Today
the next clinic starts, the clinic after *my* clinic. And my life goes
on, blessedly not skipping a beat. But the time outside of time, the
time in the magic rectangle of an arena . . . yes, I do want to be there
again.
So the biggest thing that I've brought away from the Buck
clinic is that I can do it. Maybe not to that level, but there are
tools, there is timing to work on, there is the horse, there is feel, it
makes sense.
First there is groundwork. There is not anything
in groundwork that is not directly applicable to riding, and it is all
about getting control of their feet. Eventually, depending on how good
you are, their feet become your feet when you
are riding. And it is all about getting them to follow a feel, to be
light, responsive. One of Buck's "isms" is that a horse can NEVER be
light to your hands if he is not light to your legs. If he is light to
your legs, he has a chance to be light to your hands.
Another
"Buck-ism" is that it isn't about training the horse but about training
your body to do something consistently. If your body will do it
consistently, your horse will pick up on it; will get the message. And
so perhaps the first discipline is to always ask as though you are on
the most highly trained horse there is. The very first time you ride a
colt, ask him to walk through moving your pelvis from position 3 to
position 2. He won't know what the heck you mean, but then you back it
up with the equivalent of phases and soon he will know what you mean
when you move your pelvis to ask him to walk. Always always always start
light. Do
this when grooming in a stall, when walking out to the fields, ALL THE
TIME: know what you want and ask with the least possible thing.
So
on a lead rope, there is always float in the rope. You can't pull a
horse along: drive. Always be prepared: if you don't have your flag,
use your rope.
Another principle is, whatever you are doing, keep
doing it until you get a change. If you are doing the half circles on a
line as you walk, keep going until the horse respects your space,
follows a feel, and offers good expression (for example). YOU have to
have PRESENCE to get this done. YOU have to change. The horse changes
very easily -- it is MUCH harder for you to change BUT if you want the
horse to change, YOU have to change. The whole point of this is to not
train your horse but to get your horse's feet to be your feet. If you
can do that, you can do anything (dressage, cow work, jumping,
roping, trail riding, anything). But don't ever stop doing something
when it is bad -- keep at it until it is better.
Some of the
things Buck said: "It isn't about winning a battle: It is about
developing understanding. I'm trying to get you all to make peace and
you are ready to make war!" "It is about how little you can do."
"Always be sorting out what works and what doesn't and QUIT DOING WHAT
DOESN'T WORK!" "You thin I'm just doing a little exercise with this
horse. I'm changing how this horse processes the entire species of
humans!" "I'm not a horse trainer. I take great pride in that. Horses
don't like horse trainers." "Learn all the things to do on the ground
so you don't have to be a great bronc rider." "Don't prevent the horse
from thinking: Allow the horse to think." "How little can you do?"
How should your horse be? Always
relaxed but always ready. You should be able to bring his life/energy up and down immediately, without trouble.
So,
what to do? First, take time with the flag to get the horse used to
it. It isn't something to be scared of. They shouldn't even startle at
it. They will learn that the flag means NOTHING if there is not a
leading hand. But that leading hand should always offer on a floating
rope, and only if the horse doesn't take you up on that good deal should
you drive. Tap the shoulder, the rib, the hip, in that order, if he
doesn't go. Let him circle, and even pet him with the flag as he does.
Your feet keep moving. Then walk to the hip, bend with the lead,
untrack hind, let him line up with you. Teeter back.
Buck has very specific ways to saddle and very specific ways to bridle and they are on his DVDs. And they work too.
Colt notes:
The horse should always
understand that: 1) I can move his feet; 2) He cannot move my feet; and 3) He can move without being troubled.
The
colt homework the first night was: 1) be able to be careless with the
flag; 2) circling up (lock lead on outside hip, walk to hip, get flexion
and inside hind steps over); 3a) throw rope over face; 3b) lead around
outside of horse (rope from halter to behind him), come to pressure (be
light); 4) half circle ground exercise.
From the circle up exercise, you are looking to bend and step and hindquarters move on a FEEL.
An
exercise to promote precision in the human was to offer on a soft feel,
make ONE circle then step to hindquarters, bend and roll hind ONE
circle and STOP, being ACCURATE. Over and over. Because it is really
the repetition.
Mount from the fence stuff includes getting them
to lead by on a feel. Then climb the fence and get them to lead by
right to left. Bump up on lead and
STOP bumping when their hindquarters move to the left. Once they are
leading by and bumping up well, dink around them from above them on the
fence with ropes, flags, move stirrups, throw a rope and coil back up,
everything you can think of. To half mount, always keep left hand and
left foot on fence then if the horse goes, you can stay on the fence.
When
you put on the snaffle bit, you have to do all this again in that.
Bend them in the snaffle. Get them to lead by in the snaffle. Bump up
in the snaffle. If they are moving on a feel, this should go well.
Everyone,
colt or not, will want to teach their horse to back from the slobber
strap. Take hold of it with
palm facing down, pinkie just touching bit. Ask by feel. Add rhythm
by bumping bit on chin if good deal doesn't take hold. Keep at it until
the good deal works. AFTER there is NO resistance, add backing
circles, backing faster and more slowly, back then forward (if there is
resistance forward, drive with flag). If he flares sideways, back by
fence until he can straighten out. Always build in the FEEL!
