FOUNDATIONS, PART 1

FOUNDATIONS, PART 1

Recently I’ve been seeing a reoccurring rhythm in my life: the importance of a strong foundation. There’s a saying that my mentor, Amy Bowers, says often: “Your problem is not your problem.” It’s a hard saying for anyone who is a direct line thinker to wrap their mind around, and I fit well within that group. The concept behind it is that when you’re having a problem, oftentimes you see more readily the symptoms of your problem not the actual disease. You can either put a band-aid on the symptoms or you can dig down and address the root of the problem.

Symptoms of the Problem

              I’ve had the pleasure of working these past few months with a very committed student, Carolyn, and her athletic quarter horse gelding, Magic. Carolyn called me on a recommendation from her friend Carol, whose horse Sweet Water I had worked with previously. After having a slew of physical problems with Magic, she was finally at a place where they were ready to start riding again. Unfortunately, during his time off, Magic had picked up some naughty behaviors, and Carolyn just wanted a little professional advice on how to best work through those habits.

              When I first started working with the pair, Magic had absolutely no interest in connecting with humans. During round pen work, he would run around the outside of the pen with his nose staunchly stuck to the outside of the circle, changing direction only by turning towards the panels and often times kicking out as he did so.

              Another problem Carolyn was concerned about with Magic was that he often kicked out and bucked while under saddle. Other than that, he was pretty impulsive and she felt like she was constantly holding him back from running off. Once we had started working with him, it became very obvious that Magic had a body imbalance moving on a circle to the right, where he traveled counter-bent and had a very hard time picking up the right lead in the canter.

Connection

               The first lesson we focused on was simply helping Magic find connection. Everything with horses comes down to pressure and relief. Horses learn by what causes pressure of any sort on them and where they receive relief from that pressure. The game we set up for him was simple: he could trot or canter on the outside of the circle as long as he wanted to, but if he wanted to stop moving he had to put in some sort of effort towards connecting with the human in the center. With this pattern, we were able to change his perspective on humans to where he saw them as the relief instead of the pressure.

              This was step one in the process because without the connection as a foundation, there was no way we could have a conversation. One of the core principles that Parelli teaches is that “communication is two or more individuals sharing and understanding an idea.” If Magic had no interest in connecting with humans and being part of the conversation, there was no way we would be able to communicate with him.

Responsiveness

              When we first saddled up Magic, I watch closely his reaction to the saddle. Carolyn was concerned that the saddle fit was improper and that was causing Magic discomfort, and as a result he was bucking. There seemed to be no signs of him being unhappy with the saddle, which can often be an indicator of a bad saddle fit (head tossing, ears back, swishing tail, etc.). When I started to move him around, he did a sort of bucking that is referred to as “dolphining”, which is a low-energy forward moving buck similar to the motion of a canter.

My first response was simply to encourage him to move forward more, which caused him to cease the bucking. Bucking is an opposition to forward movement, something I talked a little about in a previous blog post. However this tactic didn’t help fix Magic’s naughty habit, as he had learned that his bucking shenanigans would help him get out of being ridden. After trying a couple different saddles, including one that had been specifically built to fit him, and having the same response, we were able to rule out for certain that it had nothing to do with saddle fit. So instead, I had to use a pattern interrupt and forcefully back him up every time he tried to buck. After once session of using this method, he hasn’t tried to buck since.

Magic simply needed a bit of leadership. In his previous experiences, he somewhere along the way had decided that as the prey animal being worked by predators (humans) he needed to take care of himself. As pattern animals, horses learn what brings them relief and then they create that pattern in their day-to-day routine. However, horses are also herd animals and they are always looking for a leader. It is very reassuring to them if they have someone to take care of the decision making because it ensures their safety, as a lead mare would do in the wild. By interrupting Magic’s bucking pattern, I was able to assert myself as his leader and earn his responsiveness to me.

Relaxation and Rhythm

As I continued to work with Carolyn and Magic, we began to do some riding. It didn’t take long before I realized that any and all leg pressure translated to Magic as “go forward as fast as you can!” Along with that, any pressure on the bit made him feel very blocked and just heightened his impulsion.

              The first thing I did to help Magic was teach him to yield his hindquarters. I started this at a stand still and worked on it until he could move his hindquarters both directions without moving forward at all. I made sure I used no reins during this exercise because I really wanted to help him understand that legs don’t always mean forward – sometimes they can simply mean yield one body part or another. Next, I used this same exercise, but starting at a walk and yielding the hindquarters until he came down to a stop. Eventually I was able to do this at a trot and canter as well. By doing this I was able to help him find relaxation as he went along, now that he began to realize that he didn’t have to “run for his life.”

              I also taught Magic to stretch from his neck down and bring his poll below his withers. This action in horses causes a release of endorphins which naturally relaxes them. Because of this, it helps diffuse energy within their body, whereas a horse with their head up or held in a frame recycles their energy. By teaching Magic to move with his head and neck stretching down he was able to find relaxation in motion, as well as rhythm in each gait as a byproduct.

Feel

              Once we had all of these pieces as a foundation, then I was able to teach Magic to respond with some feel. He is a fairly sensitive horse, and as such rather reactionary at times. Often when there was pressure added he would respond plus some energy, rather like asking someone what 2+2 is and their responding “5.” Instead, I wanted him to feel the pressure and then respond in an appropriate manner where he returned my energy with how much I had given. This is called having “feel.”

As we slowly continued this conversation, we were able to begin doing more complicated maneuvers, such as asking him to bend appropriately on a circle, especially to the right so that we could build his muscles and help him become stronger moving towards that direction. We also had done a lot of ground work on moving sideways confidently in both directions, which then set us up to teach him to do leg yields. All of these are things that, had we tried doing them with Magic when we first started his sessions, would have caused his emotions to blow up. But now, by doing as Pat Parelli would say and “taking the time it takes,” Carolyn is able to do things with her horse that she hadn’t dreamed about three months ago.

Final Thoughts

              As I assess how far Magic and Carolyn have come since the first session I had with them, I realize that over the last few months their progress has been slow and continuous. Each step of their journey has built a foundation for their next step, and without that foundation they wouldn’t have been able to develop further. Without reaching to the roots of the problems and fixing them at their base level first, I wouldn’t have been able to help them bloom. To be continued.