Mark Rashid   Clinic Report - Beaver, OR

by Jeannie Andre

  

I was fortunate to have a rider spot at the Mark Rashid clinic held in Beaver, OR. The clinic was split between colt starting and horsemanship. Mark is a master at helping horses in the way they need it the most. Of the folks I have witnessed starting colts, Mark manages to communicate more - with less. I come away with much food for thought on this subject.

I experienced four sessions with Mr. Rashid and my breeding stock paint, Angel.

Last year I had just one session with Mark, and I've spent the time since then paying more attention to the way I ride.  Mark helped me discover I had a tendency to lightly touch my horse's sides with my legs in rhythm with her stride. I've worked at eliminating this and restoring sensitivity to Angel's sides. The other aspect I've been working on since last year's session with Mark is his suggestion to ask my horse for forward movement with a light kiss before adding any leg to this cue. By experimenting and retraining myself, I am usually able to get a nice surge in speed from my horse without resorting to heavier cues. This involved reprogramming myself to always ask with the lightest cue (just a sound) before adding anything else.

During my sessions with Mark this year, he helped me utilize timing to help me maintain the desired speed within a given gait. He showed me that I needed to support my horse BEFORE she was about to slow down. If I let the moment pass, it's more than likely I will need to use a heavier cue to speed her up again. But if I support her with a "kiss" cue before she actually slows, I can keep our conversation light and easy: less work for me and no argument from my horse. Mark pointed out that it's important to notice patterns that our horses fall into. For instance, Angel tended to slow down in the same spots around the arena. This was fun for me because once I observed where those slow-down spots were, I could anticipate that she would need support just before those spots, and we could maintain our speed with a lighter cue.

Over the last couple of months I've been experimenting with asking my horse to hold a soft feel for several strides at a time. But I never knew what I was actually looking for. I was of the school of thought that if I got a soft feel, I should throw the reins away to let her know she got the right answer. This may not be such a bad idea initially when teaching a horse to give to the bit. But Mark pointed out to me that throwing the reins down can make the horse feel abandoned!

Keeping this in mind as I rode my horse and asked for soft feet, Mark let me know when Angel was giving to the bit. I tuned into what it felt like just at the moment Mark reaffirmed we had "it" and discovered that when my horse and I are together (she on the bit and my hands soft on the reins) the feeling is simply amazing. Angel's body felt totally different: her back rounded and her hindquarters reached under her body. She moved in a way I've never felt before. We were just walking, but the power of her body was very noticeable. It felt like the difference between a child learning to dance and the way a professional dancer would move.

On the subject of dance, the way my reins feel to me when Angel is giving to the bit is very much the way it feels to have my hands on a partner during a slow dance. There is give and take, interplay, and communication. The other amazing thing to me is that my horse seemed happy! I used to think that Angel was never going to like concentrated riding, but she liked it enough to easily give me transitions (while giving to the bit) from the halt to the walk to the trot and back down into the stop and back up.

There were times when my horse would over-flex her head vertically and bring her head too low. Mark suggested that I just not "be there" for her. If I didn't follow her there with my reins, she met with no contact from me. Nine times out of ten, this was enough for her to try to find me again on the bit. Once in a while I felt she spent too many moments in this lowered head position, so the suggestion was to try making contact with one raised rein to remind her that contact was available. This was helpful to correct her head position.

On the third and fourth day I asked Mark to help me with our transitions into the canter. What I had unwittingly created with my horse was a recurring nightmare that goes something like this. I would give the usual cue to canter; she would trot faster. I would ask again and again, upping the phases. This would put both of us out of balance, and my horse would often then go slower and slower.

Mark helped us begin a new story here. He asked me to trot my horse and simply think about cantering before even asking. He then told me to give her my cue and do nothing else. The first time we gave it a go, Angel attempted to break over into a canter. I could feel her shoulder start to pick up, but I fell into my old habit of asking for more and ended up throwing us out of balance. Mark helped me to understand we would be a lot better off if I would just slow her down and regroup before asking again. We tried this a few times, and she cantered real nice for me. I realize that patience is in order here because my horse may not yet believe me that I won't replay the old nightmare and get in her way. So if my horse doesn't take my canter cue every single time in the near future, I accept that it may take a while to get her to trust me. She needs to feel that I really WANT to canter because my previous body language told her something else (and then I insisted on top of it!). On the fourth day with Mark, my horse gave me a very nice canter depart from the backup!

All I can say is, if this is riding, l am truly hooked. And I'm looking forward to spending time with Mark Rashid next year.