My trip this past weekend to Equine Affaire in Springfield, Massachusetts was AWESOME!!!! The shopping was incredible - there were hundreds of vendors - and I learned a ton from the training clinics. The breed demonstrations were interesting and I saw a few breeds of horses that I've never even seen in person before. Each breed was paraded through the arena in full tack and their riders wore the costumes that you would see if they were competing. When it came time for the Quarter Horses, there was a little boy that ran a barrel pattern and a couple of ladies that demonstrated reining patterns. Then, I saw something that made me sick to my stomach, a Western Pleasure ride. The movements that they make those horses do are so unnatural - at the trot he looked like he was stumbling and at the lope he looked like he was lame. And yet the crowd was cheering because that's the way he's supposed to move. I thought it was awful!!
I, of course, have seen and read plenty about Fresians, but this was my first opportunity to not only take pictures, but also touch them. I think he made these girls' day...
Since we live in the 'Dark Ages' up here in my beloved countryside, we don't have RFD TV, so I have never gotten to see all the horse training shows that so many other people have watched and learned from. This was my first opportunity to watch these top trainers work with horses. Sure, I've read their articles, books and websites, but it's just not the same. I was enthralled!
The first clinic that we watched, Friday afternoon, was a clinic taught by Chris Cox about improving the canter. There were 2 women that he worked with, one of them was riding a monstrous half-draft that was just plain spoiled. He was used to pushing people around and getting loved on anyway. He couldn't be cantered without running away. It turned out that yes, he had respect issues which were exposed when Chris worked with him in the round pen, but also, the rider would immediately clench up and lean forward whenever she cued for the canter. This would make the horse nervous and cause him to speed up and get out of control. The other rider wasn't having quite as much trouble and once Chris corrected her seat, she and the horse were able to relax and lope.
On Saturday morning, we watched Clinton Anderson work with a real bully of a horse. He did lots of groundwork with him and it was neat to see his methods and how well they worked. Plus, he is extremely entertaining and funny!
In the afternoon, he did a demonstration with his own horse, Mindy. They danced for us to several really rockin' tunes - it was amazing! Then, he discussed some of the training methods that he used with Mindy and even practiced cutting - on a member of the audience!
She was well rewarded though, and became the most hated woman in the coliseum when he offered her a ride on Mindy!! What a lucky, lucky girl!!!!
That evening we watched an obstacle course competition and at the time that we had to leave, a woman from Maine was the leading rider!! Woo! Hoo!
We bought a whole bunch of blingy conchos - I got some for me and also some for Kitchy's bridle. I'll have to have him model them for you tomorrow. Dinner that evening was at the 99 Restaurant - we had a great time visiting!
Sunday morning I watched Julie Goodnight give a clinic on lead departures and improving the lope. It was extremely informative. I've read a lot of her articles and her newsletter and website are my favorites, so it was great to see her in person.
Sunday afternoon I watched another Chris Cox clinic - this time he was working with a barrel racing horse that was extremely disrespectful and even dangerous. Somehow his teen aged owner has been putting up with his antics without getting seriously injured, and even competes with him successfully. Chris started out the clinic by just leading the horse around the arena while he described to us some of what he was planning to do and why. Mostly, he just wanted to give the horse a few minutes to demonstrate how awful he was to lead - pushy, nippy, pulling.
The first thing he taught that horse was to disengage his hindquarters. After 2 tries the horse was doing that perfectly - a fast learner. Then, he rubbed all over him and mounted him and laid all over him; doing nice things to the horse as long as he stood still, but getting after him and making him disengage again if he budged. Again, the horse figured it out quickly. So, within a very short time, Chris had the horse ready to ride and we were all thinking about lunch and what we were going to buy next...
Then, Chris asked him to disengage his hindquarters again, and the horse blew up! He started rearing, striking out and attacking Chris!! The good news is, Chris was hoping for that, and ready for it. As far as he was concerned, the clinic would have been a failure if the horse had trained that easily, because he wouldn't have been able to show us how to deal with such a dangerous situation. And he knew, deep down, that this horse was a time-bomb waiting to go off!! Chris didn't give him an inch. That would have meant that the horse had won. He used the end of his lead rope to smack him across the chest and just once, on the end of his nose. And as soon as the horse's front legs hit the ground, he would make him disengage the hindquarters again. They had several battles, but Chris won them all!! It was incredible!! After that he taught him to yield his front end, although that caused another battle or two, but they were shorter lived. I think the horse knew by that point that he wasn't going to get anywhere and it wasn't worth the effort. Eventually Chris was able to loop the lead rope around the horse's neck and the horse would follow him anywhere.
Chris earned himself another fan with that clinic. His ground training method is so clear and concise. I hope to be able to use everything that I learned this weekend to improve all of our horses!
This afternoon, I worked with Kitch because he's been kinda pushy lately. (Mostly just because he's been out to pasture for a couple of month.) He picked up the disengaging the hindquarters really quickly. Except I wasn't able to do it without the lead rope in my hands. I was able to stop swinging it at him, but if I looped it around his neck, he knew I didn't have it and he locked his butt - brat! We'll keep working on it. He did great and I was very pleased. He's not easy to lead when the mares are whinnying at him, but this method gave me the means to get his attention back on me and I only had to ask him to disengage his hindquarters once going down to the bus stop. After that he was very respectful on the lead rope and just followed along behind me quietly. Since that was the first time that I've taken him away from the mares in a couple of months, it should have been a wrestling match. I'm so happy!! 'Course now I don't know what to teach him next, so I guess I have some books and videos to buy....
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