MARK RASHID Clinic

by Linda Ball

Finally I have some spare time to put my thoughts together about the Mark Rashid clinic.

First, as the clinic host, I was preoccupied and not entirely focused when I first hopped into the saddle on my 10 yr old T/B mare Spirit.

Secondly, I have spent the last few months working almost exclusively with Spring Festival, my 7yr old T/B who was racing just 18 months ago. I had offered to lend Spring to friends who did not have a horse so they could ride with Mark, and Spring needed work to bring him back from track/warp speed or I was going to see my friends in the dirt and my beloved Spring careening around the arena out of control! Soooo, Spidt had not been ridden for a couple of months but she and I have come a Iooong way together in the last five years, from rank novice and green off the track T/B combination to a comfortable and trusting partnership. She is the kind of willing horse that can be brought in from a spell and she is just as compliant and "with me" as the last time I rode her, but today I know that if I had given her some more "I'm here for you" time and attention, we would have settled into the lessons much more quickly.

Anyway, we started with walk/halt transitions. "Release, release RELEASE" I heard Mark say. One of this remarkable man's gifts is to be able to see the smallest try by the horse and the transition coming before it actually happens! Hmmm .... I am not sure at all I have this immaculate sense of timing so I translated this into "ask quietly for the halt, release and see what happens" Well, DANG! A perfect square halt! Again, and the results are the same! I realized that I have not been giving my willing mare enough time to react to my request, and that I needed to tone down the volume of request ie use lighter aids.  I do NOT have to maintain the request to stop until the last foot hits the ground, but RELEASE with the very first inclination to slow! "Whoever would have thought .... "LOL

Then onto the trot - and variations of speed in the trot. Spirit is pretty good at this because we did a lot of it in the first few years together when we did nothing but trot because I was only game to let her canter up a hill on a trail ride. Mark helped me quiet my aids and soon we were making music together, moving up and down from a little jog to a big working trot fluidly. Jackie asked in an earlier post "was he getting her to ask for collection with a light hand, or ask for a transition by a release of the hand, or both?" and for us the answer was both. Seat, of course, came first to move the hind up and get her stepping under, but softness and release (which 1 heard a billion times from Mark) was always the YES signal for the horse.

"OK, now canter'' I heard Mark say. GULP! Why had 1 made such a big deal about cantering? Was it my work with young Spring in the way, loss of confidence in my mare because I had not ridden her for a while, or just a case of clinic nerves? It's also not easy in front of a large group of friends and auditors ;-)

  So I sit down and ASK. This is not an earth-shattering request but it sure was HORSE-shattering! Waaaay too much leg and her head flew up as she was startled by the urgency and forcefulness of my aid. ICK!

We leave the canter for a while and work on turn on the haunches and turn on the forehand. Same deal I was waaay overcueing a soft and sensitive horse who is just confused if I up the pressure because I had missed that first subtle try. Spirit didn't have a chance while I was obliterating a try with a bigger cue :-( At last, I was finally starting to get this idea of softness and was able to read Spirit better and could catch and reward/release on that first tentative try. Once I "got it" the tries came faster and were bigger. I know we can build on this ;-)

I will be honest and say that with the duties of clinic host, my four lessons with Mark became a blur of progressive softness and relaxation so that by our last lesson, which was all canter work, I *knew* I had found a new depth to my relationship with my mare. She seemed to appreciate the softness and polite gentle requests from me, and the trust I found by giving her a chance to respond. I have always described my mare as sensitive but I am only just beginning to fathom the depths of her softness.

I have been privileged to read a prepublication edition of his third book "Horses Never Lie". I won't spoil the book for you, but can reveal it is written in the same delightful style and tone as Considering the Horse and A Good Horse is Never a Bad Colour, and focuses primarily on the idea of the passive leader and finding the try. My favorite quote is from the final pages "Often times we get so hung up on accomplishing goals or relying on techniques or methods that we don't allow that piece of ourselves - the piece that let's the horse know we can be trusted - to shine through" There was a time when I thought the *answer* to horse training lay in all those techniques and methods which were a total mystery of equine mumbo jumbo to a newbie like me, but thanks to Mark Rashid, I have learned to ask more quietly and give my mare a chance to respond by simply *trusting* that she will. Seems to me we have a much better partnership because now there is a better two way communication going between us - I ask, she tries and if it doesn't work then I try to figure out where *1' am going wrong with my cue or missing the try. This is a quantum leap for the novice who once upon at time asked a trainer "Mister, will you help me teach this horse to canter slooowly" Wish had had Mark back then to show me how to just ask quietly and softly ;-)