I attended a dressage clinic this past weekend with a friend of mine, and really learned a lot. It was interesting to see how subtle things are, and how at high levels, the riders are actually quite aware of their horses! I say 'actually' because I'm used to people who don't practice natural horsemanship methods not understanding their horses. So, this was quite a pleasant surprise.
But I wanted to mention what happened with one of the horses/people. We'll call the girl Kayla and the horse Skip. See, Kayla is afraid of Skip. She made that clear from the beginning of this 2 day long clinic. That, and the fact that it took her 2 hours to get him loaded into the trailer made me want to watch her lesson. I wasn't watching the time, so unfortunately I only caught the last 15 minutes of it. But he did superb! The crowd knew Kayla was afraid of him, so everyone was cheering to offer encouragement to her. Kayla is actually a pretty good rider for being afraid, since normally fear literally makes riders "scared stiff." She flowed with Skip pretty well. They did the normal walk, trot, canter. She got off and was all smiles for the next few hours. The lesson was fantastic. The clinician and myself (and probably some of the crowd) were wondering what made her so scared of him. He was a pretty mover, and didn't look too bad. I wondered what dark side of Skip we weren't seeing. I wasn't sure if I was over-analyzing or not at the time, but the only thing I found odd was his head set. It seemed unnaturally forced. He held his head where it was supposed to be, even if she let the reins out. I admit I found that strange.
But we found out the next day. I was cleaning my friend's horse's stall when she came and got me to tell me I should watch this, since I do natural horsemanship. A horse was rearing. I walked into the arena to see the clinician ground-driving Skip in what I thought were side-reins. Something was obviously going on since everyone was huddled together in the observation area. Kayla left, crying. (I later found out that Skip had reared 3 times with her on.) The clinician tried to coax Skip into trotting and he reared up and fell over. I admit my heart was racing, and adrenaline was pumping. I was scared, because I thought I was going to have to take over. It would've been obvious to any natural horsemanship person there that this horse was an extreme RBI (okay, so maybe only Parelli people would classify horsenality, but you get what I mean), and I didn't think the clinician understood that. She did dressage after all, and I mean what the heck? She was driving a rearing horse in SIDE REINS. I actually spoke up and said that that she should take them off. Someone proceeded to explain to me that they weren't actually side-reins, they were sliders. The horse could move his head around if he wanted. Personally, I still don't think that was the best choice, because that enforced his wierd head-set. And then I had an epiphany: the reason Skip's head-set was so wierd was because he was gone mentally. Yeah, his head was tucked and he was going around her on a circle, but he felt like he was going to explode to me. That's part of the reason I got so nervous.
But anyways, that was the last time he reared in that lesson. And I do really like what the clinician recommended to Kayla afterwards. She told her to learn to ground-drive him. She said she had a horse she had raised since a baby that whenever she put any leg on her, the horse would rear. So, she started ground-driving her, and stopped riding her for 6 months. By the end of those 6 months, she could do 3rd level dressage on the ground! And so when she finally started riding her again, she took her to a dressage show and won grand champion! I thought that was great advice, since without a doubt Skip doesn't seem fit to ride right now.
And I really wanted to analyze my reaction to Skip. I got nervous, had adrenaline-pumping. Well, makes sense. I was mentally preparing to take over, like I said. But why? Well, this truth bites: I thought I knew better than the clinician. Dang, that sucks. But my conflict with non-natural horsemanship folks is another topic. I just thought my reaction was pathetic. I mean, I have no where NEAR the skills to play with an extreme RBI in the first place, and to take over from the clinician would be a no-no (since the horse stopped rearing, after all. . . ), and if I did get to play with that horse, how would I help him when I'm nervous to begin with? That was my big thing. How can I help a horse when I get so nervous beforehand? This has happened to me before, so I want to find something to get that non-chalance that Pat Parelli and Dave Ellis have. Obviously, that comes from experience and savvy and skill, so I don't expect to be nearly that good. That'd be nice for the long-term, but I'm thinking short-term right now. I remember hearing that Pat learned it from Tai-Chi. I borrowed a DVD from the library about it, and I really don't think it's for me. It was okay, but just not my kind of thing. Neither is yoga, although yoga is better than Tai Chi. Basically, I'm looking for something to help center my RBI side a little bit.
