I was able to attend one day of this 2 day clinic and enjoyed it very much. There were 7 horses on this day but alas I could only stay to watch 6. I'll write up one at a time as my notes are long, and I'm glad to say that Skib was there as well so I am sure she will put an alternative viewpoint if she saw something differently from me.
There were lots of lovely horses and ponies on the day I saw and I was very taken by Mark Rashid's quietness, consistency and rigour. I felt quite guilty over my soft and inconsistent handling of my pony. Imagine my relief when my livery mate, who came with me for the first half of the day and who is a very very much more experienced and capable horsewoman than me, said at lunchtime, "Gosh he makes me feel so bad about how inconsistent and soft I am!"
So here we go, ponyhorse 1, 15 hh skewbald New Forest x warmblood cross, such a pretty little chap, a horse in height but a pony in appearance. He was going in a fairly odd rig of western saddle and 3 ring gag. The owner explained that she had bought him started as a 3 year old; he had gone beautifully when she tried him. When he came home a week later, he was nervous, nothing was ok, and within a few days she couldn't even get on him. She turned him away for 6 months and later tried seventeen different saddles (!) to find the one he was happy with, which proved to be the Western.
She said that the horse was "sour in the school", that he constantly seemed to have the brakes on and that he would run backwards for no obvious reason. She wanted him to move more freely and to improve his transitions, especially halt to walk and walk to trot.
MR spent a long time enquiring into the horse's history with her. She explained that he had been ok when he first came home, then deteriorated over 5/6 weeks until even leading to the field was dangerous because he reared - this wasn't long after she got him home. She explained that he would only move into walk if she asked with one rein and one leg only. To get stop she felt she needed to exert pressure at 5 or 6 out of 10. Backing up he would run backwards, not stopping when the pressure was released.
MR watched the horse work and asked more questions. Eventually he said that he thought the horse didn't understand at all what he was being asked to do. When going backwards he was moving his feet but not backing up properly; both forwards and backwards he was tight in his body, especially his neck and poll, pushing against the pressure and bracing against the bit. He didn't soften and appeared to think that he was in charge.
MR kept the rider in position but took over the reins from the ground - I watched with great interest at his point as I have often hoped to see this technique demonstrated and he showed it very well. He said he wanted the horse to soften, relax and obey, and used back up to try this. The horse resisted by throwing up his head and then by backing rapidy; MR ignored all evasions and incorrect tries and continued asking until he got a soft, straight back up. This took quite a long time, several minutes.
At this point MR hypothesised that when backed the horse had been rushed and hadn't had clarity about what he was being asked to do. He said, "I want him to let go the tension and get one single thing right."
He started working him forward in hand and asked for softness and engagement from the back end. He commented, "Everything he is doing is saying 'I have no idea'". His front was locked up, and the energy from the back end got stuck, with nowhere to go. The horse was resisting the bit, and MR commented, "It's easy to back off with a horse like this because he is troubled: but then he lacks leadership. I am not going to pull on the bit, but I am not going to give in to him when I feel him pushing." The goal was to get him to let go in his neck. If when he braces his neck the rider lets go, that reinforces the pattern of bracing. Before asking for any change (even from halt) the horse needed to be relaxed, soft, attentive.
At this point something seemed to shift for the horse. He relaxed, went backward better, went forward better, much more softly, and licked, chewed and yawned as he moved. The tension in his poll had gone and he continued to chew and yawn for some time.
MR demonstrated how release could come not from completely giving away rein contact or control, but just from a relaxation of the muscles (imagine pulling against a rope tied to a post. You can stop pulling without actually letting the rope go slack). He said the most essential thing to teach the horse and to praise him for doing well was how to soften to pressure, and he continued to practise halt-walk-soften-release several times with him using the reins and the rider offering the leg aids.
Then he handed back the reins to the rider and worked on her contact. He held the reins and acted the part of the horse. He could demonstrate to her that her contact was too heavy; that when the horse offered a give to the pressure, she just took the rein in rather than giving a release. He suggested that she think about moving her hands towards the horse, but not do it. He spent the last ten minutes of the session coaching the rider how to let the horse go forward, how to take up the contact and release it to give the horse the long rein, and how when asking for stop not to release until the horse softened.
At this point the horse was visibly much happier and moving forward easily and backward steadily and on light pressure. He was also very tired and it was right to end the session - of course they were going to work again together the next day.
I met the rider outside afterwards and she was thrilled with what she had learned, but a bit embarrassed to have her hands weighed in the balance and found wanting before a crowd! I thanked her very much for letting us share her learning and she said that made her feel better.
