The Magical Art of Letting Go (Self-Carriage)
Feb 10, 2017
Self- Carriage.
Many people talk about it, but the more I travel and teach, the more I realize very few people have ever experienced what self-carriage ACTUALLY feels like, never mind how to achieve it.
This is true whether we are talking about self-carriage of the horse OR the rider!
Lucky for you, I know a very simple, easy way for both horse and rider to achieve self-carriage simultaneously.
Before I share this simple concept with you, let’s talk for a sec.
Helicopter Parents, Riders and Trainers
Have you ever heard the term “Helicopter Parent”?
As a Mom with 2 young children, I am only too familiar with helicopter parents. They are the ones picking out their children’s clothes every day, dressing their fully capable child (like you would dress a toddler), talking to their child’s school every day about their very special Sally or Jesse’s unique needs, swooping out to give fully capable Johnny his water bottle during the baseball game; the parent who is managing every minute of every day of that child’s life.
Can you surmise how I am going to relate this to equestrians?
In the horse world, they would term a helicopter parent into the horse term, “learned helplessness”.
Just like with children, if you don’t give your horse any personal responsibility, in other words, if you are managing EVERY MOVE and EVERY STEP your horse takes, they can simply shut their thinking brain off. When a person or horse is given personal responsibility within the learning process, they are strengthening more neural pathways in the brain, lighting up MORE AREAS of the brain and developing more interest in the lesson at hand. In other words, they are getting smarter and connecting the learning process with accomplishment and wellbeing.
It has been widely studied that if an animal or person is allowed to problem-solve during the learning process, they will understand the concept more wholly than if they had been dictated the information alone. Imagine the experience of working through a math problem and discovering the answer versus being spoon fed the answers. Eureka moments are very powerful when it comes to learning!
As if it weren’t bad enough, not only do we have helicopter riders but we have helicopter instructors! (Imagine my palm hitting my forehead).
How can a rider learn to think on their own if the instructor is dictating every move through the rider? These riders become so dependent on their “Trainers”, they literally can’t ride on their own, they don’t know what to do! Again, NO personal responsibility leads to the thinking, learning brain shutting off.
Riding with Loose Reins
Nancy Spear and her mare Gwen nicely demonstrating self-carriage. Photos courtesy of Lara Peterson.
Now, before you get all tied in a bunch over this concept, hear me out.
WARNING:
Use common sense. If your horse is dangerous for you to ride, whizzing around like an ignorant fool while your horse snorts and bucks and kicks and takes off with you is not what I am talking about. Seek professional help if you are afraid of your horse.
I am often teaching riders to “Let Go” and give the horse personal responsibility. I will undoubtedly see the look of anxiety flash over a rider’s face as I encourage them to give their horse freedom to move underneath them.
Here are some steps to get you on the right track:
This is most easily established in trot (flat walk or running walk for gaited horse friends out there)
Your SOLE responsibility in all of this as a rider is to simply tip the nose toward the direction you need to go then immediately let go again. Think: tip-give, tip-give. This encourages straightness.
Your horse must be allowed to travel forward and free. Think: bigger not faster
listen for you horse to breath- they will cough, groan, blow out with their nose and even yawn. This is an indication they have let their ribcage loose and have switched from their sympathetic (fight or flight, stress) nervous system to their parasympathetic (restful, relaxation, healing, calm) nervous system, another process that aids in learning! When a person or horse is operating within the parasympathetic nervous system, the brain is literally turned on to learning. The term for this concept is called neuroplasticity. Here is a link to learn more about neuroplasticity.
watch for the horse to shake their head- it often comes immediately after the big breathing change. This is an indication of a neurological release! It is a very good sign. I don’t mean an irritated head shake, but a very relaxed ear-flopping head shake. Very soon after they will also start to softly lick and chew.
allow the horse to naturally stretch forward and down when they feel the desire.
notice if you can feel the body of the horse fill out your leg. The horse will literally pull more air into the lungs and the hind leg will step further underneath the body acting as a piston to bring more air into the lungs. It’s actually an amazing set of mechanisms that happen. Another indication of the horse moving through his whole body in self-carriage. Here is a GREAT show that covers the whole process:
when the horse gets very relaxed he will want to slow down or stop. This is a natural response. They get very relaxed and will want to slow down and stop to enjoy the relaxation. Encourage them to keep going so they understand they can enjoy the relaxation while in movement. This is key.
