LEE SMITH Clinic

by Kim Hannan

I recently co-hosted another Lee Smith Horsemanship Clinic in Kansas City, Missouri. As usual, it was very informative and motivational. The clinic was considered an advancing clinic and alt but two of the riders had ridden with Lee before.

Lee started the clinic off with having each of the riders introduce themselves and tell what their expectations were and where they planned to go with their horsemanship. The riders expectations and goals, varied greatly. Some had competition goals (team-penning, barrel-racing, dressage, etc.), and some just wanted to improve their overall horsemanship skills for trail riding or just casual riding.

Lee then explained that she had asked her students at her last clinic "What are you going to do with your horsemanship?" She stated no judgement was being made and if they wanted just to "feed'em and lead'em" that was fine as long as it was what they wanted. She then explained to us that she hoped to maybe enlighten us to goals that are possible for us.

Lee stated that a lot of people got into this for a reason. When Lee first started she stated she was roping and barrel racing and wasn't very good at it because she didn't understand the horse. Most of her friends were some of the best in the world and they would say to her "try this bit, try this bridle, spank that horse and make him mind," and it wasn't working for her. She stated whether it was her timing or what ever it was, she didn't have the understanding to communicate. Then she met Ray Hunt and it changed her life. She stated that she "learned more about doing less". She then asked, "How many of you have been learning to do more?" She then stated that she had students that had high goals for their horsemanship. While doing slow, meticulous tasks, the students appeared to be thinking, "why am I doing this?" Lee stated that she then kicked it up and cantered her horse, did some spins, roll-backs, flying lead changes, slide stop, etc, and stated that she was doing the exact same thing that her students were doing but she was doing it faster, She told them that she had taught her horses how to do those things.

She stated that her students suddenly appeared more interested. She then explained that it is like going to the bank. Every time you teach your horse something you are making a deposit. You have to put in enough deposits that one day when you go to the pay window; we will have a check that won't bounce. We need to take advantage of the things that our horses are prepared to do. If they are not prepared, then it is our job to prepare them and to understand what that is.

Lee continued by stating that there is basis of information that is going to be invaluable to us and that is "the horse can not be afraid of us." It is important that we don't use that to teach. She stated if we do use fear, we erode an opportunity for our horses to be "soft and willing," where "he tries for us, not against us." Those are the things that start on the ground and every minute of our relationship with our horse. Lee told us that we were going to ask our horses for a new level of attention; a new level of communication; a little bit more effort; we would help our horses to get in a learning frame of mind; we would have them try, really try to stay with us.

She reminded us that "Horses learn through Confidence, Acceptance, Understanding, and Results." She stated that most of us have had the opportunity to build some confidence in our horses. From time to time, we erode the confidence by getting too firm, too soon. Sometimes we don't match the resistance in the horse and this builds in a little disrespect or the horse learns to disrespect us.

Prior to starting the ground tasks, Lee stated that in her travels from clinic to clinic, she has noticed that often people get in a hurry to do little things that really don't amount to much For example, she stated that when the horse she was holding started walking past her, there was no big hurry to stop the horse She stated she was not going to run over anyone and there was nothing to worry about. She gave the example that some students would reach up and grab firmly and yank the horse back like as if the world was going to end. Lee stated that she sees these habits go with people in their reins when sitting on the horse's back instead of taking an opportunity to reaching that horse with a friendly soft hand, we make them afraid of our hands and afraid to make decisions because we were too firm. She stated we have to be firm enough to offer our horse to do what we want, but we want the horse to know that when we offer a suggestion that we will offer it soft and comfortable and it will be something that he can do. That is how you build confidence. You build confidence by giving the horse or human lots of little tasks that they can do. You destroy confidence by giving the horse or somebody something they can't do.