Hi Everyone,
It's been
ages since I've sent anything to the list.
I haven't disappeared down a rabbit hole.
I've been nose to grindstone working on not
one, but two new DVDs. The first one is
titled "Capture the Saddle: The Mounting
Block Lesson". Yes, we are finally getting
to riding!
The mounting
block lesson is a much needed step in the
progression from ground work to riding. At
many of the clinics I give people will bring
their horses in all saddled up, thinking
they are going to ride, but their horses
have other ideas. The rider walks her horse
up to the mounting block, and the horse
sidles away. The rider is frustrated, but
I'm delighted. It means we get to work on
the mounting block lesson! This lesson is
really more about making sure the rein is
connect to the horse's hind end than it is
about getting on. Great mounting-block
manners are a by-product of this lesson, but
the main purpose is to confirm that the
horse understands and is comfortable with
rein mechanics before the rider gets
on.
Once I have
the rider up, I can't really end the DVD
there, so it also covers the beginning steps
of single-rein riding. The DVD covers a
very simple exercise that introduces the
rider to single-rein riding. The horse I
feature was a very wiggly fellow, one of
those horses who never really goes where his
rider is intending, at least not without a
lot of holding things together with the
reins. By the end of the session, he's
working on a long rein, staying beautifully
with his rider. Because he was so wiggly, I
could highlight many important details of
single-rein riding. I can show you the
turns where the horse was able to drift
through the rider's seat and hands, and I
can also show you the changes the rider made
which stopped the drift. Click and treat
for both of them!
I ended up
with more material than I could cover in
just one DVD so as soon as I finished the
mounting block DVD, I started a second one:
"Riding on a Triangle: From the Mounting
Block Lesson to Three-Flip-Three". I'm
still working on that DVD. My travel season
has slowed down progress. I was hoping to
get it done before the end of May, but it
looks as though it will more likely be July
before I get it out. These two DVDs are so
interrelated that I decided to wait until
both are finished to release them. So while
this email so far may sound like a new DVD
release announcement, all I'm really doing
is letting you know why I haven't been
posting to the list for the past month and
more.
Clinic
Themes
My real
intent in writing this email was to share
with you some of the discoveries that have
been emerging from the spring clinics. I'm
just back from the first round of this
year's advanced trainings. The clinics are
constantly evolving. The overall format of
the clinics has remained fairly constant,
but the content shifts, grows, evolves with
every clinic. And every year a general theme
seems to emerge for the clinic season.
A couple years back the
clinics centered around the importance of
good food delivery. You wouldn't think
something that sounds so very basic could
take on the importance of an entire year's
clinic theme, but sloppy food delivery can
undermine what is otherwise good training.
And good food delivery can become an
amazingly powerful training tool.
Last year's theme was
definitely micro-shaping. We had tremendous
fun with that one. Over the winter I
produced the "Microshaping: Learning to
See the Smallest Try" DVD which formally
introduced the microshaping strategy and
"Equine Pilates".
When the clinic season wound
down last fall, I had no idea what the
clinic theme for 2008 would be. It emerges
out of the work I do over the winter with my
own horses. I never know what is going to be
relevant to other horses until I start
teaching in the spring. It's an interesting
process, one that keeps me on my toes,
constantly exploring the leading edges of
this work.
So what is
this year's theme? In a nutshell:
Micro-riding.
I introduced
Micro-riding at the Toutle WA advanced
training a couple of weekends ago, and again
at the Groton and Calgary clinics. So what
is micro-riding?
It evolved
out of micro-shaping. If we're going to
have fine-tuned horses, we need to make sure
we have fine-tuned riders to go along with
them. So now that I have people looking at
the level of detail that micro-shaping
horses entails, we're ready to turn our
attention to the rider.
The
Micro-shaping Strategy for Horses
In all three
clinics I introduced people to micro-riding
by first showing them clips from the
Micro-shaping DVD. For those of you who
have the DVD, we watched the first part of
Lottie's sessions, and a bit of the third
horse, Erin.
I wanted to
tune everyone's eye to the level of detail
that that DVD shows so well. I wanted them
thinking micro, and the best way to do that
was to watch the DVD together. I also
wanted to remind them of the micro-shaping
strategy.
The
micro-shaping strategy refers to a process
where you alternate between two distinct
behaviors or clusters of behaviors. You
have your primary behavior, the one you are
working on to improve in some way, and you
have a secondary behavior that you use to
give your horse a little break.
The spotlight
behavior can be anything. In the
microshaping DVD we were focusing on
freeshaping so you could easily end up
thinking that the spotlight behavior has to
be one where only freeshaping is used. But
micro-shaping can be used in a wide variety
of learning situations. When you slide down
a lead and ask for a give from your horse,
you are shaping on a point of contact. The
question is are you a lumper waiting for a
big move, or a micro-shaper, recognizing the
subtle shift that is the true give?
Over the
winter I used the micro-shaping strategy
quite a lot with Robin. We were working
in-hand. We'd do a bit of work on our
primary behavior, then we'd switch over to
the secondary behavior. Robin wasn't that
interested in simple targeting. His
secondary behavior involved modifier cues -
touch left or right. That's a behavior that
has a huge reinforcement history behind it.
It's something he enjoys and is good at, so
it was the perfect secondary behavior to
use.
I'd do a bit
of in-hand work. We'd be fine tuning some
element that had a bit of a snag in it.
We'd get a series of clicks in, then I'd
drop the lead and shift to standing in front
of him. With my hands behind my back, I'd
give him the cue "Touch left" or "Touch
right". Then I'd hold out both hands and
he'd touch the one I'd asked for. Click and
treat. We'd repeat this a few times, then
we'd go back to work on the primary
behavior.
Over the
winter I was very pleased at how smoothly
our sessions went, and how much progress we
made. The micro-shaping strategy was
clearly helping Robin get past the little
snags that had crept into his work.
I think in
part what this strategy does is it says
"yes" to a block of work. Suppose someone
is teaching you a complex task. You've
worked out the first few steps more or less.
You're being pretty successful so you're on
a high rate of reinforcement. You're happy.
The clicks are coming at a goodly clip.
You feel as though you're really
understanding what is wanted.
But then your
partner shifts to a slightly different
criterion. Suddenly the clicks aren't
coming at such a fast rate. You're
confused. Were you wrong? Was what you
thought he wanted really not what he wanted
after all. You start experimenting, moving
away from your original successes. The
rates of reinforcement drop even more, and
now you're both feeling a bit frustrated.
Your trainer isn't sure what went wrong or
what to do to get you back on track. And
you're feeling totally confused because what
you thought was working isn't anymore. What
a mess!
That's one
scenario. Here's another. You're learning
something new. You work out the first few
steps more or less. You're being pretty
successful so you're on a high rate of
reinforcement. You're happy. The clicks
are coming at a goodly clip. You feel as
though you're really understanding what is
wanted.
You offer a
particularly good effort that contains
within it the seeds of the next criterion.
Your partner wants to emphasize that good
moment and let you know that you are very
much on the right track. He clicks at just
the perfect moment, and then he brings out a
target to touch. Click/treat, click/treat.
You do a short series of target touches,
then it's back to the previous behavior.
Only now your partner has had a slight
shift in criterion. The clicks are a little
slower in coming, but you feel confident
that you are on the right track. Those
target touches told you that that little
unit of work you just did was good. It's
something you want to keep. You may be
focusing slightly elsewhere, but you know
that that unit is part of the larger whole.
Instead of shifting away from it, you know
you can use it as a building block in the
next little unit your partner is working on.
You don't feel confused or frustrated
because the targeting has given you this
strong confirmation that you are on the
right track. When you get another little
piece of the puzzle, your partner again
offers you the target to touch. More
clicks! More success. More great
confidence that you are understanding the
game!
I think this
is how the horses use the secondary
behavior. It doesn't just give them a small
break. That's certainly important. Little
units of process time are clearly very
important. But more that that, adding a
secondary behavior is a huge confidence
builder.
This may
be anthropomorphizing how the secondary
behavior works, but however it functions,
the horses have been telling me this
strategy works. If you are freeshaping a
new task, if you are dealing with emotional
issues, if you are working through a snag in
your training, it is absolutely worth
incorporating it into the process.
