Mark Rashid clinic - day one, afternoon

The afternoon session had four horses in it.

Horse 4 was an older horse (18) who had been off work for a while. (There was no PA at this point so I couldn't hear everything - I think the horse had been off with cushings ?). The mare was now back in work and being aimed at dressage, eventing etc.

The rider asked to work on the stop. The horse was stopping with a lot of tension, bumping into the bit. They worked on feel - Mark suggested the rider *think* about the hand going forward in the halt, but not actually move the hand.

They then worked on the canter transition (up and down). After about half a lap the horse started to really get going. Mark advised asking for trot just before that.

Horse 5 was a youngster being ridden western. He was started last year and was being ridden in a Rockin S snaffle. The rider reported that work out on a hack was fine but it was much harder to, for example, collect the canter in the school. Mark observed that the trot was drifting about quite a lot rather than being straight. He set out four cones to ride a circle around and the trot and focus both improved.

Horse 6 was a big chestnut 8 year old. The rider wants to do dressage with him. She has done a test with him but felt she wasn't getting the same in the warm up arena vs the test.

Mark observed that the rider had quite a lot of movement in her hands. He commented that a to and fro with the rider's hands means that the horse never gets a release and that can result in tension. The more active a rider is with their hands, the more the horse has to compensate. He asked the rider to do less.

Horse 7 was an arab mare. Again it was hard to catch the back story but I believe the horse was being rehabilitated by the current owner. She commented on getting weight back on and getting chiropractic treatments. The rider asked for the mare to be checked before riding to ensure there were no underlying physical issues (own vets have cleared the horse to be ridden). She was worked in the round pen and, although tense, showed no physical issues to prevent her being ridden.

Mark did an interesting ground exercise with a spectator during this session. He asked them to stand still and resist him making them move.

If they had their head and eyes up, they were stable and could resist a "push"
If they had their head and eyes down, they were unstable.
Then head up but eyes down - unstable
Head down, eyes up - stable
and finally (and this is the really interesting one)
Head down, eyes down but think up - the person was stable and resisted a push
Head up, eyes up but think down - and the person was unstable when pushed.

It makes a massive difference if the rider drops head, eye line or isn't thinking ahead/up !

In summary:

I asked my clinic companion what he thought - he said "the key lesson is that you really need to have a pretty good view of what you want to do or the horse will fill in the blanks"

I think another key message was "less is more" (less with the hands, less leaning back, less movement etc)

Dogs and horses

I've been taking one of my parents' dogs to training classes every week for about 9 months now. He is an ex-rescue so had very high anxiety levels when they first got him, and still quite anxious when we started classes a year after that. The classes have helped a lot but he still doesn't really relax fully in class.

One of the exercises is heel work, weaving in and out of the other people in the class in a big circle. So dog and I set off, dog on lead. No problems. Everyone else has their go and we get to our second turn. I suggested we do this off lead as an additional channel.

Benji has a bit of a fixation with the door, so off lead work is asking him to stick with me and ignore the door. Off I set to the outside of my neighbour. And off Benji sets - to the inside of the neighbour. Hmmm. Call him back to me and start over, and we were fine.

And at that point something goes CLUNK very loudly in my head. I've just spent two days that week watching Mark Rashid talk about making connections. But for some reason I simply hadn't thought it might apply to anything else. The difference between setting off the first time off-lead and the second time was the connection between me and Benji. First time I had waltzed off without even bothering to check in with Benji. Not exactly surprising that he did his own thing then ! If I wasn't offering leadership, why should he follow ? Second time I connected - maybe not perfectly but certainly more than before.

In the meantime I am trying to tidy up my office and found some notes from a previous clinic of Mark's that I audited in November 2006.

"To get softness

boundaries come first
then exercise
then affection"

Oh my - doesn't this sound like Cesar Milan's "discipline, exercise, affection" ? I guess it should be no surprise that it works for both horses and dogs

Clinic Reflections

A number of things triggered this - one was riding my horse today, another was tidying up and finding some old clinic notes from Leslie Desmond and Peggy Cummings.

Mark talks about the figure 8 your hips make, Linda Parelli uses the idea of "pedalling" (a review of the "Secret to Fluidity" DVD says "a “pedaling motion” that allows the rider’s hips and lower back to stay fluid."), and Peggy Cummings teaches a flex/bounce in the thigh.

My Peggy C notes talk about what she called "meet & melt". Mark talks a lot about the quality of the feel in the rein, that the rider needs not to pull back and should offer softness to get it.

My notes from Leslie D talk about how if you repeat drills, you end up with a horse who knows and can repeat the moves without responding to the individual cues. You want the horse to respond/communicate via feel.  Mark used an analogy a few times about not just teaching the horse that "one plus one equals two" as then they don't know how to add up, just that "one plus one equals two".

I like this quote from Leslie: "the fastest way to train a horse is slowly"

Another one from Leslie "the connections that are important are not visible; it is not about the kit".

