The following post was written for the_click_that_teaches email discuaaion list.
Contents:
How Does the Horse Know What I Want?
by Alexandra Kurland
Copyright 2006
Kathryn H. wrote (July 22, 2006)
"I'm starting to work with Jodie on lateral flexion according to Alex's instructions in the Riding book. I have what's probably a silly question: How is Jodie going to distinguish between my holding the single rein steady asking her to flex from my asking her to turn? I know that in asking for the flexing she's figuring out I want her to soften her jaw and neck, but from then on, won't she just flex when I ask her to turn, or is it all about my holding the rein at the buckle with one hand that will help her figure out the difference?"
There are two phrases you want to keep in mind as you puzzle your way through single-rein riding and lateral flexions. They are:
"When you think different, you are different" John Lyons
"Everything is Everything Else" Alexandra Kurland
As I wrote those two sentences together, I realized what a huge metaphor for Life with a capital L they are. But I'll leave it up to you to sort that one through. This post is about single-rein riding.
Let's start by looking at the first statement: "When you think different, you are different." Okay, fine, words on a page, but what does that mean?
Riding Your Office Chair!
Let's start off with a simple example. You're probably sitting in a chair right now, reading this post at your computer, so it's easy to ask you to look behind you. But wait. I'm first going to ask you to sit on your hands so you can feel your sitting bones.
Okay. Have you found them? Now go ahead and look behind you, over your right shoulder. Did you feel the change in your sitting bones? In your feet?
I'm sitting in an office type swivel chair right now with a comfortable cushioned seat. I'm sitting forward a bit in my chair, not slouching back. I'm sitting vertically, not leaning forward, or back, but in good riding position. When I sit straight looking forward directly at the computer screen, I can feel both of my sitting bones pressing evenly down on my hands. When I look over my right shoulder, I can feel the pressure on my right hand lessen. My sitting bone slides up and back off my hand. There's slightly more pressure on my left hand, but from a different part of my pelvis. It feels as though my sitting bone shifts slightly towards the right, but my weight rests down more on my hand.
When I sit straight, my feet feel even. I can feel both the heel of my feet and the balls of my feet resting on the floor. When I look behind me, I feel the contact with the floor change ever so slightly. I can feel myself rotate slightly onto the inside of my left foot and the outside of my right foot. That's what I feel now. The changes in my feet, however, depend very much upon how far out in front of me I place them. Try starting with your feet tucked back under your chair and then move them out in stages. You'll feel the difference reflected in the pressure on your hands each time you look behind you.
It's interesting because where you place your feet directly impacts the rotation of your weight not only in your foot, but also through your whole leg. Can you feel at times how, if you were riding, your outside leg would be coming more onto your horse's side, and sometimes would be rotating off it?
I didn't have to consciously direct any of these changes. They happened because I can never do just one thing. Perhaps I should have added that phrase to the first two. It's certainly a life metaphor as well. You can never do just one thing. So when you turn to look over your shoulder, you aren't just moving your head and neck. Your whole body is involved.
When you try this, you may feel something totally different from what I'm describing. This is what I experience, what I notice. You don't have to try to mirror the exact same changes. If you are leaning slightly forward, slightly back, you will feel something different. But hopefully, you feel some shift on your hands as you turn. Even if you turn just your head, you will feel a slight change.
Not sure you felt anything? Okay. Let's exaggerate the turn. Instead of just moving your head to the side, look as far around as you comfortably can. In other words turn your shoulders to look behind you.
Now did you feel a change on your hands? Wonderful! You just exaggerated the turn to amplify the movement under you hands. If you were riding, does it make sense that your horse would absolutely feel that shift in your body? After all, if they can feel a fly land, they ought to be able to feel such a large shift in your seat. But just because they can feel the change, doesn't mean they'll automatically respond to it. Riders shift around a lot, and horses learn to tune out a lot. The function of the single-rein riding is to give meaning to specific shifts in your balance, and to turn them into cues that your horse consistently, promptly, reliably responds to.
The "Duct Tape" Lesson: Connecting the Hip
Okay. So there are two parts to this equation: the rider and the horse. Let's imagine we're starting out with a stiff rider and a stiff horse. Suppose you were one of those people who didn't feel much of a change until you turned your shoulders to look behind you. In the beginning stages of teaching someone the basics of single-rein riding I'll have them look back towards the horse's inside hip to turn. This is the "duct tape" lesson of video Lesson 2 transferred to riding. (See also Ch. 9 in the Step-By-Step book, and the riding portion of Video Lesson 4, as well as the riding book.) The "move the hip over" spot is right on the point of the horse's hip. Imagine there is a flag pole suspended from that point so that you are looking back at a flag that is level with your eyes. This will keep you from leaning down or collapsing in your ribs when you turn.
