Prompted by Skib and others I attended Buck Brannaman's evening demo at Merrist Wood college yesterday.
This is a huge arena, 90m long and 30m wide. It's really hard to see all of it however centrally you sit so I was glad I got there early and found seats at the front!
Before the demo started a young man was working on the ground with a Western-tacked horse, a big, handsome black, in the way described by Skib; yielding the quarters and shoulders repeatedly on a very tight circle, using a rope halter and flag to achieve the turns. This exercise looked both quite difficult to achieve and exactly what I needed to do with Ziggy. Also in the arena was a big quiet bay horse of show cob type, English tacked with rider up.
There was a chair in the middle of the arena, facing the spectators, and to my surprise Buck came out and sat it in. He looked tired and old and I felt initial disappointment. He explained that he had been unsure what to do at the demo until this beautiful horse (the black) had been brought to his clinic as a non-participant even though it was not booked in, because it was so attached to some of the other horses who came that it could not be left behind because it would colic or do itself an injury in its distress. Buck explained that horses like this, which he called herd bound or indeed barn sour (@XxRideForLifexX take note!), were pretty useless to their riders and astonishingly common.
Buck described the usual approach to this, which is to force the horse to leave. He explained that this is difficult and creates a lot of resistance in the horse, which can be dangerous if it expresses itself in bucking, rearing, spinning, throwing self to the ground and other ways in which horses evince displeasure. He said that in his experience many riders give up at the wrong moment and thereby instil exactly the opposite message from their intention.
His preferred method is to get the horse to experience more comfort/peace from obliging its rider and being with its rider than from being with its friends. He said he would show us in the demonstration how to get the horse to find out for itself that exploring and being away from its companions is all right, and that it can gain comfort and reassurance from its rider as well as from other horses. The target for the demo was to get the horse to choose voluntarily to stand in the corner of the arena furthest away from its equine companion.
Buck's rider, who I think was called Nathan, fastened the reins (rope reins) to the saddle horn. He was instructed to give the horse no direction at all with legs, reins or seat - the horse should always choose where it wanted to go. The only thing that Nathan would do was control the speed of the horse.
This was a very simple demo in many ways. When the horse was near its companion (the bay cob, who was simply bait for these purposes) its rider kept it in a brisk trot or even canter. When it chose for itself to leave its companion, the rider took the pressure off and allowed it to slow down or even stop. Gradually, the zone where the horse could find peace was moved further and further away from the bait horse.
This sounds obvious, and indeed when I got home and my OH said, "How was that?" I said, "I watched a man ride a horse in circles for an hour and 15 minutes". But it was absolutely full of interest and, for me, reinforcement of the same lessons that I gained from the Rashid workshop.
At the start the horse was extremely restive and anxious. It whirled, spun, and kicked out a few times as it travelled at a brisk trot in a very small circle around its friend. Buck said the anxiety probably stemmed from the many occasions on which its rider had insisted that it leave its companions. Now Nathan was only asking for trot, never asking for the horse to leave.
The horse had a very strong preference for one rein, which it showed by trotting on that rein for 20 out of the 25 minutes in which it stayed in a circle around its friend. Buck said that a voluntary change of rein would indicate that the horse was starting to break its thoughtless pattern of trotting in circles. He sounded as if he disapproves of lunging, as he said, "He's been lunged, he's been taught that trotting in brainless circles is what you do." (I should say at this point that the horse's owner was one of the demo organisers). As the horse went round and round and round it was possible to see how shut down it was. No ear movement, its eye wide and worried but not looking around - just stuck in the groove like the needle on a record.
After 25 minutes of trotting and cantering in circles the horse began to make very small gestures towards leaving its friend. There were a couple of jumps nearby which seemed to have become the boundary to the horse's "safe zone" - he would not go beyond them. Every time he turned his head to look beyond the "safe zone", the rider took off the forward pressure and stroked him on the side of the neck that didn't block his movement away (this is just like Mark Rashid's "finding the try").
