Contents:
Holiday Greetings!

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Holiday Greetings!

by Alexandra Kurland

copyright 2007

Happy Holidays Everyone!

There's so much to catch up on. First, my thanks to everyone who wrote to The Perfect Horse" Magazine. I've barely had a chance to sit down and look at the November issue with the second article in it. And now in today's mail here's the December issue with two great letters to the editor about clicker training. Thank you Melissa, and thank you Kathy for your great letters. Yes, you are both famous! And thank you to everyone else who wrote in. I know "The Perfect Horse" received a lot of letters. Editors do respond to their mail. I've been asked to write Part Three of the article! Now that's something to celebrate in this Holiday season. So keep sending in your letters. The more they hear about clicker training, the more eager they will be to print more articles.

That's in part why I've been absent for so long from the list. I've been preparing several articles for the editor to choose from. And I've also been traveling pretty much non-stop. October was packed with clinics and then there was the Equine Affaire in November. This Holiday weekend marks the end of another great year of clinics. I've learned so much. As I jokingly say, I've been to all my clinics. Except that it's not really a joke. The more I explore this work, the more I discover in it. I like to end the clinics by asking participants what stood out for them, what were the "ah ha" discoveries that popped out for them? If I started listing all my "ah ha" moments from this year's clinics, I could fill a book!

This year's clinic season began with micro-shaping which evolved into Advanced Equine Pilates. Keri posted recently with a question about Oliver and bits. I wish you could all see Keri's Oliver. He's absolutely gorgeous. Watching him grow up through the clinics has been a staggering experience. Did I say he's gorgeous? Elegant doesn't begin to describe him. Fred Astaire grace in an equine package, that gets closer to the mark. And to think he was a PMU foal, a throwaway horse. Keri, you must smile every time you look at him.

I mention Oliver, not to single him out, but because I've gotten to watch him grow up through a series of clinics. He's changed so much over this past year, growing up both physically and mentally. I wish you all could travel with me from clinic to clinic to meet the horses I am so privileged to get to work with.

If I started to describe them all, the horses that stood out for me, the ones that showed me some new detail, or explained more clearly some step in the training, I really would be writing a book, and I'd end up leaving somebody out which wouldn't do at all. So let me just go over some of the highlights from the October clinics. We covered some major concepts that are worth reviewing here. This will also address some questions that came up on the list in October that I couldn't respond to at the time.

The October clinics began with one in Groton New York where we revisited yet again the triangle of the reins. We looked at the difference between a soggy triangle versus a solid triangle.

The triangle is related to the t'ai chi wall. I first described the t'ai chi wall in the Lesson Three: Head Lowering DVD. I think most of you are familiar with the term. It refers to a specific rein handling technique. But I know many people have skipped over this lesson, either because they have horses who aren't very reactive and head lowering didn't seem very important, or because they can get their horses to drop their head through other means and the t'ai chi wall approach seems overly complicated to them. But by skipping this lesson, they miss out on a key building block mechanical skill for single-rein riding. Often times the horses who are the most difficult, the most reactive end up being the best teachers simply because they don't let us skip any steps.

One of the horses I used in the head lowering video was our Icelandic stallion, Sindri. Sindri is the most amiable and easy going of horses. You are seeing on that video the extent of his head lowering education. If he were my only horse, I probably would never have stumbled across the t'ai chi wall because I would not have needed it. I would not understand it's power or it's significance. I would not understand how it is connected to the triangle of single-rein riding, and I would not understand what all the fuss was about. If you are blessed with a similar easy-going equine companion, you may be wondering the same things. But if your horse is the complete opposite of Sindri - contrary about everything, overly reactive, afraid of his own shadow, quick to take offense - you may be struggling to make the t'ai chi wall work for you. In either case a great way to learn what it does for you is to practice with a friend.

Have your friend hold the lead in her outstretched hands. Her hands represent the horse's head, her arms the horse's neck. Stand slightly to her side facing her left shoulder as though you were standing in front of your horse facing the point of his left shoulder.

