Charles Wilson
NH Clinics

27^th - 28^th October
Shuttleworth EC

Carole writes about Sunday 28^th (Advancing)

Once again Charlie used all his skill to ensure that the five of us were all challenged at our own level.  I had asked to work on helping Mac to bring his hindquarters underneath more to improve his impulsion and lift him off his forehand. I also needed help to improve the draw when working at liberty.  Here are the main things I picked up on:

Ground skills

• Do less.  Work on using my body more, bringing my life up and showing my intention by directing my body before any use of the hand.

• When asking for hindquarter yield use hand just behind the girth, rather than further back under the belly.

• When asking to lower the head turn the head slightly towards you to a more submissive position before asking to lower.

Liberty

• When asking the horse in, turn your shoulder away from the horse (in the opposite direction to which the horse is travelling) thus turning your back on the horse and walk way.  Learn left and right (those watching me will know what I mean!!!)  So far, trying this approach at home has made little difference to the effectiveness of my draw.  Mac happily disengages and turns in to look at me.  He may take a few steps but on most occasions I can't draw him any further to me.

Riding

• I am still tempted use too much leg.  I need to work on active forward before asking for 'rounding'

• Charlie also showed me how to ask Mac to bring the inside hind more under him using a 5m circle .  However I didn't feel happy with this exercise as I felt Mac isn't supple/ soft enough to do this comfortably.

As always, this was a fun and stimulating day and I came away with more and more thoughts buzzing in my head.  The true secret of soft feel is when you have that level of 'collection and up' without losing impulsion.  What a dream! but looks fantastic when it is achieved and must feel wonderful to both horse and rider.

Thanks, Liz, for organising us yet again.

Ken Faulkner Clinic

15^th to 19^th August
Buckingham

Vicki writes

DAY 1 - afternoon of Wednesday 15^th August.

I promised the guys on the camp I would write up my many notes so here goes, most of it was taken as bullet points.  This is purely my interpretation from what I watched on the afternoon of day 1 and days 3 and 4, I hope I have got most of this down correctly if not I hope those taking part can put me right!

Firstly I will say that Ken was certainly on top form with a softness and refinement I hadn’t seen before.  There was a strong showing from the naturally horses group which was great to see and the horses and riders came on huge amounts from start to finish.  There was a mixed of those further on to a couple of complete beginners so there was a good balance

Val had had her indoor school extended which was fantastic considering the sate of the weather the participants had to work in.!  Meaning what could have been a complete wash out was a successful camp.  Most people had stayed in B& B’s but brave Diane had done it properly and camped on site, a braver soul than me!

When I arrived the group had just finished lunch and were going through the first 3 ground skills the first of those being getting a good soft flex from the head and neck a critical element to all areas of the ground skills and something that should be achieved with a soft feel...  The second, a soft yield of the hind quarters and then onto a soft back up from the nose.

The importance of this exercise was not to push on the horse’s nose but to move the horse’s feet, any stickiness in this is in the feet.  This exercise was started but getting a soft flex from the nose before asking for the back up and getting your fingers in time with the horse’s feet. Ideally you are looking for a two time back up not a four time...  For more flex and elevation in the back up once you have it soft softly lift the fingers up towards the eyes, this creates a lift and elevation in the horses shoulders for more cadence in the back up.  You must get the softness in the back up first before asking for more elevation.  If the horses sticks do not push on the nose but gently rock the head to loosen the poll and use the rope towards the legs to encourage movement .the head should be level with the wither, not up high as this just hollows the back, the horses belly and back should lift, this is the posture you require, If the horse drops his head when backing up this just weights the forehand which is not what is desired.

Once the horses were using themselves correctly, off the shoulders and using their bellies and backs lifted and you have soft feet you can start adding in further movements, i.e. backing corners and circles. One side will always be easier than the other.

A two beat back up means the horse is lifting his shoulders and you should be trying to achieve two beat in both back up and sideways.

Do not loose the softness.

You are trying to achieve soft feet not fast feet. Work on quality not quantity.

