Creating healthy biomechanics and stronger partnerships through combining

natural horsemanship principles with the art of dressage...

never underestimate the potential for harmony & lightness to improve in ways you cannot yet imagine

This Month• MN and NH clinic report!

• Questions From Students

• Big news for German D,N

• Next month in the Classroom

Upcoming Clinics: Clinic schedule: CLICK HERE

Oct 28-30* Finding The Sweet Spot* Taught by: D,N Instructor Shelby HumeGeorgetown, KYContact: Janie Elliott: robertelliott1@bellsouth.net

Nov 6-11 6 Days in the Temenos!A continuing groupTemenos Fields, Ocala, FLFULL!Sorry, only guest-spectators

Nov 26-27 Intro to D,NAiken, SCContact: Michelle Donlick: michelle@avalofarm.com

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Welcome back to the Temenos...

Temenos is an ancient Greek word. It refers to a sacred space that has no limits, where special rules apply and extra-ordinary events are free to occur.

“Genius is nothing but a great aptitude for patience.”

~George-Louis de Buffon

Karen Rohlf

October 2011

Q & A etc

Questions about bending and 4-beat

canterHi Karen,

I took a lesson from a local instruc-tor last night.  This is the first time I have ridden with anyone in a few years.  Her comments were that my horse has a mobile neck but a very stiff body (even though she can mobilize very easily laterally with either her HQ or FQ or both).

She suggested a small figure eight with strong inside leg and holding outside aids, targeting a bend in her body.  When she bends through her body then straighten and go the other direction .

She also noticed that my horse has a distinct four beat canter and that she needs to come forward from the leg.  She noticed that when I added a leg cue my horse would just duck her head down.I choose to do Dressage, Naturally because I though I could eliminate the squeezing! Squeezing that seems to permeate the regular horse world.  But here I am...a stiff horse with a four beat canter.

Do you have any suggestions/ comments?

Thank you,Nora

Hi Nora...

Trust your instincts on not wanting to do too much squeezing!

If there is a 4 beat canter issue, I would address that first... trots usually improve after doing decent canter work... So if you improve your canter, chances are you will also find the trot quality improved when you go back to it (during one ride, and over time).

Make sure the canter is motivated and is responsive to energy re-quests. This means NO squeezing (begging, nagging, hoping, pray-ing). It means follow up your communication until you get 100%, then make him really glad he did it! Take a look at the article on my website: “Yes Moments”

Make sure you can sit lightly (even jumping position) so he can move his back. Small jumps can help. Mostly just make sure you really understand how to recognize when it is 4 beats and when it is 3. That actually will be the FIRST or-der of business, otherwise you won't know when to tell him: 'Yes!"

For the bending... 'Bend' simply means 'alignment on the circle'. My Basic Alignment Exercise can really help with that (its in my book/DVD). As well as Yields On and Off the Wall and anything else in my Flexibilty section of my book. If your HQ and FQ yields are work-ing well, then you have some pieces to be ready to find align-ment. Just stay curious to find the place where your horse feels aligned. The also know that flexi-bility takes time to develop... Just like with people, the first yoga class only points out where we are stiff, but over time we increase our flexibility.

Let me know how it is going... and in the future you can also post things like this in the main Forum of the Video Classroom, just cre-ate a topic... I am sure you are not the first one to experience this and other students can help!

Cheers,Karen

SiMoNYou may enjoy this blog entry about.... SiMoN!

The Feeling of EnergyHi Karen, Thank you so much for a great course,it really was inspiring and I got so much out of it.

I bet you were glad to get home and spend some time with your horses.

Following your suggestion, Milly and I did a couple of elementary dressage tests today. She was very relaxed and a very good girl! We got a 54% and 53%, the marks reflected the lack of energy. I have to laugh but she does feel like an old tractor going around the dres-sage ring!!!!

Impulsion and energy have always been our "issue", and some times the thought of truly achieving it feels a bit like searching for the holy grail LOL!

Historically Milly would go into a fit of bronking if I asked for more im-pulsion, fortunately this isn't the case now. But she is a dominant horse and I know she is seeing who can end up working the hard-est and it often is me :-O. I have done all the Parelli impulsion pat-

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terns which I haven't had much success with, she isn't particularly food orientated either. The only time I can really get her to move her feet out is on a hack when she gets her life up. I only get to ride out once or twice a week for an hour or so and I'm wondering if I just need to do a lot more of this and open her feet out.