The horse's ear and eye movements increased, he was becoming curious about the rest of the arena. He finally moved beyond the jumps, whereupon the rider allowed him to slow to a walk and even to rest for a moment. When he hurried back to the bait horse, he was asked to trot again.
At this point the horse began to get a bit tired: Buck said he was asking, "Mind if I stop trotting now?" This motivated him to look for comfort somehow else, as the presence of his friend wasn't doing him much good. He began to explore further and further into the arena.
It was noticeable both that the horse constantly returned to the bait horse for reassurance, and that his exploration went in cycles. He would make an improvement, then "relapse" to his previous behaviour for a little while, then go a bit further. To begin with he would go back to the bait horse for a check in and circle him several times at trot and canter before leaving to explore again; towards the end he still returned to check in, but would not circle his friend even once before leaving again.
At no stage did the rider do anything other than to ask with his legs for forward movement when the horse was near the bait horse, and take off the pressure and reassure him with petting and scratches when he moved away from the bait horse.
Eventually, after 1 hour and 15 minutes, as promised, the horse who at the start of the session would violently refuse to go more than 3 metres from his friend was taking himself voluntarily to the furthest point of the arena and resting there. At this point the rider dismounted, unsaddled, and led the horse quietly away from his friend, out of the arena to a waiting bucket of feed (Buck's final suggestion to reinforce the horse's new behaviour).
Buck warned us not to start this unless we have the time to complete it; nothing worse than to stop the work before the horse has chosen to break its own pattern. He also recommended the exercise as a tool for developing one's own feel as a rider and the horse's sensitivity to our requests: "Drop a glove somewhere in your arena and let the horse find its way to it by this method." It's just like Hot And Cold - using your legs means "getting colder" and slackening off means "getting warmer." Jumping off and unsaddling the horse means "You've got it!" Buck said that a skilled horse and rider will take you to the spot very quickly.
I have to say that I would be very tired by 1 hour and 15 mins of trotting! But I loved watching the demo and would definitely use the technique if I had the need.
This is a huge arena, 90m long and 30m wide. It's really hard to see all of it however centrally you sit so I was glad I got there early and found seats at the front!
Before the demo started a young man was working on the ground with a Western-tacked horse, a big, handsome black, in the way described by Skib; yielding the quarters and shoulders repeatedly on a very tight circle, using a rope halter and flag to achieve the turns. This exercise looked both quite difficult to achieve and exactly what I needed to do with Ziggy. Also in the arena was a big quiet bay horse of show cob type, English tacked with rider up.
There was a chair in the middle of the arena, facing the spectators, and to my surprise Buck came out and sat it in. He looked tired and old and I felt initial disappointment. He explained that he had been unsure what to do at the demo until this beautiful horse (the black) had been brought to his clinic as a non-participant even though it was not booked in, because it was so attached to some of the other horses who came that it could not be left behind because it would colic or do itself an injury in its distress. Buck explained that horses like this, which he called herd bound or indeed barn sour (@XxRideForLifexX take note!), were pretty useless to their riders and astonishingly common.
Buck described the usual approach to this, which is to force the horse to leave. He explained that this is difficult and creates a lot of resistance in the horse, which can be dangerous if it expresses itself in bucking, rearing, spinning, throwing self to the ground and other ways in which horses evince displeasure. He said that in his experience many riders give up at the wrong moment and thereby instil exactly the opposite message from their intention.
His preferred method is to get the horse to experience more comfort/peace from obliging its rider and being with its rider than from being with its friends. He said he would show us in the demonstration how to get the horse to find out for itself that exploring and being away from its companions is all right, and that it can gain comfort and reassurance from its rider as well as from other horses. The target for the demo was to get the horse to choose voluntarily to stand in the corner of the arena furthest away from its equine companion.
Buck's rider, who I think was called Nathan, fastened the reins (rope reins) to the saddle horn. He was instructed to give the horse no direction at all with legs, reins or seat - the horse should always choose where it wanted to go. The only thing that Nathan would do was control the speed of the horse.
