Honza Blaha - Jan 2009 clinic report

[Elaine]

Saturday 9.45am. Ice on parts of the road. Bloody freezing. 2 day clinics, most of the horses new this morning.
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Horses:


Dapple grey andalucian & andrew. Has done NH for 8 years, with Ken F & ANH. Horse had very bad injury last year, vets said shoot him. Wants to lenghthen strides. he started riding early 40s. Horse in past life used to be beaten when he spooked so now when horse stops and if rider tenses, horse freaks out and goes up. Was cut late, doesn't like geldings.



Big grey - Saltie and Cheryl. 9yo lipizanner, borrow for clinic. half way through L3. goal - collection without reins.



Chestnut 1/4 horse & steve. PNH. loves liberty. 8yo. heading toward L3.

bay - do whatever.



Dapple grey 60 lusitano. bought last Oct. build up relationship & trust. 1st clinic and 1st outing for this horse. Ridden once in a headcollar.




coloured horse - doing S bend.



little black horse

[Elaine]

First up by a talk by Honza - very funny, very witty, comes out with a few gems every so often.

Relationships - everyone needs them, horses and humans. In family relationships, there is a lot of trust. Honza would see himself as a father figure to his horses. Job of the parents is to teach child basic behaviour, manners (don't kick, don't walk over people etc) then kid (like horse) goes to school to learn more stuff (performance stuff, dressage, western, whatever).

Riding a horse is like doing a complicated dance routine with a partner while ice skating. Its all about balance and when you get it right its incredible.

'Horses are my beer' (he tends to come out with funny sayings every now and again to check we hadn't all frozen over). As he said himself - i like you pinch you now and again to make sure you're listening! Also he called the word 'hit' 'spank' which was quite funny too every now and again.

He then described a typical story of 'horse-man-sh*t' at clinics. Basically this is where you get the whole history of the horse.

eg. 'my horse was terrible, now he's much be better, gosh I am a good trainer!'

His point was its not important where the horse was. He is only interested in exactly where the horse is now.

The horse lives in the NOW.

What is your final picture?

1. respect
2. impulsion
3. flexion

And EVERYTHING to be in BALANCE. Up & down and backwards and forewards.

(very very cold......................)

His goal for his students is to get them to be able to so all the high level dressage manouvres bridleless. So he teaches from this standpoint, eve always on the goal and the bigger picture. He does a lot of shows displaying this with his horse Gaston. Once thing which really struck he when he talked about his horse, is how much HORSE there is in Gaston, and how he REALLY really wants to keep the life and charactor and energy in all his horses. The last thing he wants is to train a horse into a robot.

At this stage basically half of the group wanted ot do ridden stuff, and half wanted to do liberty (horse loose and you on the ground) stuff. So what might people know already about doing liberty?

1. A la Monty. Chase the horse away.
2. A la Parelli - on line first, then liberty, and if it doesnt work, revert back to monty's method and chase the horse.
3. Do fun stuff

Honza started to talk about you can teach liberty:

a) repetiiton
b) relationship - of horse doesnt want to be with you, push him away till he changes attitude.
c) little bit of everything. First up don't believe any of the prey predator stuff. Instead horses act based on their environment. If you run to a horse and he pisses off, its not cos he's a prey animal. Its cos you didi a stupid approach!

The approach is the difference.

One thing to note in professional yards, they don't have many issues catching horses. Horse just stands in the field, they see you, they don't belt off. However if you come sfrom a NH background and chase horse away either 1) cos he's disrespectful or b) a la join up to catch him, sometimes there' s a good likelyhood he'll see you and do as you trained him - piss off at speed. You see this with some horses at liberty, when the piss off, unlike 'unschooled' horses, they REALLY piss off.

Do not teach the horse to run away from you.

You do not need to push the horse away to catch him.

(the opposite)



The biggest mistake of horsemanship is chasing your horse away. Do not push your horse away as you are teaching him to run away from you.

So what do you do instead if not chasing?

