Today I worked for 3 hours with Sargent in a clinic given at the farm where I am boarding. The clinician is Brent Greaff. I am very impressed with his layed-back style and how well the horses respond to it. I learned that Sargent has a tendency to move away from things that worry him in a lateral direction. He also “disconnects” his head and neck from his shoulders. This means that he over-flexes his neck to the side…more curve than is in the rest of his body. He does ths same thing under saddle. I know that I have taught him to do this with repeated lateral-flexion exercises. I have rewarded this and he is only giving me what he thinks I want.
The exercise I learned the most from was directing Sargent to walk on a circle, then asking him to reach his inside hind leg underneath himself, but still move forward (not totally disengage the hind quarters). It took MANY attempts before I got over feeling very akward asking for this. I am beginning to understand the difference between”force” and “feel.” I also liked the how we are timing our “feel” when a foot is about to leave the ground. We practiced asking our horse to walk fast, slow and do the “Tom Dorrence shuffle”. As each front foot was about to leave the ground, we would show our horse by feel what speed we wanted him to walk. This was WAY COOL.
I have 2 more days of the clinic. Today was all on the ground. Tomorrow will be a combination of ground school and under saddle. Sunday…well, we will see. I am so glad I signed up for this!
