Flying Lead Changes, Cranial Sacral, and Centered Riding

Last weekend was a bunch of learning at PHH. If you think about soaking up education as if collecting water from a tap, then forget the water bottle because this past weekend you needed a whole trough.

Cantering and Flying Lead Changes

On Friday the 21^st we were fortunate to have Parelli Professional Todd Owens come teach us about cantering and flying lead changes. He brought his Level 4 trained horse, Shania, to show us what the exercises were supposed to look like- what a fantastic idea. It meant the people who learned by listening could have the instructions, the people who learned by seeing could watch Todd with Shania, and we all learnt by doing because we tried the patterns.

It was a fascinating group because we all had very different horses and many of us were riding at different levels – so we got to learn how to problem solve for different horses and riders. It was like a smorgasbord of learning.

I rode Kahleesi in the workshop and had a great time practising maintaining correct bend with correct pace. I also discovered that she is a bit of a grumplepuss in large groups for canter – she made a few marish faces at the other horses just to make sure they knew she wasn’t happy they were standing in her arena.

Some tips and things to remember for cantering and flying lead changes that we learnt from Todd:

• -        Practice using the supple rein to create the correct flexion in the horse
• -        Ride walk, trot, canter with an independent seat (no contact on the reins)
• -        Practice forehand and haunch turns to isolate moving the hind end and front end of your horse
• -        Practice sideways to get your horse responsive to your leg, moving athletically sideways
• -        Practice haunches in so that you will better be able to control your horse’s hind end for a flying change
• -        Set up a pattern like a figure 8 with a pole and ride the pattern being insistent your horse gives you correct flexion and posture
• -        Then try putting the pieces together and batta bing batta boom – flying lead change!

What I like about this approach is that you set up all of the skills so that the flying change is on purpose and in balance – then it makes it easier to progress to multiple flying changes in future.

Margreet & Brian come to visit

During the workshop, Margreet and Brian arrived and were able to watch. Margreet is the master Level IV Centered riding instructor from the Netherlands – she is also certified in Reiki, T Touch, Equine Cranial Sacral, Saddle fit, Equine massage, and Equine Acupuncture - she's a jack of all trades when it comes to horses to say the least. 

Margreet instructed us Saturday and Sunday for a 2 day workshop on Equine Cranial Sacral work and centered riding. Brian is also trained in Equine Cranial Sacral and helped us learn about the horse's movement. 

It was perfect that Margreet watched Todd’s workshop because she would refer to ‘the cowboy’ throughout the clinic and reference some of the exercises he did. She thought Todd was fantastic, the steps he provided worked, and loved how he isolated the movements.

Thank you Cowboy Todd J  Make sure you're at his next workshop at PHH - https://www.facebook.com/events/398694333630496/ 

Equine Cranial Sacral

Saturday’s workshop with Margreet and Brian we practised different ‘holds’ with our horses to help them relax and release tension in their body. It was absolutely amazing – like crazy hocus pocus magic – to see how these simple holds made EVERY single horse in the workshop become so calm, relaxed, licking & chewing, yawning, and releasing tension or stress.

They helped us learn to assess a horse before doing the holds – such as watching a horse’s walk, eating grass, and breathing. During the different holds you could literally see the breathing change in the horses to be deeper and more relaxed. After the holds you could literally see the horse eating grass differently.

Some assessment questions to ask yourself about your horse:

• -        When they eat grass, do they move their legs around a lot to balance for getting grass, or do they move their neck around in a semi circle to reach more grass?
• -        When they eat grass, do they grab with their front teeth and pull up, or do they grab with their teeth and move their head sideways?
• -        When they stand at rest, is their tail to one side?
• -        When they stand at rest, does their breath fill their whole barrel?

There were more things that we looked at, but I found these ones the most interesting and different from what I'm used to.

Centered Riding

That evening I had a private lesson aboard Kahleesi and we worked on picking up contact and having energy in the hind legs.

Margreet is one of the few coaches to instruct me that doesn’t try to get me in a bit. She says “bit or bitless doesn’t matter, whatever is working for the horse.”

She explained to me that one benefit of the bit is that it can make the horse chew, which can help a horse relax at the poll. However, she said you can get the same result bitless, you just have to work a little harder.

She helped me with many things including:

• -        slowing down to focus on quality of movement from my horse’s hind end (we did some exercises over trot poles and on circles to create better impulsion from our hind end)
• -         to follow with my hands better (when Kahleesi’s head came up I still had a tendancy to drop my hands, and Margreet helped me follow Kahleesi better which made a huge improvement)
• -        be more aware of correct flexion (she explained the cowboy’s exercise with the supple rein on the serpentine is so fantastic and pointed out how the jaw, nostril, and eye should align when you have correct flexion… I’d been letting Kahleesi’s nose get out of line)

 The next day we finished up with some holds on our horses and then got into centered riding. We practiced some things without our horses and then all had semi private lessons. Margreet's level of detail to rider is incredible and she really helped to train my eye to see things about the rider.