1) Horse needs to stop running and stand still STOP
2) Instead of your horse running away when he feels pressure, instead he should stay where he is near you and communicate a different way that he feels pressure. LOOK
3) Human walks over to the horse WAIT
4) Horse folows human FOLLOW

DO NOT TEACH YOUR HORSE TO RUN AWAY.

Very important - how much presure you put on your horse.

[Elaine]

EXERCISES

People who have been here a few days: horse to follow you at liberty with his head down

New people: How to put pressure on your horse and the amounts.

Talked about phases 1 to 4. Do you do them slow or fast?Depends on the horse. Slow gives horse the chance to understand. Only do fast if the hrose UNDERSTANDS what you want already.

PLAY - who will be faster? person or horse?

BACKUP

1. teach the game (use time, do things slowly)
2. play the game (ask, and do quickly)



While you play the game you want the horse REALLY interested and having fun.

Start at a speed you know your horse can handle. A bit like tetrus computer game. When you get to the level you know your horse can handle, then you can do harder stuff. Also like belts in karate.

People love levels, eg parelli. Honza doesn't like levels, he likes feeling instead. What level am I? Honzas reply: Ask your horse.

[Elaine]

Dapple grey andalucian & andrew: use less tension, its getting in the way. Seperate feeling and effectivity. Touch horse with feeling so you're effective but dont panic them. Its a thing which is hard to explain, and its why the phases 1-4 where described as such to try to explain it to people.

If horse doesn't do as he's asked, don't kill him. Give him a ticket (like a speeding ticket). A while back Honza did 95 mph in a 50 limit, was pulled over by the guards and lost his license for 6 months, so he definitely knows about tickets


Bay: looking left and right and not going straight. Backup using a cue and then your stick on horses chest. Do not do yoyo game (shaking the rope to make horse backup). When you do yoyo game, what happens is your hroses head will go up (horseman-you-know-what!). We don't want that. If you use stick to tap chest instead of waggling rope, head stays down which is what we want.

[Elaine]

BACKUP EXERCISE PART 2:

Sometimes say 'simon says backup' and your hrose should backup. Use stick to tap chest with intent.

Sometimes say 'backup' come into horse and rub chest with stick, but have no intent to backup your horse and your horse should remain standing still.

When you teach a student, you want your student to win.

Ok so in this game of 'backup' a la 'simon says'

• If you say 'simon says backup' and your horse backs ups without having to touch him with stick = horse 1 point.
  
  
• If you say 'simon says backup' and your horse backs ups after you touch him with stick = human 1 point.
  
  
• If you say 'backup' and your horse doesn't backs up = horse 1 point.
  
  
• If you say 'backup' and your horse backs ups = human 1 point.
  
  
  

(its like the game of simon says - you're only supposed to do stuff when SIMON SAYS, and not the other times)

The point is to keep score, and only finish when the horse has a higher score than you do (very interesting to actually see this in motion) The result is the horse REALLY has a good idea at the end what the whole thing is about.

LIBERTY:

If you want to do a piaffe at liberty your horse must be straight. During liberty dont ask horse to turn wiht you. Draw him with you instead.

Nice work andalucian Andy!

Coloured horse: tends to move away from people. He turned his butt on Honza and then walked away. If he just walked away you coudl say he's scared. But this butt turning right on Honza would mean disrespetful.



For the previous 3 days Honza had been friendly patting this horse but hadn't done any actual training, and this horse was still as grumpy with him as he had been on day one.

Honza took over. Got horses attention subtely. Horse's nose now on honza. It is the horses responsibility to look at the human.

For the 1st time, the horse's nose touch Honza, and the horse admitted that Honza existed.

Firts up - respect. Honza gives horse back (about 2 mins later) and as he walks away horse keeps looking after him. Honza wants till horse forgets about him, THEN he goes back over to the horse to 'reconnent'.

Honza isn't interested in how long you can stay 'connected' with your horse. He is interested in how you 'reconnect' after the connect has been lost.

