Mindful Monday: The Mindful Horse
16. Feb, 2009 
20 Comments
MINDFUL MONDAY image courtesy growabrain@typepad.com
There was a Clinton Anderson Clinic in town last week.
And I watched my Pat Parelli videos again last week, too.
And as readers know, I’m a student and employee of Linda Tellington-Jones.
I’ve been thinking about those round pen sessions between new horse and trainer. Neither has seen the other before, and it’s a neck-and-neck race for dominance and submission. You’ve all seen them. They get you on the edge of your seat every time. In its extreme form, The Race To the Horse comes to mind.
Who Could Resist This Face?
I attended a Clinton Anderson Clinic in Ogden Utah in 2005. It was so cold we turned blue, but I went both days, and stayed all day. And boyo, does he get the job done. At first, long before I knew there was another way, I was totally enamored of his Aussie accent, his long legs and his, shall we say, confident way with horses. Now when I watch, I still admire some of his techniques, but I cringe at the dominance inherent in his manner, and the lack of time he allows the horse to stop and think. If I watch the horse carefully, I can feel the rapid heartbeat and lack of true understanding in his heart. He sees what Clinton wants him to do, and, like the intelligent animal he is, he does it. But he does it because he has NO CHOICE. The sheer dominance of the human being he is corralled with allows no time for a true partnership to develop. He also does it because he has been allowed NO TIME TO THINK. When Clinton Anderson says,
Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult,
he allows no time for the horse to pause and come to the conclusion himself. Clinton Anderson’s entire basis for training is all about “Yes Sir, yes Ma’am” and gaining RESPECT. Moving the horse’s feet gains that respect. This is a useful thing and a big plus in the safety department, especially for the novice rider. It’s just that there’s so much testosterone involved. Hasn’t he noticed that the majority of pleasure riders are female? Where are most of us going to come up with that much masterly manliness in the face of a barging horse? No novice I know could accomplish what it takes to master Clinton’s methods and get that respect on the ground and in the saddle, including myself. It takes time. And in that time, you have lost something valuable. The horse’s trust and partnership, and his ability to pause and think for himself.
The Showman
Pat Parelli always won my respect and admiration by talking about partnership with the horse. In his videos, he stresses
always allowing the horse to be right,
and giving him adequate time and physical space (this is important when you have a scary horse) to make the desired decision. Longeing a horse toward a tree comes to mind. After two or three tries, the horse comes to understand that he is to avoid the tree and stay on a semi-circular path, because he gets no slack to go around the tree. Pat does not run screaming at the horse, or yank the lead to pull the horse from behind the tree, but merely allows the horse time to work out the issue on his own.
To develop the horse’s responsibility rather than making him a mindless puppet.
This is confidence building at its best. That’s progress toward building a mindful, thinking partner to ride with. Like others, however, I have some amorphous problems with the Parelli method. And no, this does not include personal problems with the Parelli “PR Machine.” As far as I’m concerned, he can suck in as many riders as he wants with that enormous and charming ego as long as they learn something. Heck, I bought some videos. I’m just as guilty of getting trapped in the PR buzz as anyone else. I’ve learned a lot from him, though probably not in the way that he intended. Admittedly, my problem could come from my own ignorance and lack of exposure to the right kind of horsepeople. But I have never yet seen a Parelli student whose horse stood quietly under saddle, and was able to walk, trot, canter and gallop according to his rider’s wishes, or make safe and sane transitions among gaits. But they were very good at moving that green ball around the round pen. Again, probably my lack of exposure to the trainees. If you happen to be reading this and you are one, please feel free to put me solidly in my place. In fact, I really welcome this. I want to learn more.
Linda Tellington-Jones at her Wedding to Roland Kleger. Photo ourtesy Gabrielle Boiselle Edition Boiselle
Time and time again, I have heard Linda Tellington-Jones decry the use of longeing as a horsemanship tool, reminding us to,
Have the grace to stop running your horse around in circles and allow him time to stop and think about what you are asking him to do.
