Worthy of Your Time

Lots to talk about today! I had a great session with Moose 2 days ago I didn't get to talk about yet, and have been reading a great book! So, here goes!

The Book: I've been re-reading Ray Hunt's book Think Harmony with Horses and I don't know why, but I've gotten sooooooo much out of that book by reading it this time. I bought it maybe a year ago, read it, thought it was good, but now I just seem to really grasp what he's talking about. I understand it and can apply it. That's why Moose did so well!

So, my session with Moose: Well, there's quite a few topics that fit under this, but I'll try to sum it up for ya. Since Moose's got Scratches, I decided to take it easy today. Just walking and trotting. No cantering for now, since that's hard for him to do relaxed even on a good day.

Well, I decided to try out some principles from Ray's book. Mostly going back to the foundation. And I was really thinking about one quote from his book: "Horses get to where they'll do anything they can for you, but they know that you will for them too." It really got me thinking. Well, then I wonder how sure Moose is about what I'm asking him to do! I was also thinking about the Phase 1 before Phase 1. How I don't have a "get ready" cue. It's just a "go" and then "you should've gone." By not having a "get ready" cue I wasn't setting him up for success. This was further emphasized by another of Ray's points which was that in general people ask for the horse's attention way too much. I can relate to this, just by watching how some people are with their horses. And I realized that not having a "get ready" cue meant I expected his attention all the time, and that isn't fair.

With these things in mind, I went out to play with Moose. I took everything back to foundation level. I focused a lot on FH yields today, since his HQ moves noticably easier than his FH. And I was astonished! My horse is way smarter than I give him credit for. After 3 repetitions of bringing my energy up (get ready), focusing, phase 1 with stick, followed by 2, 3, 4, he moved off my focus. I was really proud of him. And now I'm making my own program of saying "get ready" before I ask anything, until it becomes an ingrained habit.

I also experimented with non-chalance. I really tried not to move my feet, and having an attitude like that of Dave Ellis. I talked about attitude a lot when I audited a clinic of his, so if you want to know about that check out August's posts. It worked out really well. If I did phase 4, I did it with justice and without raising my energy.

And I fixed one of our super-long-time issues! On accident! One of the things I see Linda do during Circling Game is to stop Remmer and have him back up. Now, logically, this would be smart to develop in a round pen. Well, before this summer, I didn't have a round pen. So, whenever I tried to get him to stop at the Circling Game, he'd face me. And if I tried to get him to back, he'd always back facing me. At first I encouraged it, because he's trying after all. But I didn't know how to get him to realize that when I ask him to back up, I want him to back from where he is, not turn and face me, then back. Well, using our newfound FH moving abilities, I asked him to move his FH without me moving my feet. He did, but then he turned and faced me. I had to move my feet, but then I asked him to move his FH again, since the last thing he did was move his HQ, and that wasn't what I asked for. We kept this up for a little while until he finally stopped perpendicular to me. I about jumped for joy when I realized what I had just done! My horse stopped perpendicular to me!

I realized that I have inadvertently taught him to turn and face me, and then act. So, it was my problem not his. But I'm so excited that I figured it out. This book really is doing wonders to my awareness.

And based on impulse I went to Barnes & Noble the other day and bought a book by Buck Brannaman and one by Bill Dorrance. I'm reading the one by Buck right now, and it's interesting. It's more about his life story than horses, so far, but I'm finding a lot of parallels between his life and Monty Roberts'. It's still interesting to hear, but I think the one by Bill Dorrance is more designed to teach you about the horse. After all, it's like 370 pages! Now, there's a natural horsemanship textbook if I ever saw one! I'll let you know what I think about it once I start reading it.

Dave Ellis Day 2

• Help your horse think through trouble


• "Every ying has a yang."


• Horses are horses. It's their job to perceive danger and run.


• Don't knock your horse down to your level, instead improve yourself. Dave gave a very inspiring speech about this. He said that horses will wait a lifetime for you if you keep trying to improve yourself for them. Dave said that if he tries things at too high of a level for his horses even he has days where he puts his mules up and they have that look in their eye like "maybe tomorrow he'll get it."


