Buck Brannaman 7 Clinics

I have always wanted to have this set of videos since I saw the Buck film which is about Bucks life. When making that film the film makers took hundreds of hours of video. Obviously it did not all make it into the final movie. They realised that what was left over, whilst maybe not that interesting to a non horsey public, was great teaching material for those who do understand horses.

I quick search on ebay and I got a set for £39. A bargain, except it was coded to the USA. Fortunately my very old DVD player came out before coding so it plays without a problem. They arrived a few days ago and with excitement I've started to watch them.

All I can say is "WOW". This is like watching my old instructor James, but more so. The format is that they have taken the clips from 7 clinics held around the USA. They've then sorted them so that each chapter covers and individual topic with clips from more than one clinic. This is actually a brilliant format as you see the ideas explained several times, a demo or two from Buck and then students trying to emulate him. Listening to his comments as they work is very informative as you can learn as much from seeing mistakes as you can from perfection. Maybe more !

Most of the exercises and ideas Buck puts across are not new to me, but his presentation of those ideas makes them make even more sense. The areas he is particular on are also highlighted as is the lightness he expects from the horses. I suspect that I would not be getting as much out of the DVDs if I did not already know a fair bit about Natural Horsemanship, but even for the beginner there is plenty to see and try to understand.

So far I have only watched the ground school DVDs (two of them) and they have already made a difference for Filly and I. We have been experimenting with lightness on the halter to both back up and direction changes. Watching Bucks timing and the phases he uses has already made me more effective. I guess you could say that they have sharpened me up on both going up and down phases as needed and made me more particular, without being pushy, about what we are trying to achieve.

So if you've been thinking about getting this series I would not hesitate in recommending it.

Lightening up on the phases

As my last post indicated I have needed to go to phase 4 for a session or two to get Filly to listen to me. Phase 4 has been either a tap with the stick on her shoulder as I asked for the shoulder to move over, or more usually swinging the end of the mecate rope so that it tap her shoulder.

It occurred to me riding with two reins and trying to swing the rope at the same time was clumsy. When riding in a bosal you cannot just drop the reins if you intend to trot. The bosal will then bounce on their nose and cause them to stick their nose in the air to carry the bosal themselves and stop it bouncing. I do not want to encourage Filly to trot around with her nose in the air as it is exactly the opposite of what I need to get good collection in the future. So with that in mind I switched from riding in the bosal to riding in the rope halter with just the lead rope attached as a single rope, not as reins.

With this arrangement I can now use one hand to ask for the direct rein ( phase 3 of move your shoulder over) and the other hand to swing the rope (phase 4).

This idea of using equipment that is appropriate for the lesson we are working on is important to me. Unlike others I tend to remove tack off the horse if I find a problem rather than add stronger tack. By getting back to the purity of not having really strong equipment I feel that I can build greater lightness into the horse. Putting stronger tack on will just make the horse even heavier and may well mean I cannot go back to light tack once the lesson is learnt.
I also like to use the same "tack" as I do on ground work. Filly knows to move away from a swinging rope as that is how we do much of the online and even liberty work. I think of throwing energy out of the end of the rope as I swing it towards whichever bit of her I need to move away. So my using this when in the saddle is totally natural for her and she doesn't get upset or offended by it.

So the sequence is as before.

• Phase one : eyes and belly button in the direction I want the shoulder to move

• Phase two : leg and phase 2 1/2 heel 

• Phase three : direct rein

• Phase four : swing the end of the lead rope at her shoulder.

All of this timed with her feet of course ;) . Quite a difficult coordination task for me and if I was better at it then I'm sure we would have a nice light forehand turn by now.

However we have made progress. We are now getting some pretty nice turns. I've found that if I time the pressure of my seat with her movement it comes even better, but I'm not good at this yet. I still have to use phase 4 occasionally to remind her that I really do mean it and she really does have to step over. But a light phase 4 is usually enough to get the responsiveness back.

The one problem we do have is that having asked her to circle to the right she gets stuck on this pattern and it takes some time and often a higher phase to get her to turn left. I'm sure she thinks she is being a good girl by continuing in the direction I have set her in. Her "maintain direction" part of her responsibilities is almost too good ! So when asking for a change to the other circle I make sure that I have a lot of school ahead of me so that I can apply phase 1 for a loooong time before going to a higher phase. I also use an inside leg briefly to get her to bend onto the new circle then ask with the outside leg to maintain it.

Like I said we have a long way to go but I think we have started along the right road now and I look forward to her outside leg isolations being as light as her inside leg ones.

Phase 4

I'm still working on getting those shoulders to move over nice and light. To say Filly is resistant to this is an understatement.

I had a lesson the other day from an instructor, Sue, who is new to us. She is not a Parelli instructor as such, but her teaching style is very similar and she intimately understands the Parelli approach.

The lesson started with just getting me more relaxed in the saddle, and I thought I was relaxed :( . "Imagine you have to ride for 50 miles, so get comfortable" was the imagery Sue wanted. As an image it did help and after a few minutes Sue said she could see a change in both me and Filly.

We then got to work on those front legs. As Sue explains it this is a very very important button we need to have working to even be able to walk a straight line. The button being to follow my hips/navel and step the front legs over in the direction my focus and navel are pointing. Remember "eyes, belly button, legs, reins". Well it's just the same but to a new level.

We started at the halt and and I slowly went up the phases until we got a response from Filly. Instead of rein we used the savvy string to back up my leg pressure (as my leg started to cramp!). We did get some nice steps over but at the cost of lots of savvy string waving. Basically Filly did not want to give up the dominance of her front legs.

So a couple of nights ago I revisited the same issue. All I was after was to walk in a straight line across the school and not veer towards the gate, or the cones (she loves playing with them) or away from the spooky spot. And ultimately I wanted a turn that just came off my outside leg.

It was an emotionally trying session. I tried with just the aids I listed above but even then she would not yield away from my leg. I was using positive reinforcement throughout but to be honest the reward of another piece of carrot was not as strong as the reward of pushing through my pressure.

After a time I realised that actually this was just frustrating both of us. My phase 4 could not be strong enough to get the response I wanted with just a savvy string and as the saying goes "you get a light phase 1 from an effective phase 4". So with considerable sadness in my heart I decided I needed to use a stick, something I hardly ever need these days. Phase 4 was now to tap her on the shoulder with the stick if she still pushed through my leg.

This did not please her. It certainly wasn't hurting her (I'd tried it on my leg to make sure) but it was aggravating her and she let me know it was. But slowly the opposition withdrew and whilst I was still having to tap her she was moving away from the pressure with less attitude.

Then there came a long lick and chew and she responded to just my leg, then to just my belly button. I'm not saying we have got to the point where I light phase 1 is getting all the response I want but we have made progress.

Would I have liked to have made progress without the stick ? Of course I would. I hated using it.
But in the end I also think that using an effective phase 4 for a brief period was probably better than the effect that the drip drip effect of not being effective was having on our relationship.

Incidentally I found I needed to carry two sticks. One in each hand. As proof that Filly knew full well what the belly button and leg aids were for she would respond to them very well IF the single stick was in the appropriate hand. If it was in the other hand she would push through the pressure or ignore it altogether. Carrying two sticks meant she had to pay attention to which side the pressure was being applied on and respond appropriately.

Looking back to the past I had a similar problem when I was after the inside leg isolation (bending the body with pressure from the leg). She resisted giving to that pressure for a long time and getting an effective phase 4 was the key to unlocking the lightness we now have. As I can very effectively turn Filly with the inside leg I had been neglecting getting the outside leg to work well. Until it came to wanting to build to gentle spins and roll backs I simply hadn't needed that button.
As always James Roberts was right in his training scheme. He had always had "outside leg isolations" in his scheme and I had neglected them. Sorry James :( . But then maybe my knowledge needed to get to the level I'm now at to really understand what he was on about. As such James will keep teaching me for years to come yet :)

Did it damage our relationship ? In the end I believe it did not. It was emotionally tougher for me than her and when I got off she happily followed me around the school as I put things away. I don't think she would have done that if I had made her scared of me.

All in all an interesting exercise that maybe made me a little emotionally fitter as well.

Communication

On recent rides with Filly I've been trying to get her to move individual feet. In other words if I ask the front legs to move around in a circle then I actually want the front legs to move ! Same with the hind legs. Basically I'm building up to be able to do true roll backs and turn arounds not to mention spins. But one thing at a time, I need to get the legs responding.