Like Pat Parelli, Linda is a founding member of the Anti-Longeing Movement. To her, it just doesn’t make sense to run the horse around in circles until he is so exhausted he cries “Uncle” and turns in defeat, head down, to face you. Linda would rather make friends. Though she does not refer directly to mindfulness, Linda’s training method, the Tellington TTouch Equine Awareness Method, stresses, you guessed it, awareness on the part of both horse and rider/ground trainer. And the good thing is, any idiot can do it. If this were not true, then I would not be writing about it, because I amany idiot.
At every stage of training, T.T.E.A.M. is all about the pause. The pause to allow the horse to think and make the desired decision to either stop, turn, move in the right direction, get the right lead, whatever the rider is asking for. And I stress asking. Never is there a yank on the rope or an aggressive switch of the whip. Linda’s Playground for Higher Learning, a kind of gymnasium for horses, can be set up in under an hour in any ring. It is worked in hand and under saddle, with the same goal in mind: a horse in hand or beneath you who is capable of independent but parallel thought. A thinking partner.
I’ve been lucky enough to see that the results of working the Playground for Higher Learning translate to under saddle and outside the ring. Because of the added benefit of Tellington TTouch and its effects on the brainwave patterns of the horse, his ability to learn calmly and to remember what he has learned is significantly enhanced. You don’t have to carry the green ball outside the ring and start over.
What about when you are faced with a monster of a horse you can’t handle this way, you ask? (First of all, I’m not talking to trainers here. I have no business doing that. If you’re the average rider, like me, and dealing with your own horse, who proves too difficult or dangerous to handle or ride, get a new one, but not before you find a safe and permanent home for the one who’s too much to handle.) Being a T.T.E.A.M. practitioner-in-training only, I can’t answer this question with any authority. My advice, based on hours of watching T.T.E.A.M. professionals do this, is, get help, the same way you probably would in any case. I’ve seen pros double and triple team a scary horse, TTouching for trust until the “monster” was drooling in relaxed delight. This does not mean that the horse became a marshmallow in the next steps in training, but they had something to fall back on when he became unruly again. And each time they would fall back on it, a little it more trust and relaxation developed until the horse understood that there was no battle for dominance. Over the course of even just an hour, a horse would gradually come to understand what was being asked.
“Stop and think. There’s nothing to fear. No equine dominance model is being used here. We won’t insult your intelligence by trying to fool you into thinking we are horses. Let’s just be friends. and try some fun stuff.”
Before you know it, all this play on the ground and under saddle turns into a partnership with true mindfulness on the part of both horse and rider.
I can’t imagine a safer, more satisfying and fun equine partner than a mindful one.
I am interested to know what readers think of the most popular horse trainers out there. And why. Where have you gotten your most trusted methods?
website
Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of experience with Clinton Anderson or TTouch. I do have some with the Parelli system, mostly from learning from a friend who has been using it successfully.
I like using Parelli as a part of my training, but not necessarily as a whole. When I was re-starting my new horse, the ground games and techniques were great for establishing a personal and working relationship. It helped me teach Ace the basics of moving away from pressure, moving different parts of his body, and looking to me for leadership. That was critical. Now that I’m working him more under saddle, I’m going back more to my experience riding and polishing horses and using less of a specific system. While it is based on the teaching methods such as pressure/release, I’m not doing the specific tactics like riding in a halter and one lead. But all the Parelli work we did on the ground is transferring to teaching Ace under saddle. I want my horse to accept the bit and know how to go straight and bend and make nice transitions, and I’m asking for that right off the bat. Not exactly Parelli, but a useful combination for what I want to do with Ace.