When riding in a school, I really really try not to nag with my leg- as you pointed out. When she does put in a little more effort its only short lived and I have to ask again etc etc.

I know it's me not being effective, but we've had 8 years together and although her impulsion is bet-ter its still not where I know it could be.

I understand the concept of re-lease on the maximum effort,I al-ways try and do this when having a conversation about her energy. And really the initial energy she offers is good but its the sustaining of it that is the problem.

Any suggestions would be so gratefully received.Many thanksRebecca

(I had recently seen Rebecca and her horse in a clinic)Hi Rebecca,Hmm,I am surprised, because I think she has a lot going for her... but the proof is in the pudding!

Perhaps you ride differently at home than at a clinic, but it seemed to me you tended to be on the 'ask a lot for a long time' side of the scale.... I am not at all say-

ing you ask for too much... Just that we are not always aware of ourselves and there may be room to ask for more effort in shorter sessions.

I recently was coaching a rider and suggested that she gives her horse more time to rest during the session (she also had an energy deficit issue) and she said she did give him 'plenty of rest', but then called me and told me she realized her rests were only about 20 sec-onds!!

Another thing to think about is that some horses simply never feel en-ergetic.... It doesnʼt mean that they arenʼt energetic, it just doesnʼt FEEl like they are! And this causes us to push them more,... Which causes them to try harder to do less. It sometimes takes a leap of faith and a prayer to relax.

My Grand Prix horse was like this... He always felt like he would stop the next stride, but my tests came back saying I was running him... ! At first I was amazed, be-cause he felt like he was in glue.

The more I learned to relax and trust, the more I got out of his way and the easier it was for him to move. But he RARELY ever felt like he had power... Yet he did Grand Prix! Once I learned to trust him he did it with a light leg.

With horses like this you must be VERY conscious of when you ap-ply your leg and the rule is: It NEEDS to be responded to.... but your end of the bargain is to NOT use your leg when they do... We also need to ʻadjust our percep-tionʼ of what the sensations are that we are feeling. With him, I

needed to literally go through a checklist in my head: “He is keep-ing on the rhythm, he is in the movement and I am able to get the next movement, therefor he must be OK! So leave him alone!!” ;-)

I hope that helps some!Cheers,Karen

Hi Karen,

The shorter sessions are paying off! We are getting some really lovely moments. With my new hightened level of awareness about my leg, we are starting to get a bit more collection. The lovely thing is when we get it, it doesn't feel like hard work...LOVELY!Again many thanks

Rebecca

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Rebecca at the Upward Spiral clinic in Somerset, UK

Minnesota Clinic

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This was my 7th year coming to MN, and it was so nice to see the returning stu-dents, and to still meet new ones! This time I did a new clinic called “Focusing on Connection.” This was a two day clinic for people who had the basics of Dressage, Naturally and really wanted to focus on... well... Connection! We did a lot of theory and simulations designed to increase riderʼs skills and awareness of this delicate topic.

Then it was on to 4 days of Upward Spiral with a smaller group so we could do more private lessons.

As usual Sally Taylor organized a wonderful clinic. The weather had me wearing long un-derwear one day and T-shirt the next, but I survived and am looking forward to year 8! (Hint to prospective clinic hosts: The unbe-lievably wonderful massages and pastries will keep me coming back!) ;-)

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New Hampshire“Dream Clinic” co-taught with David Lichman

This was my second time back to Brenda Laddʼs amazing facility in NH. This time I co-taught with 5* Parelli Professional, David Lichman. (David was my first teacher of Natural Horse-manship!) In this clinic we really investigated how foundation and specialization weave to-gether. The clinic was a mixture of discussion, activation, simulation, on-line, freestyle, fi-nesse, dancing and movies!David brought a big element of playfulness to the clinic, which balanced out my very very serious dressage stuff nicely! ;-) And every body got to dance with or without a horse!Thank you Brenda and Jonathan for being such wonder-ful hosts!One of my instructors, Shelby Hume, will be coming to Ladd Farm June 29-Jul 1, 2012 to teach a Finding The Sweet Spot clinic... Let Brenda know if you are interested! (Brendaladd@mac.com)

Thank you , Dana Rasmussen for the beautiful photos, as usual!

Dressage, Naturally POLAND

Dressage, Naturally is alive and well in Poland! I have taught there several times, and will be coming back in June 2012! My book is published in Polish through Galaktyka publishing.

Beata has been my hostess and is the person who undertook the Pol-ish translation. She has been translating other articles of mine into Polish and they can be found here.

