HARRY WHITNEY Adelaide

by Lisel O'Dwyer

Well, I hardly know where to begin or what to say. But I do know that it you are in OZ, esp SA or Vic and you didn't come to see Harry Whitney, you really missed out on something special.

To Ellen - I understand where you are coming from, as I too have a horse who is kind of nervous and tends to jump out of his skin if you do anything sudden or use any movement louder then a whisper (this is the one I posted about a couple of weeks ago that I let get zapped by the electric fence). I would not say he is particularly disrespectful, but he is extremely stiff to the left and found it hard to make a good change of direction (on the ground) from a circle to the right to a circle to the left. He would tend to get a little stuck, not bend his body and not yield his shoulders very well.

While I know that he must get accustomed to sudden and large movements and noise and not have people tiptoe around him, I was reluctant to do anything to damage the shaky trust he has in me and which we are slowly rebuilding. BTW I suspect that this stiffness to the left but no the right is related to his leg injury, which is on right hind leg - meaning I have been handling him a lot from the right side (ie while hosing, bandaging and click and treating at the same time - just goes to show how important it is to work on both sides equally! Not that I want him to injure his left hind! Touch wood!

Harry told me a couple of times to slap his shoulder with the rope to make him move that shoulder, but I could hardly bring myself to do it as I knew he would react with fear. Instead I just kept swinging the rope at him and not touching him with it. No improvement occurred. Harry watched me a while and said, "you know, you're wasting a lot of time there". Finally I did slap him (fairly lightly) with the rope and he did get a fright and leap away - but after that he improved a great deal in his willingness to move his forehand out of the way and calmed down quite quickly.

So I am wondering if the situation with your horse Ellen is something like what Pat Parelli describes in his book - horses can be dangerous in sever ways - through disrespect, through fear and through disrespect AND fear, and it is the disrespectful AND fearful ones that are the most dangerous. Could this be the case with your horse?

Maybe Harry could see that although she was nervous, there was a fair chance she might run over you and that was what you/he needed to address first? Just a suggestion - (maybe I am way off). When he said that she was now respectful, and you still saw the fear, maybe the fear was indeed still there but there may also have been some respect as well? (BTW I don't mean that in order to get respect you need to instill fear!). Just a thought. Perhaps in situations other than at a clinic, you would work on the fear first and respect second?

I learned so much I just hope I don't forget it all before I need it. I took notes but it always seemed that it was just the short comments he made that I was able to write down, but the longer, more detailed explanations required my full attention and I could not write, listen and understand at the same time. Linda Bertani (I think) posted recently about some clinicians being brilliant horsemen but not good teachers and communicators - well; Harry gave the best explanations of virtually everything, that I have ever heard. He is a natural teacher.

Like Grant, I had always used leg in the one rein stops (not that I use one rein stops very much, which is one of Harry's gripes about it - ie that people use them too much, release too soon before the horse has softened and just end up teaching the horse to get still by using them). I asked Harry to ride Pitch (the young nervous horse), which he did. He walked him around and did some bending to a stop.. When I got on Pitch and asked him to bend to the left (which is his stiff side), he was as soft and fluid as silk and I could really feel the rein connecting to the hind feet, which yielded the hind end. Marvelous, marvelous feeling!!

Grant, in this case it was not a question of my horse being so tuned in to me that he knew what I was asking etc - this horse has been ridden once since he was broken one year ago (and that one time was only for about 10 minutes, when I sent to look at him and decided to buy him). The clinic was the second time he had been ridden - I had not been able to ride him or do much at all prior to the clinic because of his inured leg. Pitch is as green as green can be.

I took two horses, Pitch on the Sunday and Monster on the Saturday. Each is easy and difficult in different ways. Pitch is green and spooky but not too bad in terms of respect, whereas Monster is an Advanced level dressage horse, who has a very soft mouth and yields well to bit and leg pressure when being ridden etc, but who has walked over the top of people on the ground for years (BTY I have only been working with him for about 6 months). He is a generally placid but HUGH horse and his sheer size and massive feet tend to intimidate people and make them move out of his way. I had found myself doing this when I first started working with him - but am used to him now.