BAY doing simon says backup and counting, going well.

andalucian man happy, horse beter backup score in simon says.

dapple andalucian woman less tension if possible in backup. neck to be lower please.

lovely BIG saltie grey/white nice backup & nice simon says
(playing with intent)

Ears fowards or backwards? Depends on where the horse is in this scale. Ears forward often mean the horse is a bit worried about something ahead. If horse not worried they wont prick ears forward. (aye Ozzie will stand with ears normal to slightly back as I star jump in front of him to get him to pose for the camera. Makes sense)



Ears forward = can mean horse is slightly on edge. So ears forward does not always mean 'good'.

- in this picture though, you can be ANYWHERE in the middle beige area. For shows and stuff Honza wants Gaston to be on the edge between the 'middle' and the 'dominant' quadrants to really had a high energy show. During a show he actually builds up from one side of the middle area to the other as he needs Gaston to be nearly TOO confident and then he does his advanced moves, then after those, Gaston goes back to less confidence and Honza builds him up again.

But with his stallion who is a handful, he keeps him on the edge between the 'middle' and the 'inconfident/scared' area, cos of safety.

So basically that middle area is quite big and you can play around in it.

(now completely frozen, lunchtime THANK GOD.)

[Elaine]

Forgot to write, at the start of the clinics Honza was talking basically. Basically he didnt mind what equipment you or your horse used, in fact if you wanted to ride around in your underwear, that's grand but make sure you're good looking.





FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN THE WEATHER:

SAT FORECAST 1 to 4 degress
SUN FORECAST horrible rain all day

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Sat 2.00 pm liberty group.
Sat 3.30 pm riding group.

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Sat 2.00 pm liberty group: chestnut quarter horse, coloured, bay, black, inge & her grey advanced horse.

First up - NATURAL SHEEP MAN SHIP!!! They must have clicker trained this sheep. Got him to jump over a crosspole He stood outside the arena for most of the clinic, wanting to come in and join the fun. He'd come to you on cue as well.









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Liberty DOES NOT EQUAL comfort and discomfort.
Liberty DOES NOT EQUAL chasing your horse.
Liberty IS controlling the hindquarters.

If gaston goes away, Honza says 'Gaston!' Gastin does a hindquarter yield and faces Honza.

Common mistake: Ask horse to move HQ but instead he does a bit of FQ of a general shuffle type thing. You want a HINDQUARTER YIELD.

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News update:
beagles have just been spotted up the hill. Reminded me once again it was JANUARY and FREEZING!


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If your horse runs away, don't chase him.
Go to where he is.
Ask for a hindquarter yield.

ok .. what about when your horse is stuck in a corner?

1. Dont spank/scare him to get him out & running off again somewhere else.
2. Instead, leave him in corner, ask him for a HQ yield, then draw him out.

OK - everyone to start this now in the middle of the arena. When good there , do it in another part of the arena. Liberty is about being in control of the horse in ALL parts of the arena.



GROUP: 1st with halter & rope, stand at a distance and do HQ yields. Then take halter off. See how far away you can get from your horse and still get him to do a HQ yield.

LIBERTY: You want the horse to fight to be with you. You create unbalance at home in order to have perfect balance at a show.

Its not about the horse always being beside you.







Inge rewarding her horse



At one stage Inge's horse took off. Inge walked over to him. Asked him to turn his HQ so he was facing her again. Then she drew him to her and he folowed her happily. Job done. Make coming back to you VERY EASY.

Be very particular about what you say.

(sheep baaing outside, wants to come back in)

VICKI & BLACK HORSE

V good at distance (see above pictures). Horse relaxed, move HQ around at a halt, bend in neck following Vicki around as she walked in BIG circles around arena.

[If you think your horse is listening to something else, check your hindquarter yield]

Again, when your horse is at liberty and he walks away, DO NOT spank him/chase him away further!

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STORY - USING FOOD TO TRAIN

Right at this stage the owner of the chestnut quarter horse was feeding the horse treats. He asked Honza a question about using this kind of reward. Honza told his story:

A friend of Honzas used use food to train as well. All worked really well, unless horse had access to tastier food, then he'd ignore the guy and walk over to the tastier food. Honza said that his horse Gaston (not trained using food) would choose him (Honza) over ANY type of food. The friend didn't believe him!

