|
 |
| |
Ballarat, Victoria – 23 May 2010 Clinic
Natalie Jones
|
Although it was a freezing cold morning in Ballarat, a wonderful group of people, all at different levels of skill and confidence and all at different stages with their horses, were keen to enjoy a great day of learning and fun. We were joined by quite a few fencesitters, who were very interested to watch and learn all about Carlos and his philosophy.
After a brief introduction, we led our horses into the arena for some groundwork. Carlos demonstrated how to lead a horse in a way that the horse understands, by leading as an alpha mare would do. The horse followed on a soft rope and stopped when Carlos stopped, ears right at Carlos’ shoulder. After that, every horse that Carlos worked with at the clinic wanted to follow him around for the rest of the day!
That lesson was followed by some desensitising, to help us establish confidence and trust with our horses, using (among other things) flags and tarps.
|
Sarah's Horse 'Blue' follows Carlos with no lead rope at all.
|
Jane’s horse was a little nervous about the flag at first, but Carlos soon helped him build up his confidence.
|
Carlos worked with ‘Pooh’ desensitising with the flag. First he gave ‘Pooh’ the opportunity to have a good look at it.
|
Sarah’s horse shows a great deal of trust having the tarp completely over his head.
|
After lunch, we saddled up for some ridden work, which included revisiting the flags and tarps for some desensitising under saddle (to reinforce our groundwork). If that wasn’t enough, it was a fantastic sight to see everyone riding bitless! After practising our yielding and some group exercises to socialise our horses, we worked on trot to canter transitions. What was so amazing, was that when we asked our horses in the right way, we actually had to do less to get the right response. Most importantly, we gave our horses the opportunity to offer the correct response after giving the softest cue we could. Not only were the canter transitions smoother, our horses were more relaxed.
I think everyone left the clinic feeling much more confident and armed with new knowledge that they could take home and practice, and ultimately improving their relationships with their horses. I learned a lot at the clinic but, most critically, I realised the importance of being 100% consistent with everything that you do with your horse. You really have to be ‘in touch’ with your horse and able to apply ‘feel and timing’. You really have to be 100% focused on your horse and totally ‘in the moment’.
What a great day…
|
The whole group all lined up at the end of the day for a photo with Carlos.
|
|
|
