July2008

July 2008 Newsletter
Copyright 2008 Alexandra Kurland
The following posts were written for the_click_that_teaches email discussion list.

Contents:
MicroRiding: More Layers

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MicroRiding: More Layers

By Alexandra Kurland

I haven't written anything for a long time so I'm guessing this is going to be a long post. I'll begin with the usual thank yous to the rest of you who have been posting, most especially for the recent posts on the June clinics and the micro-riding. They've made for great reading. The current threads have been excellent.

Perfect Horse Article
Before I jump in to the clinic catch-ups, several people have mentioned the Perfect Horse article on trick training. This is now the third article of mine that has appeared in the Perfect Horse magazine. When the first two articles came out last year, I asked people to write to the editors to let them know how much you appreciated seeing articles on clicker training. They clearly were listening as evidenced by this latest article.

So once again, I'd like to ask everyone to send The Perfect Horse an email, thanking them for including the article in the magazine. Perhaps you could share stories of your own favorite, clicker-trained tricks. You can send your emails to: Jenifer Sullivan at: jenny@myhorse.com

Clinic Reports
It's hard to know where to begin. I'm just back from a month of traveling. Beginning at the beginning is usually the way to start, but I think in this case, I'll jump in more in the middle. I had the very great privilege this past month of spending some time with Becky Chapman. Becky is one of Mary Wanless' senior instructors, and she is also a clicker trainer. She runs a training program that is totally committed to clicker training. When people send their horses to her, it is with the understanding that she will be clicker training them. It's been fun for me over the years that I have known Becky to watch her integrate more and more of the clicker training into her existing program.

On the way from the train station I was asking her what she'd been learning over the past year. She talked about how much more she's been using the foundation lessons in her training and teaching, and how she keeps finding herself using phrases she's picked up from me. Spooky really. We had a good laugh over the sound of my voice echoing in her head as she reminds people that "everything is everything else."

Throughout my visit I made sure to use as many of these catch phrases as possible, but three really stood out. Everything is everything else - yes absolutely. And add to that two more principle ones for this current round of clinics: "a give is a little thing, not a big thing" and "single-rein riding is not single-hand riding."

Connections
Everything is everything else speaks to the connections between ground work and riding, between the foundation lessons and the more complex exercises that follow. Years ago the historian, James Burke, created a television series called "Connections". He presented history as an intriguing jig saw puzzle linking a discovery made a thousand years ago to some modern day invention. The connections were never straight forward, and his journey through each link in the chain took him all over the world. Everything linked to everything else. He spoke at a whirlwind speed. At the end of each hour, I remember having been thoroughly entertained, but also totally overwhelmed by the amount of information he threw at you. How had he turned gold into nuclear weapons, looms into computers? It was all too much to remember, but it gave me an immense appreciation for connections.

Seeing connections is an important part of clicker training and more particularly of the t'ai chi rope handling skills. I know when people first encounter this work, they feel the way I did when I tried to follow all the twists and turns of a James Burke history lesson. "Where had we been? Tell me again how this step led to that one? My head is spinning and I feel lost."

When the show first aired back in the seventies, there were no VCRs to record the program, no ordering the DVDs from Netfix. If you didn't follow everything on the first run through, you had to wait until your local public television station ran it's annual fundraiser and showed the series again.

It takes more than one repetition to understand all the connections. That's true of a James Burke history lesson, and it's certainly true of clicker training. As I've become fond of saying, I've been to all my clinics, and I'm still seeing connections that I didn't appreciate before.

The clinics this past month really drove home the point. It's easy to think of the different exercises as separate, distinct lessons. Grown-up, head lowering, "why would you leave me?", etc. could all be thought of as isolated units, not as links in a chain. But when you begin to see the connections between them, when you see how the new skill you learn for one makes the next exercise possible, you begin to appreciate the details of the lessons, and - swoosh! - that takes you into micro-shaping, micro-riding and mAcro-success.

This past month my own whirlwind tour of connections began with what was essentially a five day course at Nick's. The first two days were a start-up/ clicker review. The last three days took us beyond basics into lateral flexions and the set-up for single-rein riding.

At times I felt like James Burke racing through the centuries trying to squeeze in as much as I possibly could into the small amount of time I had with people. In the first course we began with basics, with grown-ups are talking and finessing some of the other foundation lessons. Grown-ups are talking is such a key lesson. Everything flows out of it, all the details of the mechanic, all the steady, non-reactive clicker-training focus.

