By Katie of the ClickRyder list: Here is my report on last weekend's clinic. As usual, we covered a lot of ground and I picked out some pieces that I thought I could explain over the internet and might be relevant to readers. This report and ones from past clinics are available on my web site in the section "about clinics" on the sidebar on the main page. If you have questions or want more details, feel free to ask. Katie
Last weekend's clinic with Alex in Groton, NY was a great one as usual. We had pleasant weather and a nice mix of old and new people. I love seeing how everyone has progressed and meeting new people. I think that those of us who have been clicker training for a while sometimes forget how amazing this work is, and it is nice to see and hear the enthusiasm from new members of the group. The main focus of the clinic was on riding, but we did spend a bit of time on round pen work and walking through how to set up shoulder-in. Because I have already written so much about single rein riding, I am not going to go the basics here, but instead I am going to share some fine tuning and details that Alex worked on. I will say that we did hear "inside hand down" a lot. Each clinic with Alex clarifies some detail about single rein riding and the progression from one rein to two, and this time we focused a lot on the use of the "triangle" and building the connection between both hands that leads to an understanding of how to use the outside rein. This is something that we have been exploring and working on for quite some time, but it is an ongoing process and there were some new details that made a significant difference. When Alex teaches single rein riding, the emphasis in the beginning is on sliding down the inside rein and asking the horse to give. The outside hand is lifting the buckle as part of the mechanics of sliding, but that hand is not active on its own. It is working in conjunction with the inside hand to set the horse up to ask for a give. You can use the outside hand to adjust the inside rein by lifting it to allow the rein to slide through the inside hand and shorten the distance from the inside hand to the bit. This is a useful way to reset the point of contact if the horse puts slack in the rein by inverting or moving its head and neck in an undesirable way. But, most of the focus is on stabilizing the inside hand. In past clinics we have explored picking up the outside rein once the horse is soft, and then using the outside rein to ask the horse to step over and under it, or to turn away from it. Once you get the idea and the horse understands about the outside rein, this is a nice feeling and it leads to a very light and balanced horse that is also very adjustable. It is important to remember that the while single rein riding is a valuable exercise in itself, one of the goals of single rein riding is to use it to educate horse and rider so you can make the progression to riding on two reins. A lot of traditional riding starts on two reins, but Alex has found that by starting on one rein and slowly building up to two reins, she can break down the teaching process into small steps. This avoids a lot of the pulling, inverting, and feeling trapped that can happen when you try to organize a horse on two reins and the horse doesn't know how to do it. In addition, the inside and outside reins have different functions and it is often easier for the horse if they are taught separately so that the horse really understands what each rein aid asks. Otherwise you can end up with a horse that sort of bounces from one rein to the other or gets stuck between them, instead of one that balances between them. So while it might seem like a long complicated process to teach all about the inside rein and all about the outside rein, you end up with a different connection to the horse in the end. But, back to the clinic. The first day was a mix of groundwork and riding, giving Alex a chance to see where everyone was and what we needed to work on. I was an auditor at this clinic so I got to watch all the lessons, which was a nice change from spending a big part of the day hand grazing Rosie. Alex worked on basic mechanics of how to start a young horse on giving his hip and with some of the riding horses, she started to explain more about what to do when you pick up the outside rein. It is not uncommon for riders to spend so much time on the single rein work that by the time they go to two reins, they are not sure what to do with the second rein. How to make this transition became a big focus of the clinic, both for people who were already on two reins and for those people just starting to go to two reins. And then there was the question of once you are on two reins, what do you do next? The way Alex helps people and horses make the transition from one to two reins is through the use of "the triangle." When you do single rein riding, your inside hand slides down and stabilizes and your outside hand lifts up. If you look at the line of the reins, there is a triangle where one side is from the bit to the inside hand, the next side is between your inside and outside hand, and the third side is from your outside hand back to the bit. In previous single rein sessions, we have focused on the position of the inside hand and what happens when we move the outside hand up or out. This time Alex focused on line between your two hands and wanted riders to explore what happens when they take the slack out of the line between their hands. This is done by moving the outside hand up or out, depending upon what the horse needs. Before I go farther, I want to clarify something. The transition from one rein to two is a gradual transition and there are times when I am not sure if I am really on one rein or on two because I might be in that phase of my training where I am starting to activate the outside rein, but I have not completely switched to two reins. Alex gave us a clear and simple rule which was if there is slack between your two hands and you use your outside hand by sliding up or out, you are on two reins because you are changing the connection between the outside hand and the bit when you do so. Remember, this is if there is SLACK between your two hands. If there is NO SLACK between the two hands, then you are still on a single rein, with the outside hand supporting the inside hand and you are still in single rein riding mode. The reason this makes a difference is because single rein riding is all about asking for a change and then releasing. You do not want to ride around with tension in the reins. You ask for a give and then release. If you get stuck and the horse does not respond, then you need to re-evaluate how you are setting things up because one of the benefits of single rein riding is that the horse does not feel forced or trapped. Therefore, there are stages in single rein riding where different uses of the triangle are appropriate. When you first start asking for baby gives, you are going to slide down and stabilize your inside hand. If the horse really pulls, you are going to use your other hand to help the inside hand hold its position. As the horse gets softer and you start working on the hip, you are going to start exploring the use of the part of the triangle that is between your two hands. If you take the slack out when your horse is drifting through its outside shoulder, what happens? If you take the slack out when the horse wants to drift in, what happens? Part of the reason to start working on the connection between your two