So asked H to put gaston in paddock/field with BIG bucket of oats / very tasty mix.

'Will i call him over now' said Honza.
'No' said friend, 'lt him eat a good big out of the bucket first so he deifnitely knows whats in there'
'Grand' said Honza and Gaston (horse) tucked happily into the food in he bucket.
Eventually when the friend was totally happy Gaston was well stuck into the food he said 'ok, call him over now'!

At this stage Honza was sitting on the fance at the far side of the arena.

'Gaston!' Up Gastons head went and straight away he broke into a gallop right over to Honza.

Honza theory was he didnt use food yet as he hadn't found a situation where he needed it yet. There is a lot to be said for getting to the INNER horse.



This liberty work is very accurate but relaxed and low key. Nice quiet method. There was no mad messy running about.

Teach your horse when he is near.
Control your horse when far away.

This exercise is very easy for young or UNCHASED horses. (do not chase your horse!!!)

Very good black horse & vicki.

1. horse stand still.
2. vicki rubs horse, then walks away leaving from HQ area of the horse and walks on away from horse.
3. Stand at distance behind HQ. Look away to the distance.
4. Then turn to face horse and ask for hind quarter yield. (not HQ yield and draw, JUST HQ yield)

Next step: do this is other parts of the arena.

GOAL: horse to be confident to stand still at liberty anywhere in arena.

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When doing shows with Gaston, Honza used to bring in young horse into the arena first. Got horse to stand still, he walked aroudn got horse to do a few HQ yields at a distance, then took horse out again. Very good foundation for a show horse. Its MUCH harder to piaffe at home then bring a horse to a strange environment with so many new things and hope it all goes right.

chestnut quarter horse: during liberty horse took off.

1. stop or block the horse so he's standing still.
2. Move HQ.

Before when horse pissed off and came back he got a treat. Honza: you want to do some work with your horse, he pisses off, then he comes back and you give him a treat?! Why? You didn't get the work done!

So no more treats. This time, horse came back, no treat and for the 1st time saw horse lick & chew.
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Reward your horse - Inge went back to horse after HQ at distance and sat down beside him. Very good.





If your horse hides behind another horse, back him away from that other horse.

Reconnection is more important than connection. THAT is what you need to practise. Eg. leave arena, want till horses forgets about you, then walk back in.

chestnut horse - better!

easier to reconnect
horse didnt panic
relaxed, head down.



Purpose of this exercise: How QUICK can you reconnect?
Chasing not required

coloured horse person walked over to the horse. AFTER this, horse did not want to leave the human

This 'disconnect and reconnect' is what Honza calls his 'daily breath'. He's done with for a year with his young horse.

[Elaine]

3.30pm SATURDAY RIDING GROUP (gym class.. they didn't actually end up riding)

Saltie big white horse & girl
Andalucian man & dapple (andrew)
Other dapple (gill)
Smaller white & inge (advanced)

A horse in the paddock outside was galloping about. Andalucian & andy were circling. Honza said 'stop circling now, you need ot have your horse focused in on you at a halt'

Also noted: When there's high energy about, why does everyone automatially start lunging their horses? (good question!)

Everyone on the ground 1st.

Do FQ yield, HQ yield & backup. Do simon says and simon doesn't say (like morning lesson).

DO NOT bump rope or yoyo rope to stop the horse cos it makes him throw his head up.

NEW EXERCISE

lateral flexion can destroy a horse balance. twise head, drop shoudler, not good if youre thinking of the classical schools, but its good if your horse is bucking or running away. (everythings good for something!)

So only do a LITTLE lateral flexion. Instead do vertical then lateral flexion. Then you dont get the twist in the neck. And you don't get an unbalanced horse. You want horse to be straighter.

If neck goes up you've done something wrong.

(soooooooooooooooooo cold, sun has disappeared)

head - lateral flexion
front feet - FQ yield
hind feet - HQ yiekd

For the FQ yield, you can have the horse facing your and then ask him to step into lateral and vertical flexion by moving his shoulders. (If the mountain will not go to mohammad, mohammad must go to the mountain)

i.e. you can get flexion by either moving head of horse and Ieeping rest of his body still, or you can move rest of the horse and keep the head part still.