Out of grown-ups evolves the mechanics of single-rein riding. All the time you are practicing this lesson, teaching your horse patience and good emotional control, you are also creating habit patterns that will serve you well when you ride.

Sound confusing? Intriguing? As mysterious as James Burke spinning nuclear energy out of gold dust? Here are the connections:

Grown-ups is a rung on a ladder. The supports of the ladder are built on the principle that 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. At the stage where you are teaching your horse clicker basics you have not yet activated the lead. Now that doesn't mean that your horse doesn't yet have an understanding of lead ropes. All of the horses we're working with at clinics know more or less how to lead, but the lead rope has not yet been turned into a clicker-training tool. That means for grown-ups it's out of bounds. Yes, I could slide down the lead to move my horse's nose away from my treat pouch, but I would be violating my foundation principle. I don't want to use the lead until I have gone through a teaching process to explain to my horse how it works.

Which really takes us to a link in the chain that comes before grown-ups and that's basic targeting. When people are first learning about clicker training, there's a lot to think about. Details which are so very important to the links that are coming can be easily lost. One of the most important links is the dynamic nature of the food delivery. "Feed where the perfect horse would be". There's a phrase for Becky to use with her students. If I put a horse in a stall with a stall guard across the door, I don't want my horse pressing up against the restraint to get his treat. The perfect horse would be stepping back from the stall guard and taking his treat on his side of the barrier.

So in that very first lesson I encourage people to step into the horse to encourage him to back up. I am essentially introducing the horse to leading 101. Targeting coupled with food delivery acts like a swinging door pivoting on a central pole. The door is your torso. Swing the door towards the horse, and he backs up. Swing the door the opposite way, and you invite him forward to touch the target.

Later when you add in a lead rope, your horse will already understand the underlying body language. Open the door - go forward. Close the door - back up. Easy.

Grown-ups is neutral. The door is neither opening nor closing. That's your torso taken care of, but what about your hands? What do you do with them? You could hide them behind your back, tuck them in at your sides, cross them across your chest. All of these will satisfy the basic criterion of being non-reactive, but to be a link in the chain that connects us to single-rein riding, I want people to get in the habit crossing one hand over the other and holding them still at the level of their navel. This is the non-reactive, body neutral "grown-ups are talking" position out of which I'm going to grow all the t'ai chi rope handling skills.

When you first introduce your horse to "grown-ups are talking" you're in a stall or small paddock. Your horse doesn't have much incentive to leave. You're the most interesting game in town. After all you've got the goodies! You don't really need a lead to keep him attached to you, but I put one on nonetheless. I want him to become accustomed to it's presence and to begin to link that body neutral position with the feel of the snap hanging straight down from his halter. Later when I activate the lead I'll be sliding down to lift the snap up. That signals to my horse that I want something. Lift the snap - I want something. Release the snap back to neutral - thank you, you just gave it to me.

So becoming aware of the snap is important. For example, a common error in the mechanics of the head lowering lesson is people fail to fully release the snap. The horse's head is all the way down to the ground, but there will be just enough of a take on the lead to keep the snap lifted up. I equate that to driving down the highway with your emergency brake on. You are saying to the horse - I don't really trust you enough to let go. That little bit of tether will keep you and your horse emotionally stuck.

Head lowering is not a forward moving exercise. When you figure that statement out and can truly release the snap so it hangs down in its neutral position with your horse keeping his head down and his feet still, you will have solved a big piece of the emotional-control, body-balance puzzle.

In grown-ups we don't push the horse's head away or activate the lead. Initially the behavior we want is free shaped. When the horse moves his head away, click, the handler shifts out of body neutral position to feed where the perfect horse would be. The handler then returns to body neutral, her outside, feeding hand resting over the one that is closest to the horse. Her horse moves his head away again, and click, she once again shifts out of body neutral to feed where the perfect horse would be.

Good habits are being established. The handler is learning to begin and end each request from body neutral. She's developing the habit pattern of working on a release, not a constant ask. Taught this way grown ups forms a central link in both the tai chi rope handling skills and the single-rein riding.

The "you can't ask for" principle isn't the only principle that's key to this lesson. Another phrase we repeated often at Becky's was "for every exercise you teach there is an opposite exercise you must teach to keep things in balance."

With grown-ups you must move every now and then to make sure your horse doesn't become rooted to one spot. We want the position to generalize, not just become localized to the one spot where treats magically happen. So every now and then the handler should walk off casually around the stall. Walking off casually has a very particular meaning. It doesn't mean take up the lead and walk off. It means walk off with whatever length of lead you happen to have given your horse. Your hands will remain in your body neutral position.

