "let go" of his thought, and re-focus on where or what the human is asking. This influences the quality of the physical movement that follows.
Travels in Denver- Off Topic
Okay, I couldn’t help it. I HAD to write this blog. I know it’s off topic- perhaps I can make a few equine related comparisons for you. But this one is about people. People traveling. More specifically, people traveling through the Denver International Airport. It’d been years since I passed through that airport. I’ve decided to go along with the “Mile High City” nickname they should call the airport “The Mile LONG concourses.”
The reason I know this is because both times that I arrived, it was at a gate in the single digits and, of course, my outgoing flight was at the gate somewhere in the high 80s. Even after walking a good 400 yards down narrow and long corridors (no I’m not exaggerating) from the plane to the airport building itself, I then took FOUR moving sidewalks and STILL had to walk to more to reach my next departure gate. At least I didn’t have to worry about not getting my daily work out, usually this is accomplished from the farm chores, but hey, I guess an airport will do.
Keep in mind I tend to look for “good deals” in buying tickets, but certainly when it comes to these outrageous times of charge, charge, charge it’s the small things that add up! So I carry on my bags to save money and work on my upper body strength. My “usual” is one duffle bag, and although deceivingly “small” compared to some of the so called “carry on” armored tanks people call luggage these days, my bag is usually around 35 lbs plus.
Here’s travel hint #1 of the day- If you’re technologically advanced enough to check in for your flight via the Internet, click on the option to “change your seat”- this will show you how full your plane is in advance. If it looks like it’s going to be a full flight, make sure you DO NOT pay the fee to check your bags. This is another peeve of mine- higher plane ticket prices AND we have to pay for FOOD and LUGGAGE????
I remember the days when passengers received free overnight toiletry bags, playing cards, snacks and more! Every seat there was a pillow, a blanket and headphones. Now a days it’s usually $20-30 PER BAG- plus if your bag is “overweight” (old days used to be 75lbs) now it’s usually 40lbs, you pay an extra fee. If you have golf clubs, skis and other odd shaped luggage you get yet another fee.
So back to checking out how full your flight is. Be a cheapskate if it looks full, pack in a bag that is semi passable as a “carry on” and then when your gate opens ask how full the flight is, or the desk agent may mention it’s a “full flight” and then you can either check your bag at the gate or at the front of the plane. And NOT just for that flight, you can actually check it all the way through to your final destination. And guess why you would go through this trouble? Because then you get to check your bag for FREE. Yes, free. Case and point I just stood next to a family of three who spent $180 EACH WAY because they checked their bags, instead of waiting to bring them to the door of the plane like I did. Hmmm.
Ok, so back to Denver. Here are a few things I noticed along the way:
A couple walking two Chihuahuas on leashes get stopped as they are about to board because they don’t have “proper stowage containers” for the dogs to be brought on (they each had one of those over sized “shoulder bags” for each dog. The funny part was these were tea cup dogs- that means that each weighed less than three pounds- and their owners looked as if they were related to a few sumo wrestlers.
Next I noticed that it took two people just get the crowd to line up. First there was a gate person checking tickets and then there was also one making the boarding announcements. These days instead of boarding the plane by seat numbers, most airlines use a group number, which is ALWAYS printed in bold black ink on a person’s boarding pass. Can you guess how many passengers get in line even though their boarding section hasn’t been called yet????
And yet somehow counting sections from one through four became highly confusing. Also getting in line seemed to be difficult for a lot of folks out there. Inevitably, the line that the ground crew would close (designated with that portable stretchy material that can make portable “aisles”) but people would still line up in them. It became a bit of a comedy act to see how many times the gate agent would have to open and close the temporary gates because people had got in the wrong lane.
Then there was the commotion with the standby passengers. If you haven’t experienced this, a standby passenger is trying to get a different flight than what they were originally ticketed for (same destination but earlier time) or the flight was oversold and they did not check in early enough to guarantee themselves a seat. Yeah how about that one for customer service? You buy a ticket, but if you don’t check in according to the current “rules” of the FAA your seat may be given away even if you show up.
