The photo: If you’re doing this at a mounting block, have your reins loose in your hand so if your horse walks off because he’s never been taught to stand still while you get on, simply step off the mounting block, keep one rein firmly in your hand and walk towards his back end saying “Stand still please”. You may have to gently tap his hind end out of the way. See the hindquarter yield in this lesson. Line back up to the mounting block and start again. Remember to stop and soak up and appreciate any feeling good feelings, so as to anchor them and make them normal.
The Lesson
In this lesson, many of you are going to discover that your horse is not as comfortable having someone over their back as you thought they were.
Don’t take it personally – for many of them it will be about releasing the “make” that they experienced when they were broken in or started. You will be replacing that with a real Comfort Zone – the real Comfort Zone that will give you self carriage when you are on their back.
When I did the rope part of this lesson with Sunny out in the grassy yard the other day, she was more interested in the short sweet grass than she was in paying attention to me. That means that my advanced My Grass Game was not as good with her, on that day, as I wanted it to be OR that I had lost my connection to her by pushing her too far too fast.
In this case I stopped and attended to the grass issue first with some combination of advanced my grass and mirroring, like I talked about in the lesson about turning problems into a deeper bond when I was working with Sirocco and getting his attention on me to do his rug safely.
This incident made me wonder if Sunny had been putting any pressure on me at feed time that I should notice and “clean up”. So I decided to pay closer attention to her at feed time.
My purpose in telling you about my “problem” with Sunny is to make the point that whatever you think you are going to work on today, be prepared to change, to fill in gaps or fix Not Quite Rights – every time.
See, it wasn’t really a problem, just an opportunity to fill in a gap that needs filling in so that we can both be and feel safe together and confident with each other and one of the BIG things we have learned and had validated over and over and over again, is that just about every problem has a tremendous opportunity at its heart, with a bigger breakthrough than you would expect.
Notice in the audio where you have another opportunity to:
RELEASE by backing off at the first signal of ANY of your ways of Feeling that something is Not Quite Right and waiting for The Chew.
RE-LEARN by breaking down into baby steps, following the good feelings, changing something at ANY of your ways of Feeling that something is Not Quite Right and wait for The Chew.
and RE-PROGRAM into AUTO-PILOT by soaking up the good feelings and taking the time to flow with and appreciate every feeling good.
Click here for the alternate recording of this Fast Track Lesson
And here is the lesson that I refer to in the audio – Turn problems into a deeper bond
Written Version of the Audio
Confidence, confidence and yet more confidence – the low, medium and high energy work in this lesson, is about bringing some specific high energy into your horse’s Comfort Zone, so that you KNOW they can handle high energy on and around them before your body sits in the saddle.
Increasing confidence for your horse invariably increases our confidence too!
Make sure that you do all these tasks from both sides and at the minimum have your horse in a peaceful, comfortable place about all of these tasks.
If you are ever going to be using a whip to indicate a request for this leg or that in your communication together in the saddle, then this is the time to make sure that this tool is deep in your horse’s Comfort Zone. Scratching them with it and getting it to be a pleasurable tool is a good idea.
Low energy
Low energy things that I would like you to include are:
1. Rubbing them all over smoothly with a piece of rope (you could use a lead rope) that you scrunched up in your hand and leave a little bit dangling.
2. Standing a metre or so away from them and swinging the tail of a rope gently in a back and forwards pendulum motion – both sides, with an occasional soft swing around completely.
3. Standing at the mounting block and rubbing all over their body, petting them gently and enjoyably – specially on the side that is away from you.
You are looking for deep contentment or burbles of happiness at the low energy work before you move on to the medium energy tasks.
Medium energy
Medium energy things that I would like you to include are:
1. From about a metre away, bigger swings of a longer rope until you can swing it around in a circle, being able throw the rope gently over their body and around their legs.
2. Bigger sweeps of your hand as you rub them on the other side of their body from the mounting block so that your weight is right over their back, with your weight moving on them as you rub them on the other side.
You’re looking for a peaceful horse here with the medium energy things before you move on to higher energy again.
High energy
High energy things that I would like you to include are:
1. Standing about a metre away, swinging your rope around in a circle more vigorously. Remember Lesson 9 (that’s your Fast Track Lesson 20) and how walking away backwards as you get bigger, can take the pressure off and help bring such a thing into their Comfort Zone.
2. Throwing the rope over their body and around their legs faster (still gently though).
3. Bumping your horse a little, deliberately being a bit careless with your knees as you rub them with your leg as well as your weight being over their back (we are looking for a horse who will not be bothered by things like getting bumped with a leg as you get on).
You are doing four things with this lesson:
1. Increasing your horse’s confidence with high energy around them, so as to increase your safety in the saddle.
2. Releasing old frights and resistance about the mounting block and the possibility of a person getting on – by backing off on a Not Quite Right and waiting for The Chew no matter how long it takes.
3. Expanding the Comfort Zone so that the weight of a person on them and over them is in their Comfort Zone. Notice that these last two things are quite separate.
4. Like my story with Sunny – this lesson is an opportunity to deepen the all important “pay attention to me so that we can keep each other safe”. Don’t be surprised if you discover things that need attention before you can move on.
Listen inside yourself the whole time and enjoy this all important part of deepening the bond with your horse.