The following posts were written for the_click_that_teaches email discuaaion list.
Contents:
More on Head Lowering and Three-Flip-Three
Three-Flip-Three
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More on Head Lowering and Three-Flip-Three
by Alexandra Kurland
Copyright 2006
Tanya asked:
"So here is my question: If you do have to ask for head down in the
field, wouldn't you always end up with a grazing horse? It was not a
bad thing with Mac, since it actually helped him relax, but I might
not always want that. His owner complained that he always tries to
snatch grass anyway, and I wondered to myself if he would be so happy
to know that I actually taught his horse to put his head down. He
never tries to snatch grass when I ride him, but I guess this is
because I keep him busy the entire time. Anyway, any thoughts on that?"
Head lowering is not a forward moving exercise. Grazing is. What this means is you can train head lowering on grass. It really doesn't matter that the horse is finding his reinforcement at his feet. Since we want head lowering for its calm down value, if he is able to eat grass that will help him to feel even more settled. But remember head lowering is not a forward moving exercise. The key is to recognize two important directions - forward and up - and to respond promptly when your horse moves in either of these two directions.
So picture what a grazing horse looks like. When he drops his head down to eat grass, where is his nose in relation to his front feet? It's out away from his feet. And as he eats, he'll step forward. Oops! Head lowering is not a forward moving exercise. So when he steps forward, you'll ask him to first take a step back, and then you'll let him lower his head to the ground. Again he can eat grass, as long as there is no forward movement. The head down that you get out of this form of eating grass is totally different from the drag-you-off grazing that is the more normal form of grass eating behavior.
Now "up". You also need to look at that. Think about bouncing a ball. The more energy you put into the ball as you bounce it, the higher the ball will bounce back to you. Or in horse terms, the more energy the horse has, the more his nose will yo yo up and down instead of dropping and staying down.
Now dropping and staying down, means just that. It doesn't mean dropping and doing little bounces up and down near the ground. So watch carefully when your horse drops his head. When his nose goes down so it is close to the ground, the distance between his front feet and his nose diminishes. As he lifts his nose up, it doesn't go straight up. It follows an arc, moving first out away from his front feet and then up.
You can feel this yourself, especially if you are limber. Stand with your feet apart, hands held together. Pretend your outstretched hands are a horse's head. Now drop your "head" meaning your hands. Pretend you are a horse going through the yo yo stage. Drop your hands down around your ankles, then bounce right back up again. Put some energy into it and you'll see that your hands drop towards your feet, then move out and up in an arc.
Now make the decisions that you are going to bounce your hands down, and then immediately dampen out all the energy so there is no bounce back at the bottom. That's an interesting process. You really have to think about it. And you have to actively take the energy out at the bottom so there is no bounce back. That's part of the power behind this exercise. The horse has to actively dampen out his own energy to keep his nose from bouncing back up. He isn't just dropping his nose down. He's dropping his nose down and then keeping himself very still.
I got some great video of this at a recent clinic which I'll probably include in one of the DVDs I'll be working on this fall. The horse (pony actually) we were working with was concerned about being away from home. She expressed her concern by being busy. She fidgeted and fussed. She was manageable, but handling her was a little like squeezing a balloon. Her energy kept squirting out in different directions. In the head lowering, she could drop her nose to the ground, but she couldn't leave it there.
So we worked on the detail of really monitoring up. When the distance between her nose and her feet began to increase at all, her handler immediately asked for to drop her head. The arena we were in had little clumps of tasty weeds growing in the sand. She could nibble on them as long as her nose stayed down, but as soon as the distance between her nose and her front feet began to increase, that was both up and forward movement. A quick reminder to keep her nose down kept her from creeping forward to the next clump of weeds. And it created true stillness in what was a very active pony.
The second half of Tanya's question was:
"Another concern I had about this exercise is that initially Mac
volunteered to drop his head every time I picked up the rein. Then he
started sorting my pick ups out. But at first, every time it was
the "wrong" pick up, he would still try to drop his head, pulling on
the reins. If he were my horse, I would not be too concerned, but I
wondered what the owner would think if that happened when he was
riding. Any suggestions?"
