Lessons in Lightness

I’ve mentioned Mark Russell (Lessons in Lightness) a few times so thought I’d expound a bit more. I have his book; Molly attended one of his clinics.

Russell’s philosophy may not be as common as those teaching dressage with German origins, as Russell studied under Nuno Oliveira (1925-1989).

Oliveira is also a favorite of Paul Belasik (Dressage for the 21st Century, and The Essential Paul Belasik) who also visited him with the tale related in his book Riding Towards the Light.

Some of these ideas can also be seen in the videos of Philippe Karl  – and I am painting a very wide brush here because I am talking about the IDEA – the horse needs to be relaxed and this happens in the front before advanced work can be achieved.

Russell’s first steps is relaxation and suppling exercises to allow an energy flow through the horse. His book details these exercises, though of course I would wish for more photos, and definitely wish he had a dvd out (there is none detailing this specific work yet).

“Lightness is based upon three fundamentals of relaxation, flexion and strength. Relaxation is the first step. Relaxation means teaching the horse to let go of stress and tension in his mind, and hence, his body.” pp 14-15

Speaking from homeschooling a child with ADHD, I do know for a fact that unless the mind is relaxed, learning takes longer, if not impossible to achieve. This same principle is a core to Russells’ philosophy – work on relaxing the horse before concerning yourself with directing the horse with aids of rein and leg or achieving a frame necessary to your sport.

This book can be confusing to get into at first, especially if you don’t have any grounding in understanding how a horse’s anatomy moves in concert or knowledge of dressage. It make take a bit of patience in reading and digesting the content. I know on my side of things that it became more clear when I put it side by side with my TEAM and Connected Riding dvd’s/books/clinics.

We all seek peers and mentors we feel synch well with our own personal philosophy. Russell’s book does this for me as it is very compatible with the ideas of Linda Tellington-Jones (TEAM), Peggy Cummings (Connected Riding), Centered Riding, and Klaus Hempfling.

As I work Z, I’ll be making mention of some of this work, referencing Mark Russell (who now has a catagory list for the blog)….

Countdown to Broke

I did order and receive my Countdown to Broke book, and I’ll be returning it to Amazon.

Half of the stuff I have full knowledge of and can do already such as roundpen work, sacking out, saddling, bridling etc… the green horse.

The other issue is that it is really just a regurgitation of John Lyons work which is all about moving hips and legs and little to do with self carriage. Actually all the horses’ carry their heads very low which I can tell you is because they have spent many hours in a bitting rig. JMO.

If you are following the western path, and need a really good primer, this book would be a good choice to someone new to training. But for me it was way too redundant and didn’t offer me anything new. So back it goes….

Z countdown and Western training

I’m hoping to have Z back home by this Friday. I know I haven’t been posting much and it’s because of a couple of different reasons, and one of them is the absence of my filly – who I am more then ready to bring back home. This seems to have dragged on for months – well 3 months to be precise.

Z is coming home broke under saddle but that’s about it. None of the more subtle things are known to her brain yet and that is where I’m going to come in. I am proud to report that she never bucked with the trainer

I’ve been ordering some books from Amazon. Tomorrow, I’m ordering The Modern Horseman’s Countdown to Broke: Real Do-It-Yourself Horse Training in 33 Comprehensive Steps by Sean Patrick.

As you may have already read, the books I’ve found supposedly for training a young horse haven’t been much of a success so I’m hoping this Western book will be more forthcoming in real advice. Generally, I’ve found Western training books to be more of an A-B-C style without all the mystery that is more common in Dressage books.

They are also more concerned with moving hips (famous favorite of John Lyons) and controlling every footfall. Some of this becomes super redundant as well as counterproductive when the trainer seems to have no concern about the back or carriage – traveling with the head low is a favorite of these neo-cowboys and doesn’t really work with the ideas I have about body motion. However, if you want a horse broke, a cowboy can do it.

We’ll see if this one is helpful.

Elements of Dressage (review)

I had ordered The Elements of Dressage: A guide to training the young horse by K.A. von Ziegner last month in order to start laying a plan for Z’s training when she returned.

The book was a huge disappointment. Basically, it outlines the German Training System pyramid and that’s about it.

I have to really disagree with the reviews on Amazon… there is no real training plan presented. There is nothing new here presented that anyone that has studied Dressage wouldn’t already know about. If this content if new, you might be able to glean further understanding of the German training system for dressage. 

However, if you are seeking a way to create impulsion and want training ideas, forget it. If you want to know how to create rhythm in a green horse, forget it. There is nothing here that you couldn’t find for free on the Internet.

Once again, a dressage book promises a lot but is lightweight especially when you consider it is 128 pages total. Personally, I feel ripped off for the cost (about $17).

Freedom: Horse-led and Deciders

I’ve written before about Horse-led activities vs. Human-led activities when interacting with your horse. Horse-Led means that the horse determines the game, the length of the interaction, is able to disengage and leave, and overall provides the horse (within the bounds of safety) the right to dictate what he will allow.

Check out other blog entries such as The Students’ Attitude and Dealing with Apathetic Horses

While I had already started putting this into place in my training, and even more so after reading/viewing some of Carolyn Resnick’s work, I think Pignon in his book, provides the best concrete reasons why, when you can, having Horse-led activities boosts the horses’ confidence in his person. Pignon calls this the “reversal of roles.”

Here are some quotes from Gallop to Freedom, written by the husband and wife team of Cavalia – Frederick and Magali Pignon, which further illustrates the importance of having the horse select his own participation:

“Frederic allows the horse to choose to a certain extent what they want to do. The freedom of choice is part of his training philosophy.” p. 11

“…improvisation is important for keeping the horses in a relaxed and happy state.” p. 12

“Roles are reversed: the horse whispers in their ears. He becomes ‘the Whisperer.’” p. 21

Especially, for those shy, withdrawn or apathetic horses, allowing the horse more choice can encourage them to become expressive, extroverted, and involved in human training. This is something all to often ignored (such as Bertha in Ride the Right Horse) by people more driven to achieve the ends and not caring about the means.

No one, human or horse, can be joyful and creative, when in a gray world where everything is the same, day in and day out, and the individual has no input as to what happens to him. Actually, we have an instutition like that: prison.

“(After holding a few clinics)…he (Frederic) has become even more aware of the dangers of mindless repetitive training, where someone is blindly following a method…horses have been so stressed that they are numbed, “dumbed down”, and turned off like a light switch; they have only one desire to and that is to how to get to the end of whatever is demanded of them.” p. 19

Man as the Decider

On the opposite end of Horse-Led activities are those when humans’ become the Decider. Pignon’s word, in place of the more emotional word Leader, used in his book.

“Instead of substituing a new form of stress, as an enforcer, we should take on the role of decider.” p.31

“When a horse in the wild takes on the role of leader, he or she assumes the responsibility of protecting those who have accepted his leadership…’To whom much is given’, as the saying goes, ‘much is expected’… When things go wrong as a result of assuming this role it is not enough to say,’ I didn’t know.’”  31

Pignon, like Hempfling, clearly states that man has a responsiblity to the horse that is greater then the horses’ responsiblity to us. While some other trainers may bring this up, these two horsemen have been the only ones to impress me with how emphatic they state it and how consistent they are in returning to it as part of their philosophy.

I’ve heard the word Leader thrown about, especially in the Natural Horsemanship world, and it seems to many that this is just a license to get what they want from the horse. Seldom do these weekend clinicians with their traveling round pens, lecture their audience about how responsible we are when we take on that leadership.

We are the horses’ advocate and too many are forgetting it on their path to making a quick buck.