I think you made one really key point about the Parelli machine when you said “lack of exposure to the trainees.” I’ve had a lot of discussion on a Parelli post on my blog about how great or how terrible the Parelli’s and their system are. What I notice is that people are making these judgments based on some people who use it and some horses who have come out of the program. And the problem with that is that not all people will use it correctly, and not all people will have the same ideas as Pat and Linda. It seems rather wrong to me to judge the Parelli’s on how people are using/misusing their program through only seeing parts of it. I agree that it won’t be the right system for everyone, but it can be a great system for some.
Clinton Anderson came up between a friend and I. After hearing what happens at his clinic I have absolutely no intent on spending money to see him brutalize a horse while people laugh at his jokes.
I’ve never found one single clinician I can embrace as a “complete” trainer. I have not been impressed with what I’ve seen of Clinton Anderson. A few techniques of Parelli’s are useful.
I like what I read of Mark Rashid, and what I’ve done personally with Marlis Amato.
I love the TTouch exercises, and often use them with my horses during moments of resistance.
The thing about respect is that it should go both ways. I want my horse to respect me, but I also want him to know without question that I respect him too. It would never occur to me to use exhaustion as a training tool.
I’ve been visiting here recently and really enjoying your posts!
horseideology
I have only heresay on this subject, and I want to stress that. I trained with a woman and her husband (also a natural horsemanship trainer) who worked with Anderson at Road to the Horse. They told me that the moment that the event was finished, Anderson turned the horse out of the arena so he could collect his accolades and left the stressed, shocked horse to recover without another thought.
The horse , I was told, took weeks to recover. Again, heresay. I have no way of verifying whether or not this is true, and I certainly hope it is not. That would be so sad and disappointing.
I wonder if this isn’t a typical response for a horse in the hands of ANY trainer in such a contrived situation as the Road to the Horse.
billie
So glad to see you here.
Until I met Linda, I would never have considered adhering to one trainer’s methods. Ever. Seemed a bit too much like drinking the purple KoolAid.
I too admire Mark Rashid.
There is another trainer I have recently discovered, Franklin Levinson, whose site looks inviting and worth checking out. I plan on researching just what he’s selling very soon.
You are right about respect. It MUST go both ways. I always wanted to shout that at Clinton Anderson. “Where’s the respect for the HORSE????” I could only see it for Mindy. Otherwise, it seems, for him they are only units to be processed, nothing more.
And when you are a student, you just can’t look at your own horse like that. They know.
Hope to see you here again soon,
Kim
Jackie
I suppose it wasn’t entirely truthful when I said I had yet to see someone use the Parelli method exclusively. A trainer at my old barn was a successful Parelli graduate and was excellent with horses.
But I never got to see the whole process from starting a horse to seeing one finished. It’s really hard to judge the value of a training system without having seen the whole thing from start to finish.
I always keep a wary eye out for hidden dominance, which bugs me no end, and I saw some of that sneak in even in her training. I do realize that the entire concept of pressure and release may have some form of dominance inherent in it. I have to keep watching my Parelli videos to learn where and why Parelli uses it. Can you comment on this?
I’m definitely not a Parelli expert, and I too need to finish watching the first level DVDs. But from what I’ve learned from my experienced trainer friend, pressure and release in Parelli is just about getting the horse to move different parts of its body. It’s based on how they move each other around in the herd (which is partly aimed at establishing leadership). Aiming pressure at the hind end will move the hind end. Aiming pressure at the front will move the shoulders. Certain pressure gets forward, other pressure gets back. They advocate two different kinds, the “Porcupine” which is physical touch, and rhythmic pressure that moves the air near the part you want to move. The less it takes to get the horse to respond to the pressure, the better. There are four stages, the first is the lightest as possible and is typically visual only and no physical pressure. If you don’t get response there, you gradually get firmer and stronger until the horse gives any kind of try, and then you release. I can now wag my finger side to side and Ace will step backwards, or raise my arm and point the direction I want him to walk and off he goes. It’s quite fun as the communication more and more subtle.