So anyhow, I saw on the screen above the ticket counter there were 14 folks on standby. Once all passengers with assigned seats check in, the ticket agent will then begin to assign the “extra” seats to the standby passengers by printing them a boarding pass. This all happened “business as usual” until two agents realized their computers weren’t talking to one another and neither could tell what seat had already been assigned, therefore causing double assignment of one seat…. So those poor standby passengers that had their hopes high once they had their new ticket in their hand, quickly deflated as they were called out of the boarding line and back to the ticket counter.
Next there was the issue of those passengers who had ignored the “please check your large carry on bags” announcement and instead had insisted that their luggage would fit on the plane. This sort of traveler is very persistent. As I watched them attempt to function I usually get an overwhelming feeling to put them in a round pen and flag them as I would a horse telling them “That’s not going to work, try something else.” But back in reality they just keep trying the same thing and surprisingly, it doesn’t work each time they do the same thing over and over. (This seems to be the case with a lot horse owners and how they interact with their horses.)
Before this happens though, there is a process. The person is sure they are going to make their suitcase fit. Even after numerous attempts with the oversized contraption falling out of the undersized overhead compartments people will keep heaving, pushing, sweating try all angles of shoving to get that darn luggage stowed. But I will give this personality type credit, they don’t give up- no matter what, or at least not until some poor flight attendant has to pry their fingers off of their luggage and send it to the front of the plane for checking.
As all of this was happening, I unwillingly was affected by the above sort of person. I personally experienced the “case of the poor vertically challenged flight attendant.” I’m allowed to call him that because I too happen to be of the shorter height (a whopping 5’2”) and can empathize with what it takes to stretch your frame to reach the six foot high overhead compartments. Except this time the compartment the flight attendant was attempting to reach for was above my head- and my aisle seat. And the more he “heaved” to try and get the compartment door shut, the more he leaned into me. Now if you imagine sitting in a seat and having someone stretch out their body as “tall” as they can- especially if the are male, you’ll come to see that clear visual image of this particular flight attendant’s package a mere two inches away from my face. No matter how far away from him I leaned to be polite, he leaned harder into me. Hmmm.
Or let’s talk about the other outbound flight experience I had in Denver. After gallivanting a mile down the concourse I finally reach my gate and realized it was a “mini” gate because I was heading out to such a remote location that not many people wanted or needed to fly there. There also happened to be three other mini gates alongside mine. They used four of those “portable” lanes (the ones I’d mentioned earlier) that outlined where to line up when it came time to board the plane. Each “lane” was marked with a sign, except instead of being in numerical order according to the gates numbers, they were marked like this: “Gate 67-69, Gate 68, Gate 68-69, and Gate 72.” Hmmmm. I wonder who came up with that numbering system.
It was then that I looked up at the board behind the ticket counter and saw that there were four flights departing out of these four gates within two minutes of each other… Two leaving at the same time…. Okay- I’d love to hear the air traffic control tower when those planes were about to take off… Then an announcement comes on to start having people line up for their flight. Except even though there are four gate agents, only one of whom appears to have gone through this procedure before. So they decide to be fair, they are all going to take turns practicing speaking on the PA system- one for each upcoming flight. Except in all of their excitement, they forgot that there’s only ONE machine that can read the passenger’s ticket barcode as they board. This means three flights have now lined up prematurely. There’s nothing worse than people and waiting- especially when it comes to getting on the plane, to getting off the plane, or waiting for their luggage, etc.
Then because two of the newbie gate agents are so nervous, they rush through their announcements without enunciating. This caused much confusion when passengers start to realize there is a flight to “Rock Springs” and there is also one to “Palm Springs.” Two very dramatically different destinations that can sound identical when mumbled over a PA system filled with static.
So basically, numerous people lined up in the wrong line for many reasons. One reason was the lack of clarity in the announcement. The second was due to the unclear signs on the lane numbers because you had two options according to how the lanes were marked…. And this brings me to the third reason for confusion.
Once a passenger managed to actually get past the gate check in process, they then had to walk another ½ mile to the actual plane. Now remember these were not very popular destinations so we were all flying on puddle jumpers, or a plane that only has about 12 rows. These planes you board by walking outside onto the tarmac of the airport and climbing stairs to board. Except they are so small that if you carry anything larger than a laptap, it won’t fit in the overhead compartment. So there is a “baggage check” where you can drop off your bags before you board the plane.
