Tradition!

In the movie/play "Fiddler on the Roof" the lead character, Tevye, is concerned about his culture and family's traditions. He sings a great song, 'Tradition' about how important tradition is to him and his understanding of his world.

Every family probably develops its own traditions that have meaning to the family members. We did when our kids were small. However, even though our boys have been gone for years and have their own families, Betty and I have developed our own traditions.

One, silly though it may seem is our Saturday morning breakfast. Making breakfast is my job and my gift to my wonderful wife who is not a morning person. Years ago, when Betty was recuperating from her horse riding accident, I started fixing cinnamon toast using English muffins.

Over the years that has gravitated to being our Saturday morning breakfast (Tradition!). It's a simple process - English muffins with butter, sugar and cinnamon cooked in our toaster oven. How can you not like butter, sugar and cinnamon?

For us it's a treat.

 

Another Day in the Saddle, Another Lesson Learned

Betty and I worked again with Sugar and Morgunn this morning. Besides doing the flexing ground work, we also continued our work on the go, stop and back up cues.

We both learned a lesson this morning. We each wanted our horses to go forward, but our cues weren't correct and they both backed up. So we stopped and gave them a lot of praise for backing up so nicely. Even though that's not what we wanted, it's what they thought we asked for. If we had corrected them or gotten frustrated that would have effectively been punishment for them doing what they thought was correct.

We corrected our body positions, gave clearer cues and got the nice back ups we wanted. Lesson learned - always praise the horse for a good try even if it's not what we want. We gave the wrong cues.

The new exercise we added was the in-saddle flexing exercise I learned at the clinic. It's basically the same thing we are doing on the ground, but now in the saddle. Both are meant to be warm up exercises to help the horse get focused on our cues, to flex at the poll and to bend in their ribs. If done correctly this will help the horse to relax all the vertebra in his spine.

The cues as you are going forward are to put the reins into the outside hand and hold contact with the outside supporting rein. Slide your inside hand down the rein to ask for a slight inside bend at the atlas joint. Put pressure through the inside leg to the rib cage. Put the outside leg slightly back to block the hips from swinging out, but don't put any pressure with it. Since the outside shoulder and hips are blocked and an inside bend asked for as you're going forward, the release will be in the ribs to give a whole body bend.

Here's a short video from my training clinic in Tennessee where I'm practicing this exercise. I'm certainly not perfect, but it gives you the idea.

 

Working with the Horses

(Warning: Long post)

Betty and I worked again with Sugar and Morgunn this morning. Our goal, now that we have a training plan in mind, is to work with the horses four days a week at a minimum.

We decided not to do any side-rein lungeing and spend more time working on the basics in the saddle - posture, go/stop/back up cues - after doing the ground warm up exercises. We're concentrating on how we're sitting in the saddle and working on relaxing all of our body parts. I have a tendency to tighten/close my shoulders which affects my hands, how open my hips are and how my legs hang. I'm a work in progress, but I'm determined to keep working on it.

We're trying to keep our cues consistent and letting Sugar and Morgunn find their frame, balance and movement in response to our cues. Last week Larry and Jennifer kept reminding us to 'reward the response to our cues and not wait to reward the movement.'

Our human nature is such that we want to control our environment and for horse folks that extends to controlling our horse's movements. We're trying to learn how to control ourselves (which is all we can realistically control) and to give Sugar and Morgunn the freedom to find the frame/movement that's most comfortable for them in response to our cues. If they give us the wrong frame/movement, we're ignoring it and asking again with the correct cues. What we're learning is that if we try to force/muscle the movement, that's actually punishing them for the wrong frame/movement - i.e., we have been punishing them for trying. We want to learn to ignore their mistakes and just continue to focus on what we want and reward them when they give us the slightest try in the right direction - reward the response and not the movement.

The go cue is to hold contact with the reins so we can communicate with their mouths, roll the hips/seat forward and up in our energy, give a slight pressure with our lower legs (not heels) and give a vocal cue (kiss or cluck). The goal is to get the horses to start their forward movement with energy from their rear/haunches so their impulsion is from the rear, not from the forehand (their front legs). Both horses are starting to respond better to these cues.

The stop cue is to hold contact with the reins and close the hands, roll the hips/seat forward and stop riding with our bodies. We want to ride the horses into the stop so they don't fall on the forehand (their front legs). We want them to learn to ride into the stop with their energy coming from their rear. We're not concerned with how long it takes for them to stop (i.e., how many steps they take). We don't pull with our hands, just keep our hands closed tight on the reins. We're looking for a soft stop with impulsion from the rear.