give breaks often. Discovering self-carriage is an incredible workout for your horse both mentally and physically. He will tire quickly! Remember, in self-carriage they are using their entire body to move in balance! Don’t believe me? Try staying perfectly balanced and twirl on the ball of your foot. Now do it with a back-pack on. I have often seen horses seem to ask the rider in bewilderment, “are you sure this is OK? You’re allowing me to use my full power?”.
once you have loose-rein self-carriage consistently established, softly pick up on the reins keeping a slight bend to the inside while having an even, light feel in both hands. You will find the horse will go “on the bit” all by himself (more on this is another article).
One of the biggest challenges riders face when first attempting this is self-reflection. It is difficult to accept your horse completely falling apart in the beginning. It will often feel like the horse has no idea how fast or slow to go as well as where their feet are. They have gotten so used to the counter-lever effect of using the rider as a 5th leg and being dictated where to conform their body, they are not entirely sure where to place themselves to find balance nor are they sure they are allowed to. To deepen your understanding, imagine doing a one-legged squat using a chair in front of you to balance and then trying it again taking the chair away. Notice how the level of concentration changes for each.
The truth of the matter is the horse learns to contort himself to live within the boundaries dictated by the helicopter rider. When self-carriage is established through a loose rein, your horse must take personal responsibility to find balance through movement. The challenge for the rider is allowing it to happen. The rider must switch from the chattering analytical brain to the chatter-free, feeling brain.
Rider Self-Carriage
As a rider, you no longer have the counter-lever of the horse to balance from. You must balance on your own. This is much easier on a horse that has learned to balance and carry themselves. The great thing is loose-rein development of self-carriage is fool proof. You simply cannot balance off the reins. It will probably come as a pleasant surprise to know this won’t be as big of a challenge as you think. The biggest challenge is usually mental not physical.
If you are really struggling you can hold on to the front of your saddle to help you. I also suggest looking into Mary Wanless and Peter Dove’s, Rider Biomechanics to help you learn different ways to find your martial arts stance on a horse and develop true balance and rider self-carriage.
I am so excited for you and your horse to develop true self-carriage! Any questions? Feel free to ask in the comments, leave me a message on the orange ask us button, or shoot me an email. I read every single one!
Rider seat and position, the base of the riding scale, goes beyond the mechanics of the seat. It also ties in our feel, and how we develop feel to communicate with horses more clearly. We sometimes find ourselves wanting to roll our eyes when we are forced to think upon our role in the horse human relationship, but at the same time, we must ask ourselves, “what is my role?”
We are taught to fix our position, work our bodies, make ourselves stronger…. through tension and often times, poor movement patterns. Lift weights, do pilates, stretch yourself into gumby with yoga…. If we make our base out of tension, if our feel is through tension, it is like a disease that threads itself all the way up the levels until…. the house starts to crumble because there was a flaw in the base. In order to thread softness within strength, relaxation within movement, presence within activity, we must first start with us.
Start with a vision….
When I was first learning how to do flying changes under Ed Rothkranz, he told me the easiest way to understand the timing was to skip. He said, “Skip your way back home every day and count one, now, now-and-change, two, now, now-and-change”.
Whenever I said, “And” was when I was supposed to put my new leg on for the change and I should skip to the new leg for the “change”. He had me do that skip counting for all the changes up to singles. It is something I STILL use as a reminder to this day.
What was happening here?
Before there were well-known science-backed concepts of the mind-body connection, he was giving me a tool to teach the brain what the body needed to do before I was ever asking it on the horse. Doing this exercise created the neural pathway and the reference point so that when I asked for the changes while riding, my body already understood what to do. Sure enough, I had done so many “changes” by the time I was ready to ask for one on the horses, I “knew” what to do.
Further evidence from Ray Hunt:
The first time I ever heard Ray Hunt teach, there was one thing that stuck with me because he mentioned it several times. It was one of those things people heard but I am not entirely sure they understood what he meant.