The
Microshaping Strategy for People
Over the
winter I was playing with this concept quite
a lot with Robin, and I was also exploring
some minutia in my riding with Peregrine. I
was thinking about bone rotations and
Peregrine would answer with some of the best
trot work I've ever had from him. He's
twenty-three now so that's saying a lot.
I love a
process where the horses just keep getting
better and better. But how do you teach
this!? I was thinking about rotating my
thigh bone. Not my thigh. My thigh bone,
and Peregrine would feel that and change.
But if you tell someone to rotate their
thigh bone, they go into "try" mode. They
over do. They turn it into a macro
movement with everything being done on the
outside, not the inside. The results are
just not the same. They get stiff and
blocked trying so hard to do so little. We
have to go to images, to metaphors to try to
approach what I want. With just words who
knows what is really going on. When I tell
you I was rotating my thigh bone, what does
that mean to you? It's so clear to me, but
I'm pretty sure most of you reading this
wouldn't come anywhere close to my
interpretation - not from the words alone.
Over the
winter I really wasn't thinking about how to
teach what Peregrine and I were doing. I
was just enjoying our time together. I was
playing with an idea I had gotten from James
Shaw, the t'ai chi specialist. We'd been
talking as always about bone rotations, only
this time it was about rotating thigh bones.
James was telling me about the great
changes he was seeing in riders as they
learned to use this bone rotation.
So that's
what I was thinking about as I rode
Peregrine. I wasn't trying to rotate my
thigh. I was thinking about rotating the
bone itself. As I thought about it, I could
feel my thigh bone rotate. Now of course,
muscle has to contract in order for a bone
to move, but this rotation was at the level
of a micro-movement. It was thought only
that created the rotation, not the "trying"
action of macro changes.
The feeling
of the bone rotating was clear to me, and it
was absolutely clear to Peregrine. When I
accessed this micro-rotation, his trot
changed underneath me. It grew bigger, more
suspended, and absolutely glorious to ride.
I changed my thought. He changed in
conjunction. What fun! We continued to
play. I was riding at the level of
micro-movements, a breath into a muscle and
he changed underneath me, giving me precise
transitions which flowed effortlessly
amazing trot work and some of the best
canter I've ever ridden.
The night
before I flew out to the WA clinic Peregrine
gave me the gift of a glorious ride. I
think he was telling me I needed to share
micro-riding. Robin had given me
micro-shaping. Now it was his turn for the
clinic theme. It was time to turn the
spotlight onto the riders and bring them
into sync with the fine-tuned, listening
horses we were creating through the
micro-shaping process.
So at the WA
clinic I tested out a new teaching strategy.
I must say people were wonderfully good
sports to indulge me in my little
experiment. We began by watching part of
the Micro-shaping DVD. I wanted to set the
stage, to tune everyone's eye to the level
of detail I was talking about. It wasn't
enough just to talk about Microshaping. I
wanted people to see it in action and the
most efficient way to do that was through
the DVD. I think the success of the weekend
was very much dependent upon the use of this
DVD. Having those common images as our
starting point brought everyone's focus down
to the level of detail I wanted to explore.
We were indeed exploring riding within,
discovering a level of body awareness many
have not experienced before.
But it wasn't
enough to be thinking at a micro level. I
wanted to use the micro-shaping strategy.
This was the new piece. I wanted to take a
horse-training strategy and apply it to the
teaching process for people. The outer
structure of what we did is easy to
describe. The inner world that was revealed
is harder.
Here's the
lesson:
I had people
work in groups of two or three. One person
was the rider, the focus of the shaping
process. The second person was the monitor.
The third person was the coach. The coach
watched for such details as the timing of
the click and the mechanics of the shaping
process. She also had the fun job of
watching for changes in the person who was
being micro-shaped.
It can sound
as though the coach didn't have a lot to do,
but this process is a wonderful one for
enhancing observational skills. And the
coach played a very important role in making
sure mechanics remained clean, that the
monitor was not leaving her hand up all the
time or whisking it away before the click.
She also sometimes needed to remind the
monitor that it had been a while since she'd
switched over to targeting.
The monitor
was the person doing the clicking. She put
her hand on her partner's shoulder. Her job
was to feel through her finger tips subtle
changes in her partner's body and to click
for micro-responses.
There is, of
course, a technique to resting your hand on
someone's shoulder. If you press too hard,
you'll inhibit both your ability to feel,
and your partner's ability to create the
subtle changes you're looking for. On the
other hand, if you are too tentative, it can
be distracting. I usually cup my hand
slightly so my palm does not rest on my
partner's shoulder, only my finger tips.
And I think about the contact I might have
with a cat. I could place my fingers on my
cat so that her fur is pressed down, or I
could rest them more lightly so that her fur
is not disturbed. It is this later quality
that I am looking for.
That's what
the coach and the monitor were doing. Now
what about the rider? How do you describe
what she was doing? Her role was to focus
within. She was having a
freeshaping/Feldenkrais/tag teaching session
all rolled into one. When I began with
people, I told them to think about their
shoulder blades. That's all the instruction
they were given.
"Think about
your shoulder blades."
I would be
listening for a response through my finger
tips. That's in large measure what this
lesson was about for the monitor - learning
to listen. I was feeling for movement, any
movement, no matter how subtle under my
finger tips. I was not looking for the big
movement you'd feel when someone, for
example, hunches their shoulders. This was
much more subtle, below the level of our
usual awareness. The first time I clicked,
the rider usually looked puzzled. She
hadn't felt anything. How could I be
clicking for something she wasn't even aware
of?
"Think about
your shoulder blades," I would say again.
I'd wait with my eyes closed, listening
inside, and again I would feel that tiny
hint of movement through fingers. Click.
We didn't
worry about delivering any treats. The
click was information. We trusted that it
would be enough without any need for
additional reinforcers. Immediately after
I clicked, I took my hand away for a brief
moment. The click was important. The
release was important. They created a
series of discrete learning events for both
monitor and rider.
I would click
my partner several times for that oh so
subtle shift under my fingertips, then I
offered her my hand as a target.
Now this part
may sound almost silly. The targeting may
make sense for the horses, but it's
meaningless for people - right? Wrong. In
all three clinics everyone agreed that the
targeting was a much welcomed, and very
essential part of the process. This
micro-riding process requires intense focus.
The targeting provided welcome breaks. I
know in the mornings when I was the monitor
for eight or nine people, I could not have
sustained that level of intense
concentration without the breaks and process
time the targeting provided. And for my
riders, I think it was even more valuable
because most of them were not used to this
level of internal concentration and focus.
In the clinic
I just finished people started referring to
the targeting as their "cookie". If one of
the monitors forgot to switch over to the
targeting, the rider began to demand her
"cookie". I thought it was interesting how
quickly the targeting took on this meaning
for them.
So while it
might have seemed a little strange at first
to be having someone target a pen, or your
outstretched hand, it very quickly became a
well-integrated and much welcomed part of
the process.
After the
first targeting session, I would ask my
rider to think about moving her shoulder
blade in a particular direction. Now this
was interesting. People would begin by
either doing nothing at all or way too much.
For example, if I asked them to move their
shoulder blade up, they'd begin by hunching
their shoulder up, but that's not what I was
looking for. I wanted their shoulder blade
to move. Our shoulder blades have been with
us all our lives, but it's amazing how
little direct control we have over them.
What is normal is that they have become
"attached" to our ribs and held tight by
muscles we are no longer overtly aware of.
So the
question was: "What can you let go of to
move your shoulder?''
I was
listening, waiting with my finger tips for
the first signs of the answer. I'd feel it
as a slight breath that released a bit of
tension in their back and allowed their
shoulder to move. It was never much. I was
listening for the beginnings of movement,
the micro-movement that creates the larger
response.
One quick
aside: I keep using the word "listening".
The pragmatists among you will read this
literally and be confused. "What sound
could she be hearing? I thought this was
about muscles moving? How does that make a
detectable sound? Maybe a bat could hear
these changes, but surely not a human!"
