'Micro riding'

[Heather]

Hi Hilary,

I am reading some of Alex Kurlands reports of her findings from clinics etc, on the link you gave me, but I guess unless you have attended one, it is not easy to get to the essence of it. When she talks about 'micro riding', does she mean invisible, and very minute aids?

I am always aiming to be as little burden as possible to my horse and to make my aids as invisible and light as possible. Is this something like micro riding, or am I barking up the wrong tree here!!

Heather

[hilary]

Absolutely, Heather!!.

I think you can explain Alex's microriding in many ways - this is purely my interpretation! ( as someone who finds it difficult to write what they mean - I was always better at oral exams rather than written ones)

People like yourself, and many other skilled professionals , already use tiny or micromovements - whether they are a thought (which prob sends impulses to the muscle anyway even though you dont think you are moving), an action or whatever.But sometimes tryng to explain what tiny movements you do is hard - from the outside tt may look as though you are doing nothing - but lots is happening!

But this is one way to encourage/teach / create discussion/ allow learners to become teachers and vice versa , by practising off the horse, getting feedback from someone else , and allow your movements to become fluid and smooth, both for riding and general groundwork - improving the feel one gives to the horse.

And , having seen the microriding at a number of clinics, it has been really interesting to see how many different benefits there are. Movement become slighter, and smoother. But also it is a real communication exercise, The person "feeling" the movements through the shoulder blade, bothe learns and gves feedback. For instance , one time, someone had my hand on my shoudler but I couldnt feel it at all (she said was quite sensitive to "energy" -  but to me I just felt there was no connection -  it didnt suit me as  a "horse" - hec elearning about how much feel/connection one should have.

Language also is so important ( and certainly one notices how easy it is for people to read something and have a completely different take on it than the writer!). Another session ,  someone was pretty "fluffy" with their language, and was also so quiet  -it was hard to hear - improve upon that, and it directly improved her horse handling.

So going through these microriding patterns on the ground, one can then get on ones horse, and experiment -  if I stretch through my poll - what does my horse do? Open the back of heart  - see what happens then. on then becomes more aware of being able to access small movements in different parts of he body when one needs to.

But this is nothing new -  it just tries to put it in a framework where all parties can learn  about feel, movement and communication ,  and then take these new found skills , get on your horse and ask him as to what he thinks .

So this is a way of feeling your transitions Heather.  Alex would put a hand on you shoulder blade, and ask you to ride a reinback to canter transition, piaffe to passage or whatever -  and be able to feel what you are doing, rather than trying to say what you are doing -  and as we all interpret the written /spoke word so differently it adds the feel factor to the language. It would then be such fun to compare that with Rodrigo or Anja,  or perhaps one may find that you and Sylvia Loch may not feel so different , (or perhaps very!) , even though the language you use to expain things is defintely different!

Other people may interpret ,and get different things from, the microriding  - and I think those things may change depending on what part of one's jouney one is on. It is a tool that can be used at all levels.

Don't know whether that makes anything any clearer Heather!

 

[Heather]

OK Hilary, I get it,  Alex is doing it all dismounted to start with? I am doing something not dissimilar, and is why I am doing dismounted workshop days - see the general forum- next year around the country. Great minds think alike!! 

Heather

[hilary]

Yes, this is all done dismounted. The way her cllnics tend to run is everyone does work on the ground in the morning, then people with horses have lessons in the afternoons  - often allied to the dismounted stuff. So everything is done on the ground first - it is amazing how much feel, and feedback you can get, from doing groundwork with a pretend horse! The term microriding followed on nicely from the microshaping which was last years theme.

Just wanted to say you are not the only ones doing "dismounted" workshops -  have just been investigating alpaca training (camelidynamics based on T Team stuff) and you spend time on the clinic practising haltering blowup alpacas , so you get your dynamics right!!

[Heather]

Blow up alpacas!! Now THAT I would like to see!!

I have been doing dismounted stuff for years, to show the synchronisation with the horse, which can easily be shown on foot. I also use peanut shaped physiorolls, my equivalent of a blow up alpaca!! :laugh:I find stuff so much easier for the rider to absorb, off the horse first. Obviously having the simulators, also helps because we can transfer the feelings first of all to the machine and I can monitor with my own hands, exactly what the horse would be feeling too. All fascinating stuff!

Heather

[Heather]

Hilary,

Another question! I see on bejay's thread that she talks about 'one rein riding'. Can you explain what is meant by this? Is it the same as Craig Stevens teaches?

Heather

[hilary]

I don't know what Craig Stevens teaches, but the dynamics of Alexs's one rein riding are very different to that which I have done with Ken from a natural horsemanship background. Her dvd I  think is called Riding on a triangle which I prefer because it differentiates it in terms of communication.