Backing up hill is a very useful exercise for a horse that bucks as they have to engage their hind quarters to be able to do this and if their hind quarters are engaged properly they should not buck.

The horses head should not be what stops it should be their feet.

From this which was all very in-depth and I took as many notes as I could they moved onto sideways.

The horses back must come up before the horses feet move.  Care about the horse’s posture before and through the sideways.  Shorten the rein, hand on the horse’s side, get the belly to lift and then ask for a step.

Something I noted was that people seemed to forget about their rein hand whilst asking for steps and the horses started to drift as soon as they had no direction. It was easy to see but hard for the guys on the ground who seemed to forget about the all important feel on the rein and keeping the horses inside the halter, as soon as they were reminded of how important this was it all came together a lot better.

Some of the more advanced handlers were starting to play with the sideways doing it on a circle and asking the head to go to the outside and quarters to the inside  being careful not to let the horses get heavy  and using their phases and being aware of their hand positions.

They then got onto yield to a feel with head lowering and raising exercises using pressure and release. The horse’s job is to follow the feel. Does the horse lower his head towards or away form you as this will be either submissive or defensive.

There are many many different ways to use yield to a feel either through the rope or with hands on.

You are not making the foot move but creating the desire for the foot to move – there has to be something in it for the horse. 

Soft solid feel, not wishy-washy.

Yield to suggestion.

First get the all important soft bend – lateral flexion,

Get in time with the horses feet.

Your energy up should be enough to move the horse if not go through the phases.

Breathe out and rub to a stop.

The horse should be flexed enough to keep the front end up so there has to be control in the stop not just a grind to a halt if that makes sense.

Start and finish at the hind quarters, don’t walk round the horse walk through him.

The quickest way to make a horse dull is to ask three times for one step, be effective.

1 Q = 1 step

Start as soft as you possibly can

The support rein is very important.

Moving the front end to a yield to suggestion:

Arrange your position, get the horse to look into the turn and wait for the inside leg to move. Don’t pull the rein back to stop.

Hand in front of the eye – backwards

Hand behind the eye – forwards

Middle of the eye – sideways.

Get the horse to look into the turn, life up, push. (Don’t let the horse drift forwards)

Remember 1 Q = 1 step.

Hold your position in the start and stop and think about how you’d like to be asked.

At this point Cali was showing some rather aggressive faces towards Diane and although Diane said she always did this Ken said it was not OK for the horse to look at you in a bad way so you must keep rewarding the good attitude not the bad.  This was a hard task as it was a case of keeping her moving around until her attitude changed and her ears came forward and timing was critical, very slight to start with till eventually she was giving Ken ears forward when he was asking her to do something and this was rewarded. It did change her look and attitude until she had her ears forward and a nice soft look.  Calli's feet became softer and this consequently meant less ears back, a remarkable change and a tricky one to sort out with such a big horse as she could seem very intimidating just through her size… a Shire X

Don’t just put up with things like this that are not on, change it.

Ken then got onto correct leading and how it is the key to most issues. Get the horse to take the first step.

No lazy horses -we must have soft feet in everything we do.

Soft feet not fast feet.

Don’t pull on the rope.  Use your hand up in front of the eye to stop.

Tap behind the withers or on back to go forwards – the horse should step under your hand.

Don’t get underneath the horse or you will loose straightness.

If the horse doesn’t stop square keep the head slightly on the outside to encourage straightness.

When asking for forwards the horse should never cross your path if he sees you as Alpha, this goes for dogs as well (apparently)

Use your phase to create a Q.

I did not watch day 2 where they did a lot of other ground skills but went to watch days 3 & 4.

DAY 3 morning of Thursday 16^th August

Ken started the morning with a very informative and interesting liberty display starting with a pretty troubled big bay horse.

Again I have taken some key points that stood out to me on this:

When the horse comes into you, stop, don’t walk backwards away from them.

‘Accidental abuse is still abuse’ – This is probably the worst form as we don’t always realise it.  I think this came from this particular horse and how he/she had been brought up. /dealt with in the past by a well meaning owner.

