---- Elizabeth Pope <
ehpope@embarqmail.com> wrote:
> My notes after talking with Dan are my thoughts
based on the hour long phone call. I did not take notes per se.
>
> -------
> Try Transition: "Who does Try want to be?"
> • Find
fun stuff for Try. (cross training is always good for horse and rider)
> • Get
help from Dan in transitioning re balancing mental/emotional with need for
physical fitness. This will be the subject of the September session.
> • Maintaining
good ground manners/connection/partnership (always important)
> • Purpose
oriented: Try will to some extent put in effort but maybe not exuberance but
not hate it. With lessons with Kathy my intent is clearer giving purpose( while
you are learning the concept and mechanics - that is what you are focused on. I
can help direct you toward a focus/purpose and help you correct
misunderstandings on the part of the horse & rider, so it seems to ride
better.) (Like everything learning
anything new takes time! teaching/directed practice, process, assessment,
reteach, assess, (reteach as much as needed), guided practice, process, assess
for understanding, correct mechanics & feel. At the end you can look for ways to
synthesize, what you now understand and can perform, and create new ways of
incorporating it into your work routine/make it part of a new pattern etc. I
feel that horses like people at work are not always having fun, but understand
that this is your job and not everything is fun-filled every day. I loved teaching Art, and it was what I
wanted to do, but it had it's moments that were not fun. We can do for our horses what we mostly can't
do for ourselves, by breaking our riding/training into bite sized pieces, cross
training to build muscle and fitness and approach our goals from different directions. We can also take mental holidays and reward
our horse by doing something new & fun after training as reward and
relaxation)
> • Dressage—detail
oriented not Try's fav/if its competition driven it would never be right for
Try BUT for Health and fitness yes. Issue: How to be creative—put it into
practice/obstacles and dressage on the trail/creativity. I am not going to try
to duplicate what I do in lessons with Kathy when alone with Try for a while
anyway. ( Remember, having both the
horse & rider trying to learn at the same time is hard. There have been times when Try had figured
out the movement and offered more to show off her creativity. She might have
struggled for the right answer, but after she processed it and was rewarded,
she often came back taking control as her personal celebration; she looked very
pleased with herself at the end of a session.
Dressage is just training! Pure
and simple. It is a well thought out program of using a horses natural movement
and building an understanding of how to communicate what the horse can do
naturally with being able to perform it with a rider onboard. Of course it takes time to build the muscles
to carry the rider and duplicate their natural movement. Competition does not ever have to be the
goal. Just like Parelli uses many
pattern/exercises to build the horse mentally & physically, Dressage does
the same - many Parelli exercises were dressage exercises first. Some of the creativity comes into play when
you string together several exercises into a longer string/pattern where you
move from one into another with a feeling of oneness, flow, relaxation and a
mutual understanding and respect. Find a
piece of music you like and think of ways you can choreograph a ride with
different tempos, gaits and movements so you can begin to dance with your
horse. Don't worry about technicalities
of beats per min. Or take pieces of
walk,trot music that have the same feel/genre and just ride and enjoy. If anything is a problem , just go on, go
forward and do something else. enjoy!! i
used to do leg yields out on trail and circle work where there was open space
on trail, it was fun as we had lots of implusion out on trail.
Right now trying
what we did in lesson is OK, but if you run into being unsure go ahead and go
do something else.)
> • 2-3
hour session with Dan last summer—
> o Perfectly pleasant/bonding/tuned in
for 1.5 hr liberty in the field--Try stays tuned in because of variety and rest
and establishing connection.
> o Try won’t like repetition of
something she’s got right nor maintaining without clear purpose/variety.
(True! She also enjoys it when you ride
with purpose and focus and allow your body memory come into play. This is something you need to do more of on
your own and in lessons during guided or independent practice.)
> o Get it done and be done. Even twice
can be too much. (Often we stop when
I've seen Try "get it" and let her process it or we take a break and
then go out for a short one, this is usually where she offers to do one better
- lol)
> • Crabbiness
as a habit
> o Good to address it to prevent it as
a habit or break a habit
> o Western pleasure could surely
create a lifelong habit of crabbiness
> o Fix it in a relaxed manner with as
little drama as possible ( I agree with this - do something easy so she feels
good about herself)
> • Go
out and ride, fix the attitude issue riding ( When you are riding on your own
and she is unmotivated, look at how you feel and if you are uptight...go do something
else)
> • Try’s
semi-retirement: I think twice a week with me, once with Dawn as her schedule
permits.
> o Physically I want Try to be as fit
as is healthy for her while giving her a break from drilling and boredom.
Strength muscular/aerobic and suppleness.
> o Mentally I want to add variety,
problem-solving and success to keep her active and not turn into a vegetable or
bring on mental problems i.e. depression.
(I agree)
> o Grooming: maintain. She has always
been treated as a show horse and I have no intention of lessening her standard
of living.