Step 1 for preparing for the t'ai chi wall is to simply slide down the lead with your left hand. Practice sliding down the lead - letting go; sliding down the lead - letting go. You want this to become a fluid, easy movement. You want to involve your whole body in the slide. In clinics what I often see is someone sliding up the lead with their hand only. Their torso, their feet are not involved in the action. The "four points on the bottom of your feet" is very much a part of this. (Refer to the riding book, Ch. 22.) It's also why I refer to this as the t'ai chi wall. It is a reminder to involve your whole body in the action.

Slide up the rope using just your hand. Keep the rest of your body stiff. Now slide up the rope using your whole body. Your partner will tell you how different the rope feels to her when you involve your whole body, how much lighter and softer it is.

When you can slide up the rope beginning the action from your feet, you are ready for step two. Adjust the distance you are standing from your partner so you are just an arm's length from her. Now slide up the lead so you end up in what should be by now a familiar upside down, little-finger-to-the-sky position, AND your little finger is in contact with your partner's little finger. The Tag point for this is: little finger to little finger. (See page 37 of the riding book for pictures of this position.)

Repeat this until you are consistently able to slide down the rein and connect little finger to little finger.

Step 2a is to move out to the tail end of the rope and practice sliding down it so that no matter how close, or how far you are away from your partner when you start, you always end up in that last slide with just the right amount of lead. You are neither just shy of your mark, nor over-running your horse. It's a bit like adjusting your horse's stride before a fence. At first you can't judge distances at all, but with a little experience you know exactly how many strides you need between fences.

Depending upon how much lead there is between you and your horse when you start, you can't always go up in even increments and have it come out right. You'll need to take a little half step adjustment before the final slide to the snap. This takes practice. You may find that it's helpful to tie your lead to a fence rail so you can slide over and over again until the distance comes out right every time without your even having to think about it.

So now you're ready for step 3. Slide up your lead little finger to little finger, and in one smooth movement rotate your arm so your thumb is now pushing up to the sky. But note: DO NOT push into your human "horse's" space. When you rotate your arm, you are not at the same time trying to force your horse back. Instead find your neutral balance. That means you are balanced over the "bubbling spring", the balance point of your foot. You aren't leaning into your partner, nor are you letting her push you back. You are standing in a rooted, grounded balance that will form the basis of the structure of your tai chi wall.

This is so important. When I first gave the t'ai chi wall a name, I didn't know how much life you give something by naming it. Instead of being just one out of many rein effects that I use, suddenly it became an entity unto itself. At first, I wasn't sure if that was a good thing, especially as I watched people trying to learn how to use it. With some people their horses melted back right away. It was the perfect solution for their bargey horses. But for others the horses became even more annoyed with their people. They acted as though someone was shouting at them with a megaphone. And indeed that was very much what was happening.

The t'ai chi wall is meant to be used with the power of your bone rotations, not the strength of your muscles. When you add make-it-happen force on top of the bone rotations you end up shouting your requests instead of whispering them. The question for me was how do you teach someone to let go of all that make-it-happen muscle, particularly when they are working with a pushy horse?

Part of the answer is in having them experience this step-by-step process of sliding down the lead and remembering that when you get to step three you find neutral balance BEFORE you send your intent down the line. This was one of those details that popped out so clearly in this year's clinics. Earlier this spring I was going through these rope handling steps with one of the participants. Her mare had presented us with an interesting puzzle. She was very snarly and grouchy when her owner worked her, but totally accepting when I asked for the same thing. What was the difference?

Finding neutral was one of the keys. We reviewed the steps just as I am describing here, first without the horse. That was a fun lesson. I let her feel the contrast. First I slid down the rope and pushed into her as I rotated. I wasn't pushing hard, just skipping over the step where I first established my balance. She wasn't as fussy as her mare. She did what I wanted which was to back up, but she staggered back in unbalanced steps. She didn't exactly grump at me as her mare would have, but she was clearly not all that pleased with her loss of balance.

Next I slid up the lead, and rotated without sending my energy into her space. As I stepped up to support my elbow with my hip in a triangulated, structured position, I was first establishing my neutral balance. In this position, if she pushed into me, I was grounded, but I was not pushing into her. I could then press my toes slightly into the dirt, and she glided back. It was very neat.

I took my foot out of my shoe, so she could see her how little I was doing. Literally just a slight shift into my toes sent her back. But if I stiffened or tensed up, I could wiggle my toes all I liked and she felt nothing.