So last night I set to work on the front legs. Lots of ground preparation to get the forequarter driving and porcupine good. The porcupine applied to the area just on or in front of the girth as that will be were my legs contacts her, not the traditional Parelli ground work neck porcupine. Also the driving game was energy directed at her shoulder, not her neck.

So when riding I asked for the front legs to step over by using a direct rein (hopefully timed with her feet) and my leg on or just in front of the girth (again timed with the feet). This resulted in a half hearted step over. I was being patient and hoped that in time she would put more effort in. Even using positive reinforcement (which I have over a period of weeks) did little to improve her impulsion.

I felt that my leg and the rein were just not communicating the energy with which I wished to step over so needed to add energy from somewhere but without getting aggressive. That energy came from the get down rope of the mecate.

So the sequence became ask with the leg, ask with the hand, pick up the mecate, swing the mecate, tap myself on the leg with the mecate, tap Filly on the shoulder with the mecate. In fact I never had to tap Filly but the planned sequence was there in case.

This added energy seemed to give Filly the message that more effort was required and the turns quickly became pretty good. She has trouble stepping one front leg in front of the other one at the moment, but that is a physical practise issue not a "I won't" issue. This is something we can practise more on the ground to get her confident in her doing it without my weight on top which could cause confidence issues to start with.

So the communication I learnt was that communication is not just about direction but about the energy I expected to go in that direction as well.

Of course I always have that in mind when it comes to changes of gait, but the turns have always had enough energy to get the job done in the past. How much turning energy do you actually need for a 10 meter circle. Not much !
But for a spin or roll back you need lots of turning energy and it was that idea that I was missing when in the saddle.

Bridleless with a purpose

Yesterday I had a very interesting and fun ride on Filly. I've been working on circles in corners and to be honest they haven't been going that well. Coming out of the corner Filly showed a marked reluctance to go back into the corner again. She wanted to head off across the school to the corner nearest her stable and stand there. She had become barn sweet.
I worked for some time in the bosal on the circle. The principle in my mind was to make my inside hand stay on the track I had in mind. So if she drifted out on the circle I took my hand further and further to the inside so that my hand stayed near the track I wanted to be on. Being a bosal if she pushed into the hand I bumped her lightly with the bosal to bring her around. Never apply steady pressure with a bosal is one of the prime directives to riding in one. I don't mean hard tugs, just light bumps.
This was working to a degree but she still drifted sideways out of the circle in the direction she wanted to go in. I needed her to stop pushing through my outside leg and stay between both my reins and my legs.
The best way to stop her pushing through my leg would be to back up the leg pressure with pressure from something else, like a coil of rope. If she then tries to push through my leg I can tap the coil of rope on my leg until she comes off the leg. If she persists then I move the coil forwards and tap her neck. All done in a progressive manner with time for each phase to take effect. You have to have a very relaxed attitude as to where she is actually going in the school for this to work ! Don't worry about the circle.
So I needed to isolate the yielding to the leg as this was now the primary problem. I felt the best way to achieve this was to remove the reins. Then I couldn't accidentally apply unwanted cues on the reins and the signal from me leg/seat would be purer. So off came the bosal and reins and out came the 45 foot rope split into separate coils for the left and right hands. Neutral is just having my hands relaxed by my sides. Active is lifting up a set of coils and moving them to a position where I can tap my leg (phase 1), tapping my leg (phase 2), moving the coils forwards to tap her neck (phase 3 and 4).

I started by forgetting about the circle in the corner and just wandering around the school occasionally asking for just a step over with the front legs then back to wandering around randomly again. Slowly we established (again :( ) what my outside leg meant and she would step over nicely. So back to the circle.

To start with she again pushed away from the circle and into my leg, but slowly she started to come around on the circle closer to where I wanted us to be. I had markers set out on the ground to define a perfect circle in the corner so I could easily tell that things were improving. Then we picked up a trot and a remarkable thing happened. She suddenly accepted the circle and with no asking from me, I had no reins, she also came into vertical flexion. This was after quite a long period of trotting and I think she figured this was an easier way to travel so adopted it.

With that I jumped off her, whilst still on the circle, and made a fuss of her. Saddle off and she went for a nice roll.

I see on videos many many folks riding bridleless as it is a cool fun thing to do. And it is. I love it myself.
I do wonder how many people also think of bridleless riding as an important tool in our arsenal. One that can take us right back to basics and ask the question "is the horse listening to my body or just being pulled around by the reins ?". It was of course James, and latterly Josh, who have impressed this on me. But maybe last night the lesson finally sank in.

Moose Mountain

A few weeks ago I was again in Calgary. I try to never let an opportunity to enjoy the outdoors there pass me by so I had booked a ride at Moose Mountain.
Moose Mountain is just outside Bragg Creek and borders the Kananaskis range which can be seen a little way off.
When I arrived I was not sure what I was going to ride or how many would be going out that day. As it happened I was the only rider for the morning and I got given a lovely horse called Heart to ride. He was a wide black Percheron cross. And I mean wide !! But he was a lovely, well mannered boy and even after being ridden by a lot of riders of varying standards all summer he was still pretty light and fun to ride.
The ride we went on was around 16km long and 3 1/2 hours. We started on a gravel road past some pretty impressive houses and then passed through a barbed wire fence into national forest land. Here the going got a bit more fun. This is the foothills of the Rocky Mountains after all. We passed through forest and meadow accompanied by a dog from the stables. In the forest there were a lot of cattle that the local ranches allow to roam the land. I can see that here you would need horses to round up the cattle. I can't think of any vehicle that could do the job. Heart was a little nervous about the cattle at times, but soon got over it.
The route took us up onto a ridge line that gave great views of a small lake and the mountains in the middle distance.

The guide I was riding with was a young lady from Sweden. I'm sorry to say I forgot her name. But we had a lovely chat for those 3 1/2 hours. She had taken a degree in animal behaviour and was hoping to take a masters in Equine Behaviour. As a result we could chat about the benefits of positive reinforcement training vs to negative reinforcement and agreed that actually they were both equally valid and valuable depending on the circumstance. I think we both leaned towards PR for ground work and NR for ridden work, but only as a bias not as a rigid model.
We also chatted at length about the style I'm studying, vaquero, and she seemed pretty intrigued. She had ridden her horse in a bosal but had not really picked up on the finer points. This is something I'm beginning to realise about bosal riding. Many folks, especially in the USA, do it but very few have studied how to do it right. I find this a little worrying as the bosal does need a certain feel and technique to be effective and fair to the horse. But then again so does the bit I guess.
All in all it was a fun ride though having got off I found I had to do a fair bit of stretching to ease my legs back into their original shape !!

Clinic with Josh

So I finally get time to write about the clinic with Josh. Josh was James Roberts apprentice when he sadly passed on. After that he stayed at JRFS for a while before moving north to set up his own place. He has never obtained a driving licence as whenever he gets enough money together he spends it on a horsemanship course for himself. As a result he has ridden with many great horsemen. Dave Stewart, Russell Higgins, Buck Brannaman to name but a few.

As he can't drive I decided to go and collect him. 4 hours each way but it gave us time to catch up on news. It also let me see his yard. Very pleasant but best described as work in progress. However with his drive and vision I can see it being the perfect setup in the future.

So to the clinic itself.
There were 5 riders on the clinic and we decided to split it into three in the morning with Ritchie and I in the afternoon. This split was largely down to the fact that only Ritchie and I ride western with the emphasis on vaquero and we wanted a clinic on riding in the bosal. Josh is also keen on the vaquero style so he is a great instructor for us.

The ground work was very interesting. Josh had recently had Menolo Menedez staying with him for a couple of weeks. He learned a lot about reading the horse from the point of view of muscle tension and how getting a tense muscle to relax would not only allow the horse to move better but also change their mental and emotional state.

The main point with Filly that Josh immediately noticed was a small tense muscle in the neck. It just stood out a tiny bit. This was where she was holding mental tension which effected her whole movement. He also noticed that the hind quarters were a little tense. As he put it a relaxed muscle should flow like water as they move and you should see it shimmering. Her muscles were more static which showed the tension in them.

This was a nice and fortuitous connection to the Silke clinic where she has also worked on the idea of muscular relaxation.

Josh's way of remedying the problem was not with massage as Silke's was. It was achieved with the aid of bamboo poles.