I was in the first session at 9 am on Sat. I took Monster into the arena at about 8:45 to start warming up on the ground etc and he was fine, as he usually is. We circled, changed gait from body language alone, yielded front and hinds ends etc. Then at 9:00, Harry walked over while I was circling Monster, and he had a spaz attack (ie Monster, not Harry!) which took me by surprise. Now normally, if I want Monster to yield his quarters, I just point at them and he literally leaps them out of the way. But this time (wouldn't you know it), he just kept gong round in a frenzy.

Harry told me to make him yield to the rein, which will control the quarters, rather than point at the hip (ala Parelli style, as I had been doing - yes I am a PNH student). He said that if you're going to do groundwork, then do things in a way that carries over into ridden work. To do this, I was to bring the horse's head to the inside and direct the rein at the shoulder or girth area to get the hindquarters to move away from me. It you also want the horse to change direction, you release the pressure on the halter and push the shoulder out, by slapping on the shoulder it necessary (as I later did with Pitch). The idea is to get them to rock back onto the quarters while turning. I found it quite hard to stop myself from directing his head out to the new direction (as I had learnt in the PNH way) and move the shoulders more instead. But Harry showed me that what I was really doing was not directing him but dragging him. He said don't direct the head and the shoulders at the same time - release the head before directing the shoulders.

Eventually I reached the stage of conscious incompetence, where I could feel/see myself dragging on the halter and not releasing soon enough. That was really quite a step - the next day with Pitch I was able to move closer to the stage of conscious competence during the turns. Pitch was turning much better than Monster did.

Anyway, by "dragging" him around, I was also making him move forward toward me and inviting him to run over me. Just working on moving the shoulder over other keeps the weight back and keeps them out of your space. Such a simple thing but so significant.

During the ridden work I asked Harry to help me with a problem I had been having occasionally - Monster will fall onto his left shoulder during right turns at the walk. Instead of turning his body, he would just bend his neck and usually his body as well, and continue on in the same direction. I mentioned to Harry that this rarely happened at the trot. Duh - all it was, was a lack of impulsion and lack of focus on what the hind end was doing. All I had to do was make the walk more active and the problem disappeared. (It seems so Obvious now!!!!)

Harry emphasized the importance of getting the horse to carry itself and not be held in place by the rider. He said it is more important to know how to get a softening than to know how to keep it. Riders were shown how to get their horse to soften for a second or a stride, and the rider must RELEASE and keep the horse going forward. This gets the horse to find the sweet spot, giving at the poll and stretching over the topline. In turn, this brings the hind legs under. There was a noticeable difference in one horse (the girl on the gray Anglo mare, for anyone who was there and is reading this). This mare's neck always looks too short, even when standing around at home in the paddock, but when doing this rounding and stretching exercise, her neck became long and graceful.

I was glad to see a couple of dressage riders from the "normal" world of strong contact etc, auditing. They asked lots of questions, which Harry answered admirable. He is truly a master. I learned more about the finer points of dressage and movement in that weekend than I have in over 15 years of dressage lessons.

Wee, I'd better leave it there for a while, will post again soon with lots more. But just wanted to reiterate - I would ride with Harry again in a heartbeat - I just hope we can get him back here again.

Here's the rest of my report on Harry's clinic, based on the notes I took down at the time. Most are just short but important comments he made (which I able to write down). Some of it is old hat to people familiar with NH philosophy but important nevertheless - and Harry often expresses them in a slightly different way - and that is sometimes all it takes to make a concept click (well for me anyway).

If horses bulge through the shoulder, either on the ground or ridden, this is due to loss of impulsion and loss of control of hindquarters. Don't focus on the front end, the power comes from behind.