Why would the horse want to do good if there was nothing in it for him - reward, whether this is leaving him to be or a rub when he’s done well.

Give the horse time to answer the question asked.

Need to make sure you point your belly button and twirl rope if needed at the same spot.  Keep checking your draw.

Ken showed dramatically the subtleties of your body position.

Follow your instincts – if your forward is not good it is not a good idea to back up, ‘work with what you have got’.

Start liberty whilst on line.  Let the horse take the first step and walk together.

 The softness in the feet can be fixed at leading – you need impulsion.

A good lead is the key to everything.

Soft feet, soft attitude.

If the horse gets behind you make the circles smaller and as the horse shapes up make the circle bigger.

After Kens various and very different liberty demos in the outside round pens with  three  very different horses the participants spend a long time working on their techniques, some in the pens, some loose just out in the field and others still on line as they still had plenty to refine.  It was fascinating to watch and I was particularly impressed with Kate and Daisy (I know she will hate me saying this) and I do love Daisy, but Kate’s work is really paying off, her liberty in an outside field with all this going on was to die for.  I even spotted Daisy doing circles of canter around Kate, very free and so very focused on Kate there were many many distractions, even buckets of feed and haynets about and Kate’s draw was such Daisy was just with her all over the place.  Fabulous to see.  I know Daisy can still have her moments but it was a pleasure to watch, she is so soft now.  Sal and I had so many different people to watch and all were fabulous and had come on loads, liberty is still the thing that just blows my mind when it looks so great, it seems like magic.  It is however the ‘Truth’

After tea break the guys were told to get their saddles and go back into the school to start some ridden work.  One rein only of course to start with – how could we forget… That dreaded one rein!!! Actually everyone did incredibly well as always.  A bit messy to start with but it all starts to shape up pretty quickly once horses and riders start to tune into each other and ‘get’ what it is they are supposed to be doing.  Prior to getting on everyone ran through the ground skills to check the horses were still settled once their saddles were on.  A couple of horses weren’t and Ken did advise that one in particulars saddle was too tight so saddles were changed accordingly.

Ken showed a couple of exercises to do before the riders started to mount. Including flapping and banging the stirrup leathers onto the side of the saddle to help desensitise, remember to do this on both sides!

Check your flex and have the horses head flexed towards you  before getting on, and through the process of standing up in the stirrup facing the front ask the horse for a bend and repeat this on both sides until the horse is standing happily, Then mount softly and gently keeping the flex.

Once on board every one ran through the lift, reach and relax many times until it becomes second nature.

Asking for a flex from on board - don't pull, preparation is key. Its is the leg that softens the head, it should be a gentle roll of the calf not a squeeze.

Lateral flexion is your half halt.

For a tighter turn lift your hand - flex into an indirect rein.

Think of Indirect rein is a step backwards around a corner.

Push the turns

Lift inside had up the rider’s shoulders should step forward around the turn keeping the shoulders up, not slouching forward.

Backup

Focus eyes

Belly button

Legs

Pick up the rein to stop the forwards as a last resort

Keep your body posture straight.

Sal and I stayed at a B&B over night and we went to watch great display by the devils Horseman on their stunning stallions.

DAY 4  Friday 17^th August

Ken asked everyone to warm their horses up with their saddles on going over all the ground skills as covered over the previous days.  They were then asked to get on when they felt ready with one rein only.  He recapped all the ridden stuff from the day before and the following were excerpts I wrote down as he said then and they came up on the day:

Bend the horse and push the flex.

Indirect rein is a deep lateral flex.

The rein is a hand brake for the front legs.

If you have a lazy horse, resist the urge to use your legs.

The horse should step with a soft touch of the ankle.

Roll your toe in time with the hind leg.

Step backwards around a corner, using your body in a rhythm the same as the horse.

Keep the inside hand higher than the outside

Rider’s shoulders must not be allowed to tip forwards.

Lazy horses will try and fall through the shoulder rather than step through.

In direct rein against the rein (if that makes sense, asking for a bend the opposite way to the side of the rein?)– tip the nose into the right place and then tip the quarters away.