Why bamboo ?  It's light and comes in a variety of lengths. It's more precise than a flag on a fishing pole as there is less whip in the end. It's cheap :)

To make a bamboo pole do the following
Buy bamboo
Bury in muck heap for two days
Hang from rafter with a weight on the end to keep it straight while it dries

The muck heap idea is to gently steam the bamboo which lightens it and also makes it less likely to splinter if it gets wrapped around a horses legs by mistake.

Armed with the bamboo we could now just draw a horses attention to a particular area by pointing or touching a very specific spot. Over time with that awareness came relaxation. For example to get Filly's hind quarters to relax I could just hover the stick over them and if necessary touch her with the stick until I saw a nice ripple appear in the muscle. Then remove the stick. In a way it is like Silke's idea of massaging the muscle and doing micro releases of the massage as the muscle relaxes, but done at a distance.

Josh also made me use the 45 foot rope more for distance work. As he says with a 45 foot rope you have a whole tool kit in one bit of apparatus. I admit that I have been lax in my practice with it, but since the clinic it's fast becoming my favourite rope. No gloves of course to keep that soft feel ;)

As for the riding we did a lot of work on using the bosal more effectively, though Josh thought we were already pretty good with it. His way of running this section was just to watch us as we would normally ride and use patterns and then make suggestions as to how to improve. I like this idea as opposed to the instructor having a preconceived lesson plan. I find that style does not get carried through into riding after the clinic whereas Josh's style does.

Josh made me ride bridleless a fair bit. I was working on circles at walk and trot. I had many markers on the ground describing a precise circle to go around. After Filly was going well with the bosal we went bridleless and attempted the same pattern. Day 2 we started the ride bridleless on the pattern and put the bosal on later for even more precision work.

Josh also had Ritchie and I play games together. Games like having one of us start inside the marked circle and try to escape it whist the other rider had to position themselves to keep the first one inside the circle. This gave purpose to snappy turns and changes of gait. It was great fun to boot and I'm not going to divulge who won.

We also played a game of using the bamboo sticks to pick up the circle markers off the ground and pile them into a single pile. The winner was the one with most markers. Filly was very spooked when the first marker slid down the bamboo stick towards her as I scooped it up. Lots of friendly game later and she was fine but the time that took allowed Ritchie to amass a large stack of markers.

So very silly, fun games as is Josh's style but all had a purpose and made the learning fun for horse and rider.

Everyone had a great time. On the Saturday evening we went to a local village rock festival which added to the merriment.

We've already booked another clinic with Josh in November. After which I drive him to Heathrow airport as he is flying to New Zealand to spend a couple of months with Russell Higgins colt starting. Lucky sod !!

Here are some photos of the day taken by my friend and Aikido Sensei, David

Photos

British Rodeo Cowboys Association

A quick video to introduce this post :)

A few weeks ago some random googling took me to the home page of the BRCA. I had never heard of them before, but the write up sounded fun. As it happened they had an event the very next weekend in Kent. I suggested to Ritchie that we go along and watch for an hour or so. We wound up spending the whole day there.
The BRCA allows folks in the UK to participate on a proper rodeo day. I don't mean bucking horse riding and the like, but events involving precision riding horses and working with cows. I have heard of no other events in the UK that allow cow work as I believed the RSPCA were against it. I enquired and apparently the RSPCA had audited their activities and could not see any problems.

Anyway, we drove around the M25 and finally made our way to the Bar S Ranch. We were glad we had rang and asked for directions. As we drove past a white bungalow I remembered a white bungalow being mentioned in the directions. Sure enough as I looked closer I saw horse boxes parked behind the bungalow. This was the Bar S Ranch. I wondered what we had come to see !

On entering the ranch we found a nice arena at the back and horses already being ridden. Nervously we approached the riders and asked what was happening. They could not have been more welcoming. Everyone was already on horseback, and apart from lunch stayed there all day. The horses were all very chilled in a cramped area alongside the arena standing patiently whilst the riders chattered away and watched proceedings.

It was a competition, but to be honest the only person who seemed to take it at all seriously was Lesley, the judge. Everyone else was just have a good time whilst trying to improve there ranching skills.

The first event we saw was Ranch Trail. Basically and obstacle course including dragging logs, backing around a pattern, sideways over cones etc. During this we mingled and got to know the folks there and display our ignorance. They were keen to educate us and we soon began to understand what the day was all about.

Over lunch I got talking to Stewart who owns the farm. He was an older guy who started working cattle as he got fed up with having to ask friends to help him move cows around his farm. From that he developed an interest in vaquero and so we had a long chat about the style. He then showed me into his tack room which was full of bosals, spade and half breed bits etc. In the meantime I heard Lesley getting annoyed outside. It turned out that Stewart was supposed to be sorting out the pens in the arena for the cattle classes. To avoid him getting into more trouble Ritchie and I helped with the fence panels.

The cattle classes were the most fun and interesting to watch. The team sorting was particularly fascinating. There are two pens joined by an open gate. All the cows are in one pen and have numbers on their backs. The judge calls out a number and the team of two have to cut that cow out of the herd and get it into the other pen. Should the wrong cow get into the other pen then their time is up. They have 2 1/2 minutes and I think the best was 10 cows. The ones who did best were the quiet calm ones who just did the business with the minimum of fuss.

I won't describe all the classes here as they can all be found on the BRCA
website. We have now joined the association and look forward to attending more events over the coming months and years. They also do clinics for those who have never rode like this before and we definitely need to go to some of those !!

Silke Clinic

We had seen Silke give demos several times at various Parelli meets and had always been very impressed. When the opportunity arose for Ritchie to take Bonitao on a clinic we jumped at it. Even better was that it was not that far away, just a couple of hours.

It was a two day clinic, though Silke was in the UK for longer travelling around. It started with a get together in the tea room to find out what everyone wanted to get out of the weekend. Always a good place to start I feel, rather than the instructor having a predetermined plan.

There was a general theme though which was to drum home the importance of the mantra "Mind, Flexion, Weight, Feet". I know we all know this mantra but using it effectively is a different matter.

For example to get the mind we were taught to use the friendly game. The version chosen was swinging the stick and string around until we got both the horses eyes looking at us, then quit. So the horse got relief from the annoyance by giving us their mind. The idea is to build this up so we are always aware of where the horses mind is and to get it back by asking for it. Not by asking the horse to move, or yield, but just to think about us. When riding I do this by picking up my attention and asking the horse to do the same with maybe a lift of the rein if needed. Until we have their mind it's not fair to ask them to do anything. In fact the cue for action will come as a bolt from the blue with a consequent unwelcome reaction if we don't have their mind to start with.

Having got their mind we then ask for the flexion that is needed in order to achieve the desired motion. We worked with forequarter yields to start with. So after the mind we asked for a little flexion of the neck in the desired direction. Not too much as that would dump weight on the inside hind leg pinning it to the ground. Just enough to get the mind thinking in the direction we wished to go.

The flexion helped set the weight in the right place to enable the horse to easily perform the action we were asking.

Once the weight was correct the horse could then move the feet as desired with ease. In fact having got the mind, weight and flexion right it was almost easier to move the feet as we desired rather than stand still.


Once we had the mantra well and truly embedded with various exercises we then looked at the idea of massaging the horse whilst it is in motion in order to get a nice long and low gait.

Again we needed to get the correct flexion so Silke showed us a reflex point at the base of the horses neck just in front of the shoulder which will cause the horse to flex it's neck towards the side pressed on. This was practised at standstill to start with. This then allowed the neck to be flexed without having to use the lead rope which would just pull the horse on top of the handler.
Once achieved the handlers then started circling their horses whilst moving with them by walking at their shoulder. On a left circle handler is on left side and lead rope is in left hand. This leaves the right hand free to ask for flexion by gently pressing on the reflex point, releasing as the horse flexes. Once the correct flexion was achieved then the handler massaged the horses neck whilst they moved and also stooped as they walked to mimic the long and low position we were looking for in the horse.
Some horses clearly found even gentle massage of the neck quite painful showing how much tension they were holding. Anyone who has had a trigger point massage on a tense muscle will now what I mean. If the horse showed any sign of relaxing then the massage was stopped briefly in a micro release of the pressure. This helped show the horse that relaxing the neck muscles would take the pressure away.

It was remarkable how quickly all the horses relaxed into long and low and how much snorting was going on in the group as they released the tension.