He said, “Have an idea of where you want to go then ask it of the horse”.
Even today, when you read his books, or watch his videos there are several sayings he uses to address the same point;
“Thought with purpose gives the horse direction”“Let your idea become the horse’s idea”“The slower you go the faster you will learn”“You need to have a picture in your mind of what you want your horse to do”“It’s a feel following a feel”
Sharpen the Mind, Sharpen the Body
I spent a lot of time pondering how I could make that connection. How do I convey to the horse what is in my mind?
The horse, does not have the chatterbox in their brain, the ego mind, which comes from the frontal lobe. The largest part of their brain is for sensory and FEEL. In other words, how things feel through their body.
Believe it or not, we can deeply understand our horses and how they perceive the world by simply focusing on our own bodies through movement.
The Mind-Body Connection
Because of a string of injuries and surgeries I went through a few years ago, my riding and the way I rode, changed forever. I needed to overcome mental and physical blocks. Many times, it was overwhelming, until I met, Alysen Starko-Bowes.
She was a ballet dancer turned pilates instructor. She discovered a new way of working with the body when she had a lot of pain and injuries due to her career, called Franklin Method. It mixes science, anatomy, visualization and movement to strengthen the proprioception and neural pathways between mind and body.
What I ended up discovering were eye-opening understandings of what the horses were telling me through the feel in their bodies that I did not even notice before. I began to recognize patterns in my movement that they also had in their movements. I started working with my horses in a totally different way, using the building processes I had learned from Alysen and was blown away how my horses were responding!
I was so blown away by how my body was feeling and how it was translating into my horsemanship I just had to share it with you.
If you’re curious how working on yourself can help you understand your horse better, watch the video above or go to:
CH006: Change your Horse Instantaneously; Interview with Alysen Starko-Bowes
Apr 21, 2016
Alysen Starko-Bowes is a movement educator I started working with after a major knee surgery a few years ago. I was so impressed with what I learned from her and how my body felt I wanted to share her with every equestrian I met.
If you are interested in learning more about Imagine-Movement, which combines Franklin Method movement with intuitive development, go here: www.imagine-movement.com
CH005: The Energy Connection and Why it’s Important Podcast Episode
Mar 21, 2015
Energy is something we are all aware of. We want it when we don’t have it and we enjoy it freely when we do.
But what about when it comes to Connecting with your horses on a deeper level?
How can we connect with our horse’s energy without it feeling like you are about to whip out a deck of tarot cards while sitting under the moon on a bareback horse?
In this episode, we explore:
The influence of energy in your life
the merging of Science and Spirituality
Horsemanship and Mysticism
Coherence and Electro-magnetic Fields in people and horses
Alpha wave rhythms and Beta wave rhythms: what they are and how they can help you understand how horses think
Energy: the “new” system of light speed and the ultimate wellbeing communicator
The power of intention in communicating with your horse
How to be a more effective influencer over your horse and why presence of mind is so important
Why “hard will” actually works against you
Why small chunks make you more believable
Thank you for listening and if you enjoyed it leave a review! If you have questions be sure to send me an email or leave a comment below- I read every one!
CH004: The Horse & Human Brain Connection Podcast
Nov 13, 2014
This episode is about the horse & human brain connection. I go over a lot of science, but also how the science backs up horsemanship principles and really taps into how horses actually think. I also explore the uniqueness of how the horse & human brain connect with each other and the relationship is unlike any other connection on Earth.
As promised, here are some research papers and articles you can explore on your own.
CH003: Horse Hearts & Human Hearts Podcast
Nov 06, 2014
Synchronicity is a common occurrence between 2 beings; whether they be human, dog, horse, etc. What happens with horse & human hearts? What makes horse hearts so special and where do we feel intuition? All of this is explored in today’s podcast!
Here are some research study links I mentioned in the podcast:
Crookedness of the Horse ought to be the Nightmare of Every Honest Rider
Jun 12, 2014
There is a statement
that is often used,
“See the Forest for the Trees“.
When you look up the
exact meaning,
it is, “To be overwhelmed
by detail
to the point where it obscures
the overall situation”.