There are
many ways to listen. I am using that word
quite deliberately. The American Heritage
dictionary defines listen in this way: be
attentive, attend, concentrate. Those are
good words. Listening means you are focused
on someone else. You aren't formulating
your next response. You are attentive to
what they are saying. In this case, the
listening was done through my finger tips.
I was waiting for a tiny breath of
movement. Click! Take my hand away.
Repeat.
Learning to
listen, to truly listen to your horse is an
important skill, a great gift. Listening
means with your whole being. This process
takes you another step inside his world.
Listen with your finger tips, with your
breath, and he will answer with his heart.
Listening and
answering takes tremendous focus so again
after three or four clicks, I'd give my
partner a break and let her touch the target
a couple of times.
Then back to
monitoring. I'd close my eyes and ask my
partner to think about moving her shoulder
blade down. Sometimes down would be easier
than up, or vice versa. And sometimes down
would not be there at all. It was all good
learning.
"What could
you let go of to find down?" The answer
never came directly from me. It had to be
found by the rider, but click! the first
hint of it was clearly marked.
We explored
up and down, in toward the mid-line, out
away from the mid-line.
That was
usually enough for the first session.
Watching each rider we saw huge outward
changes created from these ever so subtle
shifts. Everyone looked so much more
grounded and balanced. They reported that
they felt great. That their usual
stiffnesses and habitual aches were gone.
In the afternoon sessions out in the arena
their horses told us they very much liked
the changes in their riders.
Day Two
We could have
explored this micro-riding strategy in just
one of our group sessions and then moved on
to other things, but I knew it was important
to revisit this lesson. Done once, it is an
interesting exercise in body awareness, but
it doesn't become a clinic take-away. You
need to experience it over several days to
see how much each person changes. Is Day
two just a repeat of Day one? Or has the
level of internal control and awareness
increased? That was the question I posed to
the group at the beginning of our second
morning session.
We worked in
the same small groups that we had the day
before. I kept hearing from each group
delighted comments about how much more
people were feeling. The monitors were more
confident about what they were clicking
their partner for. And the riders all had
much more of a range of movement in their
shoulder blades.
So now it was
time to take them deeper into this inner
world of riding awareness. I led the group
through a demo of the next stage in this
process. With my hand on my partner's
shoulder, I asked her to think about the top
of her femur. Again that's all the
instruction I gave. "Think about the top of
your thigh bone."
I stood
behind her, eyes closed, hand on her
shoulder blade, listening for that first
hint of awareness. It was always tentative,
more imagined than real, but it was there
none the less, a subtle change in the breath
that took her thoughts beyond the habitual
holding in her diaphragm. Through her
shoulder blade, I could sense this slight
shift in balance. Click! Take the hand
away.
"Think about
the top of your femur."
Listen, eyes
closed, waiting. There it was again, that
faint whisper of awareness. Click.
"Think about
the top of your femur." Again it was there,
clearer this time, more definite. Click!
Target.
From this
awareness I directed people to think about
rotating their thigh bone out, and later in.
This was very revealing for people. Some
people were clearly very one sided. And of
course this was reflected in the one
sidedness of their horses. "Oh! - no wonder
I can't get both canter leads!" I heard more
than one rider exclaim.
From the
thigh bone we moved on again, thinking now
about the "bubbling spring", the balance
point of the foot. I would wait, listening
for that first sign that the rider could
take her awareness past the normal tightness
in her pelvis, past the
below-conscious-awareness holding of her
breath to find her feet. Click!
For some
people this was enough for this session. We
ended there, but with others we could move
on to another level of this work. I could
begin to ask riding questions. "What does a
transition feel like?" "What does a turn
feel like?"
We explored
this on a micro-riding level. With my hand
on her shoulder I would ask my partner to
think about an up transition. Sometimes I
felt nothing, or I would feel a
disconnection from her grounded structure.
No wonder she had to do so much on the
macro level to get her horse to move!
So we
borrowed some ideas from James Shaw, the
t'ai chi specialist whose work I have shared
before. We experimented with
micro-movements of the shoulder blades which
let people breath into the back of their
hearts. That's one of the eight energy
gates James talks about. It lies between
the shoulder blades. Most of us pull our
shoulder blades in or at least hold them so
tight that we can't really breath into our
backs. Our breath gets caught in our upper
chest. We may try breathing deeper, letting
our breath fill our abdomen, but we often
still keep the below-awareness tension in
our backs.
This
micro-riding process opened up that
awareness and let people experience what it
meant to breath into their back, into their
ribs, their pelvis, even their feet. When
the rider found her bubbling spring, you
could almost feel her horse springing up
underneath her into a beautiful transition.
What did a down transition feel like? Not
a blocking or bracing against energy. It
was a thought translated by breath and
micro-movements, clear, quiet, powerful.
This was
usually as far as I took people on this
second day. Again, looking around at each
of the groups, we saw huge changes.
Everyone looked relaxed, but oh so
wonderfully grounded. People reported
feeling so much better. Various habitual
aches and pains were no longer bothering
them, a very welcome side benefit to this
exploration of riding.
What does
my horse do when I . . . ?
In the
afternoon the horses again told us that
whatever we had been doing in the morning
they were liking very much. I know I was.
I was seeing enormous shifts in the quality
of the rope handling and the riding. People
were softer, quieter, more deliberate. They
got so much more from so much less.
We played the
"What does my horse do when I . . . ?"
game.
"What does my
horse do when I breath into the back of my
heart?"
"What does
my horse do when I rotate my inside thigh
bone to the outside?"
"What does
my horse do when I breath my shoulder blades
down?"
It's an
observe without judgment exercise. You
aren't trying to make a specific response
happen. You are collecting data. You're
seeing what response your horse gives you to
each of these subtle changes.
I described
this exercise in the riding book, but
there's so much packed into that book I
think many people miss it completely.
Whether you are an experienced rider
micro-riding from the inside or a more
novice rider macro-riding on the outside
this is a useful process to explore. It
raises a lot of questions. How independent
is your seat, are your hands? Can you move
just your right shoulder or does your whole
torso also move even when that's not your
intent? How does your horse interpret these
actions? What do they mean to him? Does he
indeed turn when that is your intent? Or
does he do something else? Do these changes
in your position mean anything to him or do
you need to add more information to get his
attention?
In clicker
training parlance what are your cues? If
this were a dog would "sit" spoken softly be
enough to get a response, or would you need
to add a hand cue, stand in a specific
orientation to your dog, be wearing a pink
hat, while also standing on one foot with
your left hand behind your back? How clear
and specific are your cues? Or have you
muddied them up over time and created
superstitious links you never intended?
Does your cue
have a "get ready, get set, go" component to
it, or does your horse take off at the first
hint of the cue whether that's what you
wanted or not. If you think about
cantering, is he already up and running, or
does he wait as you breath into your back
signaling him to get ready before
transitioning on your specific "go" cue?
With the
fine-tuning of awareness these questions
became all the more interesting. The
answers created some spectacular work. It's
hard to single out any one horse. We had
such great work from everyone, but one of
the standouts was certainly Marla Foreman's
anglo-arab, Beauty. Beauty is an
exceptional athlete. Marla has gotten used
to the first part of every lesson being
simply about gawking at her gorgeous horse.
Beauty is
always fun to watch, but the rides she had
in this spring's WA clinic were
exceptionally gorgeous. On the last day
Marla rode her in the outdoor arena. We'd
had snow the day before. It had melted away
by the time we went out to the arena, but
the footing was soggy in sections, and the
horses had chewed it up playing in the snow
the day before. It was far from an ideal
dressage arena, but that was our work space.
Beauty floated over it as though it was the
most perfectly groomed surface. Marla
commented several times on how easily Beauty
was handling the footing.
Her trot was
certainly spectacular, very cadenced,
beautifully suspended. It was the best I've
ever seen her go. And then Marla lost her
micro-riding concentration for a moment, and
Beauty got a little strung out. Suddenly
she was stumbling over the ruts in the
footing. Ground which just a moment before
had made no difference, now was tripping her
up. Marla and Beauty regrouped. They
regained their micro-connections, and the
ground evened out underneath them. It
became the well-groomed surface that it had
not been just a moment before. The contrast
in Beauty's ability to handle the uneven
footing was a wonderful illustration of the
importance of looking within for riding
answers.