You take a short turn around the stall or pen, then come back to a stand still. Your horse is learning to stay oriented to you and to follow your general body language, going with you when you walk forward, stopping when you stop. And if he overshoots, backing out of your space - a skill learned from the treat delivery of his targeting lessons. It's very much like heel work for dogs where the animal learns to keep himself in a particular orientation to his handler.

You are in essence teaching your horse the "pre-why would you leave me?" lesson, but you are doing it in a small space where the horse is likely to stay near you. Hands at neutral, one resting lightly on top of the other is your basic position. I want to program this in early so the feel of it becomes second nature. Your hands return to this body neutral, grown-ups are talking position without your even having to think about it. For most people this is a position that has to be actively learned, mainly because we've spent a lifetime actively avoiding keeping our hands anywhere near our bellys. Who really wants to be reminded how many abdominal crunches they haven't been doing!

Sliding Down a Lead
Now the beauty of the t'ai chi rope handling is you only have to learn two basic skills. The first is this "grown ups are talking" body-neutral position, and the second is sliding down a lead.

Remember the third of my key phrases, the new one I added to Becky's list? "Single-rein riding is not single-hand riding."

Let's look at what this means using another of the foundation lessons: backing. You want your horse to back up. You've taught him to move back from food delivery. When you step towards him, he's begun to automatically back-up. That's the perfect set-up for introducing the lead. You're standing next to him in grown-ups. You'd like him to back up, so now you don't just turn into him, you also slide down the lead. You're adding in the new cue of the lead to augment the cues he's already understanding and responding to.

Sliding down the lead means your hands slide apart. One hand goes towards the snap while the other heads towards your horse's shoulder. You're setting up a t'ai chi wall relationship. Your hands work together to activate the lead.

It isn't one hand reaching up to the snap while the other pushes against his chest. "Single-rein riding is not single-hand riding." Your two hands slide apart to create the dynamic barrier of the t'ai chi wall.

Your horse shifts back, you release, sliding your hands back together again into your grown-ups are talking position. It's so easy. Here's a new mantra to use in your ground work. Grown-ups - t'ai chi wall - grown-ups - t'ai chi wall. The two positions interconnect. You want something. Slide your hands apart into a tai chi wall. Your horse responds, slide your hands back together again into grown-ups. T'ai chi wall - you want something. Grown-ups - he just gave it to you.

This simple link between two rope mechanics carries you forward into the duct tape lessons and the pre-wwylm and wwylm lessons which then takes you into three-flip-three and hip-shoulder-shoulder. You slide down the lead towards the snap asking for a change from your horse. He gives it to you, you release the lead touching base momentarily with the grown-ups position before initiating the next request.

Simple. Except anyone who has attended a clinic will tell you that sliding down a lead is anything but simple. Sliding down a lead is more than just moving your hands along a rope. Sliding down a lead means learning to involve your whole body, learning about core balance and bone rotations. Sliding down a lead means learning about connections.

There's that word again. Connections.

In this case I'm referring to the connections between your two hands and your core. What this means was illustrated beautifully at Nick's first course. We had a group of Icelandics to play with who had never done any lateral work. Their owners were all familiar with clicker basics so it was easy to move from the foundation lessons out onto the "why would you leave me?" circle. The Iceys were all amiable, easy-to-get-along with horses. Basic leading was not an issue. They weren't pushy, or spooky. They weren't troubled by any of the big issues that take all the fun out of training. But they were all in need of balance tune-ups. So on the "why would you leave me?" circle we explored what it means when I say that single-rein riding is not single-hand riding.

It's easy when you are asking your horse to come forward and around you to become one handed. You slide down the lead towards the snap with your leading hand and forget that your other hand has anything but a minor supporting role. Leave out the tai chi wall element, and you are quite likely to pull your horse down and around you onto his inside shoulder - not good. When you slide your hands apart into the tai chi wall, your leading hand goes to the snap and your "buckle" hand goes to your horse's shoulder. You want your horse to step over so he remains outside the boundary line set by your two hands. You are setting up not one, but two points of contact. Leave out the connection into your "buckle hand" and you may very well be pulling your horse down and around onto his inside shoulder. Find your tai chi wall connection, and he will be lifting up and over into his outside shoulder, into better balance.

