Mark Rashid, Sheffield, 2008 (draft)
This is a working draft and will be updated as I make sense of my notes
Softness
Muscles can either contract or relax. To lengthen they need to relax.
There is one ligament running all the way along the back - splitting down each hind leg to attach by the hock.
To "collect" a horse needs to let all the topline muscles lengthen, and engage those along the underneath.
To be able to relax the horse need to soften the neck (poll).
Mark has talked before about softness vs lightness. This time he commented that a light horse will look good when everything is going ok, but will fall apart when its not.
Speed/direction/destination
The rider needs to supply these or the horse will fill in the gaps.
More than one of the riders was working on impulsion. But often they were not asking for a forward moving horse i.e. the horse was giving them something and they were not asking for more. "If you want a faster trot, just ask for it"
Mark used a phrase "waiting for the magic to happen" - i.e. the rider gives an aid and then sits back and waits for something to happen. Instead they need to be engaged/involved in what has been asked for (e.g. a transition).
Mark got the rider to use an escalation where she first "moved air" with her whip, then tapped her own leg (increasing intensity e.g. 1 to 4) and then tapped the horse (starting at intensity 1, and increasing again). As soon as the horse responds, you can stop asking.
consistency
leads to
dependability
leads to
trust
leads to
peace of mind
leads to
softness
contact
contact is not the same as pulling. The rider can apply a certain amount of pressure via the rein (regardles of the length of rein) and can also give it direction.
Many riders seems to associated a short rein with a heavy contact and/or pulling. But the short rein is linked to the length of neck (and the 'frame' the horse is working in) rather than the pressure or direction of pressure.
A big release (e.g. dropping the rein) can be less comforting than a small one where the connection is maintained. (Mark demonstrated this by taking the rider's arm in his hand, and giving a small release, or dropping the arm completely.)
energy
any time there is trauma, whether real or percieved, energy gets stored in the body. That energy needs to be released some how.
At the clinic one of the horses had very high energy levels and could not stand still, and zipped about the whole time. The "perceived" trauma was with his rider, anticipating it all going horribly wrong.
Mark talked about a balance point of energy. Say the balance point is "10" and the rider contributes 5, and the horse 5. Then if the horse's energy spikes upwards to 6 or 7, to maintain the overall balance the rider has to decrease their energy to keep the total at 10.
(Breathing helped to reduce the rider energy level.)
There is also a balance point within the rider (or horse) - where they balance physical and emotional energy. With a horse - if the emotional energy goes up (or down) the physical energy will follow. With people we can sometimes "hide" the physical energy spike and distinguish between the way they feel and the way they act.
With the horse at the clinic who started at very high energy levels, Mark only suggested very small adjustments at each stage. He commented that the horse was only becoming ready for these small adjustments as he calmed down, slowed up. He advised that the rider carry on making only small adjustments.
He had also started the rider using a pattern where she rode along a side but turned half way along it. If the horse sped up, she turned him (quite tightly) til he slowed and then "finished the line". Mark commented it was important to finish the line as it was all about giving the horse a job to do. This was also about setting the "direction" (with speed and destination being adjusted along the way).
One example was that he asked the rider to "tap" the big toe of each foot, inside the boot, in turn. (An alternative would be to move the little finger on each hand - but it is important the horse does not interpret this movement as an "aid"). The toe-tapping resulted in a distinct calming and slowing of the horse. But the toe-tapping was only added in to the mix after the rider had already worked on lwoering her energy level, and on slowing her rate of breathing (from less than 6 steps per inhale/exhale to more than 6).
footfall/transitions
Mark has talked before about "all the paces being available in each pace". This time he connected that idea in to footfall. So the footfall goes
walk is 1-2-3-4
trot is 1-2 1-2 1-2
canter is 1-2-3 1-2-3
now 1 and 2 are present in every pace, so they are the best ones used for making the transition from one pace to another.
Softness
Muscles can either contract or relax. To lengthen they need to relax.
There is one ligament running all the way along the back - splitting down each hind leg to attach by the hock.
To "collect" a horse needs to let all the topline muscles lengthen, and engage those along the underneath.
To be able to relax the horse need to soften the neck (poll).
Mark has talked before about softness vs lightness. This time he commented that a light horse will look good when everything is going ok, but will fall apart when its not.
Speed/direction/destination
The rider needs to supply these or the horse will fill in the gaps.
More than one of the riders was working on impulsion. But often they were not asking for a forward moving horse i.e. the horse was giving them something and they were not asking for more. "If you want a faster trot, just ask for it"
Mark used a phrase "waiting for the magic to happen" - i.e. the rider gives an aid and then sits back and waits for something to happen. Instead they need to be engaged/involved in what has been asked for (e.g. a transition).
Mark got the rider to use an escalation where she first "moved air" with her whip, then tapped her own leg (increasing intensity e.g. 1 to 4) and then tapped the horse (starting at intensity 1, and increasing again). As soon as the horse responds, you can stop asking.
consistency
leads to
dependability
leads to
trust
leads to
peace of mind
leads to
softness
contact
contact is not the same as pulling. The rider can apply a certain amount of pressure via the rein (regardles of the length of rein) and can also give it direction.
Many riders seems to associated a short rein with a heavy contact and/or pulling. But the short rein is linked to the length of neck (and the 'frame' the horse is working in) rather than the pressure or direction of pressure.
A big release (e.g. dropping the rein) can be less comforting than a small one where the connection is maintained. (Mark demonstrated this by taking the rider's arm in his hand, and giving a small release, or dropping the arm completely.)
energy
any time there is trauma, whether real or percieved, energy gets stored in the body. That energy needs to be released some how.
At the clinic one of the horses had very high energy levels and could not stand still, and zipped about the whole time. The "perceived" trauma was with his rider, anticipating it all going horribly wrong.
Mark talked about a balance point of energy. Say the balance point is "10" and the rider contributes 5, and the horse 5. Then if the horse's energy spikes upwards to 6 or 7, to maintain the overall balance the rider has to decrease their energy to keep the total at 10.
(Breathing helped to reduce the rider energy level.)
There is also a balance point within the rider (or horse) - where they balance physical and emotional energy. With a horse - if the emotional energy goes up (or down) the physical energy will follow. With people we can sometimes "hide" the physical energy spike and distinguish between the way they feel and the way they act.
With the horse at the clinic who started at very high energy levels, Mark only suggested very small adjustments at each stage. He commented that the horse was only becoming ready for these small adjustments as he calmed down, slowed up. He advised that the rider carry on making only small adjustments.
He had also started the rider using a pattern where she rode along a side but turned half way along it. If the horse sped up, she turned him (quite tightly) til he slowed and then "finished the line". Mark commented it was important to finish the line as it was all about giving the horse a job to do. This was also about setting the "direction" (with speed and destination being adjusted along the way).
One example was that he asked the rider to "tap" the big toe of each foot, inside the boot, in turn. (An alternative would be to move the little finger on each hand - but it is important the horse does not interpret this movement as an "aid"). The toe-tapping resulted in a distinct calming and slowing of the horse. But the toe-tapping was only added in to the mix after the rider had already worked on lwoering her energy level, and on slowing her rate of breathing (from less than 6 steps per inhale/exhale to more than 6).
footfall/transitions
Mark has talked before about "all the paces being available in each pace". This time he connected that idea in to footfall. So the footfall goes
walk is 1-2-3-4
trot is 1-2 1-2 1-2
canter is 1-2-3 1-2-3
now 1 and 2 are present in every pace, so they are the best ones used for making the transition from one pace to another.
Labels: Mark Rashid
posted by seahorse | 1:07 PM
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