Day Three
On the third
morning we again worked in our groups of
three, and people noticed even more changes.
The monitors found it even easier to track
changes and to feel subtle shifts. And the
riders were all so much more internally
aware.
When the
changes we're looking for are so very, very
small it seems wrong somehow to say that
their range of movement was so much greater,
but that's a very accurate statement. When
you release the habitual tension that
normally restricts joints, the ease of
movement within each joint becomes so much
greater.
On day three
we reviewed the work of the day before, and
then we explored to an even greater degree
micro-riding. Again I asked my riders to
think about an up transition, or a down
transition.
What do you
do when you think about a turn? What could
you access now that you can breath into the
back of your heart, now that you can think
about your thigh bone and have it rotate?
What happens when your thoughts bubble up
energy through your feet?
When you
slide down a rein or a lead, while you're
waiting - listening - for a give from your
horse, what could you release that would
help him to find the feel you are looking
for? What do I feel under my hand that I
can click?
Again, no
answers were given, just the freedom to
explore. The click marked changes I could
track with my finger tips.
I loved this
process. It gave us a way to ask questions
of one another. "What do you do when you
ask your horse for more energy? How do you
use your seat, your back through
transitions?"
The language
of riding is such a challenge. We're trying
to transform a physical experience into
words, a weak translation at best. Here
through our fingertips was a way past the
words into real awareness. In each of the
clinic groups we had a wonderful opportunity
to compare notes and learn from each other.
We had some very experienced riders who
added some wonderful insights into what it
means to ride on the inside. What a great
gift these riders shared with everyone in
the group.
I hope some
of the people who participated in these
clinics will jump in with their own
observations and ah has. What did you
learn? What did you take away from these
experiences. I know what I saw later when
we worked with the horses - more energy in
all gaits, clean, crisp transitions, softer
handling with less overt action. The
morning sessions certainly made my job as a
riding coach so much easier.
And what did
my own horses tell me about micro-riding?
When I got back from the Groton clinic, it
had been at least ten days since any of the
horses had been worked. Peregrine in
particular usually takes a few days to get
back on track. But on the day after I got
back I took him into the arena and was blown
away by the quality of his trot. He was
telling me whatever I'd been doing over the
weekend - he was liking a lot.
I've shared
this micro-riding process with three groups
now, and with each clinic I've taken people
a little further into this exploration of
riding from the inside. We're learning to
listen, to observe, to feel. We're learning
to understand and use subtle shifts in
breath and muscle tension.
We're finding
those little places where we hold tight and
block the ease of movement, and we're
learning to breathe into those places, to
let go. We're finding a way past trying so
hard we end up creating tension. Instead of
trying and becoming tight, we're learning to
think and allow, and we're discovering a
connection with our horses that goes beyond
the ability of words to describe.
And speaking
of words. I've written enough of them for
one post. I wish you all great rides, and I
look forward to sharing this process with
all of you I'll be seeing at this year's
clinics.
Alexandra
Kurland
theclickercenter.com
Post 5346
I haven't
written
anything for
a long time
so I'm
guessing
this is
going to be
a long post.
I'll begin
with the
usual thank
yous to the
rest of you
who have
been
posting,
most
especially
for the
recent posts
on the June
clinics and
the
micro-riding.
They've
made for
great
reading.
The current
threads have
been
excellent.
Perfect
Horse
Article
Before I
jump in
to the
clinic
catch-ups,
several
people
have
mentioned
the
Perfect
Horse
article
on trick
training.
This is
now the
third
article
of mine
that has
appeared
in the
Perfect
Horse
magazine.
When
the
first
two
articles
came out
last
year, I
asked
people
to write
to the
editors
to let
them
know how
much you
appreciated
seeing
articles
on
clicker
training.
They
clearly
were
listening
as
evidenced
by this
latest
article.
So once
again,
I'd like
to ask
everyone
to send
The
Perfect
Horse an
email,
thanking
them for
including
the
article
in the
magazine.
Perhaps
you
could
share
stories
of your
own
favorite,
clicker-trained
tricks.
You can
send
your
emails
to:
Jenifer
Sullivan
at: jenny@...
Clinic
Reports
It's
hard to
know
where to
begin.
I'm
just
back
from a
month of
traveling.
Beginning
at the
beginning
is
usually
the way
to
start,
but I
think in
this
case,
I'll
jump in
more in
the
middle.
I had
the very
great
privilege
this
past
month of
spending
some
time
with
Becky
Chapman.
Becky
is one
of Mary
Wanless'
senior
instructors,
and she
is also
a
clicker
trainer.
She
runs a
training
program
that is
totally
committed
to
clicker
training.
When
people
send
their
horses
to her,
it is
with the
understanding
that she
will be
clicker
training
them.
It's
been fun
for me
over the
years
that I
have
known
Becky to
watch
her
integrate
more and
more of
the
clicker
training
into her
existing
program.
On the
way from
the
train
station
I was
asking
her what
she'd
been
learning
over the
past
year.
She
talked
about
how much
more
she's
been
using
the
foundation
lessons
in her
training
and
teaching,
and how
she
keeps
finding
herself
using
phrases
she's
picked
up from
me.
Spooky
really.
We had
a good
laugh
over the
sound of
my voice
echoing
in her
head as
she
reminds
people
that
"everything
is
everything
else."
Throughout
my visit
I made
sure to
use as
many of
these
catch
phrases
as
possible,
but
three
really
stood
out.
Everything
is
everything
else -
yes
absolutely.
And add
to that
two more
principle
ones for
this
current
round of
clinics:
"a give
is a
little
thing,
not a
big
thing"
and
"single-rein
riding
is not
single-hand
riding."
Connections
Everything
is
everything
else
speaks
to the
connections
between
ground
work and
riding,
between
the
foundation
lessons
and the
more
complex
exercises
that
follow.
Years
ago the
historian,
James
Burke,
created
a
television
series
called
"Connections".
He
presented
history
as an
intriguing
jig saw
puzzle
linking
a
discovery
made a
thousand
years
ago to
some
modern
day
invention.
The
connections
were
never
straight
forward,
and his
journey
through
each
link in
the
chain
took him
all over
the
world.
Everything
linked
to
everything
else.
He
spoke at
a
whirlwind
speed.
At the
end of
each
hour, I
remember
having
been
thoroughly
entertained,
but also
totally
overwhelmed
by the
amount
of
information
he threw
at you.
How had
he
turned
gold
into
nuclear
weapons,
looms
into
computers?
It was
all too
much to
remember,
but it
gave me
an
immense
appreciation
for
connections.
Seeing
connections
is an
important
part of
clicker
training
and more
particularly
of the
t'ai chi
rope
handling
skills.
I know
when
people
first
encounter
this
work,
they
feel the
way I
did when
I tried
to
follow
all the
twists
and
turns of
a James
Burke
history
lesson.
"Where
had we
been?
Tell me
again
how this
step led
to that
one? My
head is
spinning
and I
feel
lost."
When the
show
first
aired
back in
the
seventies,
there
were no
VCRs to
record
the
program,
no
ordering
the DVDs
from
Netfix.
If you
didn't
follow
everything
on the
first
run
through,
you had
to wait
until
your
local
public
television
station
ran it's
annual
fundraiser
and
showed
the
series
again.
It takes
more
than one
repetition
to
understand
all the
connections.
That's
true of
a James
Burke
history
lesson,
and it's
certainly
true of
clicker
training.
As I've
become
fond of
saying,
I've
been to
all my
clinics,
and I'm
still
seeing
connections
that I
didn't
appreciate
before.
The
clinics
this
past
month
really
drove
home the
point.
It's
easy to
think of
the
different
exercises
as
separate,
distinct
lessons.
Grown-up, head
lowering,
"why
would
you
leave
me?",
etc.
could
all be
thought
of as
isolated
units,
not as
links in
a chain.
But
when you
begin to
see the
connections
between
them,
when you
see how
the new
skill
you
learn
for one
makes
the next
exercise
possible,
you
begin to
appreciate
the
details
of the
lessons,
and -
swoosh!
- that
takes
you into
micro-shaping,
micro-riding
and
macro-success.