> Thoughts other than Try Transition
> • Devon
is a high level horse with natural talent for movement and enjoys moving
more/has a different attitude toward moving than Try does tho both are LBI. Try
is talented physically—powerful horse and intellectually—excellent
learner---She just doesn’t want to do it--tho she will be obedient to please me
and sometimes will be intrigued by newness or challenge.
> • Is
there anything I can offer Devon? Any benefit for Devon to have me as a rider?
Whats in it for him? (You can offer him
understanding of his psychological and physical needs in ways they have never
been offered to him. Think of how Key
discovered things and began to think and make choices. So many H/J are obedient but have never had
choices or problem solving.)
> • Parelli
system holds little value for me at this stage—I will never pursue formally
passing level 4 with Try and possibly never pursue levels again with any
horse--it feels strangely artificial. Good horsemanship is good horsemanship. I
am firmly a believer in the Parelli philosophy and psychology but following
levels and tasks isn’t the right thing right now. Any further purchases of
educational materials will be related to my goals of improving my riding and
learning about horse development. The new levels pack--unlikely to be
beneficial. ( I have never been
interested in Parelli for the commercial Parelli package, but for a new way of
looking at horses and in how training them with thought being given for them to
problem solve and make choices. This
type of success combined with training is a win-win combo.)
ok I give up--slight chance it might not be really
raining for 30 minutes around 11am--guess I will head out to the barn this am
and likely will only be able to groom and do barn chores. DRAT!
I will call you this am.
To follow up on last email:
1. Mental holiday: perhaps, despite my confusion over
Try's past weeks of crabbiness and some sadness over the conscious realization
that we will not be passing Parelli level 4 (the reason I have been commiting
so much time and $ to lessons with Dan), the time off has been good for Try as
she has been more pleasant this week. Also on this subject, Dawn and I have
ridden together twice. Dawn is learning to ride Try and they are getting along
well as she has no learning agenda (in grad sch and in Coast Guard--just wants
to ride for fun). So we just walk and talk and Try loves being with Devon as we
do so.
2. "oneness, flow, relaxation" and riding from
my body memory: this seems like it should be highest priority right now a. I
realize in riding Devon that I have been riding Try with an abundance of
pushing energy and when I recognize and relax that energy with Devon who is more
motivated and talented at having free swingy gaits that I am experiencing short
times (i.e. 1/2 way around the ring) of feeling a passenger in a whole new
let-loose way riding a glorious feeling trot and canter. So I want to bring
this back to my time with Try.
b. Is this what you have meant by holding Try back? This
has saddened me very greatly as Try is the horse of my heart and I only want
the best for her.
3. I would like to talk with you further when we get
together about choreography to music and ideas for the trail.
4. Fixing negative attitude: I have recently
experienced--rather than a whole join-up session of pressure--rather than cause
an attitude change to allow a change--tho that is more for a right brain horse
it is working better. For instance, if she is balky to the extent that I feel
uncomfortable riding to hop off and allow her to circle online until she
releases the emotion. Or if safety is not a concern i.e. in the ring if she
says no and canters a few steps in protest I can say--"Oh you want to
canter Try, me too, I love to canter"--then off we go until she relaxes
which will likely be more than a mile.
5. More on fixing--In early July I redid Try's positive
and negative charts and she was completely off the negative chart and well up
on the positive one. I like that a lot and am willing to compromise and let her
"get away" with some stuff/not fight every battle to maintain that
and prevent the negativity I have seen recently. Dan says--100% obedient is
being a slave and we talked about allowing her to be who SHE chooses to be.
6. Devon and choices. Good point you made. I am getting
some occasional coaching (free) from Bethanna on what she has learned about
riding Devon (maybe the horse of her heart)--for instance with downward
transitions: 1. I realize its coming and check that nothing in my body is
asking for it yet then 2. let up a bit of energy and leg 3. check to see if
Devon has got the message that the transition is coming and then AND ONLY then
ask for the transition with body weight and voice not reins. Because of the
year I have had with you I can discuss riding Devon with Bethanna if an entire
different way.
7. The commercial Parelli package--thank you so much for
putting it that way so I can see the separation. And now that you mention it,
lots of people I know are not really following that package. I have been a
faithful follower for 9? years and now I think I can just graduate myself from
the package and follow the philosophy.
Other:
1. Vet comes Monday am to check Try out carefully for
anything physical that could be contributing to her recent unhappiness.
2. I would like to discuss whether you could help me with
finding tension in Try's body when I am circling her on line.
3. Also to what extent do you think on line circling
could promote physical development without being too much pressure or boring
repetition.
4. Parelli recommends in its new goal setting for those
wanting never ending improvement of their horsemanship sans levels--to warm up
on the ground for 5 minutes, ride freestyle for 45 and finesse for 10. Any
thoughts?
Talk to you/see you soon. Too bad about the rain.
Elizabeth
-1.5 hour phone conversation to follow up on all this
