ROSS JACOBS Clinic

by Marg Van Riet

Hi all,

Recently I attended a Ross Jacobs clinic at Sherbrooke Equestrian Centre. Atthough it was held in an indoor arena the weather was absolutely perfect all weekend.

I have audited at one of Ross' clinics previously but this is the first time I'd attended with my horse, Floyd. Floyd has some problems that my instructor and I have been working on, not the least of which is that he has had a really bad head tossing problem and at some stage in his previous life someone has trained him (beautifully I might add) to say NO in a fairly big way. He really knows how to lose it completely! This has proven to be an interesting combination and these are just two of his many little problems.

Ross had seen Floyd only once before in April this year. At that stage, his head tossing was so bad that he was literally unrideable. His head would go from ground level to almost high enough to hit you in the face - this combined with not wanting to go forward at all, meant you were sitting on something that was about to explode any minute. Not a very pleasant experience particularly for someone who has very little confidence left.

I have not done a great deal of work with Floyd since I have had him, due to trying to find a cause for the head-tossing, lack of time/daylight and his many injuries (he has an attraction to fences and carving pieces out of himself). I knew he was much softer and more responsive than he was before, his tendency to react rather than respond has diminished considerably, however we still have a very long way to go. This clinic was something of a test to see how far Floyd and I had really come and whether it would carry over in unfamiliar territory.

We started by showing Ross what groundwork we had been doing and what areas we were still struggling with. The first comment Ross made was how much of a change was evident in the horse since he had last seen him. When Ross saw Floyd in April his feet were so stuck he could not walk forward without me having to use enough drive to stampede a herd of elephants. When he eventually did move he blurted off and did his very best to escape or go over the top of you. He was so uncoordinated that he could not walk over a pole on the ground without striking it with three feet and falling over it with the fourth foot .This is not an exaggeration - he had been seen to fall over his own feet on level ground. He is much softer and more coordinated than when Ross saws him before, although his attention was wandering quite a bit. It seemed that there were other things happening that were far more

interesting than me so we spent some time trying different things to get Floyd's attention back. It was interesting to see how much I needed to do to get him to focus, the distraction of something very spooky outside the arena meant I had to 'explode' to get him back with me initially, but after deliberately letting his attention wander several times it took less effort from me to get him back (although the really spooky thing didn't disappear altogether till Sunday).

Ross also commented that we were working 'on automatic pilot'- meaning that at times we looked like we were working a pattern rather than me looking at what the horse needed at that particular time. This is something I have been struggling with for a while, knowing when he needs to go somewhere and do a lot or when he needs to stand or do just a little. Ross asked if I could 'see' what Floyd needed to do and I had to reply that no, I couldn't see it so we worked on that for a while with me looking really hard and not being able to read him any better, or so I thought. Sometimes you need to leave these things and come back to them at another time before you find what it is that you're looking for, at least that is how it is for me.

Floyd was still having the odd little blurt off at the scary monster outside the arena and I wasn't sure whether to ride or not. I started to saddle up anyway and we worked on getting him to find a place to be before I saddled. He needed to move and fidget which is a leftover from a recent back problem. It's hard to find a way to let them know that something that was not so nice before is ok now. It would be easier if they spoke English. But for us it certainly wouldn't be as 'character building' as my mother would call it. Well, it seemed that I wasn't reading Floyd very well that day as I still wasn't sure whether to ride or not. Eventually I talked myself into it, put the bridle on and climbed on to see what was happening and what a ride! Nothing super special as far as riding goes, but it really was a huge step forward for us. We had forward, we had halt, we had softness and we had steering! Unbelievable that we could have all this in one day. To anyone who didn't know the horse and his history it would not have looked like a lot. But for us it was magic. I got off with the biggest grin and the more I thought about it the bigger the grin got.

And now to Sunday. Floyd had a hooning, bucking, rearing good time in the arena on his own before we started our session. After being stabled since Friday morning he needed to get a few kinks out of his system and he did! Some of the auditors and participants were a little concerned for my sanity when they were watching him but he settled nicely when it was time to work.

J, the other girl in my session, wanted to do some float loading (something to do with spending an hour and a half trying to load her horse the first morning) so we did some groundwork. First with me trying to see what it was that Floyd needed to do or where he needed to go. I felt a bit better about how it was all going, it didn't feel quite so much as if we were following a pattern. Floyd didn't need to blurt off at all and the big scary monster outside the arena had gone or was no longer a source of terror. He felt softer and I found that I needed to do even less to get a response from him so I felt like I've got a better idea of what Ross was talking about.