Constant adjustments may be required.

The rein is for balance; put the leg lightly on before you do anything with the hands.

Don’t look down, keep nice and square.

Don’t let your horse make you heavy.

Direct rein – get the flex,

Toes do exactly what fingers do.  With the other hand reach and touch the nose with the loop of the rope for a flex - push the turn, the rein shouldn’t get tight. The inside leg helps the flex.

A little less bend for the direct rein than indirect rein.

For a smaller turn lift the rein. For a bigger turn hand out and forward.

Grouchy horses are lazy horses that aren’t moving!

Learn to push your turns – inside leg for flexion outside hand for the stretch – at this point the legs do what the hands do.

After a while you won’t need to use the rein just the rhythm in your shoulders instead.

If you use your hands to stop you will stiffen the horse’s front legs – he demonstrated this very clearly!

You need to create the desire for the horse to want to work with you. 

Keep your ankles loose.

Lift and push forward – give the horse a corridor to move along i.e. between your legs, keep your toes straight.

Don’t let your hands get lower than your belly button when riding.

Keep your intention and focus.  Don’t let the horse out focus you.

It’s your calf that steers not your heel.

If in the back up your horse tries to out focus you use the belly of the rope to straighten him up.

If the horse starts to go crooked keep your focus and your body straight, keep square hands and belly button pointed straight.

Remember – Eyes, belly button legs – in that order.

Once the back up is good, lift the rein to lift and engage the backup.  Put the rein down and do two more steps before you stop so the horse doesn’t learn to stop as soon as the rein is dropped.

I didn't stay to watch the 5^th day but I'm sure the others have advised how that went.  From my perspective I learnt loads, I just hope I can recall it all when I need to and found watching very beneficial when I couldn’t use my own horse.  I hope I have covered everything and that you don’t find my notes too sketchy…this is purely my interpretation and is as accurate as I remember but please don’t take this as gospel as Ken is the professional and I hope I haven’t taken anything out of context or interpreted it wrongly.

See the pictures.

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Charles Wilson
NH Clinics

June 23^rd & 24^th
Shuttleworth EC

Alex writes about Saturday 23^rd (Improvers)

I had been thinking for a couple of weeks about which day to do with which horse.  As you may know I have two mares; one a cob and the other a trakener/tb.  Both are works in progress!  I also had spent a morning on the Thursday doing liberty with Jayne Lavender, which led to a further discussion about whether to take the cob at all.  I say liberty but really it was something beyond that and I am still sorting it out in my mind so more on this later!  I phoned Charlie and we decided together to do Saturday with Dancer, the T/TB and Sunday with Whisper, the Cob. 

Dancer travelled the best she has but in a strange position.  On arriving I just thought she had got in a bit of a mess at sometime on the journey but all had been very quiet and calm in the trailer and in my mirror I could see her bottom.  She put herself with her head beneath the front bar.  However, she did this on the way home too, so any suggestions here would be welcome! 

There were only four of us: Maele with Oki, newly backed; Kerry with Merlin, both newbies to a Charlie clinic; Ann and Cal; and Dancer with me.  The morning was excellent for me and my baby.  We were in the zone.  Charlie showed me the things we hadn’t been doing and we showed off at the things we could do.  In the bag!  I haven’t looked at sideways around the clock so when asked to demonstrate this to the others we failed.  Charlie repositioned my hand on the bottom of the halter and off we went.  Sorted. (Ha ha! See later). 

Lunch over we returned to the arena.  I was so relaxed – this was our day.  I was so looking forward to the gasps of envy, the congratulations on how far we’ve come together etc. etc.  Well, we were Saturday’s floor show!  Could Dancer stand still?  No.  Could I mount calmly?  No.  Could Dancer have a strop in a quarter of the arena and not crash into the three others?  No.  Does anyone who has not seen the mobile phone video of Niki Potter’s believe that I can ride that horse at all?  No.  Did I enjoy myself? Yes.  Will I go again?  Can’t wait.