Now this all sounds fine and dandy, except there wasn’t just one plane parked outside, there were four. None of which were marked. None of which the ground crew seemed to have a clue as to where they were going. On my plane alone we had three people board the wrong plane. Luckily they were “ejected” from the plane before they’d settled down, but the bad news was they’d had their bags checked with the ground crew. So the ground crew then had to dig through the luggage and find these people’s bags. The other bad news was our crew had no idea where to direct them to find the correct plane. I happened to be sitting in a window seat and watched as one poor woman tried three planes before she found the right one.
And they wonder why passengers are so angry these days?
Sam
The reason I know this is because both times that I arrived, it was at a gate in the single digits and, of course, my outgoing flight was at the gate somewhere in the high 80s. Even after walking a good 400 yards down narrow and long corridors (no I’m not exaggerating) from the plane to the airport building itself, I then took FOUR moving sidewalks and STILL had to walk to more to reach my next departure gate. At least I didn’t have to worry about not getting my daily work out, usually this is accomplished from the farm chores, but hey, I guess an airport will do.
Keep in mind I tend to look for “good deals” in buying tickets, but certainly when it comes to these outrageous times of charge, charge, charge it’s the small things that add up! So I carry on my bags to save money and work on my upper body strength. My “usual” is one duffle bag, and although deceivingly “small” compared to some of the so called “carry on” armored tanks people call luggage these days, my bag is usually around 35 lbs plus.
Here’s travel hint #1 of the day- If you’re technologically advanced enough to check in for your flight via the Internet, click on the option to “change your seat”- this will show you how full your plane is in advance. If it looks like it’s going to be a full flight, make sure you DO NOT pay the fee to check your bags. This is another peeve of mine- higher plane ticket prices AND we have to pay for FOOD and LUGGAGE????
I remember the days when passengers received free overnight toiletry bags, playing cards, snacks and more! Every seat there was a pillow, a blanket and headphones. Now a days it’s usually $20-30 PER BAG- plus if your bag is “overweight” (old days used to be 75lbs) now it’s usually 40lbs, you pay an extra fee. If you have golf clubs, skis and other odd shaped luggage you get yet another fee.
So back to checking out how full your flight is. Be a cheapskate if it looks full, pack in a bag that is semi passable as a “carry on” and then when your gate opens ask how full the flight is, or the desk agent may mention it’s a “full flight” and then you can either check your bag at the gate or at the front of the plane. And NOT just for that flight, you can actually check it all the way through to your final destination. And guess why you would go through this trouble? Because then you get to check your bag for FREE. Yes, free. Case and point I just stood next to a family of three who spent $180 EACH WAY because they checked their bags, instead of waiting to bring them to the door of the plane like I did. Hmmm.
Ok, so back to Denver. Here are a few things I noticed along the way:
A couple walking two Chihuahuas on leashes get stopped as they are about to board because they don’t have “proper stowage containers” for the dogs to be brought on (they each had one of those over sized “shoulder bags” for each dog. The funny part was these were tea cup dogs- that means that each weighed less than three pounds- and their owners looked as if they were related to a few sumo wrestlers.
Next I noticed that it took two people just get the crowd to line up. First there was a gate person checking tickets and then there was also one making the boarding announcements. These days instead of boarding the plane by seat numbers, most airlines use a group number, which is ALWAYS printed in bold black ink on a person’s boarding pass. Can you guess how many passengers get in line even though their boarding section hasn’t been called yet????
And yet somehow counting sections from one through four became highly confusing. Also getting in line seemed to be difficult for a lot of folks out there. Inevitably, the line that the ground crew would close (designated with that portable stretchy material that can make portable “aisles”) but people would still line up in them. It became a bit of a comedy act to see how many times the gate agent would have to open and close the temporary gates because people had got in the wrong lane.
Then there was the commotion with the standby passengers. If you haven’t experienced this, a standby passenger is trying to get a different flight than what they were originally ticketed for (same destination but earlier time) or the flight was oversold and they did not check in early enough to guarantee themselves a seat. Yeah how about that one for customer service? You buy a ticket, but if you don’t check in according to the current “rules” of the FAA your seat may be given away even if you show up.
