OK folks, I suspect this is going to be one of those lessons that you advanced people think is just for the beginners amongst us – and ta daaaa…. guess what… it’s not.
When Bobby said to me that a horse in their Comfort Zone is in self carriage, it tugged at my heart because at that time I had only ridden a horse in self carriage maybe a couple of times in my whole life.
Your horse is in self carriage when their back is elevated and their stride is soft and rhythmic – WITHOUT any physical support from you – no reins to help them frame up – nada, nothing – just your horse walking or trotting on a loose rein in that beautiful posture that comes from them being in their Comfort Zone.
And as we know by now, this Comfort Zone – this self carriage – is fundamental to you being able to Fast Track your way to that beautiful “riding together as one being” that we keep talking about.
Your mirror work and all the elimination of fear work that you have been doing so far should have resulted in self carriage at liberty. (You could go check that and if in doubt please feel free to put up a SHORT! Youtube for us to look at, for a quick assessment for you.)
The halter lessons that you have had so far, should have released any of the old traumas and/or resistances from the halter and made this next step possible. For some Caretaker horses though, the ones who slow down or stop when they are confused or afraid, if you have some RELEASE, RE-LEARN and RE-PROGRAM work to do in this task, it will be incredibly valuable in your ridden work.
This Lesson takes you to the next step with some simple techniques on how to ask your horse to speed up. Getting your horse to speed up on the ground and keep that in their Comfort Zone and have your horse in self carriage as they speed up, is fundamental for your transitions from walk to trot and trot to canter etc in the saddle.
Do I need to remind you of all the ways in which you may experience your Not Quite Right?
Oh well, since you insist…
Keep your mind and your heart open to notice how YOU feel inside, because that could be YOUR HORSE’s breathing tightening up, THEIR heart beating rapidly, that tension in your body could be THEIRS, that stiff posture you find yourself experiencing could be THEIR posture, that yucky feeling energy could be THEIRS, that anxiety and frustration you’re feeling could be THEIRS and those worries that you’re experiencing could be THEIRS too.
And when you’ve taken whatever action you need to, the feeling will disappear – pffft! that fast, because it’s just a communication.
Mimi is clearly not a relaxed happy horse in this video and a big part of that is that she doesn’t need the kind of cues that Sue was demonstrating for me – she’s a MUCH more subtle girl these days!
Here is a video from Holly and Gunny showing you how subtle the “ask” can be.
Here is an excerpt from the email that came with the video from Holly:
Gunny is bred to be a western pleasure horse—Quarter Horse and Zippo Pine Bar bloodlines (not sure if you are familiar with US QH bloodlines, but he was a big name western pleasure horse).
He is mainly ridden for trails and I have had to work very hard at getting him to understand slowing down versus always being in a hurry. He could go slow when it was his idea, but he had a very hard time understanding a request from me to slow down within a gait. He only seemed to understand “speed up”. Which upon reflection, I realized that Parelli had a pretty big focus on speeding up, and I think Gunny generalized it to mean that faster is always better. But faster also came with tension back then.
Interestingly enough, the hurrying stuff started when I started to do some dressage stuff with him and taking some clinics with a natural dressage teacher. The “just kidding” exercise that she uses really screwed him up. And where I was at the time, I didn’t know to quit doing it because I thought we just needed to “do it better” to get it to work right. So we worked at it quite a bit.
(Me: That made me laugh because “Just Kidding” is a Philip Nye exercise that I have used extensively to help a horse get the transition itself in their comfort zone. This is another great example of why adding Not Quite Right , stopping and waiting for The Chew and paying attention to our insights in that Quiet Mind space while waiting – is a very good deal. It allows us to judge for ourselves, when a technique is useful to us and when it is not.)
So right now he is probably tipped a little too far on the scale of being slow, but I am fine with that because speeding him up comes very easy but slowing down does not! And I am soooo happy to have a non-tense and non-defensive horse that I will be sure to not lose that once I begin to work on faster speeds again.
Me again – excellent work Holly!
Transform your Go Forward
Here are the steps for using those techniques on the video to get your horse to move forwards, that will transform the old “kick ‘em to go faster” that so many of us were taught in our riding:
1. Check your posture, have your belly button, all your eyes, facing where you want your horse to go – then imagine your horse moving forwards with you – picture it in your mind.
2. Slide your forward hand down the lead rope to FEEL the connection and then take that feel forwards – WITHOUT any pull on the rope – just a gentle feel forwards. You must BE the change that you wish your horse to be. That is, if you want your horse to be soft and responsive to your request, then YOU must ask with softness.
3. If your horse doesn’t understand this soft request, then follow up with one of the techniques that Sue showed you in the video attached to this lesson.
4. Then, whether they have moved forward or not, whether they have done what you asked yet or not, stop and wait for The Chew.
Release, Re-learn & Re-program
Remember you have 3 stages to go through as you re-train you and your horse to softness and responsiveness and lovely co-operation:
1. As you wait for The Chew, if your horse is processing, they will be releasing old nerves and anxiety or resistance. That is a very big deal and when they have released that, it will clear the way for very quickly being able to re-learn how you really want it done – softly and with understanding and responsiveness this time.
2. Once the RELEASE stage has been done – then you are in the RE-LEARNING stage. This is where you take each stage of the “ask” slowly and clearly and give your horse lots of time to puzzle their way through what you are asking. At this stage it’s good to remember that adding pressure to confusion is what CREATES resistance.
3. Once the learning stage is completed, you have the RE-PROGRAM stage – changing the neural pathways and muscle memory of the soft response in pretty much in one go. That’s achieved by appreciating and soaking up every feel good feeling, every bit of progress.