I had her try. It took a few attempts, but then she had it. We asked her horse, and she agreed. This was much better. This mare didn't like being pushed around, but ask her nicely and she was more than happy to oblige.

The more you find breath - not breathe. You can be tight and breathe. Breath is something other, something deeper. It is the letting go of force and the finding of your true power deep in your core. The more you find breath, the softer you can whisper and the clearer you will be heard. That was a huge learning that emerged again and again throughout the clinics. It is a core element in clicker training. We want our whisper to be heard around the planet.

So how is this related to triangles, solid or otherwise?

The t'ai chi wall is an extension of this slide up the lead. Suppose you are working with a pushy horse. Sliding up the lead with just your left hand won't give you enough stability. You need a more triangulated position. With your human partner try this. Slide up the lead as before, but now anchor your right hand on her left shoulder. In this part of the experiment, put some slack in the lead between your two hands. You're in position to ask her to back up, and you're also in a great position to prevent her from barging past you. (See page 37 of the riding book for pictures of this position. Also refer to the T'ai Chi Rope Handling DVD.)

Have your friend push into you. If you've both been hefting hay bales, you'll both be able to hold your ground, and it will feel like a crude pushing contest.

Now throw all that away and begin again. This time when you anchor your right hand on her left shoulder make sure that there is no slack in the lead rope between your two hands. Now when she pushes into you, you may have a very different experience. The rope will ricochet her energy right back at her. It's almost as though she's bouncing off a trampoline. Instead of a pushing contest, you'll easily be able to deflect her out of your space. That's the t'ai chi wall.

I want people to discover the connection between their two hands. Once you become aware of this connection and truly own it, whenever you slide up a lead, it will be there, whether you go into the full t'ai chi wall or not. This connection turns up in so many different places. Even at liberty where there are no leads, you can engage the energy connection that runs from hand to hand.

Everything is everything else. You need this connection in the pick of the reins. Without it your horse will have more of a tendency to drift through his outside shoulder and to drop his weight forward onto his front end. The connection from hand to hand through the triangle helps to shift his balance into his hind end and keeps his shoulders in drill team alignment with his hindquarters.

There was the interesting clinic earlier this fall where we were working on the mechanics of single rein riding. The horses were left to doze in their stalls while we put saddles on saddle racks. When people are first learning about single-rein riding everything feels very mechanical. Nothing yet is fluid or feels very connected to riding. They pick up the buckle, but they don't use bone rotations, and they don't connect it to anything else. They end up with slack between their two hands. If you add pressure to the inside rein, you'll see them compensate by becoming unlevel in their seat. They may even collapse to the inside through their ribs.

That's what happened with this rider. When her triangle was soggy, she collapsed through her ribs and her seat was easily unbalanced. However, when she picked up the buckle using bone rotations, everything changed. The lifted buckle hand was working in concert with the inside hand. Essentially it become a vertical t'ai chi wall. Now when I added pressure to the inside rein, she remained rooted in her seat. Adding in the rotation of the outside hand created a balanced, structured rider. It opened the front of the heart and allowed her shoulder blades to drop which gave her a stability that she lacked with the soggy triangle.

The outside rein from hand to bit can be slack. It is the connection between the rider's hands that matter. We had a wonderful demonstration of this at one of the WA clinics. We were working a horse on a lunge line. She had a very pretty trot but lacked impulsion. When I slid down the line thinking about the connection between my two hands, she went up several notches in energy and produced a gorgeous, ground covering trot. I wasn't holding a whip. All I did was slide my two hands apart thinking about the connection I have in the t'ai chi wall, and she gave me all this wonderful extra energy.

At the fall Groton clinic we explored the difference between soggy triangles and solid triangles. Katie wrote one of her excellent posts about this. At the clinics that followed we continued to look at the difference and some new images emerged. I've often used the image of tug of war in describing the t'ai chi wall. If you were playing tug of war with a toddler, you could hold the rope with one hand and easily keep yourself from being pulled off your feet. But if the toddler's teenage cousin who is on the high school football team came out to help, you might need two hands to hold onto the rope.