• Whenever your energy is down, your horse should not go anywhere no matter what you do. That is not probably not going to happen in Level 3, even, but that should be your end result. Dave furthered that by saying that when you play Friendly, make sure your energy is down or you're desensitizing them to the point of danger. Like he said earlier, it's a horse's job to perceive danger and run, and if you desensitize him to your energy being up that is the equivalent of desensitizing him to a mountain lion. He mentioned too that when you watch Pat play extreme Friendly Game with a horse, he always looks at the ground, because he wants the energy to go nowhere.


• When you say "Don't trot too fast!" and so slow your horse down, that's bringing your horse down to your level.


• Your horse perceives comfort will be found in what he does, so use comfort-discomfort to motivate him


• "What pushes my horse's buttons? What really makes him tick?"


• Dave quotes someone when he said this, sorry I can't remember who: "None of us dig in deep enough to find the real horse. Most of us don't have the confidence/maturity to accept the real horse." So, what we end up doing is making the horse we have into our dream horse. On the same note, "Look down that line and if what you see looking down that line doesn't make you feel wonderful, get rid of it."


• What my horse is like while I'm learning is completely different than after you've learned.


• "At any time we should be able to walk up to our horse and ask them to do something."


• The horse who gets in the last word is in charge, so the last word should always be yours


• Match the opposition. Opposition = how much effort she is putting in to being resistant.


• Your horse should quit going to the degree that you quit riding.


• "The best way to fix anything is to be aware." -Linda Parelli


• When your horse moves without you asking, play tit for tat. For example, if your horse walks 2 steps forward without you asking them to, have them back up 4 steps.


• Dave had one clinic participant bring her horse out and play Circling Game. He wanted her to pick a foot on the outside of the circle and move her hand to the rhythm of that foot. To speed her horse up, she picked the outside back foot and just asked it to speed up the tempo a little. To slow down. she picked the outside front foot and just asked it to shorten its stride. All of this was done with just her energy, or ki. The results were incredible to see, because the transitions seemed effortless. Dave furthered this by having her push an outside foot off the circle one step only (but again only using her energy) and having her horse still keep the same rhythm. Dave wanted everyone to think about only moving that one foot, because if you try to move the whole horse that's about 1,200 lbs (give or take), but the hoof only weighs 5 lbs.


• "Don't allow the horse to be wrong for so long they think they're right."


• If your horse doesn't put his/her foot where you want, you don't have his/her respect.


• Ill respect = not disrespect, but clearly didn't do what you want


• "I don't make anything happen, I just don't go away."


• If a point is too small, make a vicinity to put his foot in so it's easier


• Pick a focus and go. If your horse is resistant, then he's saying "hey, we made a deal here that you won't ask much and I'll do just enough to get along."


• Have an attitude of "Can you help me get to that?" or "We need to be over there."


• I can't remember who Dave quoted for this one either: "Don't leave without your horse and don't let your horse leave you."


• When you're moving his foot to a specific place, have an attitude of "I see where I wish this foot would go" not "move your foot."


• If you talk to the HQ, the front feet should do nothing different.


• The reason for focusing on the outside legs is because if you focus on the inside your horse will probably disengage.


• When you keep in time with their feet, you don't necessarily have to be in every single foot fall. For example, if you're trying to keep in time with the feet with a Paso Fino, you might pick every 4 strides or something like that.


• Horses don't like to be out of sync.


• Neutral in the Circling Game is not dead. When you put your car in neutral, is it dead?


• The rhythm you have in your body determines what gait you want. It's our responsibility to put the energy in our body.


• Horses are approximately 100x more sensitive than humans


• In Freestyle, the hand holding the reins should be the direction you're going.


• Freestyle to Finesse shouldn't change your horse's gait at all


• Trotting is the easiest gait for the horse, but the hardest for the human


• If you want to get a good stop, then get a world-class back-up. Get your horse thinking back up not stop. You know you've done it enough when your horse steps back to regain his balance.