Once achieved at walk it was repeated at trot. This was quite hard work for the handlers. Maintaining the horses trot whilst running themselves in a stooped position, pressing on the bend reflex spot and massaging the neck with micro releases as they got it right was tough. But again the results were quick and spectacular.

The stooped posture of the handler was introduced so that in future it could be used as a cue to the horse to go long and low when the handler was not in a position to touch the horse physically.

I could give a detailed version of the rest of the clinic, but in fact it was then all about putting these skills into practise to achieve a huge variety of manoeuvres. Back up with flexion for example, or travers, roll backs .... all done on line with a concentration on the relaxation of muscle groups and of course

MIND, FLEXION, WEIGHT, FEET

So much to tell

It's been such a busy few weeks I hardly know where to start ! In fact I think I'll have to split this into several posts and write them as I have time. But to give a flavour here is what we have been up to

1) Silke Valentin clinic

We attended a Silke clinic on the 27th and 28th August. Silke is from Germany and is confined to a wheelchair, or more often and motorised buggy. She has a remarkable ability to train horses despite this apparent handicap. The clinic was all ground work. My wife Ritchie took Bonitao to the clinic whilst I watched and picked up poo ! In some ways watching was almost and advantage as I could follow Silke around and watch her coaching more than one person and horse.

2) The British Rodeo Cowboys Association.

Random web searching took me to this website BRCA . I've always wanted to find somewhere I could work cattle, but was under the impression that the RSPCA in the UK prohibited it. However the BRCA does work with cattle and they have been audited by the RSPCA.
They had a Ranch Horse Event on the 6th September in Kent so we decided to go and see what they got up to. It was an absolute hoot. Great fun people having real good fun with their horses. It was a competition but the only one who seemed to take that really seriously was the judge :).

3) Clinic with Josh Steer.

Ritchie and I hosted a clinic at the yard with livery our horses on. The yard owner was very very hospitable in helping us make this happen. It's so nice to be on such an open minded and positive yard.
Josh was the apprentice of James Roberts and so we know him very well indeed and have spent many days laughing and having fun together. Since James passed away Josh has continued to develop his horsemanship to the extent he has still not even learnt to drive. So on Friday the 11th September I drove 3 1/2 hours to Lancashire to collect him. 
The clinic was held over the 12th and 13th in lovely weather. We had a total of five on the course. Three rode in the morning and then Ritchie and I in the afternoon. We split it like this as Ritchie and I are concentrating on our bosal riding at the moment and felt this made for a natural split of the group. 
During the Saturday lunch break one of my aikido instructors and I gave a mini clinic on aikido and how it can help in horsemanship. Much to my relief this was well received.

4) Barefoot trimmer visit

On the 14th September Mel Isaac came to check on our horse again. She did make some adjustments this time as she felt they had both arrived at the stage where we can help nature a little in shaping the feet. Overall she was happy with their progress and very happy with Fillys' overall development, as am I :)

As you can see lots to tell and I'll try to catch up with it all over the next week or so

These were the Vaqueros

At the suggestion of my email friend from California, Dorothy, I bought a copy of "These were the Vaqueros" by Arnold R Rojas. Difficult to get in the UK but I finally got a copy from a bookseller on ebay.

The author met some of the old timer vaqueros and rode with them a while. He realised that a lot of there old stories were going to die with them if he didn't record them so wrote many books. This book is his collected works.

Reading the first part of the book I was struck by how wild and wooly these guys were. They spent a lot of time riding bucking horses it seemed and I wondered as to why they didn't do a better job of quietening and taming them. Then I came across a story which turned a light bulb on in my head.

Some young men had done an excellent job in starting some young colts and were justifiably proud of what they had achieved. The owner, Mr Miller, of a local very large ranch came along to see the colts with a view to buying them. Proudly the young men showed him the colts. Mr Miller asked the boys to go and catch one of the horses so he could inspect it. The young lad walked up to the horse and caught it nice and easily. Like I said they had done a good job starting them. Mr Miller asked if all the colts were that tame? The assured him they were. He rode away saying they were of no use to him !
The reason ? In those days there were a lot of horse thieves in that part of the west. Horses that could be caught that easily would be gone in very short order. Mr Miller needed horses that would make a fuss being caught so the men would be alerted if someone tried to steal them.

The moral of this story is to make sure you train the horse for the purpose that is required.

I remember James Roberts telling us about a string of polo ponies he started. As was usual for him he trained them to stand very still when being mounted. When he proudly showed this to the polo team they were horrified. They needed ponies that would set off at a canter to rejoin the game as soon as they landed in the saddle.
James had to retrain that batch of colts and then spent some time with the polo team to better understand what they wanted.

Riding in the Rocky Mountains

I regularly go to Calgary in Canada for work. Last Thursday was one of those trips which meant that I had Friday off in Calgary. Mostly I hire a car and head off to the mountains to go climbing or hiking. On this occasion I decided to go riding instead.
A quick search on the internet gave several places that I could go, but only one actually in the mountains themselves. This was Boundary Ranch in Kananaskis country. A quick phone call and I was booked on the ride at 0945 on Friday. It was explained that we would only walk and that this was really just a tourist ride. But I wanted to ride in the mountains I had hiked and knew well so felt that was fine.

I arrived at the ranch early after breakfast at the Summit Cafe in Canmore. My favourite breakfast place in the area. I checked in and then wandered out to see the horses being prepared. This is a big operation with lots of horses to tack up. All the horses seemed to be in pretty good condition and the tack looked serviceable. The only thing that worried me slightly was the long shank bits they were using. Ok for riders with soft hands, but for tourists who had never ridden before ??

It turned out that there were a fair few riders. Around 20 or so plus guides. They decided to split us into two groups. Once it was time to mount up they took individual folks to their mounts and got them onboard anyway they could. But the horses had seen it all before and were chilled. The instructions were "kick them to go, pull them to stop and neck rein them to turn". Again a slightly worrying set of instructions to give tourists, but in the even most of the horses didn't need any cues as they knew the route.

Once we finally set out I could see why we were walking. The trail was very stony and in places steep. Very good terrain to get a horse thinking to its' feet. My little horse, Branton, was brilliant. Very light to the aids, though he did keep trying to pull through my hands. I guess he was trying to get enough rein so that he could eat grass. He spent quite sometime trying to out focus me with this tactic, but eventually gave it up as a bad job. After that we just got on fine. By the time we got back I was very impressed by him and said so to the guide. She found that interesting as a guide the previous year had tried to buy him at the end of his stay to take home for reining competitions.

The ride itself was through beautiful country, but I'll let the pictures describe that. I rode as the last "tourist" which meant I could chat with the following guide. We got on really well and discussed all things about horses. She was from New Zealand and before coming to the USA had only ridden in English style. Western was new to her. So we discussed the vaquero style I'm studying and she seemed very interested. By the time we got back I think was was considering studying some more herself.

To summarise I would recommend the ranch to others. Your not going to have the world most exciting ride, but the terrain and scenery more that make up for that. The horses are well looked after and seemed happy in their work. The staff are friendly in a sincere and not false way. They do longer rides than the two hours I did. All the way up to 6 days with camping out I understand. Through the Rocky Mountains that would be an experience. One of the guides was keen I should go on that trip with him so he could teach me how to go on a packing trip with horses. Again that sincere friendliness shone through.

The new bosal has arrived

We ordered a bosal off Steve Guitron which we now have at home. It's a 1/2" raw hide bosal with roo hide nose button. A buckle hanger with bosal shaped buckles (a bit fancy) and a 22' long 1/2" thick horse mane hair mecate.
The bosal is actually a little stiffer than the 5/8" we already had, though that started stiff as well. The nose button on the new one is flatter where it contacts the nose which will give it a slightly different more direct feel. The mecate reins, being new, are also stiffer and have lots of prickly hairs coming out.
When I questioned Dorothy (the lady in California) about this she said you can rub the hairs of with a good pair of gloves, but never ever trim them off. Rubbing takes a good number of hours to do though. Her other comment was to just ride as it is and when the mecate is smooth the horse is probably ready for the next size down of mecate and bosal. That's a lot of riding.
Bonitao will be riding in this for a while, though we haven't tried it yet. Looking forward to seeing how he goes in it though.

