The Horsham Introduction to Horsemanship Ground Skills Clinic was held at the Horsham Showgrouds on March 1st - 2nd 2014. It was a fabulous weekend and it was wonderful to meet so many new
people! We had a great turnout for the Demonstration on Friday evening
and whilst everyone was arriving, I warmed up with some contact riding
that included some jumps, counter canter and flying lead changes! After
our introduction and a talk, we did some bridle less riding. Of course
Abbey was a star and whilst I was talking to the crowd (with no bridle
on!) we had a crew of over 20 footballers out training come running
past! Abbey was of course interested in the colorful parade and I took
advantage of the distraction by making out that 'anything could happen
here!!' Of course Abbey stood quietly and the crowd had a few giggles
at my expense.
The next two days we spent looking at our ground skills and
establishing our leadership with our horses which resulted in much
happier, calmer horses. Everyone went home with VERY full minds and
much excitement to see their horses progress as they practise their new
found skills over the next few weeks.
A huge thank you to Adele Marshall, Horshams local Practise Group Organiser, for inviting me to come to Horsham to share some horsemanship knowledge.
Student Ta-Dah's!
Head up and down controls were FANTASTIC!
Starting to understand 'my space' & 'your space'
Standing still, not leaning, rubbing or moving towards me
Dot started to stay out of my space!!
Transitioned from trot to walk with only body life down.
Keeping him out of my space
Body life up, keeping horses focus on you.
There has been lots of excitement and preparations for this year's Quantum Savvy Connection to Collection Tour held at the beautiful Polo property, Mingela which is located just out of Kyneton in Victoria. We kicked off the Connection to Collection Tour with the Introduction to Horsemanship Ground Skills Clinic where everyone made lots of discoveries about what their horses need to make them feel safe and happy and how to teach them to think their way through all sorts of situations that would normally send a horse into flee mode. Good safe habits was another focus of the 2 days which was highlighted with one of the handlers being only 11 years old and one of the horses also being very young and green and we were able to see how these habits helped both horse and handler.
Student Tah-Dah's:
Georgia - got Scotty to jump the Barrel
Stopped Scotty going into my personal space
Lyn - jumped Romeo over a barrel
Learn't about my energy/life
Focus on your direction
Remember where your belly button is facing
I saw Julia keep her horse out of her space when standing still
Release Focused Training Clinic
November 1st - 2nd 2013
Our second event for the Connection to Collection Tour - the Release Focused Training Clinic was a huge hit. Taking a look at our Basic Skills and Purpose Plays with the specific focus of making sure our horses are going Too Comfort! Open hands, leaving them alone when they are going forward and having them go over a jump just from one send kept everyone busy in their ground skills and learning to ride with a loose rein and steer with our body focus created lots of ooooh's and ahhh's as the horses softened, relaxed and stopped chewing on their bits. A great effort from everybody and a huge thankyou to Mingela for providing such a wonderful venue for our events!
Student Tah-Dah's:
Tristia on Gracie for 3 hours - a first!
Steering with by buttocks
Put Roy over a jump, ground skills
Recognising why Deek rushes over jump - my energy levels need to decrease!
Getting my horses to the clinic in my own float on my own, never done this ever.
Getting Dakota over a jump and helping her to be more comfortable and relaxed.
My second visit to the Northern Territory to meet all the wonderful QS students up there and help them continue with their horsemanship journey. We started off with an Introductory Horsemanship Confidence Building Clinic, with new riders, newly started horses and all the rest in between. Everyone put in a huge effort with trot passenger lessons, leap frog canter transitions and lots of steering and stopping...all with 1 rein!
Level 2 Connection Clinic followed and it was back on line for everyone to discover how to communicate with their horses through their lead ropes to develop a stronger connection when going off line.
The final clinic for the tour everyone saddled up for the Level 2 Impulsion Clinic where it was all about riding and developing emotional fitness in all gaits with the secret weapon being sideways and making sure our horses moved off of our legs!
It was a fantastic week of horsemanship with a huge thankyou to Jude Egan for her dedication in organising both the students and myself to make it happen and a huge well done to all those that did all 3 clinics!
Student Ta-Dah's:
Bareback riding for the first time - walk & trot!
Canter - in CONTROL!
Worship the red string
Feel in both reins and legs
Open up
Mounting Henry Bareback
Feeling Sid's weight Shift from HQ to FQ
Sid sticking with me at liberty in round yard
Sid doing flying lead changes
Skip doing great ridden sideways
BB & Bridle less in the round yard with Skip
Quinn float loading from the end of the 22ft rope
Learning about The Pocket!