The key to this is discovering the truth of our third phrase: a give is a little thing, not a big thing. The tai chi wall is not a harsh, hard correction. It is a redirection of energy. It can feel light as air and yet be so amazingly, wonderfully irresistible. When I'm teaching the t'ai chi wall, I have people learn the mechanics like links in a chain. I have them practice first just sliding a little way up the lead, and then releasing back down to their original starting point. Slide up, slide down. Slide up, slide down until the process feels smooth and easy.

You can practice this with a friend, or simply tie a lead to the back of a chair or to a fence post. Slide up, slide down. Practice until it becomes second nature. Then slide up two loops of the lead and slide back. Can you go back down the lead as smoothly as you went up it? Is your release soft or do you drop it so it jars your partner? Slide up, slide down until the two directions feel equal to you. As you practice you'll become aware of your feet. You can't be smooth and stiff at the same time. You have to involve a shift in balance with the slide down of your hands.

When people can slide easily up and down the lead, I have them practice going all the way to the snap. Then I show them the bone rotation that creates the 'tai chi wall" position. Here's a place where small details really matter. When I step up into my triangulated, "tai chi wall" position, I want to make sure I go first into a body-neutral position. What most people do is they push into their partner as they rotate into position. This does indeed send their partner back, but the step they get will be unbalanced. Both their horse and human partners will stagger back. It's a first approximation, but it can get so very much better once you first learn to find your body-neutral position.

in clinics I'll demonstrate the technique with someone. I'll go through each of the steps, sliding down the lead into a fully-extended, upside-down arm position. Then I'll rotate my arm from my shoulder as I step up into a triangulated, but body-neutral position. I'll pause there briefly, long enough for my partner to experience the position, then I'll activate my t'ai chi wall, and my partner will step lightly, softly back. She'll often have a puzzled look on her face as if to say: "Why did I do that? I meant to resist. "

The question I ask is do you know what I did? I get more puzzled looks, so I tell her. "I wiggled my toes." And then I show her. I slip my foot out of my shoe, set up another body-neutral t'ai chi wall, wiggle my toes, and she slides right back. It sounds so odd written out this way, but it's not magic, or some weird, touchy-feelly hocus pocus, just effective use of mechanics. And the best part of this is the process is teachable. You too can learn how to wiggle your toes and send horses sliding softly out of your space.

Here's some of the science behind the magic. When I slid up the lead into my t'ai chi bone-rotation position, I first connected with a body-neutral position. I did not push into my partner before first establishing my own position. Our hands were touching, but I was not pushing into her. If we had wanted to, we could have slide a piece of paper between our two hands.

To find this balance I had to rotate my arm using my shoulder blade. If my shoulder blade remains rigid so I'm rotating just with my arm, a casual observer might not see any difference, but my partner will most certainly feel a difference. I won't get that lovely melting back out of my space, that soft step that appears to come from no effort. Rotating using my shoulder blade is such an important part of this process.

On the "T'ai Chi Rope Handling" DVD I show you a couple of the clinic exercises that I use to give meaning to the words: rotate through your shoulder blade. Two exercises in particular are important for this. The first is the exercise illustrated on pg. 145 of the riding book where I have you lift your arms out to the side and then rotate them so your thumbs point forward, up, back, up, forward, down and then behind you. The second exercise is illustrated in both the "T'ai Chi Rope Handling Skills" and the "Shaping on a Point of Contact" DVDs. In this exercise I want you to discover what it means to have a fully extended arm.

I illustrate this by standing just beyond the reach of my training partner. With my arm raised out to my side my finger tips are about an inch away from her shoulder. That's before the magic happens. When I rotate my arm from my shoulder blade, I can extend my reach so my finger tips now press against her shoulder.

If I have her lean against my hand before I add in the rotation, she'll be able to shift my balance onto my outside foot. After I rotate, she won't be able to shift me. Instead, she'll find herself rebalancing away from me. Learn how to access this shoulder rotation and horses will melt out of your space without a fuss. It's one of the internal keys to good work in-hand.

The directions for this shoulder rotation seem simple enough, but it's amazing how many people really struggle to find it. They have very limited mobility in their shoulders, and only sometimes is this because of an injury. More often it is simply because of lack of use and awareness. It's so easy for our shoulder blades to get "attached" to our ribs. So how do you get people unstuck and aware of their shoulder blades?

You introduce them to micro-riding. Sneaky isn't it. We're back to connections again! We've gone from the basics of "grown-ups are talking" to the tai chi wall to leading 101, and arrived here at a micro-level of training. Everything is connected to everything else.

