Working from Center....

Spent the last 4 days up in Orland riding with Gwynn and Dave during a horsemanship/cattle working clinic.

For those of you who have not participated in one of these clinics I highly recommend it. They are great teachers, awesome people and have a very nice set up in Orland.  Between Dave and Gwynn I think there must be 70 years or more experience and every-time your around them you cant help but learn more.

We did horsemanship the first 2 days, and then applied that to working cattle the next 2 days.  You start around 9am and get done around 4pm. So its good concentrated training.  Plus you get to watch your peers and understand what they are doing, and how the horse responding.

We worked on softness, suppleness bend, removing brace, working on the stop and the back up, doubling along the fence, riding on the right leg, moving away from pressure... just a ton of good stuff...

It was good from the perspective of continuing on the learning curve... learning more about how to get ourselves and our horses shaped up to be fluid, willing, forward partners.

It is interesting when you step away from it all and understand that the horsemanship is not about the control we have over the horse through the tack we have on them.  Or using fear, or pain to induce them into submitting to our direction...

It is True Unity, I think when the horse is connected to us, through feel, there focus... Without rein, without huge cues to move together....

Of course I think there are times when you go through hardness. But it is not always..

It should come from you and the horse moving together... Getting them to open up to us and move with us, instead of pressing into us..

If you have to hold them, then you will always hold them...

We as riders need to get more sensitive, more trusting with our horses. We should try less to force the transition, but push more to set it up, and let the horse find it... Maybe the horse will find it wrong..
Fine, fix it up and try again..

Keep the horse trying, rewarding the try and moving on... Keep the horse thinking.. searching with us..

How little I knew about that, how little understanding I had about that.. How much I have to remind myself now when I ride to let the horse search for it, let the horse make mistakes... Trust in the horse to find the right solution...

I also have to be careful about pulling to much out.. The horse gives, great, then back off.. Dont take that slack away... trust the horse will continue on, and if not, fix it up, and get out of there...

Its a great journey.. Learning about ourselves... Learning to ask for more, with less...

There is nothing more inspiring, then to watch someone work a horse and go through all the maneuvers you want to do, with no bridle on the horse...

Run out and stop the cow... back up, soften, bend, side pass... haunches in... Wow...

Or get done in 15 minutes, what you worked 4 days on..! LoL

So I think, do more with less... get in, get out... set the position, for the transition...

Its one of those things that gives me great satisfaction to watch Phooka out there working cows, better then the ChexLittleLena cow horse because we can offer that good feel.. We can get the horse mentally and physically shaped up to move.. Instead of the brace.. getting that brace through the head, the neck the body...

Understanding the concept of brace is important.. Understanding how to move your horse in order to find out if there is brace is important... And then understanding what to do, to massage that out is the ultimate!

Spool them up, reel them out... Feel of the horse to get them feeling of you... Wow.. those words are actually starting to mean something to me... Some glimmer of understanding for me...

Understand from the horses point of view...

Its amazing to watch people ride their horses.. If they dont have an understanding of these concepts, of how to release with timing and feel, how their horses will brace against them.. And maybe it is not a hard brace like you see in some, maybe it will be just the horse staying straight, or not moving through the spine, or lifting from underneath themselves...

Brace... It can show up in so many places... and its resistance.. maybe not defiance, maybe resistance because the horse has "braced" into pressure and it is normal for the horse... but it does not feel good to the horse... we can help with that... We can make it so the horse can partner with us, with less effort...

So my feedback is if your riding your horse and he is hanging on your hands.. any pressure on your hands, you have brace... you are building that pressure up in the horse... Figure out a way to get them light... get them responding off your leg, so you can ride up on a cow, rope em, back up, pop your dallys and ride off again, without that rein contact... Wow..

Yeah....

L