Move with the horse. Even thought I have never been comfortable with the Parelli way of standing perfectly still while the horse circles around, and prefer to walk with the horse, I realized that I tend to stand still when I wanted the horse to change direction and while he went out on to the circle. Harry encouraged us to walk toward the shoulder and slap it with the rope if necessary. Then stay behind the "drive line" as PNH people would call it, and keep your feet pointing toward the shoulder.

When turning horse while on ground (ie from one direction to the other while circling) - it you only use the halter, only the neck will turn - if you direct the shoulder, the whole horse turns.

Quit when the horse does well. Just because it's a clinic doesn't mean you have to keep going with something. Go and do something else - put some variation in the variety of things you do instead. Always doing the same variety of things is not variation. Do more of the same but do it differently.

There was a horse there who was very nervous and tense about being saddled. Harry flagged her with his stick - he said to do something to let the tension out. The horse then stood still to be saddled.

Straighten a crooked horse at the halt; don't try to push through it.

Use one rein more than the other when asking to soften into the halt.

When the poll softens, this opens the door for the whole topline.

When he was riding someone's mare that wanted to rush off all the time, he said that when she starts to rush, shut her down by yielding the quarters - but don't over do it. Do not feed a tense horse's tension - stay calm.

If a horse curls up in response to a rider's request to give to the bit, come in stronger til he backs off. I presume this means go forward more strongly as he then went on to say that softening should not only be from the withers forwards. However, do not DRIVE the horse forward once he has softened, just ride forward.

When letting your horse know you are pleased with him etc by patting him, go to him, do not let him come to you.

When explaining why he does not use leg to move the quarters over in the 1-rein stops, Harry said, "If the reins don't connect to the feet, why do we even have rein". Use of leg in the 1 rein stop can lead to stiffness through the horse's body; they start to brace against it. Fine line between engaging and disengaging. He gave the best explanation of this I have ever heard. Unfortunately I could not write it all down, but the gist of it (based on my understanding) is that in both cases you are controlling and directing the quarters, therefore not really any difference between them. Maybe Yvonne or Elvira can add to this.

Definition of "on the bit" (which was a response to a question from the dressage rider both Yvonne and I referred to) is when every change in the reins has an equal change in the hindquarters.

Definition of "straight" - when the horse's stemum is right between his elbows.

CPR - C = "cue" (interchangeable with "aid" - same thing). A cue and an aid are both a way of addressing the horse.

P = Pressure

R = Response. If the response is right, P goes away, if not right response, P continues. Horse searches for different response. Horse never gives "wrong" response - he always does the best he knows how. The human must also respond to the horse.

The object is to work out of the equations so that the cue becomes the pressure.

The idea of teaching tricks makes people approach training tricks differently from training the usual things. People are more inclined to reward the tries and see the small pieces when teaching tricks. But there is no difference between teaching tricks and anything else.

When you miss the little responses, the horse will eventually stop trying.

When asking a mare to move forward on the ground (ie to lead her), Harry did NOT release as soon as she moved, because she had a lot of drag/resistance. Keeping the pressure on slightly longer helps her be more prompt. Linda - I too have done the same as you described with horses that are learning to lead etc, Keep light pressure on til they move slightly forward and immediately release - as you say, sometimes this does not work very well - maybe keeping the pressure on slightly longer is the answer - or one of the answers, or part of the answer.

If a horse understands something but is sluggish about responding, SNAP on the pressure. With some other horses who also had some drag about coming forward, he really "snapped" the pressure on. Same with halting when handler stops walking. Horse must stop at same time, not keep going forward and then wind down.

People tend not to work on something unless they're working on it. IOW when doing other things, don't let the others slip. Take it into everything you do. I.e., If teaching horse to back up, make sure he stays backed up while you're chatting to someone - be consistent. Use peripheral vision to keep track of what horse is doing.

Pat hour horse with meaning. Don't lie to you horse. Horses are always honest.

I also think that an important part of the success of this clinic is the format it was in 2-hour lessons in groups of 3. It's easier to write things down while others are out doing their stuff, and you can also put things into practice.

Well, that's about it from me, I'll see it I can get some friends who are not on horseman to write up their experiences and I'll forward them to the list.