This
past
month my
own
whirlwind
tour of
connections
began
with
what was
essentially
a five
day
course
at
Nick's.
The
first
two days
were a
start-up/
clicker
review.
The
last
three
days
took us
beyond
basics
into
lateral
flexions
and the
set-up
for
single-rein
riding.
At times
I felt
like
James
Burke
racing
through
the
centuries
trying
to
squeeze
in as
much as
I
possibly
could
into the
small
amount
of time
I had
with
people.
In the
first
course
we began
with
basics,
with
grown-ups
are
talking
and
finessing
some of
the
other
foundation
lessons.
Grown-ups
are
talking
is such
a key
lesson.
Everything
flows
out of
it, all
the
details
of the
mechanic,
all the
steady,
non-reactive
clicker-training
focus.
Out of
grown-ups
evolves
the
mechanics
of
single-rein
riding.
All the
time you
are
practicing
this
lesson,
teaching
your
horse
patience
and good
emotional
control,
you are
also
creating
habit
patterns
that
will
serve
you well
when you
ride.
Sound
confusing?
Intriguing?
As
mysterious
as James
Burke
spinning
nuclear
energy
out of
gold
dust?
Here
are the
connections:
Grown-ups
is a
rung on
a
ladder.
The
supports
of the
ladder
are
built on
the
principle
that you
can't
ask for
something
and
expect
to get
it on a
consistent
basis
unless
you have
gone
through
a
teaching
process
to teach
it to
your
horse.
At the
stage
where
you are
teaching
your
horse
clicker
basics
you have
not yet
activated
the
lead.
Now
that
doesn't
mean
that
your
horse
doesn't
yet have
an
understanding
of lead
ropes.
All of
the
horses
we're
working
with at
clinics
know
more or
less how
to lead,
but the
lead
rope has
not yet
been
turned
into a
clicker-training
tool.
That
means
for
grown-ups
it's out
of
bounds.
Yes, I
could
slide
down the
lead to
move my
horse's
nose
away
from my
treat
pouch,
but I
would be
violating
my
foundation
principle.
I don't
want to
use the
lead
until I
have
gone
through
a
teaching
process
to
explain
to my
horse
how it
works.
Which
really
takes us
to a
link in
the
chain
that
comes
before
grown-ups
and
that's
basic
targeting.
When
people
are
first
learning
about
clicker
training,
there's
a lot to
think
about.
Details
which
are so
very
important
to the
links
that are
coming
can be
easily
lost.
One of
the most
important
links is
the
dynamic
nature
of the
food
delivery.
"Feed
where
the
perfect
horse
would
be".
There's
a phrase
for
Becky to
use with
her
students.
If I
put a
horse in
a stall
with a
stall
guard
across
the
door, I
don't
want my
horse
pressing
up
against
the
restraint
to get
his
treat.
The
perfect
horse
would be
stepping
back
from the
stall
guard
and
taking
his
treat on
his side
of the
barrier.
So in
that
very
first
lesson I
encourage
people
to step
into the
horse to
encourage
him to
back up.
I am
essentially
introducing
the
horse to
leading
101.
Targeting
coupled
with
food
delivery
acts
like a
swinging
door
pivoting
on a
central
pole.
The
door is
your
torso.
Swing
the door
towards
the
horse,
and he
backs
up.
Swing
the door
the
opposite
way, and
you
invite
him
forward
to touch
the
target.
Later
when you
add in a
lead
rope,
your
horse
will
already
understand
the
underlying
body
language.
Open
the door
- go
forward.
Close
the door
- back
up.
Easy.
Grown-ups
is
neutral.
The
door is
neither
opening
nor
closing.
That's
your
torso
taken
care of,
but what
about
your
hands?
What do
you do
with
them?
You
could
hide
them
behind
your
back,
tuck
them in
at your
sides,
cross
them
across
your
chest.
All of
these
will
satisfy
the
basic
criterion
of being
non-reactive,
but to
be a
link in
the
chain
that
connects
us to
single-rein
riding,
I want
people
to get
in the
habit
crossing
one hand
over the
other
and
holding
them
still at
the
level of
their
navel.
This is
the
non-reactive,
body
neutral
"grown-ups
are
talking"
position
out of
which
I'm
going to
grow all
the t'ai
chi rope
handling
skills.
When you
first
introduce
your
horse to
"grown-ups
are
talking"
you're
in a
stall or
small
paddock.
Your
horse
doesn't
have
much
incentive
to
leave.
You're
the most
interesting
game in
town.
After
all
you've
got the
goodies!
You
don't
really
need a
lead to
keep him
attached
to you,
but I
put one
on
nonetheless.
I want
him to
become
accustomed
to it's
presence
and to
begin to
link
that
body
neutral
position
with the
feel of
the snap
hanging
straight
down
from his
halter.
Later
when I
activate
the lead
I'll be
sliding
down to
lift the
snap up.
That
signals
to my
horse
that I
want
something.
Lift
the snap
- I want
something.
Release
the snap
back to
neutral
- thank
you, you
just
gave it
to me.
So
becoming
aware of
the snap
is
important.
For
example,
a common
error in
the
mechanics
of the
head
lowering
lesson
is
people
fail to
fully
release
the
snap.
The
horse's
head is
all the
way down
to the
ground,
but
there
will be
just
enough
of a
take on
the lead
to keep
the snap
lifted
up. I
equate
that to
driving
down the
highway
with
your
emergency
brake
on. You
are
saying
to the
horse -
I don't
really
trust
you
enough
to let
go.
That
little
bit of
tether
will
keep you
and your
horse
emotionally
stuck.
Head
lowering
is not a
forward
moving
exercise.
When
you
figure
that
statement
out and
can
truly
release
the snap
so it
hangs
down in
its
neutral
position
with
your
horse
keeping
his head
down and
his feet
still,
you will
have
solved a
big
piece of
the
emotional-control,
body-balance
puzzle.
In
grown-ups
we don't
push the
horse's
head
away or
activate
the
lead.
Initially
the
behavior
we want
is free
shaped.
When
the
horse
moves
his head
away,
click,
the
handler
shifts
out of
body
neutral
position
to feed
where
the
perfect
horse
would
be. The
handler
then
returns
to body
neutral,
her
outside,
feeding
hand
resting
over the
one that
is
closest
to the
horse.
Her
horse
moves
his head
away
again,
and
click,
she once
again
shifts
out of
body
neutral
to feed
where
the
perfect
horse
would
be.
Good
habits
are
being
established.
The
handler
is
learning
to begin
and end
each
request
from
body
neutral.
She's
developing
the
habit
pattern
of
working
on a
release,
not a
constant
ask. Taught
this way
grown
ups
forms a
central
link in
both the
tai chi
rope
handling
skills
and the
single-rein
riding.
The
"you
can't
ask for"
principle
isn't
the only
principle
that's
key to
this
lesson.
Another
phrase
we
repeated
often at
Becky's
was "for
every
exercise
you
teach
there is
an
opposite
exercise
you must
teach to
keep
things
in
balance."
With
grown-ups
you must
move
every
now and
then to
make
sure
your
horse
doesn't
become
rooted
to one
spot.
We want
the
position
to
generalize,
not just
become
localized
to the
one spot
where
treats
magically
happen.
So
every
now and
then the
handler
should
walk off
casually
around
the
stall.
Walking
off
casually
has a
very
particular
meaning.
It
doesn't
mean
take up
the lead
and walk
off. It
means
walk off
with
whatever
length
of lead
you
happen
to have
given
your
horse.
Your
hands
will
remain
in your
body
neutral
position.
You take
a short
turn
around
the
stall or
pen,
then
come
back to
a stand
still.
Your
horse is
learning
to stay
oriented
to you
and to
follow
your
general
body
language,
going
with you
when you
walk
forward,
stopping
when you
stop.
And if
he
overshoots,
backing
out of
your
space -
a skill
learned
from the
treat
delivery
of his
targeting
lessons.
It's
very
much
like
heel
work for
dogs
where
the
animal
learns
to keep
himself
in a
particular
orientation
to his
handler.
You are
in
essence
teaching
your
horse
the
"pre-why
would
you
leave
me?"
lesson,
but you
are
doing it
in a
small
space
where
the
horse is
likely
to stay
near
you.