Note that in the photo the mecate is not tied to the bosal. They should never be left tied as it will over time effect the feel of the bosal. We always undo our mecate after every days riding. For us it is just part of the discipline of being able to ride in the bosal.
Riding and owning one should never be taken for granted, they are a privilege to use and should be treated as such.
If you think of the hours of workmanship to make one then you'll understand what I mean.
If you ride in it badly you can also undo months of good training so I always take a very disciplined approach to riding in one. This is not because they are harsh, far from it. The snag is if the horse learns that they can push through it with force then it's a lesson they will learn probably for life.
Maybe that is why I find them so effective, they make me ride better with soft hands and feel. Getting into a pulling match would be really bad news.

Inside the bosal

Now I'm back to riding properly by enthusiasm for studying has increased. So the other night I watched the Mike Bridges DVD on hackemore riding again.

I picked up on several ideas that make more sense to me now. One of the key ones is the idea of riding inside the bosal.

The bosal is a raw hide "hoop" that encircles the horses nose and hangs from a piece of leather that goes over the poll. If the horses face is vertical there is little or no contact from the bosal on the horses face. If the face is not vertical and the nose is sticking out then the bosal rests on the horses nose and provide pressure there. The pressure is supplied by the weight of the bosal and the weight of the heel knot that ties the reins to the bosal. Thus if the horse is flexed vertically then his nose is on the inside of a ring. The rider can use the reins to move that ring around. So if we want the horse to laterally flex to the right the rider applies a little right rein and the left cheek bar of the bosal comes into contact with the horses left cheek/jawbone. If they move there head correctly then the contact comes off and the bosal hangs loose again. Thus they remain "inside" the bosal.


This is what makes the bosal so effective for teaching the horse how to carry there head compared with using a bit. With a bit there is constant contact to ask for the flexion so there is never true release of the entire signal. With the bosal if the horse moves correctly then the bosal is hanging free again and all signal is removed. Thus the horse can search for this spot of complete release and be rewarded when they find it.

Of course this is in the ideal world. In practise they can take to leaning on the bosal, which is a pretty mild feeling. Milder than a rope halter anyway. The rider must not let this happen, but using steady pressure will not be a strong enough signal to get the horse to come of the pressure.
Thus when riding in a bosal it is important to never accept steady pressure from the horse. The signal can be applied with a nice soft feel but if the horse pushes into that feel then the reply should be bumps from the rider proportionate to the pressure the horse is applying. The bumps start light and increase in frequency and intensity until the horse comes of the pressure when they should cease instantly.

This instant release of pressure is a part of the function of a well set up hackemore. To get this to happen reliably and quickly the size and weight of the mecate rein must be correct for the size and weight of the bosal. So for a 5/8" bosal the best is to use a 5/8" 22 foot mecate. As the horse gets lighter in this set up then the mecate can reduce in size and weight to the 1/2" with the 5/8" bosal. When this is light then the horse is ready for the 1/2" bosal.... and so on down the sizes to the 3/8" bosal and mecate.

I've found this image of being inside the bosal has suddenly opened a new door to effectiveness for me. At the moment I'm awaiting a new bosal for Filly so I'm riding her in the rope halter.  The snag with a rope halter is that there is never a total release of course, it's too flexible and is always in contact with the face. Even so this image has had a powerful effect actually making me lighter and more precise with my handling of the reins.
Ritchie was using the image today when riding Bonitao in a true bosal and also reports that it helped her feel.

Can't wait for my new bosal to arrive so I can explore this concept further with Filly.

Here's a picture of a bosal for those who aren't familiar with them. With the nose in this position it is easy to understand what I mean by being "inside the bosal" 

Vaquero

As many of you will know I've become interested in the vaquero tradition. As a result I've been riding our horse Bonitao in a 5/8 bosal and mecate for nearly two years now. With Filly being able to be ridden more it was time to buy a new bosal so we can both ride together. Bonitao is getting to the stage where we probably need to go down a size in mecate, if not bosal, to the 1/2". As a result I've spent some time on the internet researching who produces nice bosals.
I've certainly discovered that not all bosals are created equally during this search and so refined my search to hand braided bosals made in the USA by people who understand their use and ride with them. Preferably from the California tradition of vaquero as that is the style I am particularly interested in.
This search lead me to the website California Classics. Scared that I was going to sound a total fool I rang them and the phone was answered by Dorothy. She started with an explanation as to why she couldn't supply a bosal just at the moment as Aaron has torn the ligaments in his arm and can't braid until next year. But then we started talking about vaquero. And, boy, did we talk. 58 minutes later we hung up (which was lucky as I have free international calls for 1 hour). We talked about all things vaquero. She seemed really excited that here was someone from the UK interested in her heritage.
We spoke about the folks she has known well. Folks you probably never heard of like Tom and Bill Dorrance (she was going to be the co-author of Bills book), Ray Hunt etc. I quickly realised I was talking to someone who "knew" vaquero. She reckoned she had managed to produce 2 good bridle horses herself in her life, but unfortunately could no longer ride.
Some of the information was interesting. There is a style "vaquero" and a person with the title Vaquero. There were actually very few Vaqueros as this was a title bestowed by the elders of the area and only bestowed on the very best horsemen. So many who describe themselves as vaquero maybe riding in that style but may not be worthy of the title.
We discussed Pat Parelli briefly. I explained that that was were I started my horsemanship education and learned that vaqueros even existed. She agreed that it was a good place to start but wasn't sure were Pat was going with his horsemanship now.

The upshot of all this is that we have been emailing a bit and she says she'll answer my questions as they come up but be patient about the reply.
Her website does have a lot of good information on it and I can recommend a read http://www.calclassics.net/index.php . I can particularly recommend the following page  for general interest
http://www.calclassics.net/php/learn/index.php

A lovely ride

I've missed the horses for the last few days as I've been joint director of the local gliding regional championship. That was over 9 days, though I did manage to make a fleeting visit to Filly a couple of times.
The championship ended last night and I had made sure to have today off to get some chores done and see the horses.

Filly is living out at the moment so I had to collect her from her field. As the track to her field is stony and hard this gave me a chance to asses how she was walking. I'm pleased to say she was pretty good. She still has the odd miss step as she treads on an uncomfortable stone but has generally learnt to avoid those. The trick is to leave the lead rope very very loose and let her find her own way down.

We did all the usual "prepare to ride" routine, but I put an emphasis on a soft feel on the halter. To do this we did falling leaf pattern where I walk forwards while she trots half circles back and forwards in front of me. To get her to keep her distance from me I just swing the stick and string around in friendly fashion. Not trying to tag her but not avoiding it either. The game for her was to work out how to avoid the stick and string. The solution was nice neat turns and a change in her body arc as she changed direction. She got frustrated at one point but then worked it out and really relaxed and chilled about the whole idea. Lots of licking and chewing later and she was ready to ride.

I mount up outside the yard as I don't want to ride her on the rocky track. At this stage that wouldn't be fair on her. Once mounted we rode up the bridleway, which though steep, is not rocky to the carpark at the top. It only takes around 15 minutes which at her stage is ideal. I got off there and let her graze for a while before mounting and riding her back down.

I know for many folks this is a "so what" moment. "You rode your horse to a carpark and back".
But for me it was a big deal for the following reasons
Only once did she get tense and I had to let her relax before asking her forwards. That was the only time on the entire ride I had to use my lower leg. To start walking other than that occasion was just a shift in my intention and a light squeeze with my thighs. During the rest of the ride I actually worked on my own riding by trying to keep me legs and feet soft and still.
At no point did I have to use the reins, though I held them at a length just short of a contact to start with. By the end it was one handed and loose.
I kept stroking and reassuring her that I was still there by talking a load of nonsense.

We met some hikers on the way home which she was a little nervous about. So I gave them some treats to feed Filly and they soon made friends.

It wasn't so much the ride as the feeling of total contentment. She was not lame at all, even coming down a fairly steep hill which just heightened my feeling of well being. I think this transferred onto Filly and made the ride even better.

Back to work tomorrow unfortunately with no time to ride which is deeply frustrating after today. Only two days working then two off. Can't wait !!