A couple key things that many riders needed to remember:

• -        Keep your nose in line with your naval (belly button), so when you turn, only turn your head as far as your belly button goes
• -        Remember to take your shoulders with you on the turns (for example when you turn right, allow your left shoulder to come with you)

I rode my lesson on Thetis with Sabrina and her horse Zoey. I rode Thetis bitless in the side pull attachment made by Epic Equestrian (http://www.epic-equestrian.com/). Both Brian and Margreet commented that Thetis was consistently collecting from the correct place in her poll and carrying herself correctly – “there is no reason to swap this horse to a bit – she carries herself beautifully, and is relaxed through her jaw and poll.”

That was an incredibly reassuring statement because it seems everyone wants me in a bit. To be honest, the more everyone tells me I must ride in a bit to achieve the next level of Finesse, the more I become determined to prove them wrong. I’m not even against bits and occasionally I use them… but I really just hate being told I can’t do something when I think its possible. I know, I’m stubborn right? This will be my next journey after I’m finished with Kentucky – my journey to level 4 Finesse.

Anyway, back on track.

In our lesson we practiced flexion, leg yields, and some jumping.

I wanted most to learn from this lesson was strategies to get rid of my wiggle butt. I have this bad habit that when I am cantering and jumping I tend to wiggle my butt. You’ve noticed it right? If you haven’t, just take a look at some of my Youtube videos of me jumping. You’ll see it, that darn wiggle butt. It’s effective though – I feel secure, I can turn when I want to, I compete well, and ride accurate courses… but that wiggle butt!!!

I didn’t know why I was doing it, and several people have tried to help me with it - my centered riding coach, Esther Johnson came pretty close to fixing the wiggle by having me strengthen my core, and Parelli instructor Kathy Baar helped me by having me think about my knees and grounding both my feet.

What did Margreet do when presented with the wiggle challenge? She solved it!

She zoned in on the fact that when I sit my canter I let my hips move in the backwards circle motion, but when I half seat I lock my hips and they ride frozen in the air. She helped me find my backwards circle while in half seat which restored the natural motion to my body and voila, wiggle butt is gone! Okay so now I just have to remember it every time I ride.

Esther and Kathy’s awareness of my position were definitely pieces to the puzzle – and now I have a key ingredient to pull it all together.

Wrap up

I loved this past weekend because Friday was about training strategies and process, Saturday was about helping our horses feel better, and Sunday was about getting our riding in rhythm with our horses.  

I’m sensing a new type of Super camp in the future – natural horsemanship, centered riding, cranial sacral – anyone interested in that for next summer?

So much learning and growth happening at PHH!

What's next?

Remember to check out Todd’s next workshop which is Friday, 6-9pm, September 18^th at  PHH. We are learning about building finesse with collection. https://www.facebook.com/events/398694333630496/

Lots happening this weekend – centered riding lessons tonight, NHA horse agility & obstacle show tomorrow, and the NHA trail ride to the pond on Sunday. See you there! (more details at http://nhassociation.ca/)  

Learnings from my Super Experience at Super Camp

I had the fantastic opportunity to ride at Parelli Super Camp at the beautiful Horseman's Word Ranch from August 12-16... 5 days full of learning. Let me share with you some of the highlights and learnings that I walked away with.

We had some really interesting discussion over the 5 days about natural horsemanship, progress, and the different savvys.

About Natural Horsemanship

• Natural horsemanship is about understanding the human and horse's nature, and not making it right or wrong. 
• Problems are nothing but surprises you don't want
• Think: What's missing in the relationship if you can't do something?
• Trust is when you share mutual interests
• Respect is when somebody brings something new and unique to the relationship. 
• When in Rome do as Romans do, when in horseville do as horses do. 
• We don't hit each other in our society as humans, but horses do kick & bite each other so that means we might need to be firm with them too. 

 About Progress

• Think about having an underlying focus for you ride/play session. For example will you be always rewarding exuberance, the correct bend, stopping with no reins, etc. This way you are more aware when your horse makes the change. 
• Best way to learn something is to teach it. 
• Be open minded to learn. 
• What is the litter ingredient today that will set me up for tomorrow?

About Liberty

• Start with games that get your horse connected to you like 'stick to me'. Don't start with a lot of circles because that is sending your horse away from you. 
• Try playing different games with your horse that you have practiced really well. 
• If you aren't sure if your horse is ready for liberty, try playing the games with your rope in your belt... so you aren't using your rope but you have it ready if you need it. 

