Barbara Melville wrote a great post on the benefits of backing and hip-shoulder-shoulder
Feb. 23, 2006
Lisa, you've gotten a wealth of excellent suggestions to help explain
Slush's recent sudden buck, and now more good stuff is pouring in on
how to build the muscle that may help avoid the future buck....;) I'd
just like to second/third Dolores's suggestion:
> >>The very best way to build her up is Alex's WWYLM and 3-flip-3 and
loads of lateral work.<<
Absolutely, dead-on, for-sure right.
I've also found a couple of other really helpful things to build a
horse's muscle, top line, and suppleness, and as Dolores mentioned in
her post, they have been extremely beneficial for my mare Brittany.
First off, the easiest of all is to simply incorporate a little
backing-up into your groundwork and warmups—every session, if possible.
Just a few steps at first--is Slush good at backing up, by the
way?--then work up the repetitions over the course of a couple of weeks
to maybe 8 or 10 steps of back up. You want to be careful not to overdo
it--just ask for two-10 steps, maybe two to three times a session, and
vary the number of steps you ask for. If you do it daily, or every
session anyway, the cumulative effect is astonishing. The horse gets
better and better at backing up, less likely to get "stuck," more
agile, and better connected to her own hind end. Neat!
Another exercise whose effects I've found simply dazzling is
hip-shoulder-shoulder. Years ago, before I had Brit, I leased a nice old QH with hock issues. He was ridden western and primarily on trail-rides, but he'd
had quite the rodeo career as a youngster (hence the stiff and creaky
hocks).
My teacher at the time was into John Lyons work and was also a student
of Alex's, so she taught me to ask Roy for gives to the bit, and then
to practice hip-shoulder-shoulder, which we rode over and over again,a
gazillion times. Hip-shoulder-shoulder is just a hip-flip, followed by
asking the horse to back up by means of asking for a give on one rein
and then a give on the other. What happens is that the horse bends and
steps under himself for the hip-flip and then straightens his body with
the steps of back up. Then you walk forward a few steps and ask for the
hip-flip on the other side. Repeat ad infinitum....;)
Well.
This one exercise worked wonders for Roy. I didn't realize how much it
was helping him until one day his owner came to me and said" I don't
know what you're doing with him, but keep doing it! He's suddenly able
to do his flying lead changes without effort--and he's doing them one
after another, all the way across the diagonal! " (Well, that meant
only two or three changes. It was a small arena....;) Still, it was
wonderful, for a 17-year-old gelding with a bad hind end....;)
Sadly, a month or so after I bought Brittany and reluctantly ended my
warm relationship with Roy, his owner was complaining that Roy was no
longer able to whip out those nifty flying lead changes; the owner,
unfortunately, had no wish to continue the exercise that had made the
lead changes--and a whole lot more physical comfort--possible.
What I like about these two exercises is that they are so darn easy!
Once the horses understand the exercises, they are happy to repeat them
a lot, and they get better and better at doing them; they can also be
calming for nervous horses.
Hope this helps! And best of luck to you and Slush, from
barbara & brittany, queen of the slo-mo backup in hand
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And a follow-up from Julie Varley
Feb. 23, 2006
Barb wrote:
"Another exercise whose effects I've found simply dazzling is
hip-shoulder-shoulder."
I agree Barb! I loved your description of how much it helped Roy! I first worked on HSS as a ground exercise. I liked it and it helped in the prep for lateral work and the one rein stop. But I didn't really understand until recently how helpful it is with things like a smooth, soft halt and collected stops. Alex had me work on it under saddle during a lesson last summer. As she describes in the book, at first you get a dramatic swing of the hip that leads to a change of direction. But with more practice the horse learns to step back in a straight line. At first I had the hardest time picturing how this dramatic swing of the hip could become a subtle give of the hip that it could be done in a straight line, but it really did happen! I often use it as a warm up exercise by asking for 3 gives of the jaw and then I shift my thought to the hip and I get a smooth halt into a rein back, which is a very cool feel and helps Allie round and lift her back. I used to struggle with halts, but HSS gave us the missing pieces we needed.
Julie V.
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From Lisa,
Feb. 23, 2006
Thanks to all who have helped and affirmed my big buck experience!
Barb and Brit, I will indeed do more backing. Slush is very good at
backing, but I only do a little of it each session. Your concrete
suggestions of how much to do and how often are so helpful. Sometimes
I tend to do or expect too much. I've not tried the hip flip, but will
do so.