At it’s most basic (as with all the Parelli games) it’s based on games horses in the wild play with each other.
Not sure if that helps much, but it’s my best interpretation.
Jackie
I suppose this is standard with all forms of pressure and release, but I do sincerely appreciate the way Parelli approaches these things as games, and that the horse can never be wrong.
ENH – well I think if you see someone beat a horse in public you can bet that what goes on once the audience goes home is far, far worse.
What is disturbing is that if these same things were being done to a cat or a dog in public they would be arrested for abuse. But when a horse is beaten it’s a “show” and amusing. Some pretty twisted people out there.
Pat Parelli is another who does a big talk. What’s interesting is that he has few people who reach his level three and those that do, often drop out. I have met more Parelli trained horses that were crazy then any other – also more dangerous.
JMO which will probably be extremely unpopular.
One thing I meant to say in my earlier comment is that I’ve seen a few trainers who get so caught up in their personal “training method” they forget that the method needs to change to meet the needs of each individual horse.
It annoys me to no end to hear a trainer make a statement about a horse that doesn’t “get” his/her method, coming up with some reason why something is wrong with the horse.
At a certain point the big names seem to get locked into their methods and that’s when they lose me.
I need to read more of Linda’s work. It seems like I read someplace that she has done research on the use of labyrinths with horses? I have been in the process of making a labyrinth for nearly a year now, b/c I have a feeling it will be a wonderful tool for spending time with the horses outside the arena.
horseideology
You have a scary point there about the “show” aspect.I have seen people laugh at things that horrified me at the demonstrations of many trainers.
I am utterly ignorant of how many trainers Parelli has at level 3 or how the horses behave. I do know that where I live, any sustained form of ideological horse training, especially if you call it “natural,” is unpopular. Even the little bit of work that I have done was viewed with suspicion, denying even the basics of pressure and release.
I don’t get to see much of it in action anymore, and thus cannot speak to it with any authority.
billie
Your point about trainers getting “locked in” is valid. I have seen it so many times with trainers around here. How is a horse supposed to “get it” if it’s not being made clear what is asked for? There is nothing wrong with the horse. The trainer is usually not being flexible.
The thing I especially like about Linda Tellington-Jones is her inherent flexibility. If one thing isn’t working, she will try something else. In a way, that’s the whole point of her ideology.
Case in point: A couple of months ago, she told me about a horse in a training that refused to stand for saddling. His owners had tried everything. Linda’s “method”? She walked over to the off side and saddled from there. The horse stood quietly and accepted the saddle and girthing. No problem. The lesson? Don’t get stuck in one mindset. Don’t force. Open your mind to all sorts of possibilities.
There has been a great deal of research on the methods of TTEAM. One of the goals of my blog is to present both the work from inside Tellington TTouch and work from the outside scientific community that supports it.
You know, it takes only five minutes to construct a labyrinth using cavaletti, don’t you? Take a look at Linda’s website, or email me and I can tell you how to do it. No point in waiting all that time to use one. Another point of importance to Linda is that you don’t need all sorts of complicated equipment to train your horse.
I made my way to Linda’s website last night and saw how she is using the poles to create the labyrinth – which is good to know, and I can do that in the meantime.
The one I’ve been working on is one of my ongoing pet projects here – it’s down a woodland path on a sunny spot of our property and I have been using manure and shavings to create it. It had gotten very beautiful and was nearly done when we had some work done down there and now have had to shift gears. But eventually my goal is that we will walk through the woods down the labyrinth path to the labyrinth itself.
The good thing is that while the work was being done I created a second woodland path, so when all this is complete, I will have a nice walking path for the horses, and a sunny labyrinth area. I like the notion that it’s away from the regular goings-on of the farm, and that we take a few minutes’ walk to get there.
I’ve ordered a couple more of Linda’s books – you’ve got me very intrigued.
Keil Bay christened it awhile back and now we have to regroup, but by the time it’s use-able it will be a very special place.
wow billie
Sounds like you have a real project going.