Here are some other images that help you to connect to the opening stretch across your torso that the t'ai chi slide down the lead creates. The first is the tango. I've written before about the fully extended arm (see the "Why Would You Leave Me?" and the "T'ai chi Rope Handling DVDs). Think about the exercise where I have one person stand near another with one arm lifted and stretched to the side so she can just barely touch the other person. If she now rotates her bones, she'll be able to touch her friend's shoulder. Rotating her arm extends her reach.

Now stand next to your friend with your arm outstretched, but not rotated. Have her lean in against your outstretched hand. You'll feel your balance shift over into your opposite foot.

Repeat, but this time rotate your arm. Instead of being shifted in your balance, you'll feel solid, and you'll actually deflect her back into her own space. Now that's an interesting result to take to your horses.

Where might you use this. Suppose you are standing at your horse's left shoulder and you would like him to go forward. You're going to slide down the lead so your left hand extends out in front of you in that fully extended arm position. You're thinking t'ai chi wall connection, so both hands are involved in the slide down the lead. Your left hand extends out in front while your right hand slides into position at your horse's shoulder. Tango! You're dancing with your horse. When he steps forward to meet your extended, go-forward point of contact, release!

The second image is very similar to this. Think of archery and drawing a bow. There's a wonderful old, actually ancient, New Yorker cover of a very Edwardian lady drawing back on a bow that I always think of when I refer to this image. She is aiming at a very large, round practice target. In the background is a tea service - an irrelevant detail for this discussion.

When you draw an imaginary bow back, there's a real connection between your two hands. I remember in gym class at one point we had to take an archery class. I was horrible at it. I could never hit the target. In fact the arrow usually fizzled out just a few feet from my feet. The gym teacher had no idea how to teach this t'ai chi connection across your torso. You either had a natural knack for archery or you spent the class pulling your arrows out of the grass. I think now I could probably draw a bow and have the arrow, if not hit its mark, at least land somewhere on the target. Amazing what horses teach us!

They certainly tell us that these images help them. Find the connection between your hands, and you find a connection into core. Have a friend help you find the connection so your triangle is solid, not soggy and see what your horse thinks. When you find right the connection, you'll love the feel!

The Equine Affaire marked the end of the travel season. It also in a back handed sort of a way confirmed for me the importance of all these details. My booth was near one of the demo rings, so I got to watch one version after another of hip yields and single-rein riding. The clinicians were all skilled horsemen. I saw them take anxious horses and get them to listen to them. What I didn't see was the connection into the triangle. The horses were indeed doing what was being asked of them, but when they yielded their hips, when they circled or turned, when they stepped laterally, they were all on their front end, putting extra pressure on their inside front leg. It was for me an interesting confirmation of the importance of this piece of the puzzle. Overload the front end like that over time, and you risk compromising long-term soundness.

This is why I fuss these details. I am sure I drive some people crazy. "Why does it matter if my hand is here rather that there? Why does it matter if I take the slack out or not?"

It matters - not because I say it does - but because our horses tell us this is what gives them the clearest communication, and the best balance. This is what keeps them comfortable, and sound.

These details matter because they let me function more as a clicker trainer - or rather a clicker teacher - asking and explaining, not as a horse trainer telling and demanding.

Clicker training is all about splitting small steps down into even smaller steps. That's how all these details that makes such a difference to our horses are revealed. It's like those Russian dolls - open the doll and you find another hidden inside - and yet another even smaller doll hidden inside that one. On and on, smaller and smaller, but each one even more beautiful than the one that contained it. Each layer we reveal gives us new treasures, new ways of communicating even more clearly with our horses.

When you work with the same horses over time, you see progress, but sometimes that progress is based on a growing relationship, not necessarily improved handling skills. But in clinics I see new horses every weekend. They are telling me they are liking the discoveries we've been making.

At this year's clinics I peeled many new layers, clarified more points, found better ways to describe and teach exercises, met great people, met great horses, had a wonderful time. Thank you everyone who participated. I learned so much from each and everyone of you. It has been a pleasure to be able to share all of this with you, and I hope to see you again in the coming year. My calendar is posted, though it is not yet complete. I know I am certainly looking forward to attending all of my clinics in 2008!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Alexandra Kurland
theclickercenter.com