Being soft with reins
Releasing quickly
Appreciating the importance and power of a good indirect rein
It certainly was a weekend to remember, raining when
everyone was arriving and the sky pulled on 4 fantastic days to finish
it off with a Bang!
We had all sizes for our Level 1 Secondary from ponies to Shires! It
looked fabulous when they were all riding the rail and with true
synchronization all turned around with an indirect rein. What stood out
the most for me was the amount of confidence that grew in both groups
as the four days unfolded. For the Level 1's it was a few tense moments
when stepping out with 1 rein for the first time, to smiles all round
and appreciation for their horses by the end of a passenger lesson.
For
the Level 2's they all started out trying the impulsion programmes at
trot and one by one they started to canter. By the end of the weekend,
with find the center, simple lead changes and a canter passenger lesson,
there was no stopping them from cantering and the inner hoon really
coming out in everyone when trying out point to point.
Thank you to everyone who took part in the weekend and of course to
Deb and Al for all their efforts in organizing the event and sprucing up
their property and driveway after copious amounts of rain in the
previous 3 months.
Here are the Ta-Dah's from the weekend!
Finding lightness in his head not leaning on rope Getting the initial direction to circling Putting the rope forward for group forward not fighting with the rope I trotted my horse! I learnt to saddle my horse! I rode the rail and played games I got Mary going forward Cantered Mary! Cantered for the first time off the lead Had a lot of confidence nearing the end of the lesson Gave me direction for my horse Don't pull horse around Release at right point on the circle Perseverance without getting emotional I can trust the pony Learn't some good lessons in getting my horse to move forward Cantered my horse a lot!
Last weekend, I packed up Diago and made the 3 hr trip to Mildura to
join the Buronga Practise Group with their Competitive Trail Ride.
Having just brought Diago in after a spell, I was a bit dubious as to
how he would go with this as he is a bit of a nervous nelly and going
out to new areas does tend to push his buttons a bit. I arrived on
Sunday and in the afternoon we had the vet check
(thankfully Diago was fit to compete!) and then the opportunity to
check out the trail, followed by a delicious meal that Dr Deb had
prepared for us.
Monday morning, everyone arrived to prepare for their ride, although
there was a bit of nervous anticipation, there were also lots of smiles
and laughter as we all saddled up. The trail consisted of a 2.5 km loop
with a number of check points with tasks to be performed such as
opening a gate, backing through obstacles, jumps and crossing a creek!
All things that you would expect to encounter when going out for a ride
and give us a chance to practise our horsemanship skills. The loop was
to be completed 3 times and on our first trip out, I took Diago into the
lead knowing that he would be feeling very alone - just what he needed
to help build his confidence with me. We took this first loop fairly
steady and Diago did a fantastic job with each of the tasks that we
encountered. Diago's confidence grew on each consecutive loop and we
trotted the whole way on the last lap. We were the first to complete
the course and I enjoyed a welcomed glass of cool water whilst we watch the others come in.
I found this to be a fantastic training exercise for our horses and
we had lots of people of all different levels take part in the day.
People of each level had penalty points to even out the board which made
it a fun, competitive day for everyone.
Diago and I came third in the event, Liz McLean and her horse Eadie
got second and Amanda Bernaldo and her horse Demaris got first - Well
done Amanda! Judy Lamb also scored the encouragement award .
A huge well done to everyone who took part, and from the ear to ear
grins on everybody's faces when they finished, I think everyone won in
their own way.
Thank you Dr Deb, Amanda and the Buronga Practise Group for your
lateral thinking and organising such a fabulous event - and I believe
that there are more of these being planned! Of course we wouldn't have
been able to do this without the stewards who manned each checkpoint -
thank you Glenda & Ashlin, Laura and Dianne, a great effort from you
all!
I was very kindly invited by Vicki Marr (QS Agent for West Vic) and the Warrnambool Whisperers Practise Group to visit Warrnambool for a Release Focused Training Clinic in February 2013. We began the weekend with Abbey and myself doing a demonstration on the Friday Evening where we had many people gathering at the Warrnambool Showgrounds to watch the event.
