This blog has been a while coming, I hope it is worthwhile.
On the 19th February we went to a clinic by Colleen Kelly at Widmer riding school. We had seen Colleen at the Aintree Horse and Soul clinic and been impressed by her sessions, so when we learned that she was doing a clinic within 15 minutes of our house it was too good to miss.
I could write more about Colleens' background but here is a link to her website http://colleenkellyriderbiomechanics.com/ . Her comments about Parelli were interesting. She freely admits to being very very anti Parelli until she met them. She was very impressed when she did and now has collaborated with Linda in producing a DVD. For someone steeped in the more traditional world of top international dressage that is quite a turn around. She reckoned that Lindas' horse is now technically one of the best dressage horses in the USA, and that is from an international dressage judge ! She has also been on the long list for the Australian Olympic dressage team, so I guess she can ride a bit too.
Everyone on the clinic was a Parelli student, which helped with the language. Colleen could use Parelli speak, which gets complex ideas over in few words, and be pretty sure we all understood what she meant.
We started we a brief discussion in the tea room and then it was straight to the horses. We were only spectators on this course so had the luxury of just watching others ride. This can be a quicker way of learning as you can watch several riders work through their problems rather than just concentrating on yourself. You get five times the learning, albeit without the practical.
To start with all five horses were ridden together. Actually one went into the other school to work through some issues on the ground first with Lyla Cansfield helping them out. That's what I love about Natural Horsemanship. If you have a riding problem, get off and sort it out on the ground first. It is so much safer than the traditional method of just riding through the problem and more respectful of the horse. It helps them through problems rather than forcing them through them.
In the afternoon each horse and rider then got 1/2 hour with Colleen to work with individual training followed by 1/2 hour in the other school with Lyla. We only went for day 1, but learnt loads and saw huge improvements in the horses and riders.
Here is a write up of the notes I took. It does not contain all that I learnt as I only took the notes that seemed most relevant to me.
Prepare to ride
If needing to calm the horse then use fewer circles. Use more sideways, hind quarter disengagements and backwards until relaxed. Keep your hands low.
Seating Position
1) Whilst sitting on horse : Bend down and touch toe keeping upper body central to horse. ie touch top of neck with chin. Keep legs underneath you. Stretches the hamstrings.
2a) Stand in stirupps and push pubic bone forwards then put an arm straight up. Halt walk and trot. Stretches front hip flexors
2b) As 2a but arm straight forwards. Not on horses centre line but straight out from your shoulder. Keep arm still. Checks if your body is twisting left or right.
2c) As 2a but arm held out to side. Arm at right angles to your body. Check arm is still both up and down and forwards and backwards.
2d) As 2a. Arc arm forwards, up and back to touch horses back. Palm should be in contact with horse then sit down.
Correct riding position can be helped with the following
Stand up
Spurs out
Sit down
The weight on your tail bone should be greater than the weight on your pubic bone
Make sure hands have thumbs on top, not out to the sides. She reckoned that just putting thumbs on top when holding reins could reduce weight on the front legs by up to 15kg !
Turning
As the horse turns keep the peak of the riding hat horizontal. Adjust it so you can see it and use a horizontal line in the arena to check the head is not leaning in the turns.
Keep elbows level. Outside elbow tends to come up and this is wrong
Pressing on the inside stirrup tightens the turn
Downwards Transitions
For downwards transitions use following sequence.
Toes in
Heels down
Eyes up
Chest up
and wait for desired gait. May take a while for first few transitions but get snappier with time. Note no use of the reins.
Tail Swish
Colleen looks for an equal tail swish to either side as a cue that the horse is travelling in a balanced relaxed way.
Getting horses attention
When riding if both ears go forwards so that they are not listening to you immediately turn the horse until you get an ear back on you. Soon they start to pay continuous attention to you.
Impulsion
Never fix impulsion in any sideways movement. Go back to straight to get impulsion then try again.
Flicking outside rein towards groove below and behind ear can help with impulsion without need to use feet. Only use occasionally as they soon become friendly to it and ignore it otherwise.
Stretching and relaxing
Never let horse stretch down when moving so that the nose is below the front knee level. Puts too much weight on the forehand and makes them liable to trip, which is not relaxing for either of you !
Disunited Canter
If disunited then go to shoulder in to bring inside hind under the horse. Quick cure. When cured formerly disunited horses are great at flying lead changes.