One of the principles of training says that for every exercise we teach, there is an opposite behavior which must be taught to keep things in balance. When you teach head lowering, you most definitely want to teach behaviors that will keep it in balance. Down is great, especially if you have a nervous horse, but too much of any behavior can become a nuisance.
The easy answer to what behavior balances head lowering is head raising. Okay, but how do you get the head up? By asking for the hip. And it makes the perfect pair with head lowering. Head lowering is not a forward moving exercise, and yielding the hip over is. When you ask for the hip, you want the horse to remain forward. So these two behaviors work wonderfully work well paired together.
Your horse's nose is on the ground. Slide down the lead and ask him to swing his hip over. To get the hip in motion, you'll first have to ask for a step forward. He may respond to the activation of the rein by trying to take his head down.
If down is the first direction/body part you have taught, what he thinks he knows is that down is the answer. Of course he's going to try to offer down. You'll stabilize your hand and continue to focus on his hip. You'll include in this a request for forward energy. As you slide down the lead, your hand will be rotating forward, not up as it did for head lowering. You'll be looking back at his hip so your body will not be in the same orientation to him as it is for head lowering. These are huge differences which your horse will become aware of - but not necessarily right away. At first he'll still be convinced that down is the answer, but the more energy he puts into trying to lower his head, the more leverage advantage he gives you for asking for his hip. So his hip will swing over, click and treat.
Repeat this a few times, and he'll become aware of the difference in your body, and so will you. You'll both become more deliberate - you in asking for the response you want and your horse in giving it to you. The momentary confusion and frustration he experienced when he thought there was only one answer to every question will pass.
When you are first learning this process, it's easy to get things a bit out of balance. You have to focus so much attention on head lowering because you can only learn one thing at a time. If you were asked to process the technique for asking for the hip at the same time that you were learning all the details of head lowering, you might easily feel overwhelmed and not be successful at either.
Once you understand both behaviors, it's easy to link the two. They make a great chain because the two behaviors balance one another. Your horse is walking forward. Ask him to yield his hips. As he swings his hips over, they will line up with his shoulders, making it easy to ask him to take a step or two back. When he has backed however many steps you want, release him into head lowering. From head lowering you can then ask him to walk forward into a yield of the hip. Where do you place the click? On whatever element needs the most clarification, strengthening - which can mean on each segment of this chain, or after the entire loop has been completed. You get to decide where the loop begins and ends depending upon whether your horse needs more emphasis on going or stopping.
All of this is counter-intuitive which is why people can sometimes find it hard to wrap their minds around these lessons. Normal everyday head lowering is forward movement. It puts the horse on his forehand, so he moves forward in part to keep his balance. Normal head lowering is grazing. In normal head lowering the distance between the horse's nose and his front feet is stretched out.
To get normal head lowering, you draw down on the lead, not up. Up on the lead makes no sense - at first - not when the direction you want is down. But this isn't normal head lowering. This is head lowering is not a forward moving exercise. This head lowering, built out of backing, shifts a horse's balance onto his hind quarters. It creates a release through the entire top line that you don't get in normal head lowering. In this head lowering the distance between the horse's nose and his front feet closes. To get this kind of head lowering your hand lifts the lead is up not down.
That the yielding of the hip is a forward moving exercise is also counter -intuitive. After all we use the swing of the hip to stop horses. Your horse is tanking off on the lead. What do you do? You slide down the lead, and take his hips around. You release and repeat this, until the action of swinging his hips over brings him to a stop. Click and treat.
So yes, the swing over of the hip can bleed energy out of a horse. But it can also put energy back in. When you want a horse that is standing still to swing his hips over, you need to engage his energy forward. For example, when you are doing three-flip-three, it's important that the horse stay forward through the entire sequence. If he loses too much energy, he'll stall out the hindquarters, and the shoulders will fall out of alignment. He'll end up falling out through his outside shoulder, and you'll be left wondering why in the world I make such a fuss about getting these so called lateral flexions! All they seem to be doing is teaching your horse to be wiggly and crooked.