• Feel of, for, and with your horse


• Do Step #1 in 9 step back-up. Does your horse do anything? Then do step #2. Feel of him. Then step #3, feel for him. Then #4-7. Step #8 and 9, feel with him. Steps #1-3 are preparatory commands.


• If you're riding your horse through 2 barrels and he purposely knocks one of the barrels over, bump him with the rein on the opposite side of the barrel he knocked over. The reason you bump him it so that he gets a consequence for what he did. The reason you bump on the other side is because if you were a fence post and your horse turned his head to knock the barrel over, he'd run into the rein on the opposite side.


• Linda once said that a level 3 grad should be able to do any transition within a 2 step maximum. So, since this clinic was level 2/3 Dave said to aim for 3-4 steps.


• If you're riding the trot and you bring your energy down to a walk (and your horse doesn't listen right away), sometimes our inner ear gets in the way and causes us to think we're going to fall off because we're bouncing. To counteract this, put your hand on the horn/pommel so you stay secure in your seat.


• When you ride, the more your leading hand is bent, the more tight you've been.


• When you have a backing up energy in your body and your horse doesn't listen, bump 1 rein if you're riding Finesse, or comb the reins underhanded if you're riding Freestyle.


• When your horse changes the game on you, say "let me show you how well I can play this game". (For example, I tried to teach Moose to back by the tail yesterday and after I did it a few times, he started moving his HQ out of the way to get out of doing it. So, instead of saying "don't move your hiney," I just moved it more than he wanted it to move. So, the answer was to just back up when I asked). Another option is to play the game with different criteria, make up rules that he didn't know existed. Just remember that this is not a dictatorship, it's a partnership, so your partner has the right to express him/herself. You don't have the authority to say "no, we're not doing that right now! We're doing this, so quit it!"


• Another thing to try is to quit the game sooner than she/he thought you'd quit. In this case, a girl had a question about her mule, because her mule would do really good for her, but then she always had a point where she would become resistant because she wanted her leadership back. Dave said it was simple, just quit before she gets crabby. And he did a simulation to prove it. Dave held onto one end of the 12' line and a different girl held onto the end of it. Dave said that when he said 'now' he wanted the girl to pull as hard as she could on the end of the rope. He said now, and right as she pulled Dave let go of the rope and walked away, saying "oh, look at the sand" or something like that. He did it with such nonchalance, too, like he couldn't have cared less that the girl just fell over. It was pretty funny (and completely unexpected), but also a very good lesson: It takes 2 to argue.


• And lastly, undemanding time establishes the relationship. It doesn't necessarily improve it.

Dave Ellis Day 1

As I mentioned in my little teaser post about the session I had with Moose Saturday night, I audited Dave Ellis on Saturday and Sunday. Honest to god, I've got to say that was probably the best decision I've made all summer. :) He was such a good instructor, I highly recommend that you go see him if you have the chance.

Anyways, I wanted to post my notes about the clinic. If you have any questions, just leave a comment: when typing them, I assumed that the people reading do Parelli, so some things might confuse anyone who reads who isn't a Parelli person.

• Assertive= "It's going to happen eventually."


• Passive= "I don't know why you're not backing up."


• Aggressive= "I said move!"


• If the horse does something you don't want, do anything to lessen his comfort and then wait. If you always make the right thing easy and wrong thing difficult, your horse will begin to 'hunt for the comfort.'


• Dave stressed this philosophy of "Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult" because it's hard for us humans. It causes us to take the time it takes, and we naturally look for shortcuts.


• Dave had a good point about riding a horse that always drops his shoulder when turning. He said that our horses will train us to use higher phases on them when riding, because we say "well if I just put my leg on him, then he turns well," but the point is not to have to use your leg, so your horse is winning the game. Using the same example, but going back to using comfort and discomfort to motivate them, Dave asked "Would you take 2 days to stop a horse from dropping his shoulder?" *


• Pat is so good with horses because he's the king of lateral thinkers.


