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My friends and I call it "running away with the circus": one of those fantasies you come up with that you'd probably never REALLY go through with. Well, I'm going through with it! Of course, only my horsey friends can appreciate the allure of spending days on end around horses and in the stables, riding, cleaning, feeding, mucking and grazing! In fact, I can't think of a trip I'd rather take or an adventure I'd rather have. To cap it off, the week ends with a Horse Trial--a chance to compete will be icing on the cake. After almost 5 years with minimal showing, this season has been long awaited!
July 12, 10pm
July 14, 9:30pm We all dressed up our horses in their "genuine" Parelli rope halters and headed out to the paddocks in one big group. First David gave a demonstration of in-hand (they call it on-line) work with Tigger Too, one of his Advanced horses and a real mellow soul. Apparently he was not always this way, and David is clearly a master of body language; their partnership is obvious. The horse popped over a full sized picnic table with about as much excitement as he would have shown standing in his stall. Pretty cool! Maybe I should have brought [my very hot and anxious Thoroughbred mare] Kelly? Our first experience with groundwork made me very quickly realize how glad I am to have done some of this with [my two-year-old filly] Bonnie already! The techniques are fairly logical and simple, but physically there is a real talent (in need of developing in all of us students!) in doing it correctly and effectively. There are definitely many wrong ways of doing things, various not-so-good ways, and undoubtedly numerous "right" ways but most of us fell somewhere in the "not so good" range at first. One needs to be aware of what each part of their body is doing in order to be maximally effective, and it only struck me much later that this is what always amazes and frustrates me about riding. The very basic stuff, which I'd done with Bonnie, was fairly simple. Gwen, however, turns out to be a mare who does not particularly care to back up (and back off) when asked! Sweet, quiet Gwen, the bottom-of-the-pecking-order passive one, pitched an absolute fit over backing up on command. Sure, you can push her on the chest and she'll move, but she HATED the rope swinging under her chin and defied anyone to make her move using that method. Karen came to our rescue and got her beginning to respond, then one of their junior trainers, Clark Montgomery, took her on when she began really pushing back. She was threatening to rear (and actually did with him) and I wasn't sure how far to push. For Clark, Gwennie tried all the tricks: kicking, striking, snapping, charging--a real outlaw! My quiet Gwennie! He never once lost his cool, gave her a good crack on the forearm when she struck at him (only once!) and eventually she Got Religion without much more than a few raps on the chest and LOTS of "predatory" body language on Clark's part.
After that she was a lot better--no more temper tantrums--and we were soon doing all the body yielding, including backing up, with no fuss. What I was glad and interested to see was that Gwen never once appeared hysterical or to stay angry for more than a couple of seconds. In fact, once the "pressure" was released she immediately put her ears forward and looked happy and engaged, every single time. She came when asked and never acted threatened or sullen as long as my body language was welcoming. This was, in fact, doubly impressive in that: After lunch we saddled up, but began again with a groundwork "review". Gwen and another mare were singled out for a "special" session (what an honor!) due to their earlier hissy fits, but both girls apparently had gotten over their "no way, Jose'" attitudes and we were keeping up with the group just fine. David asked if Gwen was a warmblood...gave a knowing smile when I said "yes, five-eighths" and said with a smile "Hmmm, chestnut warmblood mares..." Funny, Peter Atkins said the same thing when I cliniced with him. Well, she may be all of those things but she also loves her job, and I have always had a "thing" for mares. I'm keeping her. We soon mounted up and I had a hot potato on my hands! She was incredibly sensitive to my leg, and really did very well in the exercises, which were yielding the hindquarters (or turn on the forehand) and yielding the front end (or turn on the haunches). It was not exactly "dressage" in that there was no emphasis on connection, frame, etc. The purpose was to carry the groundwork (yielding the body) over into ridden work, which of course needs further refinement, but for a first try I thought it was a noticeable difference in sensitivity, anyway. Interestingly, Gwen's much harder to yield on the left side, which corresponds to my always "carrying" her on my left rein. By the end of the session I think Gwen could have gone in a reining class, so good were her turns. I, however, was exhausted and had a horrible headache, so after tucking her in for the night I dragged myself back to the hotel, showered, and slept like a stone. I missed a great volleyball match by all accounts, but fortunately Monday was to prove that my exhaustion was a fluke and that I haven't gone completely soft!.
July 15, 8:20pm We then put our bridles on and mounted and did some very basic flatwork, the emphasis being on placing the horse PRECISELY where you want them--this would have been lots easier if there weren't 15 people riding on a 20m circle. If there's one problem with this camp, it's how many people are in it. Everyone works incredibly hard and really tries to pay individual attention, but I think a bit smaller group (say 20 instead of 30+) would have been nicer. All the waiting around means LOTS of time in the saddle ΚWe did a bit of jumping on a perfectly straight (well, ideally) line and Gwen was her usual go-get-em self. She is no doubt wondering what has happened to her nice, quiet life with 3 or 4 rides per week.
The afternoon was devoted to some cross-country basics, after lectures on position, philosophy, and the Cardinal Elements of a Good Ride, which are: If one of the first two is missing or incorrect, you're more than likely going to have a refusal. Since direction comes before speed, a runout is then worse than a stop, the former being lack of direction and the latter being the ultimate loss of speed. We broke into four groups. David took us Training level-type people first and had us gallop: knees almost straight, reins bridged, knuckles on the neck and the incline of the body dictating the speed. He had us hike our stirrups up about 8 or 10 holes, which put me WAY up on top of Gwen and gave me new respect for jockeys. Cathy Wieschhoff, who is a very fun individual and one of the assistant trainers, had us show her how we went from the GALLOPING position to the BALANCE position, very much as I learned it from Peter Gray a long time ago. Two or three strides out from the jump, from a balanced canter, one has to assume the JUMPING position: legs FORWARD, rear end touching the saddle, and "hiding the belly button" or curling the abdomen (and thus the hips) back. Very much a "defensive" posture, and a natural when there is any sort of terrain. This is NOT your hunter-style perch-and-pose position. We then did some downhill jumps with Karen and I need to come at these types of fences with LONGER reins and LOWER hands. Feet forward isn't too hard with my super-forward saddle. Gwen was perfect, if a little overenthusiastic for the small fences we were doing. She's coping well with about 30 minutes of turnout a day (as opposed to 14 hours at home) and happy to munch hay all day. She's cleaning her plate morning and evening and drinking lots of water. She really prefers her black bucket for some reason. It is hot and very humid, but by forcing myself to drink all day I got through it feeling fine, if a bit sticky and sunburned. One final thought after the end of the jumping: David calls a "perfect XC round" one where 1/3 of the jumps are long spots, 1/3 are deep and 1/3 are "just right". Such a relief to hear that! No worrying about finding perfect "spots"...just get the right direction, canter, balance, and rhythm and let the horse do the jumping.
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