Ann writes about Saturday 23^rd (Improvers)

I guess I took away the following key points for me: 

• that my emotional state has a significant impact on Cal's performance - I must try harder not to get anxious or harried. 

• that I need to ask for more and not just accept what Cal offers - eg not being happy with him circling round me in a relaxed frame of mind but ask for more performance in terms of engagement and energy and for longer duration 

• that I should to do more groundwork and riding in halter - we always make lots of progress at clinics but I don't really devote enough time to it in between times!  

I also found the handling of other people's horses really interesting - especially asking Dancer for sideways which she offered so readily and which I struggle to get Cal to do willingly (though I must admit it was better at the clinic and on Monday at home). It would have been interesting to have seen more of the others will Cal but I was so absorbed in their horses that I didn't really see anything though their feedback was really interesting and helpful.

Heather writes about Sunday 24^th (Advancing)

We started with head down from poll.  Slight down pressure and wait.  If no response, gently rock head until drop.  H is not responsive enough at this so we need to do more work.  Lateral flex from poll in degrees good.  Sideways.  My timing is better and lighter but frustratingly still getting forward.  I need to slow down and take one step at a time rather than try to do it all at once.  Riding in the hackamore is a real pleasure and I got exactly what I asked for with knobs on.  Belly-up and varying degrees of vertical flexion however, this needs to become more consistent.

The liberty was utterly magical and Charlie's commentary and instructions accurate and vastly intuitive.  I don't know why, but I find it highly emotional watching horses respond to their owners.  H did not let me down and generously stayed with me of his own free will.  However, the trot and back-up instructions received slow response, so we need to get it more spontaneous and inject a bit more enthusiasm.

Charlie asked me what I had been doing with H.  In amongst the list I mentioned that I was anxious about using a double for the first time in 40-odd years.  Charlie invited me to use it and he would guide me.  I asked for vertical flexion and got it immediately then gave back.  Rode mostly with loose reins and the lightest of light contacts.  Downward transitions need more work as tended to flatten and hollow.  Lots to work on.  What I love about Charlie is his hands-on, practical, usable approach.  Terrific day, fab stuff.  Brill chap.

Alex writes about Sunday 24^th (Advancing)

Today, I took Whisper, who could be renamed “Great Reluctance”.  Travelled well.  Stabled well.  I was a bit taken aback by the contrast of numbers as Whisper can be tricky with a crowded space.  But we have been working on that.  I was conscious of the day before not going to plan so I had less expectation this day and wanted to work on Whisper’s lightness in hand so that it isn’t such hard work for me.  Charlie knew about his and did say he could see an improvement in her!  I love this time to focus on the horse in front of me as at home I know I have an eye out for what is happening as the buck stops with me.  I kept checking how much I did time wise as short bursts for Whisper are best.  Another thing Charlie has stressed to us – work out how your horse works best and stick to it!  This gave me time to watch the others and really listen to what was going on.  I learnt a lot!

Whisper disappointed the spectators by not being the floor show but boy did she please me as Charlie got my timing right with pulsing the reins to bring her up in the hand whilst riding forward.  I had a tickling stick and I have been working on riding forward with this horse that really doesn’t see the need as the ground is still going to be there in five more minutes so why rush?  We could even graze as well and make a day of it.  Heather borrowed my tickling stick part way through the ridden afternoon and so I had to really use my aids well.  My bottom and lower leg knew about it the next day but I really concentrated on not tightening.  I think I got results and people were kind enough to say how good she looked.

After lunch we had a liberty session where I was pushed to go to phase 4!  Which I don’t like doing in public but I do at home especially when she is in the hay store uninvited!  On the way out of the pen, Dandy got a bit up close and personal and so got both barrels to the shoulder in return.  That’s mares for you!

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Ken Faulkner
Personal Development Clinic

29^th – 31^st May
Shifnall near Telford

Kate writes

This clinic was designed for those who are already teaching Ken Faulkner’s principles and those who want to teach in the future.  While Ken would rather you didn’t teach under the ANH name unless he has assessed you for your Level 3, he recognises that many people are teaching already especially if they started teaching years ago under BHS and that those that are a little further on can be of significant help to others.  This course was designed to introduce you to others who are teaching to build a support network, to help improve our skills and to make us aware of the many dangers and pitfalls.  Three of us joined seven others who had just done the 8-day clinic.