Visit from Barefoot trimmer

Another check up for the horses. This time from our barefoot trimmer, Mel.
We started with Filly. I had been concerned that the hind hoofs had become a bit long. Mel agreed, but did not trim them. She just prescribed more road work to get them to wear down naturally.
The fronts were more interesting. The front right is beginning to look pretty good. Most of the old hoof wall from when she was shod has split off. The new hoof has a much shorter toe and the hoof is overall much more upright. This will of course reduce the stress on the deep flexor tendon which will release the pressure on the navicular bursa and make her much more comfortable.
The front left is a slightly odd shape, not at all symmetrical. But Mel feels that this has adapted to the old injury in her right shoulder and should not be made to look pretty. Filly should be allowed to adapt her hooves as her body dictates.
Her right hind has a bit of asymmetry to the inside (medial) half of her hoof. Again Mel feels that this is an adaptation her feet have made to her body and should be left alone.
The believe is that as the hooves adapt to her body her body will have less physical stress on it and that will allow her body to adjust itself to a better alignment. As this happens the feet will readjust as necessary keeping up with the body. So there is a continual give and take going on between the hooves and her upper limbs.
Of course this needs help from us, but not from the rasp or the knife. Our part in this whole equation is to help her move in a better way. In Fillys' case that means straighter and more forwards ( effectively a longer stride). This I can help her with using ground work. When on a circle I can use a flag to encourage the inside hind to step well forwards and under her body. When she gets this right she obviously feels the relaxation as her head lowers and she becomes soft in the body. The periods for which this relaxation is occurring are getting longer and longer.
The flag itself is also use to get her to think about parts of her body. If I see her sides getting tense I just have to move the flag to the spot and it relaxes allowing the head to go back down. Obviously to achive this she has to be totally confident that the flag is not a threatening object, just a caressing one.

So what was the overall impression that Mel had of Filly. Much improved is the answer. She barely touched the hooves, just tidied up the bits that are flaking off anyway and added the slightest roll to her toes. And I mean slight. Maybe a millimetre or so. She could not see any lameness at walk so saw no need to "fix" anything.

Once Mel had left we did the usual prepare to ride and I rode Filly up to the top car park and back with Ritchie leading Bonitao behind us. This is along our normal in hand walking route and she knows she gets to eat grass at the carpark. Ritchie was very sweaty by the time we got there trying to keep up :).
Filly was calmly and confidently very forward with no lameness I could detect at all. And believe me I am on high alert for lameness !! At the car park I got off and allowed her to graze for ten minutes before remounting and riding her towards the stables. On the way down I thought I detected a very very slight limp. To be on the safe side I got off for the steep downhill and we walked quietly back.
So all in all a good report for Filly and our first ride up the hill through the woods.

A good horse day :)

Good news

We had our horse osteo, Dustie, come and do one of her regular check-ups on our horses. We have these done every six months, or more often if there is a specific problem.

Last time Dustie assessed Filly she thought she was not in a great place. Sore back, tight hamstrings and generally not herself. That was just after she had come back from Rockley Farm and to be honest she does not travel at all well. It was a 4 hour journey home to a new yard and she was not happy about it.
So I was a little nervous as to what Dustie would have to say this time.

I could not be there for the actual visit, but my wife, Ritchie, was. As soon as I got home I rang to find out what was said. I needn't have worried so much.

Dustie reckoned Filly was better than she has ever seen her. Her spark was back, which means should wouldn't stand still for the treatment and needs a dummy in her mouth (rope) to keep her occupied.

She found that a rib was out, probably as the result of rolling. The hamstrings are still a little tight. The right shoulder injury was much much looser and she was moving well.

Interestingly her right canter lead is very smooth, but her left one is very choppy. Until she really gets moving that is. Apparently she had an extreme extrovert moment after her roll and cantered at speed around the school. During this she was moving well on both canter leads and changing lead at will.

I rode her yesterday for the first time in a while. The delay being due to my bad back. She felt really good. No cantering but lots of trotting.

As for her behaviour when being ridden it was not great. She wasn't being dangerous, but she had decided that she wanted to lean on the outside rein the whole time. As a result the ride was much longer than I had anticipated as I dis not want to reward that behaviour by getting off. So we just rode a follow the rail pattern until we managed a whole lap with me having to use no more than phase 2 on the outside rein to keep her straight. This was in the rope halter and I think it time we went back to the 5/8" bosal. After all the rope halter more supple than a bosalita and that is for use on a finished bosal horse just before going to two rein.

Means I'm going to have to buy a 1/2" bosal for Bonitao and a 1/2" mecate to go with it. Time he moved on anyway.

Walking slowly

I was flying my glider the other day when I hit one of the worst patches of turbulence I've ever encountered. It felt like the bottom of the glider was suddenly hit by a large hammer. The shock of the impact went straight into my back. By the time I landed it was a bit sore. Two days later it was very sore. A day after that I was in an A and E in Berlin being x-rayed. No major damage fortunately but according to my physio a nerve that was very very unhappy.

The physio did say I need to walk though and who better to go for a nice walk with than Filly :)

So for the last few days we have been walking up into the hills for 40 minutes or so. It is most comfortable for me to walk correctly but slowly. Filly is used to me striding out and this has caused her a little confusion.

James Roberts always said we should make sure that whenever we were walking we should have a forwards walk. He even got us to practise the correct pace by walking up and down his school and timing us. This was to make a forwards walk a habit for both us and our horses when they are with us. As he said without "forwards" you cannot train your horse in any other area. That's why the first three items on his training scale was "Rhythm, relaxation, forwards".
So for years Filly is used to a forwards walk when we are together.

So this has become and interesting and overlooked exercise for us. I particularly need slowness downhill at the moment. I'm trying to achieve this with a soft feel of course. So I have the lead rope at a relatively short length but with some slack. If Filly walks too fast she takes up the slack and leans on the halter.
I ask gently with a twist of my wrist and a drop in my body energy for her to come back to me. If that requires more than around a pound of pressure I avoid getting into a pulling match by using my other hand and tapping her on the chest with the end of the lead rope. Very soon she realised that pulling on the halter resulted in the tap and she stopped pulling. We are now at the point that just the weight of the snap lifting up as she starts to pull the slack out of the rope is enough for her to slow down.

I do NOT hit her hard with the end of the lead rope, just a light tap. If I need more I increase the frequency not the force so that it becomes annoying to her rather than painful. I don't believe you can teach anything through pain except fear.

This might sound like a boring way to spend a training session but actually it has been really good fun and has yet again been a place for Filly and I to explore a soft feel.

Update on the feet

Since I last wrote there have been many ups and downs. Fortunately the ups have outnumbered the downs and I feel we are making progress.

Fillys' hooves have now nearly grown a complete new hoof capsule since the start of her time at Rockley farm. Now the new hoof is very close to the ground we are beginning to see rapid changes in the shape of sole. At the moment it looks like she has a badly flared front right hoof, but actually looking at the hoof more closely shows this not to  be the case. What looks like flare near the ground is the remaining hoof wall from when she used to be shod. We can tell this because farriers often smooth the hoof wall with sand paper to "make it look nice". The surface of the "flare" is very smooth and is clearly a vestige of the shod hoof wall. This is starting to break of and the true shape of her hoof is starting to emerge.

This is all helping with her gait. She now trots very nicely on a pretty tight circle on both left and right rein. None of her old head nodding. In fact she holds her head pretty low and even. This is getting better and better with time.

I'm not achieving this using side reins or other constricting devices as I believe that this gives a false impression of how the horse is moving.

What I'm actually do is moving with Filly on the circle abeam zone 3 (hind quarters) and using a flag or stick and string to just ask the inside hind to step under her body as she trots. Timing the ask with the stick or flag is pretty important. I try and get the signal in time with the inside hind foot leaving the ground so that it is able to move under her whilst in its' swing phase.

After a minute or so of this she tends to really flex her body and neck laterally and then the neck vertically. As a reward I then allow her to go onto a bigger circle and relax for a circle or two. I'm increasing the time I ask for the flexion slowly and we can now do two or three circles of flexion before needing a rest.

This was a technique James Roberts used to call "online engaging indirect/direct rein" and it is only now I really begin to understand it. The step under is an indirect rein move but the way it applied tends to engage the hind quarters rather than disengage them. The direct rein is when we go back onto a relaxed circle and hopefully retain the engagement for a stride or two.

So all in all things are progressing well. A vet from the USA came and saw her a few days ago (flu jab) and passed comment that she was starting to get nice frogs. This is particularly significant as he is and ex farrier :)

Solo hacking

Since I last posted things have moved on well.

