A chilled Filly

Sunday 30 October 2016

Montana Holiday Part 2 : The Round Pen

We arrived at Rocking Z ranch in the early afternoon on a Sunday. We hoped we might have time for a quick ride but weren't sure if that would fit in with the schedule. After all surely Maria and Ben had to have a day off, didn't they?

As it happens it appears they don't ! So after taking our bags to the lovely room we were soon down in the barn and with the horses. I had sent an email to Rocking Z prior to arriving outlining our experience and what we each wanted to get out of the week so Maria already had a plan as to what to do with us. This is a practise I would recommend to anyone going anywhere for a lesson. It saves time for all and allows the activities to be better tailored to the individual.

I had said that I wanted to hone my hackemore skills and progress on the path of learning the vaquero way of horsemanship. I also said that I was keen on interacting with several horses, not just one.

Maria selected a lovely quarter horse mare called Coco for our first session and had her waiting for me in the barn. Time was getting on a little so we decided not to tack up but to concentrate on ground skills.

The ranch has a honeycomb in one of its fields. For those not familiar with a honeycomb I'll try to describe it. Imagine a huge round pen made of post and round pole fencing with an entrance. Then imagine four normal sized round pens inside of the large one placed symmetrically. There is room on the outside of these inner round pens to allow one to easily ride around them whilst staying on the inside rail of the big round pen. Of course you can also ride between the smaller round pens as well. Here is a photo I found of the layout from the Parelli website
This is a brilliant system with an almost infinite variety of patterns and uses.

However today we were just using it as a set of round pens for the four of us who would be playing with horses.

One important aspect of the Rocking Z ranch in my mind is that they do not assume they know it all. They regularly have visiting clinicians and they themselves take part in the clinics. Martin Black goes there every year as does Dave and Jody Ellis. So they seek out top trainers to learn from and it shows.

Maria shared with us a very important concept in this session from Dave Ellis. She said that the implications of this had both shocked her and subsequently improved her horsemanship enormously. And it's such a simple idea.

Never Let you horse do something. Only Allow it to do something.

If you let the horse do something then the horse is taking over and is the leader. By allowing the horse to do something you have set up the suggestion and the horse should willingly comply with that suggestion.

Let me give you the example that Maria got me and Coco to play with to explain this profound idea more.

I asked Coco to do a driving game hind quarter yield by walking with intention towards her hind quarters from the side. Use the tail end of the lead rope or stick and string if your body intention is not enough. Having got the hind legs crossing over then continuing to walk in that direction causing Coco to continually yield the hind quarters. This is of course the friendly game. Horses should after all "Maintain Gait, Maintain Direction" without being asked. It's just that in this case the gait is a continuous hind quarter stepping over. So we are now allowing this movement and our body language of confident friendly game should make this clear.

Now however we want the motion to stop. So we prepare in our minds and then relax from the friendly game in motion to a relaxed "now stop" feeling.

This relaxed "now stop" is not friendly game. It's an instruction. It just so happens that the instruction comes from my body relaxing. The horse should then stop immediately. If they don't, but keep on moving, then we are letting them move and letting them ignore our request to stop. On several occasions Maria said that to her my "now stop" command had been very clear so Coco had clearly just decided to ignore it.

How does this work in practice ? With Coco I would decide that the next time the far hind leg (to me) hits the ground it must not move again. The other legs could adjust to let her come into balance but not the leg I had chosen to stop. I would prepare my mind at least one full step in advance so as to be ready then as the required foot hit the ground I would relax to a stop in my mind and body.

So what to do if they keep moving and take a step or two of "let" movement ? Then ask them to do more. Possibly much more ! "You want to move more, then let me help you". Then ask again for the stop. It didn't take long for Coco to get the idea and I could stop that hind foot 80% of the time.

Such a simple but profound idea. I now watch for all those little moments when a horse has taken over and I am letting them do something rather than allowing them to do something. And that does not just mean hind quarter yields !

Having played with that for a while Maria closed the rail to my round pen and I had a go at liberty with Coco.
My experience of round pen training is limited. I had done some in the past when Larissa kindly leant me Mini to play with at her yard. Trouble was that Mini could duck under the rail of that pen so I had learnt to be too quiet with him. A bit too much pressure and Mini left leaving me a long walk to collect him again :(

I therefore started with some quiet "stick to me". Maria said that looked kind of cute but I should up my game and get some life into Coco. Be more playful !
So I brought my energy up and instantly found what a playful girl Coco was. We soon had her cantering around the pen bucking, kicking and having a great time. To change direction I had a fundamentally bad habit. Standing in the middle of the pen with Coco on a left circle I would back away from her to block at the fence and turn her the other way. Trouble was I was backing on an arc away from her line of travel. Maria rapidly corrected this and had me back straight towards the fence. That tiny change made a huge difference in Coco's reaction and we got even more play drive. I have to say that initially it was a little intimidating being in a round pen with such a playful horse, but within a minute or two it just became exhilarating.

What was interesting was that when I let my energy down and backed slowly away to draw her in she came straight away but with a lovely playful trot and gleam in her eye. As Maria said if I had actually been worrying her she could easily have jumped out and left, but she stayed to play.

This was the horse that I mentioned in the last post as having come straight up to me the next morning in the corral. Whilst I acknowledge that is partly due to the feed they get when taken into the barn none of the other 70 horses did the same. Clearly Coco enjoyed being around me as well, or at least didn't hate the idea !!

All in all that was a great first session and opened my eyes to many new concepts. We don't have a round pen at our yard but I have tried to take the energy and enthusiasm I felt in that session into Filly and my online play. The difference has been tremendous. Much more athleticism from Filly. And from while I try to keep up with her new moves :)

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