The whole thing was amazingly professional, we arrived to personalised information packs full of quotes from Ken and questions for us to ask of ourselves that we could fill in if we chose to.  It was mainly classroom set; on the first morning we decided on some basic rules like no mobile phones, ensure everyone gets the opportunity to speak etc, then we begun the sessions that included discussions on what we needed to ask before we agreed to teach someone, being prepared when speaking to potential students to ensure we get enough correct information from them and how to sort through this information.  We were asked who we would consider teaching and who we wouldn’t.  It was all safety based, making sure we didn’t get our selves in a vulnerable position so we were able to keep our student safe.  We talked about potential pitfalls like students with dangerous horses, having a safe place to ride and asking ourselves if we were skilled enough to cope in various situations.  We talked about assessing the horse and our capability line.  And then we did just that.  An unknown horse from the riding school we were using was given to each pair of students, we were told to go off and assess the horse.  I think it’s fair to say we felt so exposed and on the spot; let me set the scene.  There I am in a school with nine others, most of whom have taught professionally for years, most of whom are far more advanced than me and most of whom have just benefited from an 8-day clinic.  I could barely talk I was so nervous, Ken watched as we chose the best way to assess the horse, I decided to get the horses feet moving with some circling before I tried to ask for lateral flexion and thank goodness that was the right thing to do. Everyone felt so exposed and very on the spot, we then had to keep swapping partners and teach our new partner something, which is hard when they know so much more than you, so you are scared you’re saying the wrong thing.  After that there was more classroom work as we all discussed how we got on, how we felt, were we clear, how we made our students feel? 

The second day was more classroom work and we also brought out our horses, were put in groups and again were given a task to teach each other, we were more confident than the day before and I felt really helped along by the more advanced guys, as they gave me some hints and tips and reminded me of things I’d forgotten to say when demonstrating something.  The school was also littered with wheel barrows and jumps and rakes, etc. to see if we would move them before attempting to start the lesson, safety again.

On the third day we had to teach from horse back and we were filmed!  The group was split in half and you were given a task to teach your half, I had to demonstrate and teach direct rein to four others who knew perfectly well how to do it much better than me.  They were very naughty, they did exactly what I told them which was not enough so Heather Seems got stuck in the corner with her horse, another horse was just walking off in the wrong direction and a pupil without a horse was in the arena texting on her mobile phone, I completely forgot to tell them about the leg aids until one of them asked what they were to do with their legs, after that it all came together.  Ken said they were far too hard on me but I rose to it well and got there in the end.  The plan was then to watch back the tape with one other person so you weren’t humiliated by the whole group!  But my tape didn’t have any sound so I had to do it all over again!  This time I had more students and they were kind to me, plus doing it again gave me the chance to do it better.  We were then given some time with Ken individually where we could discuss our progress.  He told me that now I had the knowledge I had to work on my technique. 

We ended with another classroom session by which time the walls were covered with huge sheets of paper that we’d written on during the week, everything from our hopes for the future, why we want to teach, what we are afraid of.  We discussed these points again and how they had changed for us during the course.  The whole course was brilliantly run by Mick and Martha who have a lot of experience running courses with their other work as drama and music therapists in prisons, it all run like clock work and I think had the right blend of pushing us way out of our comfort zones and making us think about how we can be safe and affective teachers.  I don’t think I have been pushed so far out of my comfort zone before in my life but it was such a supportive environment it was a very positive experience, on top of that being with so many advanced people really helped my own horsemanship.

I would definitely do this course again but it’s not for the feint hearted!

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Ken Faulkner
Demonstration

15^th – 17^th May
Buckingham

Vicki writes

After finally getting the sign-off from my vet to do the demo with J, he said "Just get on with it!".  J was used for the demo on the Saturday and took it all in her stride.  Along with many things that stuck that day, it reminded me that she needed to be out of my space more, unless invited otherwise: ‘My safety should always come first’.