Lining up here to move horses shoulder over (also calls this the 'S' exercise)

Big white horse saltie - nice circle at liberty bend around human.

Engagement - hind legs step under as far as possible.

ok - Honza deomonstrated sidepass.

'See, he said, at the good engagement!'

'Hahaaa', he said delighted.. 'no thats Horsemansh*t!'

See the back feet dont cover any of the tracks of the front feet. Now watch me lead this horse in walk. See now the hind feet cover HALF the area where the front feet were?! Sometimes you when riding you can destroy more than you create!

So when doing a shoulder in, we NEED to keep that forward movement so we keep the engagement. If you go too sideways you loose the engagement and the hind feet won't come under enough.

(need more socks soooooooooooooooooooooo cold)

Too much sideways destroys forwards. Keep forwards.
Watch horse doesnt twist his nose. Forward. Straight. Down. Longer.

Inge - horse reared during backup. So do more HQ yields and then try the backup again. Quickly more to using no reins once you've got this sorted.

EVERYONEshoulder in.

Honza doesn't do 7 games anymore. Instead he loves shoulder in cos it combines forward, floeexion, circle, sideways, roundness & control.

Andalucian man threw in a big of piaffe beside the fence for good luck.

Shoulder in... right this trad seems to be done a lot when you're stuck beside a fence. Honza likes to do this on the diagonal in the arena and also to mix up this exercise with gong straight.

He asks for shoulder in while you're positioned beside shoulder with hand on reins under the neck, BECAUSE then you can keep this same position for your liberty stuff later on too.

You dont want too much lateral flexion, or too much sideways in this. Want nice straught horse not stiff and not fighting.

You want to create a relationship with your horse.

Be effective, though not rude. And soft

End of Saturday lessons, 5pm, getting dark and everyone frozen solid.

[Elaine]

SUNDAY!!

9.15 am - riding group

Andalucian & Andrew / AA
Big white horse - saltie & girl
Dapple grey & Gill

No ice on the ground!!!

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Honza doesn't like the snap on the lead ropes when used as reins, cos you have different connection to halter on each rein - NOT good for balance! So use reins with same attachedment on both ends, eg clip on reins.

Doesnt like leather popper either, tends to cut his off as sometimes when you life reins up it can hit horse in the face.

He designed some special reins himself - he likes feel of leather but doesn't like when slippy, so designed a nylon core leather outer type rein when you can grip when sticky.

EXERCISE: Straightness (groundwork)

1. Hard to keep horse straight when leading them without fence, cos when he push them sideways they lean over.

So how do you fix it? Don't push, do nothing instead.

OK! so everyone please lead your horse from C to A in a straight line with him being straight! No drunk horses!!!



(should be able to do shoulder in anywhere, not just stuck beside a fence)

Walk straight: hold both reins under the head
Mistakes: are GOOD! learn from them.

2nd time dapple grey girl lead horse down centre line, horse MUCH more straight.

If horse drifts away from you instead of walking straight, stretch your stick in front of his chest and over to the other side, tap other shoulder towards you. If needs be, actually ask horse to do a circle (legs under body not a motorbike circle!) around you.





(what a nice horse saltie is!!! )

STRAIGHT PART 2

Try a straight line in trot.
If horse leans away from you, one tap on other shoulder (put stick in front of chest) and if needed turn horse in a circle around you.

[feet warmer today thank god]

Trot is not about speed, its about a different rhythm. You can go slower in a trot than in a walk.

Trot straight line andalucian andrew - dont have too much lateral flexion please!

Have vertical flexion.