Hands
at
neutral,
one
resting
lightly
on top
of the
other is
your
basic
position.
I want
to
program
this in
early so
the feel
of it
becomes
second
nature.
Your
hands
return
to this
body
neutral,
grown-ups
are
talking
position
without
your
even
having
to think
about
it. For
most
people
this is
a
position
that has
to be
actively
learned,
mainly
because
we've
spent a
lifetime
actively
avoiding
keeping
our
hands
anywhere
near our
bellies.
Who
really
wants to
be
reminded
how many
abdominal
crunches
they haven't
been
doing!
Sliding
Down a
Lead
Now the
beauty
of the
t'ai chi
rope
handling
is you
only
have to
learn
two
basic
skills.
The
first is
this
"grown
ups are
talking"
body-neutral
position,
and the
second
is
sliding
down a
lead.
Remember
the
third of
my key
phrases,
the new
one I
added to
Becky's
list?
"Single-rein
riding
is not
single-hand
riding."
Let's
look at
what
this
means
using
another
of the
foundation
lessons:
backing.
You
want
your
horse to
back up.
You've
taught
him to
move
back
from
food
delivery.
When
you step
towards
him,
he's
begun to
automatically
back-up.
That's
the
perfect
set-up
for
introducing
the
lead.
You're
standing
next to
him in
grown-ups.
You'd
like him
to back
up, so
now you
don't
just
turn
into
him, you
also
slide
down the
lead.
You're
adding
in the
new cue
of the
lead to
augment
the cues
he's
already
understanding
and
responding
to.
Sliding
down the
lead
means
your
hands
slide
apart.
One
hand
goes
towards
the snap
while
the
other
heads
towards
your
horse's
shoulder.
You're
setting
up a
t'ai chi
wall
relationship.
Your
hands
work
together
to
activate
the
lead.
It isn't
one hand
reaching
up to
the snap
while
the
other
pushes
against
his
chest.
"Single-rein
riding
is not
single-hand
riding."
Your
two
hands
slide
apart to
create
the
dynamic
barrier
of the
t'ai chi
wall.
Your
horse
shifts
back,
you
release,
sliding
your
hands
back
together
again
into
your
grown-ups
are
talking
position.
It's so
easy.
Here's
a new
mantra
to use
in your
ground
work.
Grown-ups
- t'ai
chi wall
-
grown-ups
- t'ai
chi
wall.
The two
positions
interconnect.
You
want
something.
Slide
your
hands
apart
into a
tai chi
wall. Your
horse
responds,
slide
your
hands
back
together
again
into
grown-ups.
T'ai
chi wall
- you
want
something.
Grown-ups
- he
just
gave it
to you.
This
simple
link
between
two rope
mechanics
carries
you
forward
into the
duct
tape
lessons
and the
pre-wwylm
and
wwylm
lessons
which
then
takes
you into
three-flip-three
and
hip-shoulder-shoulder.
You
slide
down the
lead
towards
the snap
asking
for a
change
from
your
horse.
He
gives it
to you,
you
release
the lead
touching
base
momentarily
with the
grown-ups
position
before
initiating
the next
request.
Simple.
Except
anyone
who has
attended
a clinic
will
tell you
that
sliding
down a
lead is
anything
but
simple.
Sliding
down a
lead is
more
than
just
moving
your
hands
along a
rope.
Sliding
down a
lead
means
learning
to
involve
your
whole
body,
learning
about
core
balance
and bone
rotations.
Sliding
down a
lead
means
learning
about
connections.
There's
that
word
again. Connections.
In this
case I'm
referring
to the
connections
between
your two
hands
and your
core.
What
this
means
was
illustrated
beautifully
at
Nick's
first
course.
We had
a group
of
Icelandics
to play
with who
had
never
done any
lateral
work.
Their
owners
were all
familiar
with
clicker
basics
so it
was easy
to move
from the
foundation
lessons
out onto
the "why
would
you
leave
me?"
circle.
The
Iceys
were all
amiable,
easy-to-get-along
with
horses.
Basic
leading
was not
an
issue.
They
weren't
pushy,
or
spooky.
They
weren't
troubled
by any
of the
big
issues
that
take all
the fun
out of
training.
But
they
were all
in need
of
balance
tune-ups.
So on
the "why
would
you
leave
me?"
circle
we
explored
what it
means
when I
say that
single-rein
riding
is not
single-hand
riding.
It's
easy
when you
are
asking
your
horse to
come
forward
and
around
you to
become
one
handed.
You
slide
down the
lead
towards
the snap
with
your
leading
hand and
forget
that
your
other
hand has
anything
but a
minor
supporting
role.
Leave
out the
tai chi
wall
element,
and you
are
quite
likely
to pull
your
horse
down and
around
you onto
his
inside
shoulder
- not
good.
When
you
slide
your
hands
apart
into the
tai chi
wall,
your
leading
hand
goes to
the snap
and your
"buckle"
hand
goes to
your
horse's
shoulder.
You
want
your
horse to
step
over so
he
remains
outside
the
boundary
line set
by your
two
hands.
You are
setting
up not
one, but
two
points
of
contact.
Leave
out the
connection
into
your
"buckle
hand"
and you
may very
well be
pulling
your
horse
down and
around
onto his
inside
shoulder.
Find
your tai
chi wall
connection,
and he
will be
lifting
up and
over
into his
outside
shoulder,
into
better
balance.
The key
to this
is
discovering
the
truth of
our
third
phrase:
a give
is a
little
thing,
not a
big
thing.
The tai
chi wall
is not a
harsh,
hard
correction.
It is a
redirection
of
energy.
It can
feel
light as
air and
yet be
so
amazingly,
wonderfully
irresistible.
When
I'm
teaching
the t'ai
chi
wall, I
have
people
learn
the
mechanics
like
links in
a chain.
I have
them
practice
first
just
sliding
a little
way up
the
lead,
and then
releasing
back
down to
their
original
starting
point.
Slide
up,
slide
down.
Slide
up,
slide
down
until
the
process
feels
smooth
and
easy.
You can
practice
this
with a
friend,
or
simply
tie a
lead to
the back
of a
chair or
to a
fence
post.
Slide
up,
slide
down.
Practice
until it
becomes
second
nature.
Then
slide up
two
loops of
the lead
and
slide
back.
Can you
go back
down the
lead as
smoothly
as you
went up
it? Is
your
release
soft or
do you
drop it
so it
jars
your
partner?
Slide
up,
slide
down
until
the two
directions
feel
equal to
you. As
you
practice
you'll
become
aware of
your
feet.
You
can't be
smooth
and
stiff at
the same
time.
You
have to
involve
a shift
in
balance
with the
slide
down of
your
hands.
When
people
can
slide
easily
up and
down the
lead, I
have
them
practice
going
all the
way to
the
snap.
Then I
show
them the
bone
rotation
that
creates
the 'tai
chi
wall"
position.
Here's
a place
where
small
details
really
matter.
When I
step up
into my
triangulated,
"tai chi
wall"
position,
I want
to make
sure I
go first
into a
body-neutral
position.
What
most
people
do is
they
push
into
their
partner
as they
rotate
into
position.
This
does
indeed
send
their
partner
back,
but the
step
they get
will be
unbalanced.
Both
their
horse
and
human
partners
will
stagger
back.
It's a
first
approximation,
but it
can get
so very
much
better
once you
first
learn to
find
your
body-neutral
position.
in
clinics
I'll
demonstrate
the
technique
with
someone.
I'll go
through
each of
the
steps,
sliding
down the
lead
into a
fully-extended,
upside-down
arm
position.
Then
I'll
rotate
my arm
from my
shoulder
as I
step up
into a
triangulated,
but
body-neutral
position.
I'll
pause
there
briefly,
long
enough
for my
partner
to
experience
the
position,
then
I'll
activate
my t'ai
chi
wall,
and my
partner
will
step
lightly,
softly
back.
She'll
often
have a
puzzled
look on
her face
as if to
say:
"Why did
I do
that? I
meant to
resist.
"
The
question
I ask is
do you
know
what I
did? I
get more
puzzled
looks,
so I
tell
her. "I
wiggled
my
toes."