Let's explore the contrast between these two types of turns. Sit on your hands again. Now look behind you, looking down towards the floor, or down in the direction of your horse's inside hip. Next look behind you at an imaginary flag that is level with your eyes. Feel the difference between these?
Okay. You are now more aware of the movement of your bones and the shift in your weight as you turn. So now let's add another piece. Can you look straight ahead - not turn in your upper body - but consciously create the same shifts in your pelvis that you felt earlier. Go ahead and try it. You may have to go back and forth between turning with your whole body a few times and just turning with your seat before the two feels match.
Now you can be one of those elegant riders who can look straight ahead and deliberately signal a change to their horse. You have developed more conscious, more intentful control over the movement of your bones.
Thinking Differently
But now let's go one step further because your horse certainly will. What changes do you feel on your hands when you just think about turning? This is a little like telling you to think about a spiral staircase without picturing one in your brain. When you think about turning, can you feel the slight change under your hand? It isn't huge, but it's there, and it's enough of a difference for a tuned-in horse to respond to. So when you think different you are different. And if you want, you can make those differences mean something to your horse. Also, if you want, you can exaggerate those differences to turn them clearer, more distinctly differentiated cues.
When you think about cantering, or trotting, or stopping, your body changes. When you think about asking for a softening of the jaw, or a give of the hip, your body is different. Initially you may not be aware of these differences. In fact there may not even be much of a difference because you haven't created that level of subtle movement in your body. And your horse certainly won't understand that these changes mean something. And here's another one of those key phrases, one you've heard before if you're at all familiar with my work. "You can't ask for something and expect to get it on a consistent basis unless you have gone through a teaching process to teach it to your horse."
So here's how the teaching process works both for you and for your horse. Instead of telling you what to do with your sitting bones, what shifts to make in your feet. I'm going to let the process bring you to a deeper, more subtle awareness of the body language cues we use in riding. Instead of telling you how to turn, I'll just ask you to turn. Your body will interpret that request however it has learned to turn. That's the baseline we have to work with. But as you turn and focus on connecting with your horse, you'll figure out what you need to change. Too stiff - all that turning will free you up. Too crooked? Your horse will mirror that, and together you can sort out your collective twists and turns to arrive at good spinal alignment for each of you. How do you do this? We begin by asking for the individual connections we're going to need. Then we string those connections together to create more complex sequences.
The rein is there to signal to your horse that there is new information coming that he needs to attend to. When you take the slack out of the line (see the Riding book and the Lesson 4 video), you are saying to your horse that you want something. When you release the rein, it means he just noticed the change in your body and made the appropriate response in his.
So sit on your hands again and see if you feel a difference when you imagine the following:
1.) Suppose you want your horse to walk straight but soften his right jaw. If you aren't sure what this feels like, try softening your own right jaw. Imaging you are wearing a bit and someone is very gently taking the slack out and applying a little pressure to your right rein - not enough to pull you off balance or to cause discomfort, just enough to signal their intent and to guide the change. The bit isn't intended as an intrusive or threatening device. It is used in the same way an Alexander Practitioner might guide you through an exploration of body awareness. She might stand behind you and very gently place her hands behind your ears to guide you through the intended releases of your jaw and neck. The asking via a rein can work in a similar fashion.
As you give in your jaw to the imagined bit, can you feel a change in your hands as you sit on them? If it's hard for you to imagine this and feel a change, exaggerate your position by pretending that you are a stiff horse. Stick your chin way out in front of you and stiffen your neck. Now soften a little. Or invert your spine so you start out above the bit. Experiment with different body postures until you find one that mirrors your best interpretation of good riding position. Now imagine again your horse softening to you. Imagine sliding down your inside rein to ask your horse to walk straight and to soften his jaw to you. Feel how you're sitting on your hands. Asking for the jaw is a little thing when you are sitting on a responsive horse.
2.) Imagine you want your horse to soften his right jaw and to walk forward and around a curve that arcs to the right out in front of you. When I try this on my office chair, I look out ahead of me beyond the front of my desk and out the far window.
3.) Suppose you want your horse to turn in a tighter circle. In fact instead of turning in an arc out in front of you, you would like him to turn back on himself, yielding his hips around. When I imagine this, I turn as I did at the beginning of this post, looking back over my inside shoulder. I picture my horse turning so his body turns tightly back towards the back of my desk, not out beyond the front of my desk as before.
4.) Suppose you want your horse to move laterally stepping over towards eleven o'clock with his outside shoulder (see the riding book) the way he might need to move to open a gate or to step over to avoid an obstacle. How does this feel?
Each one of these will give you a different feel on your hands. So now let's try something else. Let's create three-flip-three (refer to the riding book.)