I wish you’d post some pictures when you have time. I’d also like to see Keil Bay.
Which books of Linda’s did you order? I hope you enjoy them, and get a lot of good ideas from them.
I ordered the A-Z one, and the one that focuses on TTouch. We have Let’s Ride, and I thought we had the TTouch-focused one, but if we do, I can’t find it. :0
There are some photos of the labyrinth on my blog – I’m not sure where in the archives though and I have yet to do labels that might actually make it easier to find them!
It might work to google labyrinth and horse, and I think if you google Keil Bay you’ll pull up at least one post that has a photo of him!
billie
The A-Z one is a great reference manual, and I think it explains everything so clearly that you might not ever need another book!
I have a hardcover copy and then a filthy, dog-eared copy that I don’t worry about taking to the barn.
I’ll go run through all the pages in your blog now to find the photos of your labyrinth and of Keil Bay.
“Make the right thing easy & the wrong thing difficult”
Clinton Anderson is a plagiarist–at least Parelli & Frank Bell & Buck Brannaman when they quote the master, Ray Hunt, they attribute source.
I have discerned a tendency in many of your posts about what might be termed celebrity horsemen (sic– for worse, most celebrity NH practitioners are men) to accept their PR without what one might term “mindful scrutiny.”
Being a skeptic by nature, I perhaps err on the other side.
However, Clinton Anderson is, like Parelli, a master salesman who, however, combines the allure of a foreign accent with physical attraction–& the unattributed appropriation of the work, wisdom, & insight of such masters as Tom Dorrance, Ray Hunt, Buck Brannaman, & others.
You ought to remember when standing in the reflected glory of such luminaries as Clinton Anderson: Everything is an illusion–& everything is subject to Samsara.
Shoshin
I think attribution to source is important. Give credit to the master.
What you may be discerning in my posts is not a tendency to accept NH horsemen’s PR without scrutiny, but surprise, and giving credit where I think it’s actually due.
I have spent so much time and so many words (obliquely or otherwise) taking postshots at those guys that when I find something I respect, I have to confess to it.
Please do not fear that mara and samsara in the form of glitzy equine abusers (I don’t mean this to apply to all the above-mentioned trainers!!!!!) is pulling me in.
As I observe, I report.
If I respect, I bow.
*gassho*
It is with no small measure of sadness that I report that the legendary horseman Ray Hunt has died.
Ray Hunt was Tom Dorrances’s “chosen one,” the one to whom he entrusted his inner & seemingly magical mastery of horesemanship.
As Tom Dorrance embodied & Ray Hunt frequently remarked–or words to this effect: It is an inside job.
In other words: It is the human who has to change. Show the horse what you want (communicate in her/his terms) & then GET OUT of the HORESE’s Way.
Ray Hunt was primary mentor to Buck Brannaman (The Horse Whisperer), Frank Bell, & a host of others. Buck Brannaman–a real living legend, & Frank Bell shared living quarters for a time when they both worked under Mr. Hunt–who always put the horse first. Pat Parelli mentions that he studied with Ray Hunt but some have questioned how close he actually was to Mr. Hunt & how much time he actually spent with him.
We have lost a light &, just as when Tom Dorrance died, we will not likely see another like him.
Here is Blog with a nice tribute to Mr. Hunt–including a small list of Mr. Hunt’s memorable aphorisms–including the one Clinton Anderson (see above) plagiarized:
http://www.oak-tree.us/blog/index.php/2009/03/15/ray-hunt
And here is the hyperlink Mr. Hunt’s Web site, with a portion dedicated to a report on his recent death:
http://www.rayhunt.com/
Regards,
M-D Kerns
And here’s an article on Ray Hunt I will wager you will appreciate, entitled “Ray Hunt: The Cowboy Sage”–
In of all places “The Shambhala Sun”:
http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1991