When you maintain the forward energy as you yield the hips, the whole picture changes. The step you get activates the hind leg so your horse steps forward and under his body, bending the joints of his hind leg. That's it's value. Now instead of falling out, he's beautifully balanced. Transfer this to riding and instead of feeling like a carpet that's been pulled out from under you, your horse will be giving you a magic carpet ride.
So head lowering is not a forward moving exercise, while yielding the hip is.
Okay, that makes sense in terms of keeping things in balance. But isn't the horse moving forward when you ask him to walk with his head down? Yes. That's a great example of compound cues - asking for two separate, well known behaviors at the same time - in this case walking and dropping the head. You can create other compound cues. Spanish walk is a great example. Walk and lift your front leg straight up and out in front of you.
Compound cues are great fun to play with. Other examples anyone?
Three-Flip Three Questions
Yielding the hip is a forward moving exercise is an important clue to the questions that have come up in the past week about three-flip-three. So here's a phrase I use a lot when thinking about this pattern: "What the horse gives you, do not let him take away."
What does that mean. Three-flip three is a compounding pattern. Each piece builds on the previous step to create a cumulative result. So the first step is "go forward".
"What the horse gives you, do not let him take away." You get forward movement. The next piece in the pattern is a give of the jaw. If you lose forward as you ask for the jaw, you must go back and get forward again. I'll often be chanting to myself as I work: "Stay forward - soften the jaw, stay forward - soften the jaw, stay forward - soften the jaw. The click will come when the horse can stay forward and soften the jaw at the same time. Then I'll move on to get two softenings of the jaw with the horse staying forward throughout. If I lose forward, I'll put my focus back on that. I must have all the elements in the sequence working in combination before adding another layer.
When you are first learning the sequence, it is normal to get the horse forward, then to focus on the jaw and forget about the first element. That's all right as a first approximation, but if you let that become the norm, you will end up with a crooked horse that lacks impulsion.
Once my horse can consistently stay forward as he softens his jaw, he's ready for me to add in the hip. When I ask for the hip, if the horse either stiffens his jaw, or loses energy, I have to go back and collect those elements before I can truly say I have the hip. The sequence is:
stay forward - soften the jaw: yes - go to the next step: if no - go back at least one step
stay forward - soften the jaw a second time: yes - go to the next step: if no - go back at least one step
stay forward - soften the jaw a third time: yes - go to the next step: if no - go back at least one step
stay forward, keep the jaw soft and step up and over with the hip : yes go to the next step: if no - go back at least one step
stay forward, keep the jaw soft, remain balanced in the hips, and move the shoulders over: yes go to the next step: if no - go back at least one step
stay forward, keep the jaw soft, remain balanced in the hips, and move the shoulders over again: yes go to the next step: if no - go back at least one step
stay forward, keep the jaw soft, remain balanced in the hips, and move the shoulders over again: yes go to the next step: if no - go back at least one step
That's three-flip-three. If at any point in this sequence, you lose forward, straighten your horse out and begin again. You may have to go all the way back to the beginning of the sequence to rebuild from step one. As you and your horse gain more experience with the pattern, you can stay within it as you make sure all the elements are present and aligned as you want them.
When you first encounter it, three-flip-three will seem like a very simple pattern, but that simplicity hides tremendous complexity and nuance. Hidden within it is a t'ai chi connection to great gaits.
Alexandra Kurland
theclickercenter.com
For more information on the Three-Flip-Three exercise refer to:
The Click That Teaches: Three-Flip-Three: Understanding Lateral Flexions
A two hour DVD lesson.
Visit the on-line bookstore for more information.
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by Alexandra Kurland
Copyright 2006
This post was written in response to a series of posts that appeared on The Click That Teaches list in July 2006.
Hi Amanda,
I read with interest your string of emails about the recent evolution of the lateral work with Classic. This illustrates so well the importance of keeping a journal. You can think you aren't making any progress, and then suddenly the pieces of the puzzle fall into place and you have a totally new balance to work with.