• The Circling Game is where your horse shows you how much he respects you, so if you have a broken Circling Game you have broke another game that you have to fix before your Circling will get better.


• You get respect by moving your horse's feet


• The more your horse respects you, the less opposition reflex he'll have


• Make sure your body language is clear and your energy is projecting out to where you want it.


• Friendly Game should not cause a change in your horse. For example, if you stand in your stirrups while trotting (not posting), your horse should not change rhythm, because that is Friendly.


• Step #7 in a 9 Step Back-up does not mean back-up. It means get ready to back-up.


• "Can your horse carry the feel and not make a change?"


• Have something in mind when you change your horse's shape, because then he has a reason to do it. Dave said that when you get out of the teaching and controlling phases, you should have a reason for your horse to do what you want instead of doing it just because you asked for it. For example, if you want your horse to canter, have the attitude of "We need to canter, because we need to get over there really fast."


• Dave had the clinic participants do Extreme Yo-Yo and Extreme Porcupine game on line. To do Extreme Yo-yo, back your horse up until the rope is tight. Hold the rope in both hands. Put one hand on your hip to anchor you, and then just rock your weight back (not leaning back, though and not jerking your horse). You shouldn't have to use your biceps to pull him back, use your whole body. Then, he had them do Extreme Porcupine Game which was basically pulling your horses head down to the ground instead of using phases of pressure. It wasn't a jerk, it was just one big pull.  These exercises cause your horse to respond to more pressure than he thinks he's going to get. For example, if you tie your horse up and he pulls back that's a lot of pressure on the halter all of a sudden, so a practical use of these exercises is to prepare your horse for tying. By the way, you should practice this until your horse is so good at it that he won't let you pull him.


• Another thing Dave had the participants do was see if you can lead your horse different directions with your hands on his nose, but your fingers have to be straight or you're cheating. This was just to see how good your horse is at following a feel. He also had them lead by the tip of the ear. If your horse didn't go, then just support with Driving. He also had them stand in Zone 1 and try to move the horse's nose without touching it by just putting a feel on the lead rope and then supporting with Driving.


• "If we use Driving Game to support Porcupine, when why do we drive?" The answer is to drive when Porcupine doesn't work.


• The four phases of teaching are teach, control, refinforce, refine


• Friendly= Rhythmic motion


• Porcupine= Steady pressure


• Driving= Rhythmic pressure


• You're playing Porcupine Game whenever you have a focus with intent, so that means that when you started out in Level 1 and you played the Driving Game with the HQ, your Phase 1 was to look at the HQ which was actually a Porcupine Game, and then Phases 2,3 and 4 were Driving to support the Porcupine.


• Nose, neck, maybe front feet


• At the teach it and control it phases, take what the horse offers you, but not at reinforce and refine.


• "Once you can do something, do something else."


• "Wait for orders from headquarters." Dave gave a really good analogy about your horse's relationship being equivalent to you owning 51% of the stocks in a company, and your horse owns the other 49%. So, you're the majority voter, but that doesn't mean your horse has no say in the company.


• If you want the belly of the rope on the ground, then your horse should be able to keep it there. But if you want your horse to keep the belly off the ground, he should be able to carry that feel too.


• "Your horse does not want to see Phase 4 twice." It was clear by Dave's tone of voice in this sentence that "does not" means "should not".


• Respect lessens with longer distances away from you


• Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult. If your horse wants to trot when you want a walk, say "great, I love that you want to trot" and then just pick up a circle and keep making it smaller until he changes gait


• "Turn their dream into a nightmare."


• To go sideways while riding, use a direct rein, then indirect rein, and repeat until you achieve your goal.


• If your horse is not mentally 'with you,' you probably haven't done enough with his feet.


• Horses don't like to lean on 1 rein. Because of this, never have your hands at exactly the same level


• When backing-up while riding, lift up the hand that is the next direction you want to go. For example, I'm backing up and I hold my right hand higher than my left. So, when I stop backing I should be going to the right.