Mel has been over again to check up on the progress of both our horses. She is a barefoot specialist. I won't call her a barefoot trimmer as she has yet to see the need to touch our horses hooves with anything more aggressive than her hands, We spent a lovely afternoon with Mel, including coffee and cakes . I hadn't realised fully how far she travels to see us. Around 2 1/2 hours each way !! I am very grateful she takes the time to help us out.
Her report on both horses was pretty good. The main problem was with Fillys right front. It's actually the best looking hoof of the lot but the heels are getting a little long and so the frog has lost contact with the ground. We think that is because she favours the front left and so wears the front right less. So some schooling to get her more balanced was prescribed.

That schooling fits in nicely with doing a "prepare to ride" each day. And yes I have been riding her a fair bit. Several times in the school and now out on a hack.

We have been on two hacks. Both short as we are keeping her ridden work short as she builds muscle. The first was with Bonitao and Ritchie. The first part of the hack is along a road planings track. Filly walks and trots on this fine when not ridden, but with my weight onboard she is finding it a little sore again. Not badly so, just the odd missed step as she steps on something sharp. Other than saying "keep going along the track" I don't try to guide her. She has walked this track many many times now and knows where the best footing is so I just let her meander around to where she feels comfortable.

After two hacks with Bontiao I felt it time to go solo. Yesterday was a lovely day so I felt it would be a good time to go out on our own. After a very good prepare to ride with some trotting over poles on a circle I walked down to the carpark and mounted up.

She was a little hesitant leading the yard as there was lots of very big farm machinery around. Just by being calm and focussed we were soon past those and out on the track. She was a little tense and the old limp came back for a while causing me to worry a little. But as soon as she relaxed the limp disappeared much to my relief. I wonder if the limp is now just a learned behaviour brought on with tenseness ?

We continued until we got to a nice patch of grass next to a busy road with a golf course on the other side. She was a little tense about the golfers, as was the golfer in the bunker . But she grazed on the sweet grass. Not in a totally relaxed way, she was chewing too fast, but at least she could keep grazing without startling at anything.

The walk back was better in terms of the limp. She offered trot a couple of times but I politely declined by relaxing and picking one rein straight up. We are still riding in the rope reins and halter.

I need to buy another bosal really but haven't got around to it. In the UK we have to order them from the USA to get a really good one and buying off the internet takes care.

Back on the yard and I had a totally relaxed Filly. As a first solo hack it could not have gone better. We didn't do this prior to her rehab as we were at a yard where hacking out was much harder. Busy roads etc. But at this yard it's a real pleasure with miles of track and lanes to explore as she gets stronger, with enough variety to keep us both interested.

A quick check up

It's been nearly a month now since we removed the shoes from Bonitao so we felt it time for him to have a check up and see how a specialist barefoot trimmer viewed his progress. So we had a visit from Mel yesterday.

As I was on standby for work we looked at Filly first.
Mels' view was that her feet were still progressing pretty well although the heel of the front left had grown a little long so that the frog had lost contact with the ground. However she thought that in general the digital cushion of the hooves had improved since her last visit and I should continue to concentrate on improving her muscle tone, especially on the right side. She did think this had improved but had a way to go to get Filly properly balanced. She also thought that it could be the muscle imbalance that is causing just the front left to grow extended heels. As she would be weighting that side more this would stimulate the hoof to grow more rapidly.
The abscess sites that came out of the coronet band whilst she was at Rockley farm last July have nearly finished growing out now and Mel wants to see Filly again once they have disappeared.
She agrees that the abscesses were almost certainly caused by the shoes originally but it took the mobilisation of the hoof structure that occurred when the shoes came off to allow them to erupt.

As for Bonitao, she thought he was progressing very well indeed. The constricted heels that had been created by years of shoeing was beginning to self correct and the hugely overgrown heel depth was slowly returning to normal. We have noticed that since the shoes have come off he is less prone to tripping. I guess that he must have felt he was wearing high heels all this time and is finally transitioning to more comfortable flat footware :) .

Again Mel saw no need to see him again for a while so long as we keep working him hard and get him out on the roads to abrade the hooves to a better shape.

She did not actually trim or rasp either horse hooves as she felt that doing so would impede rather than help their progress.

So the medium term plan is more walking / riding out for both horses and some gymnastic work for Filly online to improve her muscle tone. Both of these activities are fun so there is good incentive to keep up the progress we are making.

Riding Filly again

At last all the conditions came good.
Filly is walking well with just a little thrush in both hind hoof frogs. This does not seem to be causing any discomfort and is being treated.
The weather was overcast, cool and calm.
There was no one else on the yard to cause distraction for either of us.

It was time to ride Filly !

I did the usual prepare to ride routine I do everytime I ride a horse. This provides structure to the session, gives me confidence and Filly consistency. It allows me to assess whether Filly is "mentally, emotionally and physically" ready to be ridden.

It was interesting that as soon as I got the saddle pad and saddle out Filly's ears pricked up and she followed me with her eyes where ever I went. If I can anthropomorphise for a moment it looked for all the world as though she wanted to be ridden.

The prepare to ride went incredibly well. She stood stock still and relaxed for the saddling. As for the actual prepare to ride section I concentrated on travelling circles (circling game as I walked around the school) and the direct / indirect rein falling leaf pattern. The first was done to make sure she was respecting my personal space and her mind was active and working on how to move to stay in a circle around me as I moved. The falling leaf pattern was done to check that she would yield her hind quarters and follow a feel on the halter.

She was giving me so many "green lights" to get on with it I actually did a pretty short session. Certainly not the sort of session a traditional trainer might to "take the edge" off the horse.

I had debated with myself for a while as to what headgear to put on her. She has made it clear in the past that she prefers to have the minimum on her face so I ruled out the bosal for now. That left the rope halter. But one rein or two reins ?
As she was being so good at follow a feel I decided that one rein was more appropriate so just used the 12 foot lead rope without tying it up to form two reins. I was only going to follow the rail at walk (I want to slowly build her up physically) so just having one rein that I could use to bend her to the fence if we got into trouble would be fine.

Mounting went pretty well. The only snag was when I tried to rock her to get her to brace herself. She's so good at follow a feel now she just followed the pressure I was putting on the saddle. Finally she kind of arranged her feet in a good position and there was another "green light".

So I got on. She did not move a muscle :) . Once on we did the usual neutral lateral flexion which was a little sticky to start with, hind quarter yield where she reminded me to be very light with my legs, and forequarter yield which went well.

With that we were on the rail and walking around happily. I was paying particular attention to her gait. Was she still lame ? This was what I was most nervous about for this ride. The honest truth is that she was the best I have ever felt. Not 110% sound, but much more comfortable than ever before. The only time she felt a little lame was when she got tense approaching the corner of the school where all the scary jump wings are housed. But even that was better than the best we had before.

We followed the rail in both directions for around 10 minutes total and as soon as she was completely relaxed for a whole circuit (those jump wings ;) ) I got off.

After the ride again I am in danger of anthropomorphising but she became very cuddly and seemed very content with life.

All in all it could not have gone better :)

 

Neutral lateral flexion

 A content Tim and Filly at the end of the ride.

Happy day

Yesterday I decided would be a good day to check that Filly "accepted a human". It's been a long time since I did this with her as it involves sitting on the horse :) .
Fortunately I recently spent a great day with my instructor Josh watching him start colts. Josh was James Roberts apprentice when we first met. Since James sadly left us Josh has continued his studying with a variety of horseman and has also set up his own business starting and re-starting colts. Unfortunately for me he has left JRFS in Wiltshire and moved up to a place near Aintree. However he was at JRFS for three weeks recently doing a colt start for them and I took the opportunity to spend the day refreshing my knowledge and learning the new things Josh has discovered over the past year.

So, with my knowledge refreshed, I decided it was time to make sure Filly was still accepting of a human on her back.
I ran through the usual "prepare to ride" checklist I follow prior to every ride, except for the saddling part. Accept a human is best done bareback in case the horse reacts badly to the experience. In addition I just used the rope halter and 12 foot lead rope. That prevents me being tempted to pull on both reins if things go badly as I only have one rein !

Rather than bore you with all the details I will just comment that the actual mounting went very well. To start I just jumped up and lay across her back, rubbing the far side of her. Then slid off when she relaxed. I then lay across her again then knelt on the side of her back in an upright position to check she was ok seeing me vertical on her back. Slid off when she relaxed. Then I went to the kneeling position again and as she seemed chilled slid my leg over so I was sat on her. Her head did come up a little at that point, but after just 30 seconds rubbing on her her head dropped and around a minute later she let out a long relaxing sigh. I rewarded that by getting off and finishing the session.

