Collection and the power of better balance
Every person who rides at least half seriously has heard of the importance of collection. For most of us it remains a mystery beyond our skills or interest. Worse are the riders who attempt to achieve it when on their horse by dragging the head down and in causing irreparable damage. A disaster I did not want to wish on my brumbies.
I did the Imke course on the promise that the collection she achieved with her horses from free choice was to be unfolded. Running horse workshops is not easy and even harder when you don’t have your horse and there is a language barrier. I spent two days with Imke and left none the wiser on the way to help my brumbies achieve collection.
Yet, I still knew the importance of my herd learning collection and thinking about their foot falls and balance and bend and rhythmic movement. For a girl who learnt to ride on the farm by just riding the nuances of collection were beyond my experience.
The generosity of Dolores came to the rescue and she agreed to coach me in the mystery of collection, starting of course on the ground. One of the advantages was that Dolores knew my brumbies well as she had been my guiding coach in Cat and Clicker training. No-one, other than me knows my brumbies better than Dolores, even though she lives in the USA. Oh the power of You Tubes an internet. Dolores sends me the lesson notes, I film my efforts with the boys and so we proceed forward. Slowly but progress.
The excitement of being able to move step by step towards collection is the first step on the journey to riding my brumbies. I will celebrate the day that they both say it is OK for us to experience riding together and if they choice this is not to be that is OK but at least they will have muscled their back and have flexible movement to remain in balance.
CAT-H
A confusing name that I constantly refer to in my blog so I thought it time to revisit my journey of discovery that led me to CAT, Dolores Arste and Professor Jesus Rosales-Ruiz. Both people are leading trainers and scientists in the world of animal behavior.
For the sake of better training it is time that horse training moved from the arena of anecdotal stories and the seemingly mythical powers of the horse whisperers. Scientific validation makes us look at what we are doing and achieving objectively. If a method cannot be replicated then it has little value in the area of science. CAT is one of the few horse training methods to be based on scientific principles.
What history teaches us about collection
Dressage may be a rich persons sport these days but in the Middle Ages a horse and rider in sync with dressage moves was essential in the battles that raged across Europe. For those interested, the few friezes that remain (decorating the old castles) provide an interesting equestrian snap shot to what is collection. They are also a sad reminder of how we have breed horses today with built-in physical problems that did not plague the horses that carried the Crusaders into battle.
Today we breed for size and in the wild the genetic selection is for small and nimble with strong short backs. My brumbies are small with short backs and in the generations that they roamed the National Park this must have been the genetic selection for survival.
The Brumby Day – general
The Brumby Stars: Yarramalong Spring Festival Brumby Show, 10th September 2011
Each year our valley has a Spring Festival and I was asked to do a Brumby Demonstration. Oh dear, who would want to be part of the day. Dorado yes, Sali maybe; Sakima – big question mark.
Everyone who knows Sakima says you can’t have him part of the show, he will be terrified as you get 50-60 people and two’s a crowd for Sakima. Oops, and then we add the cars for all these people and that is scary!!!!!!!!!!!.
The day arrives and we have the Sept winds, oh no brumbies and wind and a recipe for disaster as they are on high alert as they lose their sense of smell and hearing.
Are we related or not?
A couple of posts ago I flagged my desire to DNA test my brumby herd to see if we could identify any relationship.
“At last we have the Uni of Queensland register Save the Brumby Association so that we can do the genetic test on Dorado and Sakima. We will know in a few weeks the news on their connection. Sali and her mob were caught in the same area as Sakima and Dorado. The other mare in the family mob may well be Sakima’s sister as Lisa has seen a lot of similarity. I am encouraging all those breeding the brumbies to now do DNA testing before breeding.”
Sali arrives at Yarramalong
The day to collect Sali from Jan at Bellingen arrived. I flew up the day before to meet Sali and work with her. Jan was right she was a stunner, but a stunner with minimal manners. When food was around Sali simple lost control of her senses. Jan and I chatted about how that would be the first focus of my training when she arrived at the farm. After a great night with Jan swapping horse and brumby stories, Clarrie arrived with the float. Jan, always with the welfare of her brumbies at the foremost, made sure she loaded and was tied safely and we were off.
Call it Madness
Call it madness, middle age brain seizure or just the joy in being able to say yes and follow your heart. Last week I adopted another brumby, called Sali (Sovereign Amber Lass) with a glamorous ‘i’ thrown in for good measure. After a week of deciding and talking to Jan, the President of ‘Save the Brumbies’ I decided to follow my heart – and not my brain.
Sali has joined our herd.
Curiosity and Fear in Training
As I work with my brumbies I have a choice of which motivation I use to train them. Their hierarchy of motivation is:
- Control
- Security
- Food
- Curiosity
Most Natural horsemanship training starts with curiosity, the lowest motivation for a horse. So one has to be pretty interesting for curiosity to be a major motivator. For many of the scientists in animal behaviour and for top horse trainers in the USA, food is a very fundamental part of their training routine. And I am not just talking Clicker training.
This is what I have found as I use curiosity and food in my training with the brumbies.
