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Mark Rashid in Adelaide
By Lisel O'Dwyer
Hi everyone
Finally, here is my clinic report! (well, part one of it anyway - it's turning into a book actually. I might call it "A Good Clinic Host Is Not Always a Good Cook").
First, I'd like to say how invaluable it is to have your sessions videotaped - I really appreciate the fact that Mark encourages this. It is especially useful for people like me who forget 90 per cent of what is said within minutes of it being said (just call me "Sieve").
Second, I have decided to just get on and ride and dispense with the 15-20 minute warm up on the ground which I have been doing for the last 6 months or so - I had to do this on veterinary advice that warming up on the ground first would help prevent my horse Pitch's patella from getting hung up and locking his leg (it had a tendency to fixate). I have done this warmup religiously as I did not want to risk the leg locking up while riding. But it was getting to be a drill for both of us - Pitch would act annoyed when I sent him out on the circle and when I asked him to stop, although once he was out there his attitude wasn't too bad. Mark said this could lead to trouble down the track and breed resentment - the horse doesn't understand why I am sending him away all the time and doing alt this pointless (to him) circling. I knew this already thanks to previous discussions on the list about drilling over the last year or two, (and did worry about it) but felt like we were in a Catch 22 situation. What to do?
My choices - get straight on and ride at a walk in straight lines or large circles to warm up and take the risk of the patella fixating - bearing in mind that there has been improvement over time with better muscle tone - or warm up on the ground, reduce the risk of the patella fixating but risk the relationship. Thinking about it, the odds of the patella fixating would seem to be lower than the odds of undermining the relationship. Which is worse? Which is most likely?
I rang my vet to get his opinion on the risk of the patella fixating at this stage - he said to just get on and ride and see how it goes. So far, so good - the patella has "caught" a couple of times but has not hung up - this usually happened on the ground too when first starting a session, so there has been no major difference (touch wood). Another reason I have been so concerned about the (mental) damage that might occur if the leg was to lock up while I am riding was Pitch's reaction one time when I was merely leading him and the leg locked. He acted like he thought I had caused it to happen. And that distressed me (hey, they don't call me "Worry Wart" for nothing).
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I know many horses do grow out of the problem, and Pitch has just turned 5. Certainly there has been improvement over the 12 months I have had him. Getting straight on and riding sure beats the handwalking up and down hills that we had to do for 3 months when I first got him and before I could ride at all! (Pitch's muscle tone did improve doing this and so did mine, in fact I lost 3 kilos!)
OK, let's get to the report.
My plan was to work on maintaining a consistently slow jog, general canter work and lateral work. I am relatively new to Western riding (have a dressage background) and wanted to be able to have my horse jog slowly and calmly as well as trot normally. IOW, I want my horse to be an all-rounder - I don't care if we don't excel in anything in particular, (and I certainly don't care about winning anything in shows) I just want to be able to DO things, and have fun doing it - and have my horse enjoy it too.
Anyway, with the jog, I found that although my horse was quite happy and willing to jog slowly on the ground, and could do the same under saddle, it was not consistent. I kept finding myself pushing him forward all the time, and out of the slow relaxed rhythm I really wanted. I needed to first get the speed I wanted, and then KEEP it. To do this, we needed to work on the transition from walk to jog.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I was feeling quite nervous, just 'cos of the whole situation - here was the moment I had been waiting for, for so long! I still couldn't believe it was really happening! It took us a while to settle down. So at first we didn't really get a jog as such, it was simply a trot. At the time, it felt like quite a fast trot but I was surprised to see on the video afterward that in fact the trot was quite sedate (apart from some headshaking) and would have scored OK as a working trot in a dressage test, albeit a bit lazy maybe. Well, that's what nerves do to ya.
To get a slow jog rather than the working trot, Mark said I needed to reduce the cues I was using even further. I thought to myself "gad! how can I get it any lighter than this!" What I had been doing was shifting my weight slightly forward and up and not using any leg at all. The first couple of times I did this, the transition would be OK, but Mark observed that then I would completely stiffen up in my whole body (good o1' nerves) and that made Pitch go faster. So that was factor number one - relax!
Factor number two was that I needed to tune the cue even more and get it even softer. In other words, I needed to get the cue OFF more quickly, I was keeping it on too long. Then when he did go into the jog, stay "neutral".
Factor number three was to pick the right moment to ask for the jog -use the momentum in the walk, continue the momentum up into the jog, let him carry me up into it. This is where I had a little trouble at first balancing the need to be light with the cue, and actually getting the jog. Often it felt like he was about to go into it but the momentum ebbed away. I need to help him before he loses it - but not apply too strong too strong a cue.
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That was another thing Mark noticed - if I asked for a transition but didn't get it, I tended to reapply it more strongly by adding leg - then I'd get the fast trot. And THEN I was miles too late helping him find the right speed and giving him direction, usually by at least 4-5 strides. After a while I was able to get this fine balance, and the transition and consequent jog were quite good by the second day.
To help bring Pitch back down into the jog from a trot, Mark suggested putting him where I want him by circling, then go straight ahead when he was at the right speed, "let him travel". Unfortunately for me, the words "forward" and "travel" are long associated in my mind with "more impulsion needed" and "speed", so when I heard those words, my body acted like we needed more impulsion (and speed). Well, that's what dressage does to ya! (my excuse anyway).
That meant that any time we went on a straight line and Mark said "now let him travel", we tended to gain speed again, I didn't give him the help he needed when he needed it - it always came too late - and we would have to start all over again! Poor Mark, he has the patience of a saint - I lost patience with myself just while watching the video! Eventually I was able to get it together and give some direction before Pitch built up too much of a "head of steam". That was another thing Mark pointed out - I just never really gave Pitch enough direction. What I THOUGHT I had been doing was avoiding nagging at him and trying to stay out of his way, but again, it is a question of balance and adjusting to the situation.
A couple of other tips - if you get the jog you want while coming down from the trot - just keep going (IOW let him travel in it). This situation would be the opposite of Lynn and Jackpot's - Pitch just didn't know what speed he was meant to be doing, while it seems Jackpot thought there was only one "right" speed and he was sticking to it. Would that be right Lynn? Mark said many times "if he's not going at the right speed, he should not be in a straight line". Hopefully that is now burnished in my brain!
Another helpful tip re the jog is to direct the speed of the walk using seat cues. Go from a slow walk to a fast walk, then slow, then fast etc. and then use the momentum of the fast walk to slide up into the jog. That was a great exercise in both fine tuning, directing and feeling transitions within the gait. Now, within a week of the clinic, we can jog from a slow or fast walk!
Next installment - the wonderful world of turning. Stay tuned! (there are 2 or 3 more installments yet to come).
Lisel
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