I had mentioned to Ross that Floyd rocked back and forth when the farrier worked on his feet. My farrier had said that he didn't have a problem with this, but I do. It doesn't help anyone's back to have 600-plus kilos pulling you back and forth no matter how little resistance is there. I told Ross that I had been doing some work with Floyd's feet, handling the leg and giving it back to him when he relaxed and gave me a soft feel. However there had been no real improvement. I knew from previous experience that putting a rope around his fetlock and asking him to give his foot softly would provoke an explosion and taking into consideration that J would be trying to load and unload her horse, I didn't want to work through it that day. Ross suggested that instead of just picking up and cleaning out his feet as I had been, that I could rotate the leg and move it around a little. Put the toe to the ground in several places before placing the toe on the ground and giving him his foot back. I worked on this for most of the time Ross and J were working on float loading. In between leg handling did some short sprints around the arena to give Floyd an opportunity to move before he felt he needed to. I need to do a bit more work on his feet but there was more improvement than I had managed to get previously, so I'll carry on with it at home.

That was the end of our session and I came out feeling totally different than how I went in on Saturday afternoon. I feel that we made some changes that were important to me, although they probably weren't hugely obvious to anyone that didn't know us. Ross' feedback after the clinic was very positive about where Floyd and I are now. However his last words were that although he understands why I get nervous on Floyd, that I am capable of doing what needs to be done and I need to push myself to get on and ride more. So now I am formulating my 'get on and do it' plan before I get to the stage that Floyd is bored to death with groundwork - I certainly don't need a bored Floyd!!

And now enough about me The next installment is about some of the other participants.

Y - who is new to 'NH' and is used to a slightly more 'dressage oriented' way of working. Her horse has had some back problems in the past and she finds he has trouble 'holding an outline' and coordinating himself at times. Hind quarter yielding, asking her horse to cross over in front and backing in circles was a whole new ball game for Y and after working at it and getting it flowing a bit she loved it! Ross explained the benefits to the horse of doing these movements and Y could see the change in her horse when he started to figure out what she was asking for. Y seemed really interested in different ways of doing things and her horse tried really hard to work with her. I think they must have enjoyed themselves because Y's daughter brought her pony along on the Sunday as well!

S - is also fairly new to this way of working with a horse. S has a really sweet little horse who is struggling to understand what S expects of him. S herself is struggling with pressure from other people as to how her horse 'should be able to work in an outline and do this and that by now' etc. etc. She has been having trouble with him resisting most things and Ross said that he felt that S's horse didn't understand what his role was. Don't we all seem to have the same things that we struggle with in one way or another, I'm sure you all know what I mean! They made some nice changes over the weekend with S trusting her horse a bit more by the end of the clinic. I hope she can come to terms with the pressure from other people and enjoy her horse for what he is.

F - it was her 'first time' from what I gathered. Her Appaloosa horse was quite stiff and felt that he needed to be in her space so that she could prop him up. He had trouble trying to work out where his feet were and what he should do with them. F worked really hard on developing and maintaining her own space and helping her horse to feel back to her. On Sunday he was quite a bit softer and Ross suggested some ways she could help him work out what to do with his feet. F did some work over a pole on the ground, asking him to come forward and back one step at a time and bit by bit he worked out what those four feet were supposed to do. F went home with lots to do while she waits for her baby to arrive.

A - has a 2 year old Arab that she has been quietly ground-working. Ross had seen her horse before and suggested some ways to start getting him used to things he will encounter later in life. Ross did some work with a rope and introduced him to the feel of it on his body and around his girth and flank, then moving on to the feel of a surcingle and girth. Most people were very interested in watching this part (waiting for some action no doubt!) and lots of questions were asked about why Ross was doing this and how/what the horse learned from it. A's horse handled the weekend really well. It certainly pays later on if you can get them out and about when they are youngsters.

J - who has been having lessons from the same instructor as myself, keeps her horse on the side of a mountain and has nowhere even reasonably level to work, which she finds a struggle. They are having difficulties establishing some of their work and J is moving her Arab horse to 'the fiats' so that she won't feel so much like a mountain goat in the future. Float loading was their thing as I mentioned earlier and I didn't see a lot of it as I was busy myself at the time. However both Ross and J were happy with the way it went. Ross did say that it wasn't fixed after just one session so J also went home with things to do.

Well I have waffled on for long enough! If any of you get the chance to watch or participate at a clinic with Ross I recommend you take the opportunity. Hope you are all enjoying your horses for what they are and doing the best you can.

Marg Van Riet