For the back up cue we hold contact with closed hands on the rein (don't pull back), shift our weight in our pelvis backward, move our legs/heels slightly back, look up and think back. At first Morgunn and Sugar would move forward. When they did, we just ignored it, closed our hands tighter - didn't pull back - and refocused on giving the correct cue. Then when we got a shift of their weight back we rewarded that. Then we got one step back and we rewarded that. Then two steps. The goal is to get backward movement with their weight shifted back onto their haunches with the shift of our weight back in our seat. Betty made some great headway with Morgunn on the back up cue this morning.

All movement cues are given in our minds before we give them in our bodies.

We have a long way to go, but we believe we have a good training program to help us improve as riders which will allow our horses to improve.

This is a long post, but for those who are interested I want to share some more thoughts about lungeing with side reins. Our blogging friend, Lytha, who lives in Germany asked some good questions in her comments to yesterday's post. I added a comment to give some explanation, but it was kind of short so I wanted to add a little more perspective.

Lungeing with side reins is not for a young horse who's being started, or for an older horse who needs to be completely retrained because of a poor training foundation. Basic, natural horsemanship methods, including lungeing and round pen work, are needed to provide the foundation that all horses need.

Once that solid foundation is laid and refinement becomes the goal, then I believe lungeing with side reins is a viable tool. However, as with any training technique/tool, it is just one small component of a complete training philosophy/program.

As mentioned above, we believe horses should be allowed to find their own frame/movement in response to our cues. Horses want to feel secure and comfortable. Bill Dorrance called it 'feel' - we want to feel our horses, but we also need to give them the freedom to feel us in their response.

Lungeing in side reins is one tool in our program to give Sugar and Morgunn the freedom to find their response to our cues. Lungeing in side reins is not a tool to exercise the horse or to establish communication with us. That should already be accomplished in the basic foundational work and we have done that over the years with Sugar and Morgunn. However, we're ready to refine our riding skills and, hopefully, refine their responses to our refined skills.

When we lunge our horses with side reins, we're working solely on establishing a feel through the lunge line so the horses can find a proper, comfortable feel to the length of the line which translates into them finding a comfortable feel to the reins. We are also working on giving them the freedom to find the most comfortable, secure and balanced frame as they move forward into the bridle without us giving incorrect signals through the reins.

We don't lunge for a long time - probably only a minute or so on each side. We don't ask for high speeds. We work on smooth transitions from a walk, to a faster walk, to a trot and back down. When we ask for a faster gait it's only for a few strides and then we bring them back down to a slower gait. When we get a good response we reward that. If they respond incorrectly as they seek a better frame we just ignore it. We never want to inadvertently punish them for trying.

We don't expect results immediately. Our training program is based on consistent work over whatever time is needed. If that's days, great. If it's weeks or months, that's also great. We're looking for a soft, relaxed balanced response - not movement. The correct movement will come out of their response to our correct, consistent cues. We believe consistent, small pieces of work in side reins, along with all the other exercises, we're working towards, will help Morgunn and Sugar develop the softness and balance that will translate into the movements we all want - but in a way that helps them feel secure and comfortable.

Like any tool, side reins can be used incorrectly or for the wrong purposes. The measure for any tool is the results you get from your horse. We're looking for our horses to become more secure in riding to the bridle, to become softer, more balanced and more relaxed.

We're making mistakes and so are they, but we're trying to learn to ignore all mistakes - ours and theirs - and keeping our focus on what we want in ourselves and in them. We're seeing small signs that we and they are on the right track.

If you made it all the way to the bottom of this post you get a gold star!

 

Ground Work Day 2

Betty and I did our second day of ground work with Morgunn and Sugar using the training principles I learned recently working with Larry Whitesell and Jennifer Bauer, gaited horse trainers. Even though they focus on gaited horses, their principles work with any horse.

Their philosophy is to approach the horse in a way that he understands and, hopefully, brings him a sense of security. They believe in what most people call natural horsemanship, but only as a foundation for a young horse or one being rehabilitated. After that, they move into exercises that bring balance and relaxation to the horse.

The basic ground work exercises they teach are: (1) flex the horse at the axis, (2) lunge the horse in side reins, (3) do shoulder in's with the horse and (4) ride flex exercises in the saddle by doing shoulder outs. Yesterday and today, Betty and I worked on the first three.

The axis is the spinal joint where the spine joins the skull, what we cause the poll. Larry and Jennifer don't believe in doing flexes of the whole neck in that it breaks the connection between the rider's hands and the horse's front feet. Several other trainers believe in this same philosophy: Chris Cox, John Lyons, Mark Rashid, Craig Cameron are examples. We flex the axis by putting one hand at the axis joint/poll and the other on the horse's nose and ask him to bring just head just slightly towards you, only about an inch or two. The ears should remain level, i.e., the horse shouldn't twist his head as he moves it. This relaxes the horse at the axis joint and helps create relaxation in the rest of the spine. After a time or two, most horses will lower their head and relax as you do this.