So anyhow, I saw on the screen above the ticket counter there were 14 folks on standby. Once all passengers with assigned seats check in, the ticket agent will then begin to assign the “extra” seats to the standby passengers by printing them a boarding pass. This all happened “business as usual” until two agents realized their computers weren’t talking to one another and neither could tell what seat had already been assigned, therefore causing double assignment of one seat…. So those poor standby passengers that had their hopes high once they had their new ticket in their hand, quickly deflated as they were called out of the boarding line and back to the ticket counter.
Next there was the issue of those passengers who had ignored the “please check your large carry on bags” announcement and instead had insisted that their luggage would fit on the plane. This sort of traveler is very persistent. As I watched them attempt to function I usually get an overwhelming feeling to put them in a round pen and flag them as I would a horse telling them “That’s not going to work, try something else.” But back in reality they just keep trying the same thing and surprisingly, it doesn’t work each time they do the same thing over and over. (This seems to be the case with a lot horse owners and how they interact with their horses.)
Before this happens though, there is a process. The person is sure they are going to make their suitcase fit. Even after numerous attempts with the oversized contraption falling out of the undersized overhead compartments people will keep heaving, pushing, sweating try all angles of shoving to get that darn luggage stowed. But I will give this personality type credit, they don’t give up- no matter what, or at least not until some poor flight attendant has to pry their fingers off of their luggage and send it to the front of the plane for checking.
As all of this was happening, I unwillingly was affected by the above sort of person. I personally experienced the “case of the poor vertically challenged flight attendant.” I’m allowed to call him that because I too happen to be of the shorter height (a whopping 5’2”) and can empathize with what it takes to stretch your frame to reach the six foot high overhead compartments. Except this time the compartment the flight attendant was attempting to reach for was above my head- and my aisle seat. And the more he “heaved” to try and get the compartment door shut, the more he leaned into me. Now if you imagine sitting in a seat and having someone stretch out their body as “tall” as they can- especially if the are male, you’ll come to see that clear visual image of this particular flight attendant’s package a mere two inches away from my face. No matter how far away from him I leaned to be polite, he leaned harder into me. Hmmm.
Or let’s talk about the other outbound flight experience I had in Denver. After gallivanting a mile down the concourse I finally reach my gate and realized it was a “mini” gate because I was heading out to such a remote location that not many people wanted or needed to fly there. There also happened to be three other mini gates alongside mine. They used four of those “portable” lanes (the ones I’d mentioned earlier) that outlined where to line up when it came time to board the plane. Each “lane” was marked with a sign, except instead of being in numerical order according to the gates numbers, they were marked like this: “Gate 67-69, Gate 68, Gate 68-69, and Gate 72.” Hmmmm. I wonder who came up with that numbering system.
It was then that I looked up at the board behind the ticket counter and saw that there were four flights departing out of these four gates within two minutes of each other… Two leaving at the same time…. Okay- I’d love to hear the air traffic control tower when those planes were about to take off… Then an announcement comes on to start having people line up for their flight. Except even though there are four gate agents, only one of whom appears to have gone through this procedure before. So they decide to be fair, they are all going to take turns practicing speaking on the PA system- one for each upcoming flight. Except in all of their excitement, they forgot that there’s only ONE machine that can read the passenger’s ticket barcode as they board. This means three flights have now lined up prematurely. There’s nothing worse than people and waiting- especially when it comes to getting on the plane, to getting off the plane, or waiting for their luggage, etc.
Then because two of the newbie gate agents are so nervous, they rush through their announcements without enunciating. This caused much confusion when passengers start to realize there is a flight to “Rock Springs” and there is also one to “Palm Springs.” Two very dramatically different destinations that can sound identical when mumbled over a PA system filled with static.
So basically, numerous people lined up in the wrong line for many reasons. One reason was the lack of clarity in the announcement. The second was due to the unclear signs on the lane numbers because you had two options according to how the lanes were marked…. And this brings me to the third reason for confusion.
Once a passenger managed to actually get past the gate check in process, they then had to walk another ½ mile to the actual plane. Now remember these were not very popular destinations so we were all flying on puddle jumpers, or a plane that only has about 12 rows. These planes you board by walking outside onto the tarmac of the airport and climbing stairs to board. Except they are so small that if you carry anything larger than a laptap, it won’t fit in the overhead compartment. So there is a “baggage check” where you can drop off your bags before you board the plane.