The older I get the more I appreciate straightness is a BIG deal to a horse. The issue is, we all get so bogged down by the details of riding, we forget that straightness is really a very important goal and very often the answer to most problems.
I went on a massive search for explanations of straightness. I have tried to explain straightness to clients & realize I am just not conveying the importance enough…… I just can’t emphasize enough, How important straightness is to a horse.
In Alois Podhajsky’s book, The Complete Training of Horse & Rider, he says, “Only the straightened horse will enable the rider to carry out the thorough physical training which will be required if the highest standard is to be reached in the art of equitation. All serious books on riding stress this point, “Straighten your horse & ride him forward.” I would like to amplify this sentence with: “Only when your horse is straight can he go forward with impulsion and harmony.””
With Impulsion & Harmony……. So, we all know we are aiming for harmony, but do we realize straightness is the key? And further, how do we get it?
Here are 6 tips to Help you Find Straightness
1. Your horse’s hind foot should track into or directly in front of the hoof print of the front foot. If you see the horse steps to the side of it, they are not straight. Most often you see this if they are over bent on their hollow side so they either pop out their shoulder or they are bent out and swing their hind end in.
2. Blowing out with the nose– in order for your horse to truly go straight, he must let his rib cage loose. For some horses, this is an especially big deal. You will know when they let their rib cage loose when they blow loudly out of their nose like they are clearing their airway. They will do 1-3 blows at a time. If they do not do this, they haven’t let their rib cage loose. If you have ever done yoga, this is the equivalent to taking deep breaths in a stretch. If you do it correctly, your whole body will let loose. The same goes for the horse. Once they take these deep breaths, their rib cage opens up and you will start to see their movement change. You must allow your horse to stretch down in order for this to happen.
3. “When you have the instinct to pull is when you should actually be Letting Loose”– This is a quote from my mentor, Ed Rothkranz. I very often see horses get crooked as an escape from pulling hands especially at the wrong moments. Horses find straightness, balance & relaxation from the GIVE not a pull. The biggest area I see crookedness due to ill-timed hands is in a bend or corner. The half halt should be before and after the moment of perceived crookedness. The give should be through the turn or bend. You will know if you are doing this incorrectly if your horse bulges his shoulder in the bend or swings his body like a 2×4 in water.
4. Ride in a rectangle – Buck Brannaman has a great visual for straightness. He says imagine you are riding in a rectangle. If anything is bulging toward the edge, you need to straighten it out.
5. Get control of Each Foot– Ed used to tell a story about being a young man & not being able to get a horse to do as he wished. He had ridden the horse for an hour, got so frustrated he jumped off, kicked the horse and smoked a cigarette. An old military man was watching him and said, “Boy, give the horse to me for a moment”. He said the military man got on the horse, and never went out of a 4ft x 4ft square. He simply moved the hind end in each direction, the front end in each direction. Backed two steps, forward two steps etc for about 10 minutes. The man jumped off, handed Ed his horse. Ed got back on & said the horse was like rubber. He never forgot the feeling that horse had and he learned a very valuable lesson that day.
6. Jump a Square Bail– This is an exercise I have seen Melanie Smith-Taylor use many times. If you really want to test the honesty of your straightness, try and jump a square bail with NO jump posts on either side. If you and your horse are accustomed to jumping something bigger, start with 1 bail to get it right, but as you get better go ahead and stack them to be 2 bails high. You will not be able to do it unless you two are in complete balance and straightness together.
I will leave you with a quote from Podhajsky that should be your mantra from now on:
“Crookedness of the horse ought to be the nightmare of every honest rider” Alois Podhajsky
Once you have established getting your young horse in the halter and doing some basic work, you can move on to some more exciting and trust building exercises that will take you a long way when you are ready to ride your horse for the first time.
Before you get started with the exercises here, make sure you have worked on the exercises in Part 1. Also, make sure you can get your horse to move around you without a pull on the rope, stop, turn and face you and change direction.
Continued from Part 1……
7. Do Basic Ground Work With Him-
Start by getting your horse to move around you in each direction by opening your hand in the direction you want him to go. The goal is to get your horse moving around you and keeping a loop in the rope. See if you can get him to stop and face you just by changing the position of your hand all while keeping a light feeling on the rope. Now you can move on to groundwork that requires you to develop a little more skill.