I'll write up Horse 2 next time I have the chance.
There were lots of lovely horses and ponies on the day I saw and I was very taken by Mark Rashid's quietness, consistency and rigour. I felt quite guilty over my soft and inconsistent handling of my pony. Imagine my relief when my livery mate, who came with me for the first half of the day and who is a very very much more experienced and capable horsewoman than me, said at lunchtime, "Gosh he makes me feel so bad about how inconsistent and soft I am!"
So here we go, ponyhorse 1, 15 hh skewbald New Forest x warmblood cross, such a pretty little chap, a horse in height but a pony in appearance. He was going in a fairly odd rig of western saddle and 3 ring gag. The owner explained that she had bought him started as a 3 year old; he had gone beautifully when she tried him. When he came home a week later, he was nervous, nothing was ok, and within a few days she couldn't even get on him. She turned him away for 6 months and later tried seventeen different saddles (!) to find the one he was happy with, which proved to be the Western.
She said that the horse was "sour in the school", that he constantly seemed to have the brakes on and that he would run backwards for no obvious reason. She wanted him to move more freely and to improve his transitions, especially halt to walk and walk to trot.
MR spent a long time enquiring into the horse's history with her. She explained that he had been ok when he first came home, then deteriorated over 5/6 weeks until even leading to the field was dangerous because he reared - this wasn't long after she got him home. She explained that he would only move into walk if she asked with one rein and one leg only. To get stop she felt she needed to exert pressure at 5 or 6 out of 10. Backing up he would run backwards, not stopping when the pressure was released.
MR watched the horse work and asked more questions. Eventually he said that he thought the horse didn't understand at all what he was being asked to do. When going backwards he was moving his feet but not backing up properly; both forwards and backwards he was tight in his body, especially his neck and poll, pushing against the pressure and bracing against the bit. He didn't soften and appeared to think that he was in charge.
MR kept the rider in position but took over the reins from the ground - I watched with great interest at his point as I have often hoped to see this technique demonstrated and he showed it very well. He said he wanted the horse to soften, relax and obey, and used back up to try this. The horse resisted by throwing up his head and then by backing rapidy; MR ignored all evasions and incorrect tries and continued asking until he got a soft, straight back up. This took quite a long time, several minutes.
At this point MR hypothesised that when backed the horse had been rushed and hadn't had clarity about what he was being asked to do. He said, "I want him to let go the tension and get one single thing right."
He started working him forward in hand and asked for softness and engagement from the back end. He commented, "Everything he is doing is saying 'I have no idea'". His front was locked up, and the energy from the back end got stuck, with nowhere to go. The horse was resisting the bit, and MR commented, "It's easy to back off with a horse like this because he is troubled: but then he lacks leadership. I am not going to pull on the bit, but I am not going to give in to him when I feel him pushing." The goal was to get him to let go in his neck. If when he braces his neck the rider lets go, that reinforces the pattern of bracing. Before asking for any change (even from halt) the horse needed to be relaxed, soft, attentive.
At this point something seemed to shift for the horse. He relaxed, went backward better, went forward better, much more softly, and licked, chewed and yawned as he moved. The tension in his poll had gone and he continued to chew and yawn for some time.
MR demonstrated how release could come not from completely giving away rein contact or control, but just from a relaxation of the muscles (imagine pulling against a rope tied to a post. You can stop pulling without actually letting the rope go slack). He said the most essential thing to teach the horse and to praise him for doing well was how to soften to pressure, and he continued to practise halt-walk-soften-release several times with him using the reins and the rider offering the leg aids.
Then he handed back the reins to the rider and worked on her contact. He held the reins and acted the part of the horse. He could demonstrate to her that her contact was too heavy; that when the horse offered a give to the pressure, she just took the rein in rather than giving a release. He suggested that she think about moving her hands towards the horse, but not do it. He spent the last ten minutes of the session coaching the rider how to let the horse go forward, how to take up the contact and release it to give the horse the long rein, and how when asking for stop not to release until the horse softened.
At this point the horse was visibly much happier and moving forward easily and backward steadily and on light pressure. He was also very tired and it was right to end the session - of course they were going to work again together the next day.
I met the rider outside afterwards and she was thrilled with what she had learned, but a bit embarrassed to have her hands weighed in the balance and found wanting before a crowd! I thanked her very much for letting us share her learning and she said that made her feel better.
I'll write up Horse 2 next time I have the chance.