On the 19th February we went to a clinic by Colleen Kelly at Widmer riding school. We had seen Colleen at the Aintree Horse and Soul clinic and been impressed by her sessions, so when we learned that she was doing a clinic within 15 minutes of our house it was too good to miss.
I could write more about Colleens' background but here is a link to her website http://colleenkellyriderbiomechanics.com/ . Her comments about Parelli were interesting. She freely admits to being very very anti Parelli until she met them. She was very impressed when she did and now has collaborated with Linda in producing a DVD. For someone steeped in the more traditional world of top international dressage that is quite a turn around. She reckoned that Lindas' horse is now technically one of the best dressage horses in the USA, and that is from an international dressage judge ! She has also been on the long list for the Australian Olympic dressage team, so I guess she can ride a bit too.
Everyone on the clinic was a Parelli student, which helped with the language. Colleen could use Parelli speak, which gets complex ideas over in few words, and be pretty sure we all understood what she meant.
We started we a brief discussion in the tea room and then it was straight to the horses. We were only spectators on this course so had the luxury of just watching others ride. This can be a quicker way of learning as you can watch several riders work through their problems rather than just concentrating on yourself. You get five times the learning, albeit without the practical.
To start with all five horses were ridden together. Actually one went into the other school to work through some issues on the ground first with Lyla Cansfield helping them out. That's what I love about Natural Horsemanship. If you have a riding problem, get off and sort it out on the ground first. It is so much safer than the traditional method of just riding through the problem and more respectful of the horse. It helps them through problems rather than forcing them through them.
In the afternoon each horse and rider then got 1/2 hour with Colleen to work with individual training followed by 1/2 hour in the other school with Lyla. We only went for day 1, but learnt loads and saw huge improvements in the horses and riders.
Here is a write up of the notes I took. It does not contain all that I learnt as I only took the notes that seemed most relevant to me.
Prepare to ride
If needing to calm the horse then use fewer circles. Use more sideways, hind quarter disengagements and backwards until relaxed. Keep your hands low.
Seating Position
1) Whilst sitting on horse : Bend down and touch toe keeping upper body central to horse. ie touch top of neck with chin. Keep legs underneath you. Stretches the hamstrings.
2a) Stand in stirupps and push pubic bone forwards then put an arm straight up. Halt walk and trot. Stretches front hip flexors
2b) As 2a but arm straight forwards. Not on horses centre line but straight out from your shoulder. Keep arm still. Checks if your body is twisting left or right.
2c) As 2a but arm held out to side. Arm at right angles to your body. Check arm is still both up and down and forwards and backwards.
2d) As 2a. Arc arm forwards, up and back to touch horses back. Palm should be in contact with horse then sit down.
Correct riding position can be helped with the following
Stand up
Spurs out
Sit down
The weight on your tail bone should be greater than the weight on your pubic bone
Make sure hands have thumbs on top, not out to the sides. She reckoned that just putting thumbs on top when holding reins could reduce weight on the front legs by up to 15kg !
Turning
As the horse turns keep the peak of the riding hat horizontal. Adjust it so you can see it and use a horizontal line in the arena to check the head is not leaning in the turns.
Keep elbows level. Outside elbow tends to come up and this is wrong
Pressing on the inside stirrup tightens the turn
Downwards Transitions
For downwards transitions use following sequence.
Toes in
Heels down
Eyes up
Chest up
and wait for desired gait. May take a while for first few transitions but get snappier with time. Note no use of the reins.
Tail Swish
Colleen looks for an equal tail swish to either side as a cue that the horse is travelling in a balanced relaxed way.
Getting horses attention
When riding if both ears go forwards so that they are not listening to you immediately turn the horse until you get an ear back on you. Soon they start to pay continuous attention to you.
Impulsion
Never fix impulsion in any sideways movement. Go back to straight to get impulsion then try again.
Flicking outside rein towards groove below and behind ear can help with impulsion without need to use feet. Only use occasionally as they soon become friendly to it and ignore it otherwise.
Stretching and relaxing
Never let horse stretch down when moving so that the nose is below the front knee level. Puts too much weight on the forehand and makes them liable to trip, which is not relaxing for either of you !
Disunited Canter
If disunited then go to shoulder in to bring inside hind under the horse. Quick cure. When cured formerly disunited horses are great at flying lead changes.
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