Nice trot Andy Andy!! Straight! A very good basis for stretching

More straightness = better shoulder in on the diagonal (not beside the fence)

From wikipedia: "How to Ride the Shoulder-In
In the shoulder-in, the horse's hind legs track straight forward along the line of travel while the front legs move laterally, with the inside foreleg crossing in front of the outside foreleg and the inside hind hoof tracking into or beyond the hoofprint made by the outside foreleg. The shoulder-in can be ridden at any forward gait, but in dressage competition it is usually ridden only at the trot."



common mistakes:

Dont use too much lateral flexion
Dont have hind legs crossing over (if you do you're going sideways too much, think forward)
Dont put too much pressure on the shoulder

BIG GREY SALTIE - when doing shoulder in, too much bend in neck. Make sure you do the straight line bit of the exercise first.

AA & Gill: NICE! Not too much lateral flexion. Little too much hind legs crossing. Need hind legs to go FORWARDS! Less sideways with hind, more FORWARD.

Dont push sideways too much, Think forward and step over.

Don't do too much too fast as well, that'll ruin a horse.

GILL & dapple: BETTER SHOULDER in this time!! there's more forward in it. well done!

at the end of this exercise where you meet the fence, note front feet beside, fence, hind feet a bit away from fence



EVERYONE STARTS RIDING

At halt, do a little lateral flexion then release ASAP. You want a little lateral flexion IN ORDER to get vertical flexion (similiar to bradds 'soft ribs + lateral flexion = vertical flexion')

Inside your lateral flecxion ask for vertical flexion.

Ask and RELEASE. Dont keep asking.

inside rein = lateral flexion
outside rein = vertical flexion

EXERCISE :: When riding in walk:

1) lateral flexion
2) release reins to the buckle

Andy Andy: dont use rhythmis fairly constant pressure - RELEASE INSTEAD!

Big white saltie - nice ask for flexion then release reins






Andy Andy: Dont skip the basics and go straight to the fancy stuff. Get the basics RIGHT. Fancy stuff will then become easier Get the horse RELAXED doing the basics.

[Elaine]

10.30 SUNDAY MORNING LIBERTY CLASS

A few new horses have appeared as well, so quite a lot of horses in arena now!

4 'new' horses: 2 bay, grey, 3 yo chestnut

4 'old' horses: black & vicki, coloured, chestnut 1/4 horse & inge's advanced grey horse

NEW HORSES:

Chestnut 3yo who's intent on walking over her handler. Fairly revved up, neighing to outside of arena. Owner hasn't done any of this stuff before. Honza first wants owner to teach horse who to stand still by himself. Back horse away from you by tapping chest with stick lightly.



When horse is good and stands still in one spot at a distance from handler, lead him onto another place in arena and repeat the exercise.

Bay horse, done some parelli.

Grey horse

Bay horse.

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Liberty exercise for new horses: Horse to stand still. Owner to walk around horse at a distance. Can do this with halter on or halter off.

Young chestnut 3yo - to get horse to stand at a distance form you, back THE HORSE up, dont you walk backwards!!

Better

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What about using voice signals when you're at a distance from your horse? Fine. Honza has 5 horses in same field so he finds it handy to use his voice to tell them all to do different stuff at the same time (come here gaston, stay there bob, etc)

It can work against you too. When he teaches in Germany, after a horse gets a fright, people make a calming noise. Sometimes then when there is no fright, and people make calming noise, horses get worried cos they associate the noise with something scary. (everything is good for something and not so good for something else)

When you walk away from your horse, walk to his hindquarters and then keep going. Makes it easier to horse to know you don't want him to follow you.

Do a lot of approach and retreat.

Don't BEG your horse to turn his head towards you if he's facing away.

Instead ask for a HINDQUARTER yield - tada! horses head now facing you.



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UPPER LEVELS OF LIBERTY

You need your horse to come towards you THROUGH pressure. You can ask your horse to practise this by askign him to walk towards you WHILE doing the S bend exercise - i.e. moving shoulders right and then left etc.

(Honza did a lot of this s bend exercise)



In this picture (I think!), honza walking backwards, horse walking towards him, but also being asked to move his shoulders to one side.

Look for bend in the ribs and low head. This is good preparation for high level dressage moves.

The horse knows you are the king (!) but he's still confident to come to you.

QUESTION: what if your horse puts his ears back when he comes to you?