• When you do a direct rein, keep a straight elbow


• Practice peripheral vision


• "We need to go over here. . . And here's a reason for you to be going."


• Until level 5, whenever you ride with contact your hands should be level with the ground. This helps sit you back on your balance point.


• Movement with steady pressure is still steady pressure if it's in time with your horse's feet.


• In a correct indirect rein, the HQ do more than the FQ.


• If you're riding your horse with other horses, and your horse keeps putting his ears back at the other horses, first you should rub him to make sure he doesn't feel threatened by them. But then, you have to say "fight on your own time" and keep his/her attention on you. Dave had the rider of a horse who kept putting his ears back hit her horse with her savvy string on the shoulder every time the horse put his ears back. Your attitude should be "I beg your pardon." Dave's theory for why horses start being dominant with others is that when you start winning the 7 games, then the horse takes the #2 position, so some horses start looking for a #3.


• "The line between make and cause is in your heart."


• Don't make anything happen, just start taking away your horse's comfort so he can make the decision.


• "Who's gonna blink first?"

*My personal answer to this was no, but I thought that was a very good question and so included it in the notes. Would you outpersist a horse on something as simple as that? I just thought it was very revealing, because I want to say I would take that time, but I don't think I would. Would you? Just something to think about.

The Definition of Leadership

I just audited a level 2/3 clinic by Dave Ellis today - details about the clinic in another post - but I had to talk about my play session with Moose when I got home. He did INCREDIBLE!!!!!!! :-) Like I seriously think that was the best I've ever (so consequently, the best HE's) played.

I was a leader. I didn't think my way through it. I made it simple just like Dave kept repeating: "Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult. That's all it is." And I did just that. I said Moose, let's do this. Moose, let's do that. And I tried doing lots of stuff with the same attitude. "Hey, I didn't ask you to do that." "Honey, I need you to try it." "Thanks for offering, but I want you to do ______ instead." And he woke up like I had slapped him in the face.

I didn't worry about things like I normally do. For instance, whenever I got particular in the past, Moose would start running off in the Circling Game. So, I would say "Well, I must've been too particular with him, and I just need to go slower." This time, I didn't conclude that I'd been too particular. I just said "Don't run off! Don't walk! Don't canter! Just trot." And after 2 laps of gallopping off, then stopping and looking at me, then cantering, then looking at me, then cantering, he got it and gave me a lap of trotting, so I stopped and rewarded him. I just made the wrong thing difficult. "You want to canter? That's great, but right now we're trotting." His Circling got a lot better, too, with the go - woah exercise Dave played with the mule. I just sent Moose off, then immediately looked at his HQ to disengage. Of course, he had going on the brain, so I said "Don't run off, just stop." And so he stopped, and then I sent him and he took off again, and we repeated the same thing over again. Took him like 3 sends before he figured out that just-getting-the-heck-outta-there when I send made it really hard to yield his hindquarters.

But the biggest breakthrough is yet to come. Moose has trouble putting his foot on/in things. If I ask him to put it inside a tire, he won't do it. He always puts it around, and I've gotten him to put it in/on, but he's never offered anything and it took a while. Well, I mentioned this in an older post that we have 2 tractor tires full of dirt right next to each other which can serve as a pedestal/jump/mounting block. Well, he's had issues jumping it, so I wanted to give it a try today. He jumped it fine one way after a few re-sends. Then, I tried the other way, and after a few re-sends, he started pawing the dirt in the tire. So, I let him, since that's progress. Then, I sent him again, and he actually stood on the dirt!!!! That's HUGE!!!!!!!!! Like I was crying tears of joy good, and doing cartwheels good and running-out-of-treats-to-feed-him good. I was so impressed. . . I even unhaltered him standing up there (after I knew that he wasn't going to jump down on me, though). A very ecstatic moment . . . I just had to share!  Savvy on! :P