You also raised the key question about three-flip-three, and really all lateral work. Are you just getting a neck bend, or are you stacking the building blocks to create good balance? A neck bend can be a good thing if you are starting with a stiff-as-a-board horse, which is not the case with Classic. If you have a very stiff horse, getting the neck to bend is a good starting point. However, if you don't connect that bending to the rest of the horse's body, all you get is a wiggly horse. With that horse you began with stiff, migrated to wiggly, but you still have no meaningful control.
So there has to be more to the lateral work than simply getting the neck to bend. You also have to connect the jaw to the hips and shoulders. There is a progression of lessons that takes you there. I begin with clicker basics, with a focus on backing because that is usually the sticky direction. Then I progress to the duct tape lesson (Video Lesson 2 and Chapter 9 of the Step by Step book), and from there to the pre-why would you leave me and why would you leave me game. (WWYLM DVD)
"Why would you leave me?" is set up on a circle with cones marking the perimeter of the circle. It is a lesson of geography. I want the handler to know the feeling of being able to walk a set course. I want her to recognize when she is being pushed into the center of the circle and when she is being dragged or drifted off to the outside. If the handler doesn't recognize and respond when the horse has taken over the helm, three-flip-three will disintegrate into neck bends and a horse drifting out over his outside shoulder. So beginning with a set geography is important. When you can walk the circle and your horse wraps beautifully around you, you are ready to leave the circle behind and head off into three-flip-three.
Three-flip-three has geography, but it follows a flowing pattern, and one that the handler can vary. It takes a bit of experimenting to discover the real power of this exercise. You're collecting data. Sometimes the pattern will feel awkward and rushed. It will feel as though you are playing catch-up, hurrying after a horse that is drifting further and further away from you. This is a horse that is drifting out over his outside shoulder. I show an example of this in the duct tape lesson on Video Lesson 2. I deliberately focused too much on Robin's shoulders to create extra drift. You can see what it looks like when a horse drifts to the outside through his shoulders. Yes, he is moving sideways, but the hindquarters are trailing behind. They aren't stepping up in line with the rest of the horse's body so they can lift the front end.
If you've done three-flip-three at all, I'm sure you've felt this. "Even Olympic athletes fall off the balance beam." That's an expression I use a lot for this work. There will be times when the drill team falls apart and the shoulders and hips drift out of balance. Remember, you're collecting data. It's okay to get it wrong. That's how you begin to decipher what feels good to you, and what just feels like a horse staggering sideways.
If you get things out of balance, straighten your horse out and begin again. You aren't setting things in cement where a mistake in one round of three-flip-three will be indelibly set into your horse's balance. You can experiment, get things out of balance, scratch your head over why is this exercise supposed to be a good thing, and then try again. As you sort through the differences that lead to the drill team falling apart or coming together, you will have sorted through some major layers in understanding how to create superior balance and the elevation you want.
As you experiment there will be times when everything feels solid and flowing, and you'll be glowing with pride over how gorgeous your horse is. So what is the difference? The best way to understand three-flip-three is to walk it using the tai chi walk (see the riding book). And remember, the elements in three-flip-three are cumulative. If you get the jaw to soften, but then lose forward as you ask for the hip, the drill team will fall apart, and you won't get the wonderful lift you are after.
It sounds as though you are very much on the right track. Walk the exercise so you experience it within your own balance. Pay attention to the additive nature of the steps, and see where that takes you. As you get the drill team lining up, you will want to have your camera ready. Classic will be gorgeous!
I have to leave for the weekend. I should write more about the usefulness of walls*, but that will have to wait. People tend to want to avoid arena walls, when they should be using them. They are a powerful part of this exercise. I shot some excellent video recently illustrating this, so my winter project will be assembling it into the visuals you are looking for.
Alexandra Kurland
theclickercenter.com
Copyright 2006
* How to incorprate your arena fence into the flowing pattern of three-flip-three is illustrated in the DVD: Three-Flip-Three: Understanding Lateral Flexions