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.