The demo was successful with an large audience, J, Daisy, Cous Cous and George being the demo horses.  I came away feeling excited that my journey had begun and Ken saying I had done a good job with her so far and she was a nice horse, a clean slate.  It resulted in a very undramatic backing demo which was good and I guess how it should be.

So, with this under our belt, I was then in a panic as to getting everything ready to go on the three day camp at Buckingham.  Kate had very kindly secured the B&B for me on the assumption J would be fine and I would be going to Buckingham.  So I packed all my stuff and we left on the Monday afternoon so we could get set up and settled for the 9am start on the Tuesday morning.  J loaded beautifully, walking straight in but didn’t travel quite so well.  It was pouring with rain and a hideous journey with stupid lorries and cars overtaking in unsuitable places making my nerves frazzled before we got there.  We arrived in the rain and set up our pens, we were the first there so had more space than we knew what to do with.  Setting up and deciding where to put your pen in a massive field proved easier said than done.  Trying to keep J’s foot clean and dry in a waterlogged field was a bit of a challenge.  However, with the kind use of a stable I managed to at least keep it dry half of the time, much to J’s disgust at being shut in at night whilst her new friends were out in their pens.  The weather was terrible but the sun came out early evening.  Kate and I had a nice dinner and put the world to rights and then I met Fiona on site to help her set up and we went off to our B & B and settled in for the night.

Day 1

The next day I was up very early with excitement and anticipation and went to the farm to let J out and muck out so she had a chance to graze before the clinic started.  The weather was terrible so thank goodness we had Val’s indoor school to use, a perfect size for four or five horses but with twelve of us in there, a bit of a squeeze.  Ken firstly asked us what we wanted to achieve and got the intro started.  So much was talked about so I will try not to ramble and keep it brief but this is purely from my perspective.  J at first was just circling round me and didn’t want to stand still, Daisy and Dancer rolled with her following their example, Ken took hold of her after she just wouldn’t settle and within about five minutes she was standing as still as a rock and they soon all settled he used her as a demo for the fist half an hour or so which got her into a place where she was happy to stand still and made me realise she was STILL on top of me even after what I thought I had learned from the demo – DOH the basics still lapse even after all these years of doing this stuff….it's still not stuck in my head…. I am sure I will forget a lot of stuff but we started the day with flexing the head and neck to get a soft feel, a crucial element particularly with a youngster as its almost you emergency stop.  By flexing we were not asking for a twist of the horses head or neck but a soft feel towards you on both sides, we then got onto desensitising our horses to the rope all over their bodies and around the legs, lifting the leg etc.  Some people used a bag on the end of a stick, which opened up a few cans of worms, but obviously areas that needed to be worked on.  We then went onto hind quarter yields to feel, whereupon Ken advised that grumpiness and getting stuck is a resistance to be worked through until the horses feet came soft.  We were looking to get into rhythm with the horses feet with our own soft steps . J got a bit arsey and where I would have normally stopped and backed off due to being unsure or scared of a reaction, I worked through this and sure enough she loosened up and we got nice soft feet eventually, which is when, of course, we quit.  We worked on yield to feel and suggestion on both front and hind ends, in fact on the first day we had only got though three or four of the ground skills, proving how much depth was involved in them and it reminded me of so much work we have done in the past that I had forgotten.  Ken, as always, was firm but fair with the horses and us, the amazing softness making me realise the value of the phases again and not nagging but being more effective initially.  I had some squealy f*** off moments from J when I asked to do a bit more but this attitude swiftly changed the more effective I was and consequently softer it all came.  She just needed for me to be clearer so she knew some boundaries, after all she knows no different and if I'm not clear enough is going to make up her own rules.

We were all so tired after the first day, which went on till nearly 6pm, as so much was covered we all got a bit carried away …. Kate , Fiona and I went to the fish and chip shop got food and took it back to our B&B to drink some alcohol and relax…. I hope Ken didn’t get too fed up with our horsey talk well into the night but he could have gone to bed as he was in our B&B, which was great as we had more time to chat to him (poor man!!).