I got the feeling that she kind of said "at last". She was very cuddly as I put her away and seemingly very happy and relaxed. I'm not going to do this again until I'm ready to ride her as that would not be progressive. It was just a quick check to ensure that there was not more extensive training needed before I could start riding her properly. Once she is physically ready to be ridden properly I may quickly do the same then saddle up and get on with it. I'm debating what bridle to ride her in. It'll either be the rope halter and just the lead rope on one side, or the rope halter and clip on reins. We'll see how it goes and how she feels on the day.

I was so excited to be on her again I went around and told everyone who would listen. No one but my wife seemed that excited for me, but they don't know how much it has taken to get to this stage so that's ok :)

A silly accident and positive news from the vet

I made a stupid error the other day and Filly paid the price. I allowed her to roll in the outdoor school too close to the fence. Filly rarely manages to roll right over so I wasn't too worried. That day she did and she got caught up in the fence area. I was very pleased that she didn't really panic, but of course she had to squirm around a lot to get unstuck. Very little I could do to help. Eventually she found her way to her feet and trotted around the school looking a little upset.
I just quietly followed her and eventually she came to me and walked alongside. At least she could move and didn't seem lame. However she had a lot of grazes on her hind legs, none bleeding, but they looked raw and sore.
I quickly took her back to the barn and washed them with hebe scrub to try and avoid them getting infected. That seems to have worked.

However the next day she had a puffed up right hind leg. Spraying cold water on it didn't help much, but walking seemed to reduce it a bit. As 4 days went by we decided to get the vet to have a look. Ben came out yesterday.

He was not too concerned about the leg. Said to keep an eye on it and call him if it got worse.
Whilst he was there he took the opportunity to look at Filly's feet. I was a bit nervous as to what he would say as the abscess holes are now at ground level and there is lots of cracking of the hoof wall around them.
To my relief Ben thought they were doing very well. He did suggest we just rasp of the edges so they weren't sharp, something I routinely do anyway.
He then saw her walk and thought she was moving much better than when he last saw her. He then asked for her to walk on some rough ground so we went on the very stony steep track to the school and back. He actually seemed quite surprised as to how well she coped with that terrain.
I was very excited to hear what he had to say. It was professional confirmation of what I felt to be true. All the hard work is beginning to pay off at last and I can look forward to a horse that is comfortable and happy to move around.

On a side note I went to the Parelli day at Addington which was amazing.
However it cost me a fortune as I bought a Photonic red light unit. They look like a small maglite torch but cost £600  :eek: .
I had researched them a lot in the past, used a borrowed one on myself when I had my hip injury and have friends who swear by them.
However the benefits seem to good to actually be true and I was worried it was "snake oil".
With trepidation, expecting him to laugh at my extravagance, I showed it to the vet. He was actually very positive about them. He said the practise uses the exact same model I have bought and has had some amazing results, especially for flesh wounds, which was handy given the circumstances of his visit  :) .
I mentioned that the seller at the show was a hoof podiatrist and had recommended running it around the coronet band to stimulate hoof growth. Again to my surprise he agreed with that idea even though he had not thought of it before himself. He reckoned it was good for treating any shallow structure in the body but that there was still ongoing research as to how deep it's healing properties will penetrate.

Another exercise

Talking of relaxation there was a second technique to keep in mind that I find very useful when playing online with a horse.

Bear with me on this one  

It starts with two folks holding your forearms with both hands. They hold tightly such that your upper arms are out horizontally from your shoulders and your elbows bent so your forearms are point vertically downwards. They can even lift up a little on the forearms to put you in a very awkward position. You'll find that you can barely move and indeed I have seen film of police marching someone off like this.

However the reason you can't move is that the grip on your arms makes you want to move your arms.
The trick is to forget about your arms and realise you can still move the rest of your body. So totally relax your shoulders and just leave your forearms where they are. Take a step back with one foot and gently kneel down. Then whilst kneeling slowly sit back on your heels, still keeping your arms loose. You'll find you have to be leaning forwards from your waist at this point. Then just slow raise your torso to the upright position, still kneeling and put "weight" in your arms so they drop to your sides.
You'll find that if you are still loose in your arms your opponents will be inexorably pulled off balance and if they don't let go will fall to the ground either side of you. At no point did you use your arm muscles or really use any strength at all, just position and your weight.
I weigh 86 kgs and I've had a 55kg girl pull me over doing this, so relative weight is of little importance.
Tony, my sensei, describes the feeling on the uki (guy holding the arm) as "whoa, ok I'll go over here then" rather than "your not pulling me over there". Done properly this should provide a feeling of wanting to follow the pressure rather than wanting to pull back against it.

So how does this relate to horsemanship?
I now try to avoid using muscles when I play online. I think more about body position and just having weight in my arms.
So if a horse pulls my arm out straight I don't use arm muscles to pull back. They are way to weak and when applying that much power cannot be subtle enough with the way the power is applied and released.
If the horse pulls I try to imagine my arms are very heavy and want to swing back to my side from whence they came before the pull occurred. If the horse still pulls I just think about sitting back away from the horse similar to what I just described. Not kneeling down of course, but the same intention.
The same idea of relaxed but powerful ki drawing the horse towards me. But the drawing is in a smooth way.

It is the way that the force is applied that matters rather than the amount used and to apply the force correctly I try to use relaxation and ki (intention).

After a little searching on youtube I came across Seishiro Endo Shihan demonstrating the ideas to a class in Japan. It's not the same exercise that I just described but has many of the same ideas. If you look at around 4 minutes 30 seconds into the video you'll see some ideas that more closely relate to online work. Hope this helps the understanding of my ramblings

  Seishiro Endo Shihan

Loosening exercise

I have a really stiff body. Not chronic pain stiffness nor is it stiffness due to a lack of flexibility. It's a stiffness of the mind. It doesn't allow the antagonistic muscles to relax enough to allow for beautiful flowing movement as any who have seen me dance will testify. I've been working on this for a while now using aikido to help but it is still very present. Particularly my shoulders which of course impedes my riding and my softness.

I was lucky enough to actually be able to train with Endo on two occasions during the camp. Each lasting less than a minute I suspect, but long enough for him to put me to the ground and then slap my back and shoulders whilst laughing and saying "too stiff, too stiff"  

Fortunately a large part of the camp was about getting us all looser and "following a feel". Sound familiar to horsemanship training ?

In aikido the person receiving the technique (the one who has typically supplied the attack for the aikido technique to be practised on) is called the Uki. The person who is countering the attack and performing the aikido technique is called the Tori.
Uki needs to know how to move when the technique is applied or it will hurt. Move well and the technique applied to him should just feel smooth, painless but powerful. So it is important uki knows how to move well.

The exercise I'm going to describe helps uki relax their whole body and allow it to move to follow a feel.

Tori stands in front of uki and presents his arms out in front with hands palm down. Uki holds the back of toris' wrists so that their little fingers are towards the hand and thumbs towards the elbow. This should feel a natural way to hold the presented arms. During the exercise it is uki's task to maintain that grip. It shouldn't be a strong grip as that causes tenseness in the arms, but firm enough that the palm of ukis' hand at the base of the thumb is always in contact with toris' forearm.

Tori now starts to move there arms around in a rythmic flowing way. Up and down, side to side and also twisting the forearm. Start with small movements and build as the feel gets better.
Uki has the job of maintaining that grip whilst just flowing with the movement. That may mean bending at the waist, knees, moving the feet around, whatever it takes to maintain that contact and follow the feel of that motion. Whilst doing it uki should examine their body in their mind for any signs of tightness and let it go. After a while it should just feel like a smooth flowing dance with loose arms, shoulders, neck, back, hips, knees and feet. Most of all a loose flowing mind that is in the moment and following the feel with no conscious control of the body.

I have tried this before riding and, boy, did it make a difference. Even Bonitao seemed to notice it. I suddenly found I could move my body "through" my shoulders so my hands could softly remain much quieter than in the past. Particularly at canter. If I felt tightness threatening to take over I just put myself in the moment of that exercise and it loosened up again. Ritchie says she noticed an immediate improvement in my riding. Not perfect but definitely going in the right direction.