And
then I
show
her. I
slip my
foot out
of my
shoe,
set up
another
body-neutral
t'ai chi
wall,
wiggle
my toes,
and she
slides
right
back.
It
sounds
so odd
written
out this
way, but
it's not
magic,
or some
weird,
touchy-feely
hocus
pocus,
just
effective
use of
mechanics.
And the
best
part of
this is
the
process
is
teachable.
You too
can
learn
how to
wiggle
your
toes and
send
horses
sliding
softly
out of
your
space.
Here's
some of
the
science
behind
the
magic.
When I
slid up
the lead
into my
t'ai chi
bone-rotation
position,
I first
connected
with a
body-neutral
position.
I did
not push
into my
partner
before
first
establishing
my own
position.
Our
hands
were
touching,
but I
was not
pushing
into
her. If
we had
wanted
to, we
could
have
slide a
piece of
paper
between
our two
hands.
To find
this
balance
I had to
rotate
my arm
using my
shoulder
blade.
If my
shoulder
blade
remains
rigid so
I'm
rotating
just
with my
arm, a
casual
observer
might
not see
any
difference,
but my
partner
will
most
certainly
feel
a
difference.
I won't
get that
lovely
melting
back out
of my
space,
that
soft
step
that
appears
to come
from no
effort.
Rotating
using my
shoulder
blade is
such an
important
part of
this
process.
On the
"T'ai
Chi Rope
Handling"
DVD I
show you
a couple
of the
clinic
exercises
that I
use to
give
meaning
to the
words:
rotate
through
your
shoulder
blade.
Two
exercises
in
particular
are
important
for
this.
The
first is
the
exercise
illustrated
on pg.
145 of
the
riding
book
where I
have you
lift
your
arms out
to the
side and
then
rotate
them so
your
thumbs
point
forward,
up,
back,
up,
forward,
down and
then
behind
you.
The
second
exercise
is
illustrated
in both
the
"T'ai
Chi Rope
Handling
Skills"
and the
"Shaping
on a
Point of
Contact"
DVDs.
In this
exercise
I want
you to
discover
what it
means to
have a
fully
extended
arm.
I
illustrate
this by
standing
just
beyond
the
reach of
my
training
partner.
With my
arm
raised
out to
my side
my
finger
tips are
about an
inch
away
from her
shoulder.
That's
before
the
magic
happens.
When I
rotate
my arm
from my
shoulder
blade, I
can
extend
my reach
so my
finger
tips now
press
against
her
shoulder.
If I
have her
lean
against
my hand
before I
add in
the
rotation,
she'll
be able
to shift
my
balance
onto my
outside
foot.
After I
rotate,
she
won't be
able to
shift
me.
Instead,
she'll
find
herself
rebalancing
away
from me.
Learn
how to
access
this
shoulder
rotation
and
horses
will
melt out
of your
space
without
a fuss.
It's
one of
the
internal
keys to
good
work
in-hand.
The
directions
for this
shoulder
rotation
seem
simple
enough,
but it's
amazing
how many
people
really
struggle
to find
it.
They
have
very
limited
mobility
in their
shoulders,
and only
sometimes
is this
because
of an
injury.
More
often it
is
simply
because
of lack
of use
and
awareness.
It's so
easy for
our
shoulder
blades
to get
"attached"
to our
ribs.
So how
do you
get
people
unstuck
and
aware of
their
shoulder
blades?
You
introduce
them to
micro-riding.
Sneaky
isn't
it.
We're
back to
connections
again!
We've
gone
from the
basics
of
"grown-ups
are
talking"
to the
tai chi
wall to
leading
101, and
arrived
here at
a
micro-level
of
training.
Everything
is
connected
to
everything
else.
There
have
been
some
wonderful
posts
recently
on
micro-riding.
Thank
you
Amanda,
Kathy,
Nick,
and
Hilary
for
sharing
your
experiences
with it.
It's
hugely
appreciated.
Your
posts
confirmed
what I
was
seeing
at the
clinics.
They
were
great
fun to
read,
and I
know
they
will be
extremely
useful
for all
the
people
who
can't
make it
to a
clinic.
Micro-riding
I wrote
a very
long
post
about
micro-riding
back in
May.
During
the June
courses
I made
sure
each
group
had at
least
one
micro-riding
session,
and in
some of
the
courses
we
managed
to use
it every
day. I
knew
we'd
have
people
from
each of
these
courses
at the
advanced
training
at the
end of
the
month,
so I
wanted
to be
sure
everyone
had had
some
prior
experience
with it.
My
question
going
into the
advanced
training
was an
open
one.
What
could
you do
with
micro-riding?
The
answer
went
beyond
anything
I would
have
imagined.
That's
always
the fun
of this
work.
Here's
another
expression
for
Becky's
list:
"the
longer
you stay
with an
exercise,
the more
good
things
you find
it can
do for
you."
That's
certainly
been the
case
with
micro-riding.
In one
of the
earlier
courses
we did
several
sessions
spread
over the
four
days.
In the
first
session
I began
as I
usually
did with
the
shoulders.
"Can
you
think
about
moving
your
shoulder
blade
up?".
Yes. I
can feel
a slight
initiation
of
response.
Click.
"Can you
think
about
moving
your
shoulder
blade
down?"
These
are such
simple
questions,
but it
is
amazing
how
stuck
shoulder
blades
can
become.
We've
had them
with us
all our
lives,
but for
many of
us we've
paid no
attention
to them.
Shoulders,
yes.
Those
we can
move,
but not
the
shoulder
blade
itself.
That
stays
anchored
to our
ribs.
And
since
ribs and
shoulder
blades
are
firmly
in
control
of not
breathing,
is it
any
wonder
so many
of our
horses
are more
than a
little
bit
stuck!
In the
micro-riding
sessions
I have
people
work in
groups
of
three.
One
person
observes,
one is
the
monitor,
and the
third is
the
"rider".
The
monitor
rests
her hand
lightly
on the
rider's
shoulder
blade.
Her job
is to
click
when she
feels
the
rider
respond
to her
instructions.
In each
group
there
are
always
people
who
worry
that
they
won't be
able to
feel
anything.
They
doubt
their
ability
to feel
any of
the
responses.
Beginning
with the
shoulder
blade
eases
them
into the
process.
It's a
huge
confidence
builder.
I love
the
startled
expressions
of
delight
when
people
discover
that
they
really
can feel
their
partner's
shoulder
blade
move.
But
that
makes
perfect
sense.
The
monitor's
hand is
resting
on the
rider's
shoulder
blade.
Of
course,
they can
feel the
shoulder
blade
move.
The
question
is how
small a
movement
can they
detect?
Can they
click on
the
thought
of
movement
or are
they
waiting
until
they
feel a
larger,
more
macro
shift?
That was
session
one with
this
group.
In
session
two, I
rested
my hand
on my
partner's
shoulder
blade
and
asked
her to
think
about
the top
of her
thigh
bone.
Click.
I
looked
around
at the
ring of
observers
and saw
lots of
puzzled
faces.
What
was I
feeling?
How
could I
possibly
feel any
change
under my
hands.
What
connection
could
there be
between
her
thigh
bone and
her
shoulder
blade?
There's
that
word
again.
Connection.
And
everything
is
connected
to
everything
else.
When we
get
people
freeing
up their
shoulder
blades,
we are
doing so
much
more.
We are
freeing
up the
breath.
And
when the
breath
frees
up, you
really
can feel
a change
under
your
hands
when you
direct
your
partner's
thoughts
to her
thigh
bone or
to the
balance
point of
her
foot.
I turned
people
loose to
experiment
with
this
within
their
groups
and kept
hearing
squeals
of
delight
- or
maybe it
was
shock.
"I felt
that!!
Oh,
that's
just too
bizarre!"
It may
have
been
bizarre
but it
was very
gratifying
to watch
how the
micro-riding
sessions
in the
house
carried
over
into
superb
handling
when we
went out
to the
horses.
People
thought
about
their
shoulder
blades
rotating
and
their
horses
rebalanced
into
lateral
flexions.
It
wasn't
that
their
handlers
were
abandoning
the
lead.
