July | 2009 | Horsegirl on a Journey

Monthly Archives: July 2009

I’m so glad I know so little about showing

Posted on July 31, 2009 by horsegirlonajourney

In searching for a definition for a horse world phrase that’s always puzzled me — “an ‘own son’ of [famous sire]” — I came across a thread in which people expressed their abhorrence of various practices used in all kinds of competitions. Horrific, evil things I don’t even want to list here, that are apparently considered normal ways to get your horse to look, move, and behave in certain ways in a number of disciplines.

I am so glad I got my first horse in my late 30s and have never had much contact with the show world.

I am so glad I found what one of the posts referred to as “all that Parelli nonsense,” with its focus on partnership and humane treatment.

I am so glad I am part of the Parelli student body at a time when the Celebrations, the Games (as in competitions, not as in the language of the seven games), the support for play groups, and other avenues for cooperation and for competition are becoming more available to more of us. I would love to take Rocky places to show off his brilliance and beauty. But I don’t ever want to go to a normal show again — the three I’ve seen, ranging from a schooling show to the National Gran Prix jumping at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, combined with what I have gleaned from reading, make it clear that it’s not a place for me.

Obviously not everyone outside of Parelli mistreats horses, and some people who have natural partnerships with their horses can’t stand Parelli, and there are people competing at all levels in all disciplines who do not practice cruelty.

I do hope that anyone who starts to question why they are doing what they’re doing will Google it and find better ways to treat their horses. “Everyone does it” is an excuse no teenager gets away with, so why should adults, when doing things to horses that anyone with an ounce of empathy knows is horrible? “You have to do it to win” is the same justification athletes use about steroids, models use about starvation, pimps use about beating up sex workers, and politicians use about mudslinging.

Displaying ribbons and trophies won through abusive practices is eerily similar to serial killers and stalkers keeping photographs, articles, videos, and even more grisly mementos of their own obsessions.

Displaying ribbons and trophies won through putting the relationship first, working together toward a goal, preserving the dignity of the horse, and striving for continual improvement with a horse who loves his job and performance? Beautiful! What a cool tribute to the time, effort, and give-it-your-all spirit!

How anyone who thinks they loves horses could perpetuate these tortures in these times when so many natural horsemanship practitioners are online and on television and authoring books and trying so hard to make a living by getting the word out is beyond me. How anyone who does NOT love horses can be or stay in the horse world when it is so expensive and so risky is equally hard to fathom.

But I think every time I start to feel like I’m failing Rocky with my lack of savvy, progress, time, or confidence, I will remind myself of what so many horses suffer, and that Rocky will never experience the cruelty, injustice, or pain-inflicting practices that so many horses do. He’s in his forever home with a human who keeps trying to do better and better to provide him with purpose, play, and partnership. He’s fine.

Categories: Love | 1 Comment

Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned ~Mark Twain

Posted on July 30, 2009 by horsegirlonajourney

Amazing, this chance to be a passenger, to give over my horse to the instructor, and concentrate on feeling my body in relationship to the horse’s body. I’ve never had lessons like this. Imagine where we would all be if we all got to start out this way! Kids who grow up with horses and become instructors in their 20s have no personal experience with what it’s like for their adult amateur students, struggling to find balance and fluidity that their bodies did not learn early in life. Erin assures me that it’s possible to learn this stuff as an adult, though, and one doesn’t lose anything by trying.

We used my English saddle this time as Rocky’s back was a little sore from Tuesday, but I took the stirrup leathers off and left them in the tack room. It was much harder to stay on my balance point at first, as the high cantle wants to tip my pelvis the wrong way — with a hollow lower back rather than a rounded one. Once I got the gist of where to sit, though, I was able to adapt. My saddle is the Bates Caprilli all-purpose model with the changeable gullets and I had it computer-fitted to Rocky so I know it fits him well (or at least, it did last year).

The good news is that my focus was already much better. Erin taught me to look way up at something far outside the arena, not something on the rail or even on the Cover-All frame. When I did this even I could feel Rocky relax and stride more freely and by the end of the session it felt more natural to look up and out than it did to look down.

I was also able to stay with my eyes closed for longer periods of time. I felt like I kept sliding to the left, which was excellent feedback. I asked Erin if I was, in fact, sliding that way, and she said yes, about an inch. It felt like a foot! I’m not sure if it’s because the left was the inside of our current circle or if I generally weight myself to the left.

I will pay attention in the new few days as I practice on my own — my left is the side with the tweaked knee and the never-fully-recovered ankle sprain, both of which are fine when riding without stirrups but achey with stirrups. So perhaps I do lean into that side more than the right. Not to mention my old habit of putting all my weight on the ligaments on the outside of the ankle. I supinate somewhat profoundly, which is hard on the ankle ligaments at the best of times; doing it in a stirrup is agonizing. (I have Jenni to thank for realizing what I was doing that was causing me so much trouble that first year of lessons before I got Rocky.)

But I’m riding as a passenger now, sans stirrups, imagining a ball joint behind my belly button and bearings in my hips. I also tried what Linda calls “pedaling,” moving my whole leg from the hip, not just the ankle, following her maxim that it’s harder to tense up and brace if you’re moving. I didn’t have to do that very long before I could keep the joint loose without exaggerating the motion — yay! — and yet doing it really helped me feel when Rocky’s hind legs are in the air and swinging forward. I told Erin that I had a glimmer of what Bill Dorrance writes about, knowing where the horse’s feet are. (Discovery has an interesting blog post about how quadripeds move, with neat horsey videos and illustrations.)

Rocky needs lots of warmup, as do I, and Erin said to do lots of walking. That we’re to walk until I’m begging her to trot — that’s when we’ll know I’m ready. Point-to-Point is key, and we can do it outside the arena too.

I am re-reading the Stardance series by Spider Robinson, which involves a lot of thinking about moving and dancing in space, and one of the characters noted recently that the body wants to come to rest. We get used to stopping, in gravity, and have to remember in the space station and later in open space that we’ll keep going unless we do something to stop or change the motion (hit a wall, engage a thruster, etc.). The characters have to learn to overcome the expectation and the desire to hold still, and get comfortable with gently wafting about. That made me think of how resting at a point is a reward for Rocky, and how he will enjoy the game and not get bored as long as I vary the points we go to.