Get your horse to move around you in each direction and stop parallel to you. This will test softness & how well they are tuned in to you. You can’t really pull to get them to stop parallel to you so it really requires a soft feeling in the rope and a good rapport between the two of you.
When you change directions, Watch to see if his hind leg crosses underneath his belly and in front of his other hind leg. You may also notice when he steps over in the front, his front leg should cross over the front of his other leg as well. A horse can only do this if he lets his body loose.
You can work on touching him with a flag as he moves around, toss the end of your rope on him as he moves around, and you can work on getting him to follow a soft feel of your rope by having him to follow the feel in the rope over different parts of his body. Hand walk him around scary objects, over tarps, kids on bikes, you name it.
8. Tie Him and Brush Him-
If you’ve done steps 1 – 7 well, tying him won’t be a big deal at all. Just tie him on and give him a good brushing. He should love it. It’s just another way to build trust. Notice if he is pushing all over you or making ugly faces when you brush him. If those things happen, There are some things missing in 1 – 7 and you’ll need to work on getting more respect from your horse. I know cross ties are a normal thing in a lot of barns, but I wouldn’t consider cross tying a horse until they are clearly comfortable and quiet with a single tie.
9. Work Your Young Horse From the Fence-
This is a great thing to do. You can get to rubbing on them and moving them around from above. You can get a lot done quickly this way. See if you can get your horse to step up parallel to the pen or fence you are sitting on. See if you can get them to stay parallel to you and step up until they are standing in the same place they would be for you to get on. Make sure you can do that on each side. Just because you get it on one side doesn’t mean you will automatically get it on the other!
Another great thing to do is if you have another very trustworthy horse to ride, just have your young horse lose in the ring with you as you ride. Horses DO learn by observation so it will be a good absorbing experience to see one of their horse friends being ridden around them. If you are able, you can ride up to your young horse and reach out and touch them while you are horseback. It is very helpful to do this if you are able. Please do not try this if you are unsure of your skills or unsure of the horse you are on.
10. Put a Children’s Saddle On-
Even If you have never started a young horse before, this is a fun little thing you can do if you have done a good job with all the basics outlined above.
Put a children’s size saddle on your young horse and let him carry that around for an hour. Leave him in the round pen or fenced arena with it on with a couple of horse friends. They will move each other around and work it out amongst themselves. You can grab some lunch (while monitoring the situation) or work your other horse (keeping an eye on them of course). People have the impression they have to put a saddle on and chase them around the round pen or make them “buck it out”. That is ridiculous. Your Young Horse can have a pleasant time carrying the saddle around without all the hoopla. They can get used to the feel of the saddle and they will get the feeling it is just another part of life.
Note*** In the video I saddle my youngster near the fence. This is not good practice for saddling your horse the first few times. I did this for the ease of filming, but ideally, you should give yourself a bit more room in case your young horse does jump or get spooked. The last thing you want is them jumping or spooking on top of you because they didn’t have enough room to move.
Keep me posted on your progress with your young horse! Please Share you successes and struggles in the comments- I read every one!
If you have a young horse, it is often easy to say, “ah, he’s just a baby, I’ll mess with him tomorrow”.
I admit, it is sometimes tough to come up with ideas on what to do with a young horse, and I have unfortunately seen too many incidences where a spoiled horse is born because the owner, with all good intentions, does the wrong sorts of things.
A perfect example is a woman I know who had been around horses her whole life, bought her first baby. It was the only way she could afford to own a super fancy dressage horse. She wanted to work with her baby a lot because she thought it would be easier for her when she got older. She didn’t really know what to do with her, so she decided to start teaching her tricks.
One of the tricks she was most proud of was she got her youngster to jump up and put her front legs on her shoulders for a treat. Now, a yearling is small enough, it may be cute (not in my book but in hers it was). Fast forward 2 years and she was very afraid of this horse. She (the horse) had absolutely no boundaries, would push all over her and interpreted the jumping up as play. Clearly, it was not cute as a large 3 year old warmblood.