They
were
sliding
down it
as
before,
only not
as
before.
They
really
could
empty
out the
make-it-happen
muscle
that
stiffens
horses.
In its
place
they put
the
power of
intent
with all
of its
politeness,
all of
it
gentleness,
all of
its
effectiveness.
And what
was
really
exciting
for me
was
seeing
everyone
in the
groups
succeeding
with
this
process.
It
wasn't
just one
or two
people
who
could
figure
it out.
In
each of
the
three
roles,
observer,
monitor,
rider,
everyone
discovered
they
could
see,
feel, do
much
more
than
they
ever
would
have
thought
possible.
So that
was the
prep I
gave to
each of
the
groups.
In the
final
course
we began
with a
review
of the
micro-riding
basics.
In the
role of
the
rider
most
people
discovered
that
they had
much
more
mobility
and
awareness
than
they had
had the
first
time
through.
And in
the
roles of
monitors
and
observers
they
were
feeling
and
seeing
with
greater subtlety.
That was
a good
beginning.
Shoulders,
thigh
bone,
the
balance
point of
the
foot,
these
are all
good
points
to
explore,
and we
did so
in much
more
detail
than we
had
before.
But
then I
added in
new
points.
What
happens
when the
person
thinks
about
the roof
of their
tongue.
We had
a
discussion
about
what
this
meant.
It's
one of
those
things
that's
hard to
describe.
You
want to
point at
your
tongue
while
talking
-
somewhat
difficult.
It's
rather
like
describing
a spiral
staircase
without
using
your
hands.
What I
mean
here
isn't
the tip
of the
tongue,
but more
the
middle
third.
I wasn't
sure
what if
anything
I would
feel
when I
directed
my
rider,
Amanda,
to think
about
resting
her
tongue
against
the roof
of her
mouth,
but
amazingly,
I could
feel a
change
under my
hand.
And
later
when I
directed
her to
think
about
giving
at the
poll her
whole
spine
lengthened
under my
hand.
Amanda
has
written
a
wonderful
post on
what how
this has
impacted
her work
with
Classic.
And
others
from
this
group
have
shared
their
experiences
as well.
So let
me share
my great
ah ah
moment
when I
got home
from my
trip.
Robin
was the
first
horse I
rode.
He
hadn't
been
worked
in over
five
weeks.
Normally
I do a
bit of
ground
work
first
with
him, but
he
wanted
me to
ride, so
that's
what we
did.
I have
become
fond of
saying
I've
been to
all my
clinics.
What
that
meant
for me
in that
ride was
I had
just had
an
intense
month of
micro-riding.
Even
though I
was
usually
just
observing
as
others
worked,
I was
still
benefitting
from the
process.
I knew
more
clearly
than I
ever had
before
what it
feels
like to
think
about my
thigh
bones.
I knew
the feel
of it
both
within
myself
and what
that
would
feel
like to
someone
else.
As I
slid
down the
reins, I
thought
about my
thigh
bone and
Robin
melted
deep
into his
corner.
That
was
neat. I
thought
about my
thigh
bones
again
and
Robin
flowed
onto a
perfect
circle.
It was
so
clear.
It was
so easy.
I
thought
about
opening
my head
chakra,
a phrase
that
would
have had
very
little
meaning
before,
and
Robin
energized
his walk
and
lengthened
his own
spine.
Very
spooky!
It was
as if
we'd had
no break
at all
in our
training.
I
hadn't
been on
a horse
in over
a month,
but in
many
ways I
was
riding
better
than I
ever
have.
Just
like
lots of
the rest
of you,
I have
jammed-up,
stuck
programming
in my
body.
It
effects
my
riding -
all the
old
layers
that
float
around
and glum
things
up.
That
old
programming
wasn't
there.
I don't
know
really
how to
explain
this
except
to say
that the
baggage
simply
wasn't
there.
It
wasn't
just
that it
was set
aside
for the
moment.
It was
gone. I
rode
Robin
with a
freedom
and a
level of
awareness
that was
a
delight
for both
of us.
Connections.
It was
Robin
who led
me to
microshaping.
What he
taught
me, I
was able
to share
with
others
through
the
clinic
process.
Microshaping
led this
year to
micro
riding.
And
now
through
the
clinics
I am
able to
turn
around
and give
back to
Robin a
ride
that
connects
to all
the good
work
that is
in him.
So thank
you to
everyone
who has
participated
so far
in the
2008
courses.
Your
combined
efforts
have
given me
a superb
ride on
my
horse!
Trust
the
Process
There is
a final
phrase
that is
important,
perhaps
the most
important
of all,
and
that's
trust
the
process.
Julie
Varley
gave me
that
one, and
her mare
Allie is
a
beautiful
example
of what
happens
when you
do just
that.
Process
is what
I am
teaching
with
this
work,
not end
results.
End
results
won't
help you
if you
are
starting
at a
point
where
your
shoulder
blades
are
glued to
your
ribs,
your
feet are
disconnected
from
your
hands,
and your
breath
is
something
that you
are only
dimly
aware
of.
It's
like
asking
someone
what his
cues are
for a
particular
movement.
What do
you do
to get a
canter
depart?
I could
tell you
what I
do, but
the
words
probably
wouldn't
help
you. I
use my
seat.
Now how
meaningful
is that?
And the
more I
describe
to you
what I
do with
my seat,
in all
likelihood,
the more
lost you
will be.
How many
of us
have
been in
lessons
where
the
instructor
told us
to use
our back
more, or
use our
seat?
What
does
that
mean?
Use it
how?
How do
you
translate
those
words?
And how
do you
activate
them in
a
meaningful
way in
your own
body?
My
starting
point is
not
yours.
The use
patterns
I have
in my
spine do
not
match
the use
patterns
in
yours.
If I
give you
directions
to
Chicago
from my
house
and you
follow
them
exactly
beginning
with
turn
right as
you go
out the
driveway,
you
aren't
going to
get to
Chicago.
Your
starting
point is
not my
starting
point.
But if
I teach
you how
to read
maps and
use
other
navigational
travel
skills,
you'll
get
there
with
ease.
The
ground
work,
and the
single-rein
riding
teach
process.
In
Katie's
very
timely
post
this
morning
she also
talked
about
connections.
And she
and
others
talked
about
how the
single-rein
process
changed
how they
rode.
It is
the
process
that
teaches.
The
process
of
sliding
down the
lead or
rein and
asking
for a
give
creates
a change
not just
in your
horse,
but in
you as
well.
With
each
give you
are
generating
more
body
awareness
and
control
which in
turn
creates
more
subtle
cues.
The fun
of this
for me
is it is
a very
dynamic,
very
creative
process.
If you
are new
to this
work,
don't
worry if
you
aren't
following
some of
this
discussion.
Micro-riding
isn't
something
to be
afraid
of or to
push
against.
When
you are
ready
for this
layer,
you can
dive
into it.
At the
advanced
trainings
we
explore
out
along
the
leading
edge,
seeing
where
the work
can take
us. The
books
and the
DVDs
give you
the
stair
steps.
They're
the
"bread
crumbs"
you can
follow
to track
the
work.
In the
fall
we'll be
coming
up on
the
tenth
anniversary
of the
publication
of my
first
book
"Clicker
Training
for your
Horse."
When it
came
out, I
said in
ten
years we
won't
recognize
the
horse
world.
I
should
have
been
more
specific.
I would
say that
in
general
the
horse
world
looks
pretty
much the
same as
it did
ten
years
ago.
Pockets
of it
have
changed
a bit,
but in
general
the
terrain
is
pretty
much the
same.
But the
clicker
training
horse
world -
now that
has
changed.
We've
discovered
so much
that we
can do
via
clicker
training,
things
we
hadn't
even
thought
of in
1998.
We've
tapped
into
such
beautiful,
dynamic
balance.
The
horses I
see at
clinics
just
knock my
socks
off. So
I'll say
again,
in ten
years we
won't
recognize
the
clicker-training
horse
world.
Standing
where we
currently
are we
can't
begin to
imagine
what
those
changes
will be,
but I do
know
that if
we trust
the
process,
they
will
come.
Have
fun!!
Alexandra
Kurland
theclickercenter.com
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