More from Leslie: horses have a strong drive to be/stay with their person. They will often limit themselves (in terms of energy levels, behaviour etc) to what their person can deal with.

"Control the feet to stop and start, not the mouth." "Don't ride the head, ride the feet."

Now that sounds familiar from watching Mark as well  ;)

This one is pure Leslie - she talked about opening the toe to get the horse to turn its head. And then proved it worked. So that led into canter aids and whether to cue from the rider's outside leg or inside leg. If turning the toe makes the horse turn head and neck, then using the outside leg gives the incorrect bend and makes the correct lead more difficult.

Mark Rashid clinic - footnotes

Transitions: riders tend to think in "words" for gait. The horse doesn't understand that word/picture and it tends to be a static image. Horses seem to respond well to rhythm, so it helps if the rider thinks the beat e.g. 1.2.3.4. in walk (or gallop !), 1.2.1.2 in trot, and 1.2.3.1.2.3. in canter.

To work on canter: set the canter depart up on the short side - start thinking 3-beats as you come into the corner and as you come out of the short side, move your focus to the far end of the school and only then, if they haven't offered already, ask for canter. Normally the horse offers canter fairly early in this process and the rider just needs to let it happen.
 
Mirror Neurons: there was some research done in Italy on primates. They noted that the brain fired up the same way for a monkey that reached out for a peanut AND for the monkey that watched the same activity. Basically this is down to mirror neurons which allow us to feel something that isn't happening to us.

Why sitting trot is harder than sitting walk: most people buy a horse that they can get up on from the ground. That means that leg length is similar for horse and rider and, in walk, stride length is similar. So the rider's hips only need to move as much as they do when the rider walks on the ground. But in trot the horse's stride lengthens and the rider will often struggle to lengthen their hip movement to match it. In canter the stride shortens again and gets faster, and that is easier for the rider to sit.

The rider's hip moves in a figure 8 - that doesn't change in different gaits, just gets faster or slower, bigger or smaller.

From previous clinics:

point to point  get the rider/horse to go "fetch" specific points around the area. "ride like the wind". In an arena you can use letters - but not just the dressage letters, letters on signs etc. Like a game of i-spy "find me something with a letter Y" and so on.

"with most forward movement, the more pressure you use the worse it gets". This is because the leg pressure constricts the ribs so affects both breathing and movement of the horse's barrel - which is needed to allow the hind leg to step through in the movement.

Mark talks often about how the hind leg movement (as it comes off the ground) affects the rider in term's of their hip (the rider's hip will lift and fall as the horse's hip rises and falls) and the leg (as the barrel swings away, the leg swings in with it). But I have an extra note which says that when the rider's shoulder goes back, it is the horse's front leg about to push off.

Notes from a horse being asked to halt but offering canter - Mark asked the rider to ask a little with the inside rein just after the cue. This loads the inside fore so stops the canter strike-off for that instant. He commented that the same thing can be used for horses that offer a lead change when it is not wanted.

So I found this analogy in my notes and I am not sure I have written it down very well, but while I try and think of a way to check it, here it is for the record. Here goes..

If you have a stick and put a block of ice on top, then lift one end of the stick, the block slides off.
If you have a stick and put a bag of rice on top, and lift one end of the stick, the bag flows either side of the stick and you can lift it up.

"it's easier to carry rice".

I read this as being about being soft rather than braced.

Mark Rashid clinic - day one, morning session

Below represents only my own observations and notes from watching Mark Rashid work with a series of horses and riders. If you want to know more, you really need to go direct to the source and either visit Mark's website or get yourself to a clinic. I have tried to record as accurately as I can - apologies in advance if I get it wrong at any stage.

This is the first time since 2003 that Mark Rashid has taught clinics in Scotland. He has changed the format from the last time I audited a clinic in the UK. These clinics have groups of riders in two 3 hour sessions, morning (three riders) and afternoon (four riders). He aims to spend 15-20 mins with each rider in turn, allowing them to practice while he is working with the other riders. He did comment that while one rider would be his primary focus at any time, he would be keeping an eye on the other riders. Effectively each rider in each session got two slots working directly with Mark.

In practice this meant that the last of the three morning riders was only working with Mark around 40 minutes into the session. What the riders did was allow their horses to rest in between, in some cases taking them out of the arena and allowing them to rest in a stable.

Mark commented that for many years he had been trying to teach riders to connect with their horses. But people are not very good at that, and horses are. So more recently he had turned his teaching upside down and worked on teaching riders to create openings, something people are quite good at. The horse finds the opening and makes the connection.

Horse 1 was a bay ex-racer, being ridden in western tack.

In session one, they worked on turns - the rider was concerned there were physical issues preventing the horse moving his shoulder. Mark talked about the need to ride the horse as you yourself were making the move i.e. to turn yourself. If you don't do this, you block the horse, and it can get defensive and tight.