This was a very simple demo in many ways. When the horse was near its companion (the bay cob, who was simply bait for these purposes) its rider kept it in a brisk trot or even canter. When it chose for itself to leave its companion, the rider took the pressure off and allowed it to slow down or even stop. Gradually, the zone where the horse could find peace was moved further and further away from the bait horse.
This sounds obvious, and indeed when I got home and my OH said, "How was that?" I said, "I watched a man ride a horse in circles for an hour and 15 minutes". But it was absolutely full of interest and, for me, reinforcement of the same lessons that I gained from the Rashid workshop.
At the start the horse was extremely restive and anxious. It whirled, spun, and kicked out a few times as it travelled at a brisk trot in a very small circle around its friend. Buck said the anxiety probably stemmed from the many occasions on which its rider had insisted that it leave its companions. Now Nathan was only asking for trot, never asking for the horse to leave.
The horse had a very strong preference for one rein, which it showed by trotting on that rein for 20 out of the 25 minutes in which it stayed in a circle around its friend. Buck said that a voluntary change of rein would indicate that the horse was starting to break its thoughtless pattern of trotting in circles. He sounded as if he disapproves of lunging, as he said, "He's been lunged, he's been taught that trotting in brainless circles is what you do." (I should say at this point that the horse's owner was one of the demo organisers). As the horse went round and round and round it was possible to see how shut down it was. No ear movement, its eye wide and worried but not looking around - just stuck in the groove like the needle on a record.
After 25 minutes of trotting and cantering in circles the horse began to make very small gestures towards leaving its friend. There were a couple of jumps nearby which seemed to have become the boundary to the horse's "safe zone" - he would not go beyond them. Every time he turned his head to look beyond the "safe zone", the rider took off the forward pressure and stroked him on the side of the neck that didn't block his movement away (this is just like Mark Rashid's "finding the try").
The horse's ear and eye movements increased, he was becoming curious about the rest of the arena. He finally moved beyond the jumps, whereupon the rider allowed him to slow to a walk and even to rest for a moment. When he hurried back to the bait horse, he was asked to trot again.
At this point the horse began to get a bit tired: Buck said he was asking, "Mind if I stop trotting now?" This motivated him to look for comfort somehow else, as the presence of his friend wasn't doing him much good. He began to explore further and further into the arena.
It was noticeable both that the horse constantly returned to the bait horse for reassurance, and that his exploration went in cycles. He would make an improvement, then "relapse" to his previous behaviour for a little while, then go a bit further. To begin with he would go back to the bait horse for a check in and circle him several times at trot and canter before leaving to explore again; towards the end he still returned to check in, but would not circle his friend even once before leaving again.
At no stage did the rider do anything other than to ask with his legs for forward movement when the horse was near the bait horse, and take off the pressure and reassure him with petting and scratches when he moved away from the bait horse.
Eventually, after 1 hour and 15 minutes, as promised, the horse who at the start of the session would violently refuse to go more than 3 metres from his friend was taking himself voluntarily to the furthest point of the arena and resting there. At this point the rider dismounted, unsaddled, and led the horse quietly away from his friend, out of the arena to a waiting bucket of feed (Buck's final suggestion to reinforce the horse's new behaviour).
Buck warned us not to start this unless we have the time to complete it; nothing worse than to stop the work before the horse has chosen to break its own pattern. He also recommended the exercise as a tool for developing one's own feel as a rider and the horse's sensitivity to our requests: "Drop a glove somewhere in your arena and let the horse find its way to it by this method." It's just like Hot And Cold - using your legs means "getting colder" and slackening off means "getting warmer." Jumping off and unsaddling the horse means "You've got it!" Buck said that a skilled horse and rider will take you to the spot very quickly.
I have to say that I would be very tired by 1 hour and 15 mins of trotting! But I loved watching the demo and would definitely use the technique if I had the need.