Lungeing the horse in side reins is a way to help the horse relax and move into the bit (snaffle) and help create bend. The side reins connect to the rings of the snaffle bit and back to the latigo just above where it connects to the cinch. The side reins act as a rider's hands without all the mistakes we make as riders. They create a steady contact for the horse. The flat, cotton lunge line goes through the inside snaffle bit ring and connects to the inside D-ring on the cinch.

Doing shoulder in's on the ground involve holding the inside rein with your forward hand and holding the outside, supporting rein with your other hand close to where your leg would contact the horse's side. This hand also holds a dressage whip that you can use to tap the horse's hip to encourage forward movement. As the horse goes forward we allow him to move forward into the bit - we don't lead with our hand. By putting contact on the outside supporting rein we can ask the horse to shoulder in a step or two. This encourages the horse to step under his center line with his inside rear foot. This helps create impulsion and rounding of the back leading to collection.

Here's a short video of us doing the shoulder in's and the lungeing from today. I'll talk more about the flex exercises from the saddle when we start doing them.

 

Time to Apply What I Learned

Today was our opportunity to apply some of what I learned at the gaited horse clinic I attended last week. We were at Galloping Grace Youth Ranch yesterday.

I also wanted to share my learnings with Betty, but in a gentle way. Husbands and wives don't make the best teachers for each other and I'm well aware of that. My goal is to share what I've learned and let Betty work with it as best she can. When we go back to Tennessee for our private lessons Betty will get the great instruction from Jennifer Bauer who is a much better instructor for Betty than I can ever be.

The ultimate goal of all the training I experienced and what we're trying to give to our horses is to develop a soft, light horse, responsive to our aids, who looks to us for his/her security.

We wanted to work on just two things this morning. First, we worked on ground movement that helps the horse find a comfortable frame as we ask him to go forward. This involves moving into an inside bend and learning to go forward into the bridle.

Second, we worked with Sugar and Morgunn lungeing them with side reins on. The goal is the same - to help them find a comfortable frame with an inside bend and going forward into the bridle. The advantage of lungeing with side reins is they put a constant contact on the bit without the mistakes we make with our hands and bodies.

Sugar did well with the lungeing in the side reins. Morgunn was less sure about the experience and Betty did great with him. She eventually took him into the round pen to do this lungeing because that's where he has been lunged before. This helped him a lot and Betty will continue to work him in there for awhile, but the long term goal is to be able to lunge him outside the round pen.

All in all, our morning went very well. Betty and I are learning how to use our bodies and Morgunn and Sugar are learning how to move forward in a better, more relaxed frame. A good start.

Tomorrow we repeat the process with a little more pressure from the side reins. Hopefully, I can get some pictures and/or video to better illustrate what we're doing and why.

 

Sunday Reflections - What I Learn From Horses

Since I have been immersed in horse for the past week, I have been thinking about what I have learned from horses.

That's Sand, the Rocky Mountain Horse I rode the last few days at the clinic.

There's a lot I have learned, but here are just a few thoughts.

Horses live in the now. If I'm not careful, I can live in the past, fretting over all the things I have done wrong, the mistakes I have made, the opportunities I missed. Or, I can live in the future usually worrying about something that may or may not happen. In either case, I need to remind myself to,live in the now for that's the only place I can experience God.

Horses are willing to change. That's what I have been doing all week - learning how to train horses in a way that helps them to change in a way that gives them a more secure, safe life. God's been trying to change me all my life - maybe if I was smart as a horse I would learn what's good for me.

Horses are curious, but in a cautious way. It's easier for me as I get older to lose some of my curiosity about life, become kind of set in my ways with what's comfortable. That's one reason I love working with horses becausethere's so much still to learn - probably far more than I can learn in one lifetime.

Horses are forgiving. I can make all kinds of mistake with my horse, Sugar, and she still accepts me. It's a good reminder that God is like that with me and he wants me to be that way with the people in my life.

Horses have even more to teach me. I think that's one way God likes to talk to me.

It's Over

 

My clinic with Larry Whitesell in Baxter, Tennessee is over. I'm back with Betty's stepmother in Franklin, Tennessee and I fly home tomorrow, Sunday. I'll be glad to be back with Betty - I missed her.

The picture to the left is the sunrise on Thursday morning.

On our last day, we worked on lateral work with the horses - side pass, etc. With all the foundational work from earlier in the week, it was easy.

In the afternoon, we did some ground work using a lunge line and side reins to help the horses relax and help them learn to ride into the bridle.

All in all, it was a great learning experience. It was so good, I have scheduled Betty and I to go back in July for a week so she can have a similar learning experience.