Speaking of Translations...

I have good news for German Dressage, Naturally students!

Cadmos publishing will be do-ing a German translation of the Dressage, Naturally book and DVD!

This is very exciting for me and although it will take a while before it is out, I look forward to seeing it! Perhaps more languages are to follow!

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New ʻFinding The Sweet Spotʼ Clinics with Endorsed D,N Clinicians

Shelby Hume*Georgetown KY: Oct. 28-30 2011, March 23-25, 2012

Contact: Janie Elliott: robertelliott1@bellsouth.net*Bridgewater, NH: June 29-July 1, 2012

Contact Brenda Ladd laddfarmllc@me.com

The October clinic is full, but auditors are welcome! The clinic in NH already has some rider spots reserved, so jump in quick if you

are interested!

Breanne Peters*Embro, Ontario, Canada: April 13-15, 2012

Contact: Breanne Peters: breannepeters@hotmail.com519-532-5191

Spectators welcomed and encouraged at all clinics!

Left: Breanne Peters, Center: Me! Right: Shelby Hume

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Coming Soon To the D,N Video Classroom!Dana and I are so excited about how the Classroom is going. I love the conversations in the Forum... There are some great questions, comments and conversations going on! I am in the Forum too and answer questions from members as needed. I also love seeing stu-dents helping each other with their own suggestions/support.

This month in the Classroom I am working on a video of me and Atomic on a day where he was really trying to focus but it was windy and he was very tense. He has a high startle reflex and although there are times when we need to stop and look at things to build con-fidence, there are also times when we have to practice going through it. You will also see how physical imbalance will cause him to be more ʻspookyʼ.

So we will see what I am doing/thinking in order to have a ride that goes like this:

When I am riding a horse that feels like any moment he could do this:

You will follow along as I help a rider gain greater success in sustaining a more healthy, balance relaxed posture on her dramatic Friesian! They had the pieces, we just needed to be able to spend more time enjoying and less time searching for it!

Before:

After:

I will also continue the theme of Connection with the Reins by taking a close look at your horseʼs first thought about the contact!

dnc.dressagenaturally.net

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OK, We all know how adorable and perfect Carlos is (He reminds me every day) The last thing I needed was another dog... and for sure not a cattle dog! But when a ~1yr old Aus-tralian cattle dog arrived at my farm with no home, no micro-chip and no one answering my ʻlost dogʼ flyers it soon became clear that she had picked me and was staying! Carlos seemed pretty happy with the idea, and she is pretty darn sweet so....I suddenly found myself with dog-training issues! I am no newbie to dog training, I know the basics for sure, and Carlos is easy... he knows his rules and he just kind of tends to do the right thing (for the most part... We wonʼt share his darker secrets)! But here was Sydney... full of adventure, wanting to be under my feet, the horses feet... any feet she could find... chasing squirrels, etc... All the things that drive me nuts about having these types of dogs around horses.I also figured out pretty quick that she was a ʻgood oneʼ... Without training I could interrupt her squirrel chases with 1-3 calls of her name... and her worst problem was wanting to be with me as close as she could be.... This is what I would call a ʻlovely problemʼI had just told Dana that I should put the word out to my students and see if there were any dog trainers that could help me, when the same day I received an email from just such a person! Brenda Aloff was inviting me to do a radio interview on a radio station that she regularly appears on.

I looked at her website and she had border collies and terriers... Cer-tainly she could help a chihuahua and cattle dog family! She is a long time horse person, does natural horsemanship and is a student of Dres-sage, Naturally too!She has helped me immensely already, and what I love about her meth-ods (she has books, DVDs) is that she focuses on relaxation, eye con-tact and impulse control... Hmmmm sounds familiar?I was really impressed by the lack of choke collars jerking and yelling: “NO!” that seems to be such a big part of other methods iI have seen.

Through consulting with Brenda we have some concrete strategies that are working...In my last Tai Chi class Sydney sat on her mat 85% of the time and the other 15% she played quietly with Carlos... This is a big change from tripping over her as she went belly up under our feet or doing a little dance to get her to stop chew-ing on our ankles! And all of this with no yelling and no leash!We have a LONG way to go, but I am very happy to have found Brenda. Please check out her website and materi-als if you would like some very well ex-plained methods for your dogs that will

resonate with your natural horsemanship hearts!

Here, also is a funny little video Dana and I did of Sydney doing one of her favorite things....

Getting Connected with my Dogs