We had some chances to play at liberty using the many round pens at the ranch. I tried Cupid & Kahleesi for the first time at liberty and it went really well. I learnt how to send horses in circles of opposite direction and how to get better with two horses at liberty. 

Some fun exercises

• Dressage pattern to give ourselves a purpose and goal
• Driving our horses with 2 long lines to improve our communication from behind our horses
• Riding with a bucket on a line to help build our horse's confidence
• Riding over poles to practice counting our steps between them to see if we were keeping out same pace, and then to see if we can change our pace. 
• Riding with our bodies and using the carrot sticks instead of reins to reinforce our aids 
• Simulations (no horses) so that we can figure out our movements and positions without confusing our horse! Even better is that when you practice the exercises with people, they can speak English and tell you how they are feeling and what is confusing them. 

 There was so much to learn and so many wonderful people to meet.

I had a lot of fun, and a lot of amazing moments where things just seemed to click. One of the key things for me was reminding myself of my vision for the day so that I knew when I was making progress and when to reward my horse. 

"In every moment make clarity of communication the top priority." 

We did so much more than the things I have listed here, but this gives you a taste of the buckets full of learning we explored at Super Camp - what an amazing experience with so many masters of horsemanship in one place! I feel incredibly fortunate to have such an opportunity so close to home. 

Thank you Don & Randee Halladay, Toddy & Maureen Owens, and John & Kathy Baar!

Looking forward to it again next year!

My most insane weekend yet!

Wow what an incredible weekend with so much to learn and do. It started Friday evening we hosted a riding workshop with Parelli Professional Maureen & Todd Owens on Rein Positions for Power, Control and Performance. We had a beautiful night of riding and learnt to finesse our skills of the indirect and direct rein positions as well as some other exercises for back up.

One of the biggest learnings of the night for me was the notion ‘it will only get better if it becomes important to you.’ I thought this was a great way of looking at things. For example if your horse walks off at the mounting, or doesn’t stay on the rail while riding, or any other bad habit your horse develops – it won’t get better unless you make it important to fix and are consistent with the correction.

After the clinic ending around 9pm we then gathered up all the 17 dogs (includes 14 puppies) and took everyone to the vet for their vaccinations and deworming – what gong show that was getting all the dogs together, into the car, and into the building. All the puppies were really great for their needle and we are so thankful Cavan Vets keeps such regular late hours!

The next morning we loaded up and I did double trailer trips of horses to the NHA show at High Spirit Farm. Another beautiful day! The obstacles were fun and I was super proud of our team – someone from PHH took first place in every single class! The highlight of the day for me was my liberty round with Kahleesi – she was so amazing and really getting connected to me.

Tip – when training for liberty, think about using both a carrot and a stick approach. After the horse has done well and stayed with you through a task give them a treat. Likewise if they leave or don’t respect your cues then quickly make a correction and get them focused. Horses need to understand that being with you can be awesome, and that ignoring you is disrespectful.

When doing liberty, don’t hold a treat in front of your horse and have them follow the treat – because then the horse isn't really following you, they are following the treat. Instead use treats as rewards for doing what you want – not a bribe.

Overall the show was a fantastic day and I am very proud of everyone. Check out the video https://youtu.be/0dXluuGluxk 

After we got everyone home from the show and unpacked (around 7:30pm) I headed up to Sabrina’s for a lesson. I coached her on Zoey in the western saddle and worked on some centered riding to improve her sitting trot and canter. Then we did a session with her young horse, Valentina, who is just starting under saddle. We did another passenger lesson (where the person up top does nothing). After some passenger riding, Sabrina started to use her body and reins to ask Valentina to go, stop, back up, and turn. They are doing great!!

On Sunday I was up bright and early and loaded up to go to the obstacle course in Uxbridge – but unfortunately Kevin forgot about us so the gate was locked. We made the most of the situation though and went to the Durham Forest in Uxbridge for a trail ride. I learnt that Kahleesi needs more miles leading trails because she can be unsure, but Cupid is a natural and very great at leading. Even though Kahleesi was unsure about leading, she still was responsive and trusting of me and led a large portion of the trail.

After our trail we scooted back to Pontypool, switched over the tack and horses, and then loaded and went to the Sky Haven Jumper show. Wendy & Thetis, Franny & Shania, myself & Quartz and Cailey & Sabio competed in the 2’3/2’6 division. I also did one class with Dreamer just as a warm up for the mini prix and he got 3^rd – what a brave western guy taking me to every jump boldly. Wendy rode very speedily and picked up champion. Franny had some great rounds and finished reserve champion. Cailey rode some beautiful turns and placed 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th. Myself on Quartz progressed amazing and placed 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th. This was Quartz’s first time doing jumpers since the winter – when she was so scared she couldn’t even complete more than 3 jumps in the ring – now she was actually having clear rounds and placing!    