ANSWER: Ears forward is not always good, can mean slight anxiousness. and then he explained this diagram again.



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THE SUN IS OUT!! No rain yet

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- horse walks forward to you - builds confidence
- horse walks and moves FQ as well (s bend, shoulder in) = middle ground
- backup - builds respect

If a horse gets TOO confident, do a HQ yield. The back horse just did a spontanious capriole! (no pics sorry!) Its lovely to see great life in these horses and being allowed to show what they're feeling

NICE IMPROVEMENT WITH YOUNGSTER!! Much better than at start of the class, horse now standing still on his own looking more relaxed.

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When Honza was leaving Parelli camp for the last time, he asked Roger *someone* who he admired a lot, if he had any words he coudl take him with him.

Roger said: Never leave without your horse. Never have your horse leave without you.

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OK time for lunch. At this stage I was so cold I went for a jog (A JOG!!) somewhere up the laneways of county birmingham and ended up doing starjumps, canter sideways, flying lead changes at 4, 2 and 1 beat and shoulder in (with arms as well). Hope no one saw me.

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[Elaine]

RIDING GROUP 1.30pm

2 dapples and lovely saltie in the arena



Gill & dapple - dont cross hind legs when doing shoudler in. Think forwards instead of sideways.

Quote from Honza - who is not cheating is not trying hard enough!

Engagement is tough work and required TRUST on the part of the horse.

Honza doesn't like big obvious clumsy cues at any stage, cos it destroys the BALANCE. Get it done nicely right from the beginning (sounds like steve halfpenny!)


Dont be in a hurry to push the hindquarter under. Instead be in a hurry to raise up the front end, in order to ALLOW the hind end to come under.

Its like if you are sitting on the ground, right in front of a chair. (you're back is against the fron of the chair)

(you are the horses front feet, the chair is the horses hind feet)

Keep looking ahead, begin to go from a crouching position to a half standing position (raise up the 'front end' so to speak!) .. so now you're kinda hovering..... you can't hovver for long though as it gets tiring so put your arms back, and pull chair in underneath you.

So you pull chair (horses back feet!) underneath you, you first need to lift yourself (horses front end) up to make room.

ENGAGEMENT

do at a standstill or a walk.
tap under girth
hoild reins under head, horse not to lean at all
front end to lighten up

GOAL: look for roundness

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Black horse: ask him to wait for then, then ask him to explode to you in an canter. Cool!

This mvt starts and finsihed in relaxation. There is great power inside relaxation.

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INGE - riding her grey horses with a stick only. As Honza watched she changed direction using a tiny cue and with totally willingness and softness from horse! BRILLIANT! honza roared over.. QUIT ON THAT!! nice work!

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EXERCISE: walk on loose rein. pick up reins and ask for vertical flexion. Do 8 to 10 m circle then relax again on a loose rein.

Good cheryl and the white saltie horse! ;0 (love that horse)

AA - missing softness and roundness. Shorten reins a bit it'll help.

SAME IN TROT

GILL & dapple - nice trot, nice circle, nice loose rein VERY GOOD!!!

(forewards & lightness = balance)

AA - not rhythmic please, instead use a nice feeling. Horse much softer now.

HOMEWORK - stretch and then collect. Repeat.

Riding - straight, stretch down, vertcal flexion then engage.

[Elaine]

SUNDAY 3pm LIBERTY CLASS

6 horses

Honza talked about how he trained Gaston - basically he wanted to do the parelli levels years back but there was no one in czech republic who coudl teach him.

He said its like watching a 3D film in the cinema. At the beginning you see a huge picture but none of it makes any sense to you. Then after a while, tiny bits of the picture become clear. Imagine he said you've got this picture of what you want im your head. Now compare this mental picture against the pictur eopf what your horse os currently like. If any things match KEEP THEM! if any things dont match, do something else to change them, until the picture of your actual horse starts to match up more closely to the mental picture you have of where you want to get to.

You need focus to make the mental connection from where you are to the final picture. Keep it in your head and keep comparing against it. Keep what works, change what doesn't work.