Now this all sounds fine and dandy, except there wasn’t just one plane parked outside, there were four. None of which were marked. None of which the ground crew seemed to have a clue as to where they were going. On my plane alone we had three people board the wrong plane. Luckily they were “ejected” from the plane before they’d settled down, but the bad news was they’d had their bags checked with the ground crew. So the ground crew then had to dig through the luggage and find these people’s bags. The other bad news was our crew had no idea where to direct them to find the correct plane. I happened to be sitting in a window seat and watched as one poor woman tried three planes before she found the right one.
And they wonder why passengers are so angry these days?
Sam
Assessment of Cross Country Day
I rushed back to the desert for a few days of catching up, dealing with a crashed computer and then repacked and was on the road again. I find the airport a perfect place to watch human behavior- which of course gives me a MILLION ideas on different blogs that would be funny to write. But, before I hope up on the pulpit, I want to first finish my assessment of the cross country school from the cancelled show. If you missed that blog you can find it here: http://learnhorses.blogspot.com/2010/02/one-day-horse-trials-ca-play-by-play.html . Flying gave me time to review my teaching and preparation for my students and how our Show turn Schooling cross country experience.
First I’d like to just state that I was impressed with all three of them. When I thought about what I had actually “taught” while at the course, it was more of the specifics in technique, what each fence was asking of them, the pros and cons to different approaches to the same jump, along with a few other factors that could affect the quality of their ride such as weather, footing, where to “make up time” with a gallop, possible distractions, etc.
As we started out in the warm up that morning another trainer with several of her riders showed up to school. Keep in mind two out of the three students I’d brought had never even SEEN a course, never mind had watched a rider “on course.” As they overheard the “instruction” from the other trainer their jaws seemed to drop. In one sense I guess they are lucky for having been a bit “secluded” from the “real world training mentality.” The other trainer was a great example of the norm. Comments such as “Kick more, go harder, drive him…” And then we watched with our hearts in our mouth as the poor horses stumbled, scraped, crawled, chipped on, jumped long and struggled in numerous other ways over decent size SOLID jumps. It definitely seemed to be a 50/50 chance of the rider AND horse making it over – together- AND- in one piece.
I told my students to “not look” and we continued on. What impressed me most is because I didn’t have my PA system to help “instruct them” from afar- here were “real life” opportunities for them to use all of their acquired “tools in communication” with their horse. To watch the riders not get overly focused on the jump, but rather continue to ride with a priority to attain QUALITY flatwork BEFORE they presented a jump- even if it meant taking a few moment to help their horse if he was struggling- to witness the literally INSTANT change in the horse’s willingness to try and to participate was amazing.
In one sense I wished my riders “knew” more about the all too common “quick fix” ways of working with horses in order to appreciate their own level of clarity in being able to assess their horse and themself. Once that was accomplished, they would continue on with the task at hand, using numerous ways of communicating with their horse to find that ideal clarity for an ideal and rewarding ride.
Remember that two of the horses had never even SEEN a cross country jump. They completely relied on communicating with their rider to attain a positive experience through quiet, balanced jumping that allowed the spectators to breathe easily as they watched. Banks, ditches, drops, water obstacles, leaving the “group of horses” and then coming back towards them, cold/windy weather, slippery footing throughout, motorcycles, trucks, dogs & kids on bicycles were a few of what they encountered on the course that day.
Another great, but totally different experience was also the third combination of horse and rider. The rider had never ridden a course but had watched a few competitions. Her horse had cross country experience, but he was basically “manhandled” when ridden. He thought to jump a course that he had to be running at full speed, on the forehand and for the most part was jumping out of fear. It was so awesome to watch his rider work through “trial and error” using tools we’d created as a foundation in building their partnership and clear communication. She was able to take a horse that at the beginning of the ride was on the verge of a total mental melt down and physical explosion, to reach a mental calm and availability in order to try approaching the task of cross country with a completely different emotional and mental perspective and physical relaxation.
I don’t think the riders were really aware of how much they had helped their horses nor how different that day’s events could have turned out had they not maintained their focus and clarity throughout their rides. It was moments like that from the teaching perspective that “makes it all worth it.” To know that the students maintained independence and to think without having “had their hand held” (as is the case with so many “students” these days) was a great success.
