A follow-up report from Karen: I promised a report on the EA demos with Leslie. Please keep in mind that this is my first experience with Leslie, and I am sharing what I personally took away. My hope is that those with more experience in this will bring more to light and correct any misconceptions.
Others have already covered the wonderful demonstration Leslie gave of building a partnership with Chase using the Coliseum setting, with the audience's help, and a blend of going with his energy and releasing him to follow with feel and timing. Chase did fantastic with responding to Leslie on the ground, in such an alien environment, and she decided to bridle him. However, Chase responded by raising his head and walking backwards. In fact, I think he would have walked backwards around the entire coliseum. A tricky situation. What followed proved to be an exceptional demonstration: how and why we need to be patient and try to see the horse's perspective, what can be inadvertently built into a horse's foundation using pressure and release, and how it is possible to go backwards to begin rebuilding misunderstandings. The Try. It was puzzling because Chase had tried his heart out for Leslie, and in fact was still trying his heart out, if you could see this - he did not run back, sideways, up or any number of other things, he just picked up his feet and stepped carefully backwards. At one point, Leslie touched her boot to his front leg. Then he kept offering his front leg every time Leslie presented the bridle. I was sitting there trying to get in my horse's mind, why did he think he should steadfastly go backwards. Some background facts. The facts on Chase's prior experience with bridles are that I had used the lower head and approach and retreat type presentation. This showed up in Leslie's demo too, when Chase happily kept his nose to the ground while she made adjustments to the bridle. I've always ridden him in a rope hackamore and had not yet ridden him with a bit in his mouth. I had started bridling in preparation for this. He was bridled in a stall a few times and a couple of times outside in an arena. It took a little for him to accept this (which is why I had not ridden him in a bridle yet, of course I now realize that introducing the bridle this way held little purpose for Chase), but he did, without force. The horse's perspective. Back to the demo. I recognized in that moment that the pressure (from the Coliseum environment) was simply amplifying what had appeared as a far lesser issue at home. But where was this confusion coming from in Chase? As I was putting him away I started putting pieces together. 1) Leslie had shown me a presentation she uses (on another horse), whereby she puts the bit under the chin, instead of bringing it near the teeth right away. This generally causes the horse to play with his bottom lip, and perhaps open his mouth as he explores this thing under his chin. By taking this time, the horse is searching for the bit, and when it is then presented the horse offers to open his mouth and Leslie uses the other hand to help lift it into place. 2) if Chase wanted to avoid Leslie, he would not have just stepped backwards, he thinks fast and acts fast, and he would have tried something else. 3) he clearly thought that stepping backwards was what he should do. The misunderstanding. and meaning. Then it came to me. I have asked Chase to backup off a wiggling rope many times, and he generally backs from this at a very light "phase", including at liberty with no rope at all; but this was not always the case, and he has experienced that high "phase" metal snap hitting him under the jaw. It dawned on me that the only MEANING he had for feeling metal around his chin was to BACKUP. When he felt that bit under his chin, he misunderstood the meaning. I mentioned this idea to Leslie that evening, and the subsequent demos started to take on a new shape. Rebuilding a new meaning.. So why did Leslie ask me to bridle Chase before the next session? Well, I did not have the opportunity to discuss this with Leslie too much, so this is just my take. It wasn't about the bridling, it was about the meaning Chase associated with the bit. Leslie somehow needed to get past the old meaning and re-build a new meaning. So he came to the session bridled, and Leslie ponied him from another horse. Chase leads up off a rope halter, goes left, right etc., but it became pretty clear that he had no clue what to do with similar requests from the bit. Correction: again, he clearly thought he should stop his feet or go backwards. So during the third demo, Leslie worked with him from another horse, building in left, right, straight, start, stop, with the feel coming from above, where the rider is, and using a presentation that was fresh to the horse. We were on the edge of our seats watching Leslie's skill at bringing Blue the (ex racer) horse she was riding, who was not too familiar with ropes and Chase, who took a few minutes to realize that Leslie was planning on leading this one to a mutual understanding. Leslie suggested not trying this at home (!). It wasn't too long before Leslie was ponying Chase around left, right, straight, start and stop. At that moment she took questions, and someone asked what on earth this had to do with developing a riding horse. Leslie encouraged her to come to the last session. The result. Then came the last session at EA on Sunday. Others have already reported on how Leslie started riding him in the round pen, left, right, straight, start, stop, and built his confidence to go in and out of the round pen, with the help of Rick and Chase's buddy Spotlight. Then Leslie rode Chase off around the Coliseum, picked up a canter as she followed another horse. I just have to mention here how proud I was of my horse. He loped off as smooth as could be on the "wrong" lead around the round pen, then switched leads as smooth as could be, when Leslie's line of sight went to the horse ahead. Leslie went with him as a bubble of energy came up - he wanted to race the horse in front. Leslie called out for the other rider to slow down, and glided past, Chase settling again as soon as he was in front. Leslie continued with a beautiful demo of releasing the horse, left, right and straight, stopping and backing up on a float, from in the saddle now. I could be biased (!), but I thought that Chase really helped Leslie demonstrate the difference between the lightness that comes through shaping and releasing the horse on a float, and the heaviness that comes from pressure, in this case under saddle. He wears the truth so honestly for us all to see, and has the athleticism to really show what he felt from Leslie through his body. To conclude, Chase was so happy and proud by this point, that he asked Leslie to let him show off things he knew how to do, she went with him as he stomped on the tarp, picked it up, even picked up the huge cone etc (and no I have never done trick horse stuff with him, it is just in his personality!). He was really enjoying being a superstar! Meaning is everything. Karen and Chase