There have been some wonderful posts recently on micro-riding. Thank you Amanda, Kathy, Nick, and Hilary for sharing your experiences with it. It's hugely appreciated. Your posts confirmed what I was seeing at the clinics. They were great fun to read, and I know they will be extremely useful for all the people who can't make it to a clinic.

Micro-riding
I wrote a very long post about micro-riding back in May. During the June courses I made sure each group had at least one micro-riding session, and in some of the courses we managed to use it every day. I knew we'd have people from each of these courses at the advanced training at the end of the month, so I wanted to be sure everyone had had some prior experience with it. My question going into the advanced training was an open one. What could you do with micro-riding? The answer went beyond anything I would have imagined. That's always the fun of this work. Here's another expression for Becky's list: "the longer you stay with an exercise, the more good things you find it can do for you." That's certainly been the case with micro-riding.

In one of the earlier courses we did several sessions spread over the four days. In the first session I began as I usually did with the shoulders. "Can you think about moving your shoulder blade up?". Yes. I can feel a slight initiation of response. Click.

"Can you think about moving your shoulder blade down?"

These are such simple questions, but it is amazing how stuck shoulder blades can become. We've had them with us all our lives, but for many of us we've paid no attention to them. Shoulders, yes. Those we can move, but not the shoulder blade itself. That stays anchored to our ribs. And since ribs and shoulder blades are firmly in control of not breathing, is it any wonder so many of our horses are more than a little bit stuck!

In the micro-riding sessions I have people work in groups of three. One person observes, one is the monitor, and the third is the "rider". The monitor rests her hand lightly on the rider's shoulder blade. Her job is to click when she feels the rider respond to her instructions.

In each group there are always people who worry that they won't be able to feel anything. They doubt their ability to feel any of the responses. Beginning with the shoulder blade eases them into the process. It's a huge confidence builder. I love the startled expressions of delight when people discover that they really can feel their partner's shoulder blade move. But that makes perfect sense. The monitor's hand is resting on the rider's shoulder blade. Of course, they can feel the shoulder blade move. The question is how small a movement can they detect? Can they click on the thought of movement or are they waiting until they feel a larger, more macro shift?

That was session one with this group. In session two, I rested my hand on my partner's shoulder blade and asked her to think about the top of her thigh bone. Click. I looked around at the ring of observers and saw lots of puzzled faces. What was I feeling? How could I possibly feel any change under my hands. What connection could there be between her thigh bone and her shoulder blade?

There's that word again. Connection. And everything is connected to everything else.

When we get people freeing up their shoulder blades, we are doing so much more. We are freeing up the breath. And when the breath frees up, you really can feel a change under your hands when you direct your partner's thoughts to her thigh bone or to the balance point of her foot.

I turned people loose to experiment with this within their groups and kept hearing squeals of delight - or maybe it was shock. "I felt that!! Oh, that's just too bizarre!"

It may have been bizarre but it was very gratifying to watch how the micro-riding sessions in the house carried over into superb handling when we went out to the horses. People thought about their shoulder blades rotating and their horses rebalanced into lateral flexions. It wasn't that their handlers were abandoning the lead. They were sliding down it as before, only not as before. They really could empty out the make-it-happen muscle that stiffens horses. In its place they put the power of intent with all of its politeness, all of it gentleness, all of its effectiveness.

And what was really exciting for me was seeing everyone in the groups succeeding with this process. It wasn't just one or two people who could figure it out. In each of the three roles, observer, monitor, rider, everyone discovered they could see, feel, do much more than they ever would have thought possible.

So that was the prep I gave to each of the groups. In the final course we began with a review of the micro-riding basics. In the role of the rider most people discovered that they had much more mobility and awareness than they had had the first time through. And in the roles of monitors and observers they were feeling and seeing with greater subtlety. That was a good beginning. Shoulders, thigh bone, the balance point of the foot, these are all good points to explore, and we did so in much more detail than we had before. But then I added in new points. What happens when the person thinks about the roof of their tongue. We had a discussion about what this meant. It's one of those things that's hard to describe. You want to point at your tongue while talking - somewhat difficult. It's rather like describing a spiral staircase without using your hands. What I mean here isn't the tip of the tongue, but more the middle third.

I wasn't sure what if anything I would feel when I directed my rider, Amanda, to think about resting her tongue against the roof of her mouth, but amazingly, I could feel a change under my hand.