Also WWYLM has been mentioned so often for so many things. I am so
looking forward to Alex coming to MN in May as even though I do this
with Slush, I'm just not sure I am doing it correctly or well. I need
someone who knows this exercise to be my eyes on the ground. It
worries me to keep doing it, without knowing if I am doing it
correctly, or getting the desired results. I am so unsure!
Thanks again,
Lisa
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Barbara Melville followed this with a perfect response:
Feb. 24, 2006
--LOL! Been there, understand completely, and thank my lucky starsdaily that I have such experienced CT friends around to help me and
Brit when we're stuck.
But you know, being "unsure" can be good.... It can encourage you totake things slowly. As you do that, sometimes the answers emerge all
by themselves, growing out of the way you and Slush are working
together. One of my favorite epigrams, supposedly from the Chinese,
goes something like this: "Be not afraid of going slow. Be afraid only
of standing still."
Best to you and Slush,
barbara & brittany
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More on riding your horse into soundness
"I have a question for all of you experienced clicker trainers. My
horse has a stiff, shuffling trot. I once filmed him,
and there is no suspension phase whatsoever :-(. Part of it is that
he has arthritis in his hocks and would rather shuffle his hind feet
than pick them up..."
Julie Varley wrote on Feb 5, 2006
I'm wondering if you've had a chance to explore any of the give to the bit
and single rein riding work that Alex teaches? I wanted to reply to your post
because I can relate to where you are right now with your horse. Before I
started to explore single rein riding, my mare Allie had sore arthritic hocks
and a trot that was not that easy to ride. I started to work with Alex when
Allie was 16. She is 21 now, and when people see her they think she is much
younger.
By doing the exercises that Alex describes in the riding book, Allie has
learned to use her body in a much better way. She has learned to soften her jaw
and neck and lift through her back. Learning to use her back differently
created a much rounder, softer trot that truly feels like heaven to ride. At
one of the first clicker training clinics I went to, I heard Ann Edie (Magnat
and Panda's owner) describe what it felt like to ride a horse that Alex had
trained. She described it with such joy and excitement that I had to find out
for myself. It turns out that so many of the horses of *all different*
breeds that have spent time working on these exercises have very similar results.
It might sound like a lot of work to start at the very beginning and work
through a whole book full of exercises, and it is. My experience, though, is
that the horses feel so different, so soft and light that the feel becomes
addicting and it is fun and reinforcing to the rider to keep going.
I hope this helps a little.........
Julie Varley
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Katie Bartlett wrote:
Feb 12, 2006
Hi Linda,
I certainly understand about your desire to understand the why’s of how Alex uses the clicker and her training progression to develop upper level performance horses. It took me a long time to really understand how all the pieces fit together and integrate it into what I had been previously taught about dressage.
I have been fortunate to study with her for 5 years and we have had many discussions on how her work relates to both competitive and classical dressage. In addition to being able to attend her clinics, I have also been without a regular instructor which meant I had the time to just focus on her work. I think what kept me playing with it, while I was sorting things out, is that my older horse had serious physical issues. With traditional training, he was very unsound. The more I rode him, the worse he got.
When I started using Alex’s work, I could see changes in him that I liked and I could feel that he was becoming more comfortable and sound in both his mind and body. This is what kept me going until I could start to understand how Alex’s approach to dressage was connected to what I wanted to do, which is upper level dressage. I am not talking about competitive or classical here. I just want to be able to ride the movements in balance and harmony with my horse.
I will have to go back and reread the book. My guess is that while the book provides detailed instructions and pictures, there is no substitute for seeing her clicker stars in action. I hope she will make a movie to show how beautiful these horses are. That would truly inspire people to follow this work.
I hope you find your answers, don’t forget to enjoy the journey along the way,
Katie Bartlett
www.equineclickertraining.com
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From: Marjorie Smith
Date: Thu Feb 23, 2006
Subject: Free lungeing vs. side reins
The question was:
"Would you suggest I longe her in full tack, or 'naked'. or, both?
What do you think about running draw reins? My instructor would
like me to use them, they have much more play and give than strictly
side reins. I'm hesitant, prefer to develop the form free shaping.
However, perhaps using them intermittantly? or is that just too
confusing? Lisa"
Way back when I first heard of clicker training, I did a fair amount of free
lunging and clicked for the occasional improvement in posture. I ended up with some really pretty movement that way. You just need to be patient, the first day you might get the head coming down out of the sky two inches, but if you stick with it a couple of weeks you'll have way better than what all the equipment would give you, and without the resistant tension in the body.
Marjorie Smith