hands is to start teaching the rider about using both sides of her body. We had a little session on Sunday morning when Alex sat on a bench and showed the rein mechanics and the difference between having slack and no slack between her two hands. As soon as she took the slack out of her outside hand, her whole body position opened up and stabilized. If someone acted as the horse and moved the bit in different ways, she was very solid. By taking the slack out, the rider is able to feel more stable and connected but it has nothing to do with using the horse's mouth for balance or stability. It was at this session that the term "soggy triangle" was coined. So, if Alex tells you your triangle is getting soggy, it means you need to take the slack out between your two hands. Various horse and rider combination explored this farther throughout the weekend. Kate learned how to use the triangle to keep Lucky on the rail and get him to step up and under the outside rein as a set-up for shoulder-in. Lin learned how to use the triangle to help her young horse stay connected through his hips instead of drifting. Sue learned how to use it as an effective way to complete a turn instead of being tempted to use a bit of opening inside rein. In all these cases, the use of the triangle allowed the rider to connect to the horse's hips by helping the horse either step up and under when it got out of alignment or add engagement when it got strung out. The use of the triangle helps riders connect to their horses hips under saddle, but we also explored other ways to connect to the hips. One of the horses at the clinic had not traveled much and she was overwhelmed by the people, sound system and being in the ring on her own. On Saturday, her owner (Margaret) spent time working on HSS (hip shoulder shoulder) and getting her to give her hips and soften, but she was still too overwhelmed. So Alex had her set the mare free and the owner walked a pattern around the cones, clicking the mare (Meadowlark) for coming up to her or for walking quietly. This was a good exercise and a nice one to balance out much of the weekend's work which was focused on pressure and release. Because Margaret and Meadowlark had a strong relationship, Alex really wanted to give her time to choose to be with her person. She might not have chosen the same exercise for a horse and owner that were new to each other. It was really interesting to watch and see how the mare was paying attention to what Margaret was doing, even though she was not ready to come over. And it was nice to see her finally start to choose to stay with her. An important point was that Alex did not allow Margaret to approach Meadowlark, even to offer food after a click. She wanted her to extend her hand and offer the food, but not walk over to her or try to lure her with the food. If Meadowlark refused to come over, then she just put it away and moved on. Alex kept saying "don't beg." This really struck a chord with me because I have had times when Rosie has refused food and it is so tempting to try and keep pushing it at her. It is better to just offer and then move on. When the horse is ready, she will take it. On Sunday, Margaret was able to practice HSS with Meadowlark which gave her another way to redirect Meadowlark's energy if she gets upset. Once they were into the HSS pattern, they both visibly relaxed and started to reconnect with each other. When I first wrote that, I wrote that Meadowlark relaxed and connected with Margaret, but actually it worked both ways. The repetitive pattern of HSS settled both of them down and Meadowlark even started offering head lowering. It was nice to end her session with some nice relaxation and softness. Connecting to the hip came up in other ways, we had some people doing groundwork sessions where they learned to connect to the hip. This can be a tricky thing and it takes some timing to set the horse up to offer the hip and be able to translate that into the lateral movement that comes out of the second half of 3flip3. Alex also showed us other ways to get to the hip. In one groundwork session, she started the handler in grown-ups are talking which evolved into ground-tying and then drawing the hip around. Once the horse was softly bringing his hip around, the handler could take that into forward motion or back it up. In another session, Alex had the rider work on giving the hip at the halt to get a horse to understand more about moving off her leg. This led to an interesting session with one rider and side discussions about how riders need to go with the horse's motion but not get caught up by the side to side sway of the horse's barrel or hips. Getting caught up in the side to side sway of the hips can lead to the rider "sloshing" from side to side and this actually makes a horse less forward and puts the rider out of synch with the forward motion of the horse. Alex talked about how teaching a horse to give his hip at the halt and then using that step to get forward motion presents a nice opportunity to add the leg aid as the horse steps off. This teaches the horse about the leg aid in a gentle way and helps the rider find the correct timing. In a session on Sunday AM, Alex has us walk through the set-up for shoulder-in as two person horses to get a feel for how the horse needs to rotate into shoulder-in and how the rider can help set it up. She had us walk a half turn and reverse where the return to the wall incorporated some lateral steps so that the horse's hip reached the wall before (or at the same time as) the shoulders. If the hip is really stepping up and under like that, the wall acts to redirect the flow of the movement and it is very easy for the rider to rotate the horse into shoulder-in. I have played with this set-up a bit since I came home and I really like it. It eliminates some of the confusion that comes from setting shoulder-in up from a circle or out of a corner, where drifting can be a problem. It also gives the horse a clear pattern to follow so that some of the usual confusion over whether you want a turn or shoulder-in can be avoided, at least in the beginning stages. As an interesting side note, Alex started working shoulder-in with one horse that came out and seemed a bit unbalanced, and there were questions about whether he was having trouble with the footing, or was sore, or just not getting organized. They worked on shoulder-in at the walk and at the end of his session, he trotted off fine. Shoulder-in was one of the options Alex presented for what to do once you have your horse organized on two reins. Some of the riders had spent a lot of time teaching their horses to soften, bend and carry themselves on one rein and were now making the transition to two reins. But once they were on two reins, they were not sure what to do next. Exploring shoulder-in was a nice way to experiment with changes in the horse's alignment and learn about using the outside rein. Alex had other riders work on riding school figures such as figure 8's or doing transitions. It was nice to see how much progress everyone had made and to see the new people get an understanding of how the work develops. I thought we had a really nice variety of people at different levels and it is always fun to see how all the work connects together and how much the horses enjoy it. You can see it in how they carry themselves and their bright expressions and eagerness. I can't believe it is 6 months until the next one. See you in April! Katie Bartlett Elverson, Pa. www.equineclickertraining. com