EVERYONE - EXERCISE

Back away from horse while the horse walks towards you AND move his shoulders to the left and to the right while you do this so the horse is coming to you through pressure.

You want a really confident horse.

When you've done this, sit down and wait for the next exercise.

bbbbbbbbrrrrrrrrrrr soooooooooo cold sun disappeared.............

When you ask horse to circle, dont begin by pullign on the rein, INSTEAD start by moving shoudler away from you (like steve halfpenny again)

Coloured horse - MUCH better bend. Well done

EXERCISE



The idea is you push horse slowly around cone by moving his shouder, then after cone, you draw hinm back to speed to you as you run backwards ahead of him.

Mistakes: Horse just wants to run to eth cone.
Dont pull horse, push to get a FQ yield instead aroudn cone
Dont miss the cone!

On the long straight stretch out, you can do the S bend exercise (move shoulders while horse walks towards you) teaching horse to folow you even under hard circumstances.

Honza demoed this REALLY well with the 3yo chestnut horse who at the start of today was walking on top of everyone.

Going towards cone & moving shoulder:



Going around cone still moving shoulder



Doing the s bends afterwards



To get the horse to follow you, you've got to read and feel the horse. And keep them WITH you.


like this: (going backwards)



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Action then reward

Then you've got a very easy transition to liberty.

You do not want to create a robot. You want to create a feeling

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Very good chestnut 1/4 horse!!





I am currently wearing 1 pair of tights, 3 pair of long socks, 1 pair of jeans, 1 pair of long boots, 1 pair full length chaps covered in mud from Tipp (amazing they got through customs) 2 jumps, 1 thick fleece, 2 coats and I am still cold.

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END.

This was really a fab clinic, I have NEVER written up as much info per day in any other previous clinic. Honza has a website and said he'd teach anywhere if he got 8-12 students per day. You can also go to his place in Czech for a few days to learn stuff too.

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[Soracha]

Super fantastic report Elaine well done! he sounds very talented as well as entertaining.

i am very jealous, I wish I could have gone also.

Does he have any more clinics scheduled for the UK (or better yet, Ireland?)?

Doesn't look cold though, I think you're just looking for sympathy - not getting any from me though I'm too jealous.

[intouch]

Great report Elaine. Can I ask please, what did you personally get from his teaching? ie, how is it different from what you do already, what yould you take on board to change your own methods? I realise it is great to have so many tools to use as you need to with individual horses, but what stands out for you as different?

[Elaine]

I really liked the way he approached the liberty work. I've done very little liberty work with Oz so I'm looking forward to doing that.

As well I really liked how he encouraged the horse to have their own ideas and to really work with the horses energy when your riding.. like that semi circle diagram where he builds from one side of the centre area to the other depending on what he planning to do and how he needs his horse prepared. He really seems to engage the will and exubrence of the horse in what he was doing. Oz has lots of exuberence so for me as a horseperson to really work with Oz and faciliate his energy & life and really engage him totally willingly and with enthuasism in everything we do would really be important to me. It comes back to what kind of relationship with your horse you're looking for. I liked the way right from the start he's mapped out a straightforward path to some very advanced ridden work, so you can see where you could go and what the picture could look like.

The practical riding exercises are always good, more to work add to my to do list. It's always interesting to watch these high level ex-parelli people who went their own way. For some reason I tend to enjoy their approach a lot.

[Elaine]

Unfortunately he's no plans to come to Irl, but I'm on the mailing list for the yard where he was at in Birmingham, so if he comes again hopefully they'll let me know so I'll post it up here.

[intouch]

He does say on his site that he'll go anywhere if there are enough students!

[Elaine]

Ooooh do you think we could rustle up 8 to 12 students and an arena?!

[Soracha]

An arena and 8 people interested - yea defo we could Would we need the arena for 3 days - that's where we might hit a problem.

Elaine that report is really great. Some gems in there.

[intouch]

If you awant to come to Armagh I could make mine available! (outdoor - not Jan!)

[galskap]

I would definitely come!

Great report - thanks Elaine

-A