The Mini Prix was a lot of fun and I placed 1^st with Thetis, 2^nd with Dreamer, 4^th with Quartz and 5^th with Sabio. Thetis showed me just how much heart she has and whipped around the jump off in a speedy 18 seconds. It really showed me just how much horses will try for you once you win their heart – all of these horses did so well because of natural horsemanship and understanding how horse’s think. We didn’t use ‘force’ to make our horses jump.

Check out the video

https://youtu.be/jcTDPp1nVK0

We then got home and unloaded everything – wow what a fantastic and busy weekend!! 

Centered Riding Certified, Parelli Learning, Adult Camp, and Wining $500 in the jumper jackpot!

I’ve been a bit busy and haven’t updated you all in a while (I’m sorry!) – I’ve been up to a few things these last couple weeks. Let me catch you up to speed with my latest learnings and happenings.

June 17^th I flew out to Maine for part two of the Centered Riding Instructor’s course. It was 4 very intense days. Every day we did some body work (exercises with no horses to practice our riding position), riding, and teaching. I met Margreet from the Netherlands, she was assisting teaching the course. She is a Level IV centered riding instructor and does Sacral Cranial work on horses – which is pretty amazing to watch. I’m planning to have her up to our farm on the August 22-23 weekend so let me know if you are interested ($200 for the weekend).

One of my biggest epiphany’s during the course was learning to sit trot. Instead of thinking rise and fall with my hips, I learnt to think and feel a diagonal motion in my hips. Try taking your right hip to your left shoulder and vice versa. When you do this in rhythm with the horse you can sit a lot better in the saddle. It makes sense… the horse moves right & left so why wouldn’t I?

At the end of the course it was really rewarding to earn my Centered Riding Level I coaching certificate along with another 4 out of the 5 other women. Now I can keep growing and learning and hope to move up through the levels over the years.

The weekend of the 27^th of June I took Cupid and Kahleesi to the Finesse clinic with Todd Owens – Parelli Professional. I had a really nice ride on Kahleesi in the morning and learnt some exercises to help supple her. In the afternoon I rode Cupid and he showed me what a calm and collected guy he naturally is.

I was lucky to have a private lesson with Kahleesi on day 2 to help our impulsiveness. To do this we really slowed it down and went back to basics of a good mount. Then I had a private lesson with Cupid and we did some neat porcupine game with the rope around his belly to ask him to yield from pressure in different ways.

I was reminded about a lot of excellent theory on natural horsemanship. One of the biggest messages I took away was

‘Never release on a brace.’ I love this because it reminds us that as natural horsemen we aren’t just trying to accomplish a movement or a task, but we are trying to get our horses emotionally and mentally connected and calm. Never releasing on a brace means always release when the horse’s mind is completing the task, not just his feet. If you release when the horse is bracing and tense, then you will teach your horse to be tense and bracing.

The July 4^th weekend we had adult camp at PHH. What a fantastic weekend with so many people! We did some centered riding body work exercises, centred riding exercises in the saddle, ground games, riding obstacles, and jumping. We had a few new people and experienced people, so it was nice to have everyone together as well as splitting into groups.

Some tips from the weekend –

• ·         Forget about your waist… it’s not a joint, instead ride from your hips and allow your hips to move, and let them fold into two point position.
• ·         Get particular in your ground work – if you want your horse to be snappy with transitions and other cues, then you need to be particular from the start… otherwise how is your horse supposed to know when to be responsive and when you don’t care?
• ·         Ride with a purpose – when you ask your horse for trot, canter, or anything, have in mind what your horse needs to do for you to reward them and move on. It’s important to have a plan and a goal, otherwise if you are simply trotting around aimlessly your horse can lose motivation and you may find it hard to progress. For example when you ask for trot, maybe you want to achieve stretchy trot, a fast trot, or get 3 laps in the ring before you move on – whatever your goal is, have it in mind so you know when to move on and can reward your horse in the right moment.

On Wednesday July 8 I went to the Hamilton Hunt’s Jumper Jackpot and placed 3^rd out of a tough 27 riders, missing first by only 3 seconds… it was a super fun and exciting experience… I’ll write more later about that one after I have the video ready to show you (but I've given you a snapshot from show day up top!)– stay tuned J 

Tonight we have Todd Owens coming to PHH for a Rein Positions clinic for Power, Control and Performance, tomorrow I’m headed to the NHA Obstacle Challenge show, and then Sunday I’m headed to Kevin Alcock’s for play day on the obstacles, followed by a jumper show at 2pm in Bethany at Sky Haven…. Crikey it’s going to be busy and a lot of fun!