Three-Flip-Three
Imagine you are sitting on your horse - and he is the perfect horse who knows this work and responds to match the changes he feels in your seat. Still sitting on your hands so you can feel the changes - imagine that you are asking your horse to walk forward and soften his jaw slightly to the inside. You signal this request by sliding down your inside rein, and releasing it as he takes a step forward in sync with you.
Imagine him giving slightly to the side. That's one give.
Now ask again. Get the response and release. That's two.
Now ask again. Get the response and release. That's three.
Now imagine yourself asking for the hip. You know that feel by now and how to make the asking more definite as needed by turning to look back at his hip. That's the "flip" of three-flip-three.
Now imagine your horse continuing to stay soft in his jaw and connected in his hip while at the same time he steps over laterally with his outside shoulder. That's one.
Imagine another step of lateral movement where he continues to soften to you as he steps again to the left away from the arc of the bend. That's two.
Imagine yet another of lateral movement. I'm looking to the right within the arc of the bend as I do this, not out over my "horse's" outside shoulder, but my intent is focused towards the left corner of my desk where my printer is sitting. That's three. I've just completed the second set of three in three-flip-three. Click and treat.
Now try something else.
Imagine you are asking your horse to walk forward and soften his jaw slightly to the inside just as you did before. Only now instead of going systematically through three-flip-three, you go straight to asking your horse to step over laterally. You can probably do it, but it may feel a little forced.
Now go back through the sequence of three-flip-three. Can you feel how the set-up of the first three gives helps you to access the change in your hips that signals the "flip"? And can you feel how those two parts of the pattern combined help you to access the lateral steps over? Instead of being separate discreet requests, it becomes a flowing pattern with each piece setting up the balance that makes the next step easier both for you to ask for and your horse to give to you.
So now go back to three-flip-three again.
Imagine yourself asking for the first give to the side. You'll find yourself mimicking the response you want from your horse. You'll soften a little to the side. That's one.
Ask again, softening a bit more to the side. It's like bending a coat hanger. The more you bend it, the softer and more pliable it becomes. That's two.
Ask again, softening a bit more to the side. That's three.
Now feel how easy it is to ask for the hip. That's the flip.
Now feel how easy it is to send your seat over towards eleven o'clock. That's one.
Repeat for another lateral step over. That's two.
Repeat for another lateral step over. That's three. Click and treat. You just finished another sequence of three-flip-three.
Repeat this a few times, and you'll begin to feel how you can really roll your hips from right to left to ask for a big step over.
Contrast Teaches
We've done all this work focused just on the right. Think back to what you were feeling as you began this process. Do you feel any different? Are you more aware of subtle shifts in your balance? Are you freer in your body? What are the changes. Can you describe them? That's important. Write down what you are discovering. Transferring these experiences from feels to words is an important part of the learning process. It gives you broader, more long-term, more deliberate access to the communication system you are building with your horse.
Now shift your focus to your left side. Start back at the beginning of this post and look over your left shoulder. Feel any difference between your right and left side? Many of you will feel an enormous difference. Your right side has become so much more aware, and flexible just in the few minutes you've been exploring these exercises. Your left side may feel stiff by comparison. Enjoy the contrast. It's a great learning experience.
Appreciate how you may feel to your horse. Which rider would he rather have? The tuned in one represented by your right side? Or the stiff one represented by your left side? And which horse would you rather have? The soft, connected horse who moves in sync with you - or the stiff, or wiggly horse who has learned to tune you out? Hopefully the answer to those questions is you want to be the aware rider sitting on the tuned-in horse. And that's what the single-rein riding process creates.
So how do you get there?
Everything is Everything Else
The second key sentence I wrote at the beginning of this post is everything is everything else. So you get there by beginning at the beginning and proceeding in a step-by-step process forward. I've written a lot of posts lately on the importance of basics and body mechanics. Ground work prepares both you and your horse for riding.
Ground work gets you moving with and using your entire body. Ground works shows you how to connect with your horse: how to ask for his jaw, his hips, his shoulders - first individually and then coupled together. Ground work teaches you how to straighten out and begin again when your horse gets over-flexed and turns into a pretzel. It shows you how to keep the "drill team" balance of front end and back end, inside and outside aligned. Ground work gives you an understanding of weight redistribution, and how you can use it to create balanced movement. In other words good ground work is fundamental to keeping a horse sound, safe and happy through a lifetime of work.
"The Grown-Ups are Talking"
So let's look at just one place where all this applies and that's in the foundation lesson "the grown-ups are talking, please don't interrupt now" (Video Lesson 1: Getting Started with the Clicker). In grown-ups are talking you begin by standing next to your horse. When you click, you want to feed your horse so his nose is exactly where the perfect horse's nose would be. And that's between his shoulders, not slightly off to the side intruding into your space.
