Harry Whitney Clinic

By Marjorie Lee

Anyone who loves and enjoys horses can't help but appreciate watching those who have fine-tuned the round pen way of communication. Or for that matter, anyway that presents a meeting of the minds in a humane way. It's hard not to feel excitement when on e with power and beauty of the horse willingly, and with apparent understanding, attempts and succeeds in pleasing his human partner.

I attended the opening night of the Harry Whitney clinic at the Seven Oaks Ranch in Spring Hill, Kansas. The first night, which was full, allowed Harry to share his early beginning with horses on his dad's farm as a young boy. With his interest in horses, he picked up common sense ideas of communicating which he has continued to develop through the years.

He explains he began seeing a need to help those interested change from the idea of all-time brute force of years ago to a quiet step-by-step mutual understanding, thus showing man to be the truly better "master"  not just a conqueror, but a friend.

This is Harry's desire  that man and horse think together,  moving toward a new understanding where a horse can respond through understanding rather than self-preservation while keeping his beauty and own personality.

In early years, Harry tells us he was very shy and timid. Even so, he wanted to perform in rodeos and perfected a rope exhibition. Later he added a dog to his act for better marketability. Showing early his expertise and versatility with horses, he began Roman riding two palomino horses. Adding to his experience, he worked as a pick up man in rodeos. Through the winters he was a working cowboy on ranches.

Sometime through this period, Harry had a knee injury, which eventually required surgery. While recuperating, he was asked to work with horses on his farm. As he continued to develop his techniques, he also received acclaim in training trick and stunt horses.

Then a few years ago, Harry began traveling throughout the country and Canada using clinics to reach more people. To simplify his ideals, he coined three letters to help his students move forward in communication with their horses.

C (cue)  Something to express and let your horse know what you want.

P (pressure)  Apply pressure until you receive response from your horse.

R (response)  response from your horse which cues you to immediately release pressure.

R Response from human back to the horse which is the immediate release of pressure.

The horse does his learning between the 2 R's.

Harry believes "a horse never does anything wrong; it is only wrong in our minds. The horse is only doing what is right for self preservation. It may look ignorant to us."

Harry wants to help his horse friends see what is making the horse react as he is. "Don't just look at what is happening  see what is happening behind what you saw," he says.

Towards the end of his actual demonstratin of the use and success of his C.P.R.R. philosophy, he allowed a question and answer session.

One question concerned the round pen. Harry tells us the round pen helps keep the horse's attention in the beginning. If the horse's brain is not where his feet are, it is very hard to direct where his feet are to go. There is not much value in training if the brain is not where the feet are.

If there is anxiety in the horse he is not content. The trainer needs to understand what he will respond to  what will motivate him.

Harry doesn't believe there is any merit in driving a horse around the round pen  no need to drive him to frustration. He believes the horse is created by other's actions. A horse's first instinct is to flee from fear  self-preservation. In the round pen, the horse can flee until he feels safe. If left alone, curiosity will take over. His reward is to be left alone until he can tolerate more.

A horse is always seeking a place where there is no pressure. Harry uses the illustration of a horse under a shade tree  feels no pressure. When he feels hungry, he is pressured to eat. The sun gives pressure  moves him to shade. Training should be precise with no variations, but has to start with pressure.

During the clinics, you'll hear over and over, "Make the wrong thing difficult and the right thing easy." That's where pressure come in  pressure when doing the wrong thing, and reward of no pressure when doing a correct thing.

Most horse owners are not aware there can be this unity. Harry points our, "Most horse owners are greedy. If they get one step, they want 165. Patience will win out."