Hats off to the brave (and crazy as some may think) newly discovered cross country fans who left that day grinning ear to ear….
Sam
First I’d like to just state that I was impressed with all three of them. When I thought about what I had actually “taught” while at the course, it was more of the specifics in technique, what each fence was asking of them, the pros and cons to different approaches to the same jump, along with a few other factors that could affect the quality of their ride such as weather, footing, where to “make up time” with a gallop, possible distractions, etc.
As we started out in the warm up that morning another trainer with several of her riders showed up to school. Keep in mind two out of the three students I’d brought had never even SEEN a course, never mind had watched a rider “on course.” As they overheard the “instruction” from the other trainer their jaws seemed to drop. In one sense I guess they are lucky for having been a bit “secluded” from the “real world training mentality.” The other trainer was a great example of the norm. Comments such as “Kick more, go harder, drive him…” And then we watched with our hearts in our mouth as the poor horses stumbled, scraped, crawled, chipped on, jumped long and struggled in numerous other ways over decent size SOLID jumps. It definitely seemed to be a 50/50 chance of the rider AND horse making it over – together- AND- in one piece.
I told my students to “not look” and we continued on. What impressed me most is because I didn’t have my PA system to help “instruct them” from afar- here were “real life” opportunities for them to use all of their acquired “tools in communication” with their horse. To watch the riders not get overly focused on the jump, but rather continue to ride with a priority to attain QUALITY flatwork BEFORE they presented a jump- even if it meant taking a few moment to help their horse if he was struggling- to witness the literally INSTANT change in the horse’s willingness to try and to participate was amazing.
In one sense I wished my riders “knew” more about the all too common “quick fix” ways of working with horses in order to appreciate their own level of clarity in being able to assess their horse and themself. Once that was accomplished, they would continue on with the task at hand, using numerous ways of communicating with their horse to find that ideal clarity for an ideal and rewarding ride.
Remember that two of the horses had never even SEEN a cross country jump. They completely relied on communicating with their rider to attain a positive experience through quiet, balanced jumping that allowed the spectators to breathe easily as they watched. Banks, ditches, drops, water obstacles, leaving the “group of horses” and then coming back towards them, cold/windy weather, slippery footing throughout, motorcycles, trucks, dogs & kids on bicycles were a few of what they encountered on the course that day.
Another great, but totally different experience was also the third combination of horse and rider. The rider had never ridden a course but had watched a few competitions. Her horse had cross country experience, but he was basically “manhandled” when ridden. He thought to jump a course that he had to be running at full speed, on the forehand and for the most part was jumping out of fear. It was so awesome to watch his rider work through “trial and error” using tools we’d created as a foundation in building their partnership and clear communication. She was able to take a horse that at the beginning of the ride was on the verge of a total mental melt down and physical explosion, to reach a mental calm and availability in order to try approaching the task of cross country with a completely different emotional and mental perspective and physical relaxation.
I don’t think the riders were really aware of how much they had helped their horses nor how different that day’s events could have turned out had they not maintained their focus and clarity throughout their rides. It was moments like that from the teaching perspective that “makes it all worth it.” To know that the students maintained independence and to think without having “had their hand held” (as is the case with so many “students” these days) was a great success.
Hats off to the brave (and crazy as some may think) newly discovered cross country fans who left that day grinning ear to ear….
Sam
Word of the Day: Communication with the Horse
Communication- the sending and receiving of thoughts between the horse and person; each needs to safely express themself. Each needs to be mentally available to believe what is being conveyed. There needs to be adaptability in the energy and intention in both the human and horse.
Hoofprints & Happenings Spring 2010
Check out the latest events to our newsletter by clicking the following link: http://www.learnhorses.com/newsletter/newsletter.htm
Word of the Day: Avoidance
Avoidance- This is a horse who is mentality unavailable or "shut down." He will create methods to evade communication with his handler or rider usually because of defensiveness, a lack of clarity, pain, and distrust. Physically he may display behaviors such as tucking his chin towards his chest evade the bit, his focus is often not where he is at physically, if experiencing pain he may raise his head to avoid discomfort. In many cases, people use severe equipment to "make" the horse comply. Instead, they need to revisit the quality of communication and mental availability in the horse to recognize what triggers the horse to avoid scenarios.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)