Once
you do get on, you aren't going to want to ask them to go forward and
then take back on them. Leave their mouth alone. Use a one rein stop
and/or roll hind then front to give their excess energy direction. You
wouldn't be asking for soft feel with two reins until the horse could do
this stuff on a floating rein.
He went through some information
on hobbling but personally I'd have to know more about it that I do now
to attempt to teach this.
He went over the general progression
in breaking babies: When weaned, start with a rope in a foaling
stall. Rope them but don't pull. Drive, then put rope over hips to
turn. Teach them to corner up to yield hind, then to circle up. Then
you can touch them at their perfect balance point (where they will
neither go forward nor backward) and teach them how good your touch
feels. Then to the other side. Only then put a feel on the rope and
wait for them to let the forequarters come. That's the beginning of
leading. (Horses will learn anything if you can learn to QUIT when they
are doing what you want instead of when they are doing something you
don't want.)
Those are all the colt notes I have from 2013.
H1 notes:
Obviously
I don't have as many specific notes from H1. I didn't write down any
Buck-isms from that. I just tried to get the progressions mostly. Let
me see if I can get them in some sort of
order.
The first thing is probably flexion and the elements
thereof. In proper flexion the horse's poll needs to be higher than his
withers, his head at a 90 degree angle to his body, his ears level, and
face perpendicular to the ground (vertical flexion).
Soft feel:
Get a soft feel at standstill, both reins, horse gives head (vertical
flexion) without troubling his feet. Do this thousands of times. Then
start getting a soft feel while moving withOUT it changing the forward.
Only after you can get it with no resistance as a response when you ask
do you try to hold it.
One big exercise is the short
serpentine. This emphasizes the hands and bending and all four quarters
moving the same. It is a great calming exercise too. One of the few
exercises you are in position 1 for, and rather choked up on reins.
Outside rein must give as much as inside takes. Horse should flex to 90
degrees, walk about a four foot (part of a) circle, then walk straight a
step or two, then go the other say. The inside leg is back, the
outside leg is at girth. It would take 10 minutes or more to get all
the way around the arena doing this. Timing should be as inside fore
lifts off ground.
Subsequent to this is the open serpentine which
emphasizes the legs. On loose rein with legs to guide, do basically
the same thing as the short serpentine.
There are FOUR ways to move the hindquarters:
1a) get lateral flexion, add leg to move hind, release hand and leg together.
b) get lateral flexion, add leg to move hind, release leg and allow him to find stop, release hand.
2) center soft feel, leg to move hind, release.
3) leg only to move hind, use hands to block other movement.
4)
flexion without leg and allow them to search for what you want.
Now,
to use #4, you need to have it IN MIND BEFORE you do it, and go back
and forth from just flexion to flexion to move the hind but ALREADY have
it in mind BEFORE you ask. This one thing will do wonders in getting
the horse to try to take a feel of you to figure out what you want (says
Buck).
Progression of go: move pelvis from position 3 to
position 2, add vibration to leg, the mean it! Always offer that good
deal first.
Progression of stop: soft feel, sit on pockets
(position 3), then pull if you have to. How fast and hard you move to
position 3 should tell him how fast to stop.
Every time you stop (on ground or mounted) you should teeter back.
Progression of back up: 1) Stop, release, back, release every step.
2) stop, stay in soft feel,
back up, release every step back.
3) stop, stay in soft feel, back up, release to stop backing.
Sometimes when you back up, you should rest there and sometimes move forward, even jumping them out (a bit).
Progression to hurry back up (only after stop and back up is PERFECT at all the progressions):
1) with reins (time a pick up with reins just before feet leave ground to hurry them up).
2) with reins and legs at the same time.
3) with legs only.
Progressions of 1/2 circle exercise:
1) on floating rein, front end reaching more than hind (time
outside leg at girth asking inside fore to open up just as inside fore
leaves ground).
2) soft feel carried throughout
(at first you'll get the soft feel, start the 1/2 circle, lose it some,
just stay with it until it comes back soft, then release -- eventually
it will carry through the whole 1/2 circle).
3)soft feel, halfway through half circle change the bend and leg yield to the fence with shoulders leading
4) soft feel, change bend, leg yield to fence, strike off in canter
5) soft feel in canter, leg yield to fence pushing shoulders over, simple change of lead.
6) flying change.
Other
exercises include getting and holding soft feel while moving without
changing forward, slowing body to slow pace (walk as if on eggs, then
throw the slack and walk out). Also backing circles, starting with just
a little, maybe a step out every three or four steps back.
(I
will note that on the first day
in colts he was talking about controlling the feet and knowing where
they are and placing them, a front when backing now crosses behind, now
in front. Well, in trying that in warming up that afternoon, I backed
the best circles I ever had by thinking about that fore crossing "now
behind". In H1 he asked us to time up with the front foot that was
opening instead of the one crossing and I had a much harder and less
successful time of it.)
Always build the feel. Always do as little as you can but always get it done.
There. I finished these notes a week after I got back home.