As the lesson progresses, you want to be able to step a little further, and a little further still away from your horse so you can eventually leave him standing ground tied while you walk around him, groom him, leave him to get your tack, etc. So you will be moving towards him to give him his treat, then stepping back away from him. In the beginning stages of this lesson you will be returning to the neutral body position of "grown-ups". You want to be able to stand next to your horse with your pockets full of treats without being mugged. That's the first, primary intent of this lesson.
As you know by now from reading my recent posts, mechanics matter. And in "grown-ups" there are details which can make a huge difference. (See the Lesson 1 DVD.) One of these details is the ability to move your feet. It is amazing how stuck to the ground many people become when they are first learning this lesson. The horse takes his head away, click. The handler reaches into her pocket and holds the food out away from her body. She twists around as far as she can to deliver the food while her feet remained glued in cement. She ends up in an unbalanced awkward position. How much easier it would be if she just took a step in towards her horse to deliver the food.
Check yourself the next time you work with your horse. When you review the "grown-ups" lesson, are your feet stuck in cement, or have you learned to move as a connected whole?
And how does this relate to riding? Everything is everything else. Are you a stiff rider who doesn't send much information to her horse because there's not a lot of connection between your intent and your actions? Or are you the body aware, balanced, fluidly moving rider who can easily signal deliberate intent with subtle shifts in muscle tone? Ground work is a great place to learn how to become that more body aware, intentful rider.
Ground Work: The Connection to Riding
But the question was: how does my horse know the difference between asking for a flexion of the jaw and asking for a turn? If you're an experienced single-rein rider, you can certainly start out under saddle to teach this distinction to your horse. But for a green horse or green rider, it is much easier to figure it out first on the ground. It is certainly a great place to discover if your horse is walking with you or if he is leaving you, pushing past you, leaning onto his inside shoulder, bowing out through his outside shoulder, etc. . When you work a horse through the "duct tape" lesson, the "why would you leave me?" game, three-flip-three on the ground, and the other related ground work exercises, you are learning how to separate out the different connections you need - jaw, hip, and shoulder - to correct these leading problems. And as you combine the elements together, you learn how to create the balanced, flowing movement that looks so beautiful and feels like heaven to ride.
When you transfer these lessons to riding, you begin to understand that you and your horse are already familiar with the exercises. Everything is everything else, and riding really is just ground work where you get to sit down. When you slide down the rein, your horse is already softening to you, because he knows how to soften to the lead. When you slide down the lead and think about him yielding his hips over, lo and behold he does! Very neat. And because he is so responsive, he sometimes gets himself turned inside out like a pretzel because you haven't yet learned how to keep the drill team in balance and to release to his softness. You may not be expecting him to be so wonderfully responsive, so you end up holding on way past the point where he has given you what you want.
That's all right. Just begin again. Get a little, click and treat. Ask again, click and treat. When the asking and the responding seem clear to both of you, ask for a bit more before you click. Or ask for the next piece in the chain. It can sometimes take a few strides for your horse to recognize the new asking and to shift his balance in response. That's all right, too. Stay soft, but stay clear. As soon as you feel a change that seems as though it's in the ballpark of what you are looking for, release the rein and click, give him a treat. You're collecting data. The more data you collect, the more refined you will become in how you ask, and what you accept.
If he gets too twisted around into a pretzel, straighten his head out by extending your inside hand forward to begin again. (See the riding book). Or bring him to a halt by reaching a bit further down the rein and asking for his hips. That will also let you begin again. If he starts to rush, or changes gaits, reach down and take his hips around. Release the rein, change to the other side, ask for his hip. Repeat, changing rein after each release until he is at a stand still. Click, and treat, then ask him to walk forward.
As he walks forward think about what it felt like as you were sitting in a chair and you were imagining that your horse was walking forward in an arc and softening his jaw. What do you get? If he over-arcs, can you now, after going through all the exercises I've been suggesting, figure out why? Are you asking for too much? Straighten out his head by extending your arm forward and begin again. If your horse continues to walk in a tiny circle as though he's caught in a whirlpool, you might want to review some of the ground work lessons, particularly wwylm. That will show you when he's falling in, and also how to rebalance him so he ends up walking with you, not through you. You can then transfer this refined understanding of his balance back to the riding.
Everything is everything else, so when you are having difficulty under saddle, go to ground exercises. Think of ground work (that's working a horse on a lead or in a bridle), liberty training (where there is no tack), and riding all connected together. Liberty training helps ground work and riding. Ground work helps liberty training and riding. And riding helps ground work and liberty training.
Everything is everything else.
And when you think different, you are different.
Two simple sentences, with great learning to be found in them. Have fun with the process!
Alexandra Kurland
theclickercenter.com
Copyright 2006