And later when I directed her to think about giving at the poll her whole spine lengthened under my hand.

Amanda has written a wonderful post on what how this has impacted her work with Classic. And others from this group have shared their experiences as well. So let me share my great ah ah moment when I got home from my trip.

Robin was the first horse I rode. He hadn't been worked in over five weeks. Normally I do a bit of ground work first with him, but he wanted me to ride, so that's what we did.

I have become fond of saying I've been to all my clinics. What that meant for me in that ride was I had just had an intense month of micro-riding. Even though I was usually just observing as others worked, I was still benefitting from the process. I knew more clearly than I ever had before what it feels like to think about my thigh bones. I knew the feel of it both within myself and what that would feel like to someone else.

As I slid down the reins, I thought about my thigh bone and Robin melted deep into his corner. That was neat. I thought about my thigh bones again and Robin flowed onto a perfect circle. It was so clear. It was so easy. I thought about opening my head chakra, a phrase that would have had very little meaning before, and Robin energized his walk and lengthened his own spine. Very spooky!

It was as if we'd had no break at all in our training. I hadn't been on a horse in over a month, but in many ways I was riding better than I ever have. Just like lots of the rest of you, I have jammed-up, stuck programming in my body. It effects my riding - all the old layers that float around and glum things up. That old programming wasn't there. I don't know really how to explain this except to say that the baggage simply wasn't there. It wasn't just that it was set aside for the moment. It was gone. I rode Robin with a freedom and a level of awareness that was a delight for both of us.

Connections. It was Robin who led me to microshaping. What he taught me, I was able to share with others through the clinic process. Microshaping led this year to micro riding. And now through the clinics I am able to turn around and give back to Robin a ride that connects to all the good work that is in him.

So thank you to everyone who has participated so far in the 2008 courses. Your combined efforts have given me a superb ride on my horse!

Trust the Process
There is a final phrase that is important, perhaps the most important of all, and that's trust the process. Julie Varley gave me that one, and her mare Allie is a beautiful example of what happens when you do just that. Process is what I am teaching with this work, not end results. End results won't help you if you are starting at a point where your shoulder blades are glued to your ribs, your feet are disconnected from your hands, and your breath is something that you are only dimly aware of.

It's like asking someone what his cues are for a particular movement. What do you do to get a canter depart? I could tell you what I do, but the words probably wouldn't help you. I use my seat. Now how meaningful is that? And the more I describe to you what I do with my seat, in all likelihood, the more lost you will be.

How many of us have been in lessons where the instructor told us to use our back more, or use our seat? What does that mean? Use it how? How do you translate those words? And how do you activate them in a meaningful way in your own body? My starting point is not yours. The use patterns I have in my spine do not match the use patterns in yours.

If I give you directions to Chicago from my house and you follow them exactly beginning with turn right as you go out the driveway, you aren't going to get to Chicago. Your starting point is not my starting point. But if I teach you how to read maps and use other navigational travel skills, you'll get there with ease.

The ground work, and the single-rein riding teach process. In Katie's very timely post this morning she also talked about connections. And she and others talked about how the single-rein process changed how they rode. It is the process that teaches. The process of sliding down the lead or rein and asking for a give creates a change not just in your horse, but in you as well. With each give you are generating more body awareness and control which in turn creates more subtle cues.

The fun of this for me is it is a very dynamic, very creative process. If you are new to this work, don't worry if you aren't following some of this discussion. Micro-riding isn't something to be afraid of or to push against. When you are ready for this layer, you can dive into it. At the advanced trainings we explore out along the leading edge, seeing where the work can take us. The books and the DVDs give you the stair steps. They're the "bread crumbs" you can follow to track the work.

In the fall we'll be coming up on the tenth anniversary of the publication of my first book "Clicker Training for your Horse." When it came out, I said in ten years we won't recognize the horse world. I should have been more specific. I would say that in general the horse world looks pretty much the same as it did ten years ago. Pockets of it have changed a bit, but in general the terrain is pretty much the same. But the clicker training horse world - now that has changed. We've discovered so much that we can do via clicker training, things we hadn't even thought of in 1998. We've tapped into such beautiful, dynamic balance. The horses I see at clinics just knock my socks off. So I'll say again, in ten years we won't recognize the clicker-training horse world. Standing where we currently are we can't begin to imagine what those changes will be, but I do know that if we trust the process, they will come. Have fun!!

Alexandra Kurland
theclickercenter.com