I too have been guilty of over-handling my babies (incorrectly) in the past. In the effort to make them tame I would scratch all over them and they would lean into me and I would laugh because it was just so cute…… but fast forward 2 years and I had a pushy colt running up to me and rubbing his face on me so hard it would knock me off my step. Then I found myself constantly shooing off a horse that I had originally told I was a glorified scratching post.
The nice thing about working with foals and young horses is they learn and adapt very quickly. What might take you a week to get a mature horse comfortable with can take you 10 minutes – 1 hour with a foal or young horse.
So what can you do? What are some good things to do with young horses that can’t be ridden yet?
1. Yes, you can give your horse scratches- just make sure if they start leaning into you or being obnoxious, you stop.
2. put a halter on- I catch my young horses with a rope the first time I handle them if they are skiddish. I just make a big loop and they will run into it if they are in a stall with the mare. I then rub all over them so they realize I am not bad (a good scratching helps). I then take a piece of my rope and make loops and put them over their nose and over their ears so they get used to the sensation. After doing that a little bit I will reach over their head and under their chin so they get used to that movement. Once they are good about all of that I put the halter on and off of them a few times while I still have the rope on them. Once I can take the halter on and off of them a few times I leave the halter on and take the rope off and start working on step 3. (NOTE:* If your horse is especially sensitive, this process will take more preparation of each step and you may want to make sure that you keep some movement in both hands as you put the halter on to avoid surprising them).
3. Teach him to yield his head to each side- I stand at their shoulder and with as light of pressure I can, I wait until they yield their head and I immediately give. They may try to lean on it initially or try and move their head away but just try and stay with them until you feel a give. If they try to move, again, just stay with them. They are just trying to work out what you are asking. You can keep you other hand rested on their wither to keep yourself from getting stepped on. Whatever, you do, DON’T PULL! Only use light pressure. They may only give a little bit at first, and that is OK! You give for every bit they give. Pressure, give, try again. Pressure, give, try again.
4. teach him to move his hindquarters & walk forward- Once they yield their head to you on each side, you now can work on getting him to move his feet. if you get him to yield his head first, take your hand or your thumb and put pressure where you would if you were in the saddle with your leg. At first he may try to push into it. Just keep the pressure there and move it around if you need to to make it a little uncomfortable for him to lean on it. As soon as he gets the idea to step away from you, give! Then give him a good scratch. As a side note, do NOT hold his head to the side when you do this. Just get the give of his head to get him paying attention to you. Do that on each side. Once you can get him readily stepping his hindquarters over, see if you can step them over then start walking in a forward direction. This is the best way to give the horse the idea to follow you without pulling.
5. pick up his tail- This is a trust spot test. See if you can get your horse to let you touch the underbelly of his tail and lift up on it. Scratch around base of his tail and see if you can get him to lift it for you. This will take you a long way in the trust factor. Do the same thing with his ears, under the belly, etc.
6. Rub a rope on his legs, pick up his legs- This gets your horse used to things tickling his legs and you working around them. You can also take the opportunity to teach your horse to give and follow the pressure of the rope on his legs. This is a handy skill as it teaches the horse not to panic if somethings gets around his legs. This is a skill you will really appreciate if your horse gets tangled up in something. It is the difference between your horse giving to the pressure and standing and waiting for you to rescue him or thrashing about until he severely injures himself.
The exercises here will give you a great start and will get you better prepared for the young horse exercises I will share with you next week!
CH002: Buster McLaury on Reading the Horse & Trailer Loading
Apr 22, 2014
In celebration of our very own Buster McLaury being chosen as the 2014 Horseman’s Reunion most admired Horseman, I want to share with you a podcast of a story he shared with a group on a rainy day. The funny thing is, half of the group wasn’t even listening.
Why listen? It wasn’t pertaining to them right? They don’t have that problem so it wasn’t important.
One of my very closest friends used to tell me, “If my Dad tells you the same story multiple times, don’t tell him, ‘I know, you’ve told me that before’. Be quiet and listen. There is a reason he is telling you the same story again”.
You might think this story doesn’t pertain to you, but it does.
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