Very basically (and you really need to see the dvd as the nuances are so important, like angle of wrist etc)  you pick up at the buckle (reins have to be correct length) end with outside hand, upwards, allow elbow to drop to body, but you keep that hand elevated.Your inside hand is stabilised as a point of contact just in front/on edge of saddle ( once you and horse has learnt this hand does not need to be in contact, the reason being initially that if it is, you cant pull).

But the important thing is the rein length. The inside rein has contact to the horse, the outside rein may be loose, but it is  still there, or it may have more of a contact if you need it. But there definitely needs to be feel  on the rein between your inside and outside hand (may not be a lot but that length has to be correct not floppy) -  this acts in the same way as her tai chi wall exercises on the ground, and helps access your core stability.

When you are riding in this manner , the important point is to get in, get something( response from the horse) , then release (get out again). As things develop and get soft, one then picks up 2 reins,  to ride " on a contact" though it may be very light -  the pickup is quite important from the one rein poaition, as one needs to keep the correct feel down he inside rein when you do it. The more releases you do , the more chance you and the horse also get to melt into this.

I found this really difficult to get my head round - particularly as Alex wants the outside hand a little higher ( Ok at one stage it will be infinitesmal) and my previous clinician wanted the inside similarly higher , as most everything else fitted together. And am still very much at the improving myself stage!

Hilary

[Heather]

Hmm, yes, I would find this concept difficult. We would have some contact on the outside rein, but want to be able to give the inside rein entirely on bends and in shoulder in, for instance. Desi Lorent taught us to ask with the fingers, to achieve relaxation of the jaw, but to give instantly you felt the jaw relax, by nothing more than a slight uncurling of the fingers to release any tension on the rein. In that way, the hands never moved, and any onlooker wouldnt even see what we had done to create a small loop in the rein.

Desi's teaching of the use of the reins was one of the biggest breakthroughs for me in my riding, refining my hand aids more than I could ever have done with any subsequent teacher, and allowing me to learn a lot more from those subsequent teachers!

With Desi, it was always the inside hand raised slightly to turn and in lateral work. On the videos of Michael Klimke, Hans Henrich Meyer zu Strohen, and other very fine riders, this is always the case too. It also stops the rider wanting to pull back with the inside rein.

Desi's aid was also very simple in operation- yes, it is the timing of it that really is the most important, but that develops with the subtlety that the use of the fingers creates.

Desi's fine of a drink down the pub every time he saw you pull back even a fraction on the rein, soon made you more aware of what your hands were doing, at pub prices, and believe me, he kept you to it!!

Heather

[hilary]

And yet when you break things down into tiny bits, it often isn't too dissimilar. As the horse gets accustomed, as you pick up the outside rein, then horse immmediately bends to the inside , and hence lifts into that outside rein, and "takes" a contact be it ever so slight. But what I was describing was the initial stages, when a horse ( and rider) doesn"t know how  to access lateral flexions , and pulling back needs to be got out of the system , and replaced by something else.It also teaches the release to both horse and rider , which you describe with your fingers.


How you describe your concept from Desi would totally fit into the 2 rein riding (concept for Alex)-  in  what I am describing is an intermediate  a lot more more macro step, before you get to the lovely picture you paint.

I liken my horse journey to many ways to Rome,- firstly enjoy the journey. Many people are going the same way  -  sometimes we part company , one goes left the other right. Yet further on, one meets up, discusses what one has seen en route  -  and you may well have seen the same countryside/objects, just from a different perspective. Then sometimes I turn round , go back to the original crossroads ,  and take the other road, to compare the views!

 One thing that one rein riding with a halter and rope does teach you is not to pull  -  cos otherwise you just keep going round in circles!!

[Heather]

Riding horses out to the fields bareback in a halter, with just a rope, probably taught us more than we realised as kids! I see what you are getting at Hilary, but need to see the DVD's in full. Am just ordering!

Heather

[Heather]

Hilary,

When 'long reining' without any reins, does Alex use any sound cues, which would make the horse relax his lower jaw, for instance? Just curious as to whether she is able to communicate almost telepathically with the horse, or whether there is some audible cue.

Heather

[hilary]

I think it is more body language Heather .  It is merely an extension of that done with reins, to that done without.  I think it shows how much information our horses get , and cues we give, without specifically saying this is how we do something. Alex would be in the position MAgic expects and cues he understands.

I think that body language can be very subtle, and horses are better readers than people!

And I am sure there is a lot that I am missing of what Alex is doing.

[Heather]

But if she is behind him, and not at an angle where he can easily see her, even with eyes positioned on the side of the head, as they are in the horse, to give some vision behind, how can it be body language? That is what is intriguing me! Sorry for all the inquisition, but I am trying to work this out!

Heather

[hilary]

Not sure, ask Alex

[Heather]

She's away and I am off to Portugal on Thursday, so asked the next best person!!

Heather