In session two they worked on canter - the rider reported that the horse tended to get very energetic in canter and the subsequent downward transitions were also very energetic. Observing the upward transition, Mark commented that the horse was cantering, but the rider wasn't until a number of strides later. It then took them another half a lap to get into sync with each other, and by then the horse already had two much energy and was not in a happy place.

The target Mark set was to work on softness from the inside to improve the upwards canter transition. The rider commented that her reaction to be later than the horse might relate to previous experience with this horse and knowing "what he is capable of". Mark commented that the result of this is that the rider is not connected and not providing direction or guidance. The horse then just does what he can.

Mark suggested an approach (see Footnotes post) and the canter depart improved. The horse was still very energetic in trot and wanted to trot rather than walk. Mark asked the rider to focus on what they wanted, not what the horse was doing instead. A horse needs three things - speed, direction, destination - if the rider does not provide those, the horse will and it is rarely what the rider wanted.

He said "if you're talking to him, you're behind already". (By saying "stop that", you are focusing on the thing he is doing wrong rather than getting the "right" thing to happen and have already lost time to get that right thing).

When Mark suggested they change rein, the rider expressed concern that it was the horse's "racing rein" and he struggled more with that rein. The response was that "whatever you are presenting is what you are getting back".

Horse 2 was a chestnut mare, 14 years old, ridden in english tack

This horse was pushing its nose out and leaning into the bit. When the horse pushed into the bit, the rider released. This had become a learnt behaviour. Mark worked a little with his hands on the reins, and commented that the horse was comfortable with pressure at 7 out of 10, so he had to go to at least 7 to get it to think about what was being asked and change things. Mark used the reins to ask the horse to soften - the horse turned its head and would still not soften. Mark commented it was "going to sleep" there and he needed to wake her up so she'd consider what was being presented to her; you could see him give it a small touch now and then and it would react.  He commented they were creating a boundary - "this is where the rider's hands will be" (rather than the horse pulling the rider forward).

Horse 3 was a coloured cob, ridden western.

The rider was concerned about how the horse stopped (not square). Mark observed them working; he observed that the rider was quite often leaning back in the halt. He said that the rider should not look any different in the saddle to how they would look doing the same thing on the ground. The rider was also not asking for a swift halt. The horse was effectively already giving the rider what they were asking for, so the rider just needed to ask for something else. (and not lean back).

Mark talked a few times about how the muscle use in the rider is mirrored in the horse. If you lean back in the halt, you effectively drive the horse forward when you are meaning to ask them to stop.

In the second session Mark talked about how most people buy a horse they can get on from the ground. The result of this is that their leg length is about the same, and in walk the stride length for a horse and a person is about the same. (From a previous clinic: the movement of the hip when riding a horse is not that different from the movement when walking themselves, so the rider does not have to adjust much to be comfortable). In trot the horse's stride is longer and the rider has to lengthen their hip movement to accommodate that. They need to be physically able to do that. (Previous clinic notes: the rider will often attempt to limit the movement to what they can cope with, which will tighten and lock the back, so the rider bounces rather than moving. The rider needs to "let go" of the back and use the abdominal muscles to help accommodate the movement). In canter the stride shortens and is faster, and that is easier for the rider to cope with.

The figure eight movement of the rider's hips is the same in all gaits, just bigger or smaller, faster or slower.

Foot Update

So let's get the timeline straight. The previous photo was taken on 30th April.

Today (8th May) the shoe went back on. In the interim we have been using hibiscrub (and then dilute iodine solution) sluice out the cavity and then spraying with the blue spray from the vets which is anti-whatever.

So here is the same foot when the farrier was done with it.

Aside from the stylish blue colour, the practical point of having the show back is to give the hoof some support so the "gap" can grow down and together. It can stay exposed without cover and will get washed/sprayed twice a day. She'll be off work for a while but is doing her best to leap around anyway. (We have visitors down on the long grass and everyone showed off for each other for a while when they arrived).

You can also see her toe still has a touch of seedy toe - the after-effects of laminitis last so long :(

Update: 21/05/12 - only two weeks on but figured it was worth adding

There's a hole in your foot...

...dear Rosie, dear Rosie, there's a hole in your foot, dear Rosie, a hole.

 

and it's quite a large hole ! We've had different advice on management from farrier, vet-on-duty, and usual-vet. Very confusing. Needless to say cutting a large hole took away the pressure that was making her lame so she's looking sound again, and is sporting a nifty line in canvas boot to keep the foot as clean and dry as we can in the meantime. 

I gather the shoe will go back on to stop the "gap" spreading as the foot grows.

We've had a few really cold nights and Fi looked a bit stiff this weekend. Given plenty of time to warm up, she worked ok but I kept it short just in case. Duds did a little work in the school as well - well not so much work as pootling around but it was under saddle at least !