As luck would have it, as I was making preparations for the demonstration, the clouds started to move in and a light drizzle of rain started to fall. Not to be deterred, I started my warmup with some liberty with Abbey in the lovely sand arena. The rain had cleared a little by the time I started my talk and introduced myself and Abbey to the crowd however it wasn't long before some deep rumblings started in the distance, just as I was ready to hop on Abby....bareback and bridle less!! Of course I had much faith in Abbey, knowing that the thunder wouldn't worry her and made mention to the crowd about our relationship and how I knew Abbey would look after me in any situation. Little did I know that that situation was about to be tested!
I had been riding around bareback and bridle less showing some transitions and rebounds etc when the thunder started to get louder, so I thought I would wrap up the demo as it looked like we were about to get drenched. I decided to finish off by hopping over some jumps, I had just popped over at walk and trot and then started to canter. Just as I landed after the jump there was an almighty CRACK!!! I couldn't have timed it any better and I even jumped at the loudness of the thunder and what did Abbey do? Well of course she stopped because I stopped! The crowd were just amazed at how calm she was and I was so proud of Abbey.
Despite the thundery start, we had beautiful weather for the rest of the weekend which put everyone in great learning mode as we discovered release and began to look for ways of offering a good deal to our horses in everything that we asked of them. We saw lots of open hands, loose reins and everyone having a lot of fun when taking their horses out on a trail walk. We even looked at doing fast flying lead changes with the focus of having our horses take the offer of our direct rein.
Thank you to Vicki Marr and the Warrnambool Whisperers Practise Group for organising this fantastic event and I look forward to visiting the area again.
Here are some of the tah dahs from the weekend:
The better the send, the better everything else (transitions) become
The difference between going to comfort and away from discomfort sometimes is not much, but it makes a HUGE difference
Give my pony the chance to do a circle on a casual rein and she learnt to just stay on the circle
Open hands on a short range circle and only close when you need to re-adjust your pony
Learning to open up with shoulder, hip and hand means I get lovely soft forequarter yields to comfort
On-line - don't accept a sluggish walk and trot (same for ridden). Remember to stay behind the driveline
If I lose focus, my horse
loses focus too. Reward the slightest try. Believe in myself and
Stormy. Mean what we saty and expect what we say. Fantastic clinic . .
. . showed that anything is possible with trust, belief and feel.
Best lesson with Mel . . . . so, so so happy (Makayla)
Hosted by Trentham Pony Club, please contact Karen O'Brien on 0402134918 for details or bookings.
Get started on your way to achieving amazing things with your horse!
Spend
2 days with Mel in this clinic and gain an understanding of 3 basic
skills that will make handling your horse safer and easier. Learn how
to teach your horse to stay calm in all situations and discover how to
steer and stop your horse without relying on 2 reins for control.
This clinic covers aspects of Lessons 1, 2 & 3 of the foundation programme.
I was honored to be invited by Trentham Practise Group along with the Trentham Pony Club to visit their area this weekend for a demonstration and a 2 day Clinic. The demonstration was well attended and I introduced myself and Abbey to the crowd with a Liberty and bareback and bridle less demonstration.
We had 10 people attend the clinic along with a few auditors and over the course of the 2 days everyone discovered how to apply their basic skills to achieve steering and stopping their horses both on the ground and in the saddle. We looked at safe saddling and mounting procedures and discovered the value of the 'Flight Test' and I think everyone took a big step forward in trusting their horses when we all took part in a walk passenger lesson in a halter and 1 rein. For many participants this was the first time they had ever ridden without a bridle and the oohh's and aahhh's of excitement said it all as they explored the feeling of riding their horses 'bitless'.
A big thank you to Karen O'Brien (our fabulous GO for the Trentham Practise Group!) for organising the weekend, the Trentham Pony Club for providing a fantastic venue and of course to all the participants of the clinic who made the weekend such a special one!
Student Ta-Dah's:
BG going from phase one in the fore 1/4 and Hind 1/4 and backwards!!
BG going straight into a trot whil I was riding. Didn't even tray a pace!!
Reuben and I did really well was contact leg yielding and fore1/4 yielding and also getting him getting out of my space.
Bringing my new horse Charlotte to a clinic and having her relaxed.
My horse Jake staying out of my space and I have more trust in Jake now! Ta- Dah!!
Gundy, my horse couldn't be touched with the stick on Saturday and by Sunday afternoon he was tolerating it well. I am so pleased with the transformation.
Riding without a bit and feeling safe and staying out of my personal space.
Just being here was awesome and riding my horse for the first time. Have not been on a horse in 20 years! YAY!
Doing a walk Passenger Lesson with Charlotte. When she broke into a trot I didn't go into 'foetal position'. I wasn't fully relaxed, but I didn't fully panic!
