f.) Clinic #6: Connecting the Dots
Connect targeting and the other foundation lessons to riding by introducing lateral work: what it is, why you want to teach it to your horse, and how you can “pop it out” of some deceptively simple lessons.
Clinic #6: Connecting the Dots
You can never do one thing
Throughout these courses, I suspect you are finding that with each performance milestone you reach, the relationship with your horse grows ever deeper. That's one of the great bonuses of this work. You can ask for a lot and instead of it being a burden for your horse, he just becomes an ever more confident learner.
What have you done so far?
Through the previous five courses you’ve been collecting an ever broadening repertoire which we have wrapped around a solid conceptual structure, and a means to get there.
Loopy training provides the teaching process. Clicker training gives us the ethical grounding so every step of the training considers our horse’s welfare. It also provides us with a great deal of laughter.
You have used the foundation lessons to improve your horse’s husbandry skills, and that in turn has expanded his repertoire of trained behaviors even further. It is time to connect the dots and move deeper into performance work.
What will you be learning?
In this course we’re going to connect those very first clicker training lessons where you introduced your horse to targeting and the other foundation lessons all the way to riding. We’ll do so by looking at lateral work: what it is, why you want to teach it to your horse, and how you go about “popping it out” of some deceptively simple lessons.
We’ll define what it means to shape on a point of contact. That’s both a key concept and a critical handling skill. We’ll use awareness exploration to explore bend, gives and other critical elements. And I’ll introduce you to The Hug - a powerful lesson that helps your horse release tension throughout his spine. This is an important first step for all performance work, whether it is on the ground or under saddle. You’ll be building a “domino chain” that will transfer directly to riding.
We’ll begin the lesson with a review of shaping on a point of contact. I introduced you to that concept in the rope handling course. Now we are going to use it to teach lateral work.
Michaela Hempen and her mare Graya. I suspect by now you have many pictures of your horse that you want to frame, and as you connect the dots to lateral work, you will have even more.