Day 2

We were outside for Day 2 on Val’s nice grassy area which turned into a bit of a mire by the end of the day.  Again, we ran through what we had done the previous day and found we had a lot more amenable horses.  We got onto circling and Ken used Dancer as a demo to show what he wanted, she showed her true quality revealing some fabulous paces.  Dandy was also a star and Ken said he was the sort of pony you would buy for your children and that Fiona had done great job with him but just needed to boost her own confidence; that little pony can really work well when his mind is on the job and didn’t take offence at anything, he had a really ‘good attitude’.  It was nice to watch, people were working on circling, back up, flexing, all to feel and suggestion.  J had a bit of a paddy when we went onto the circling and Ken took her in hand for a little while to basically show me what needed to be done and, although I had a bit of a sweaty horse afterwards, the change in her was pretty amazing; she was responsive and starting to hold herself in a soft relaxed frame, her trot changed to moments of well balanced work with her starting to drop into a nice shape and stepping under better.

After lunch, Ken started by giving a great liberty demo in the round pen with the lovely dappled grey horse (name I can't remember!) but it was fantastic to watch and, as I would have taken us forever to all have a go, it was time to watch a professional at work; how easy and soft he made it look…one day!

I can’t actually remember what we did for the rest of the afternoon, as I am writing this a week or so later, but I know I had a different, more relaxed horse to work with who was soft, respectful and responsive.  How nice. We all went out for lovely dinner that night and a good chat and a bit of a giggle.  Far too late that night we went back to our bungalow for a decent night's sleep before the final day, whereupon we had been told we would be riding all day….

Day 3

We put our saddles on and then warmed our horses up and I managed to get into the school with only two others as it was raining again and got J really moving forward, which is what I needed to do prior to getting on, the preparation is everything!  However, she was in a different place to the previous day and very compliant, and I didn’t have to do as much though as she was pretty soft and responsive to me.  I used Martha’s saddle, which I think was a mix between a western saddle and an Ozzy saddle.  As hard as a plank for my bottom but very secure and it felt very ‘safe’ to ride in, although I could hardly walk when I got off, I know why cowboys walk as they do!

Anyway Ken got on J and it was amazing to watch as he made everything look so effortless and for her second ride it was fabulous to see, she did everything he asked with no resistance and as if she’d never not been ridden, having seen her you would never have guessed it was only her second ride.  He did shoulder in and out, quarters in and out, and back up with no reins etc etc.  This made me think oh my goodness what if I mess it up….

Anyway, after he had worked her for a while it was all of our turns to get on our horses and practice our flexes and he had us all on one rein riding.  I got on J as if we had been riding for ever and it just felt all OK. How weird, didn’t know what I expected really but she was a star, we were doing the same as everyone else ... my only problem being not enough space to really go forward any great distance before someone else was in your space, my focus was rubbish too, which didn’t help but think I was so thrilled just to be on her that was enough for me!  It reminded me that I hadn’t ridden in this way for at least a year and a half and I realised how much I hadn’t done and how rusty I had gotten…oh dear, I found myself rather emotional at a couple of points but more with frustration with myself for feeling incompetent at it all again and like a complete beginner, everyone else looked like they were doing it so well and I felt like a retard, however I was told in no uncertain terms to get my sh*t together so I did and it all went swimmingly for the rest of the day, except for my poor backside which felt raw by the time I got off at the end.  We did so much that I’m hoping everyone else can fill in the gaps for me…

At the end of the final day, Martha did a fantastic demo on Cous Cous that was stunning to watch and what we should all be working towards.  My goodness how that horse has changed physically since I saw him last year, he looked like a real performance horse, not a pony.  Martha seemed very relaxed and it showed in their work, probably a much better demo as far as she was concerned than the one at Shuttleworth as she was working in front of people who knew her and appreciated what she was doing.  A great end to a fabulous day. 

J walked straight into the trailer to come home and of course the sun had come out then after raining most of the day.  But she did not travel back that well, and as I couldn’t go over 35mph without her jumping about, it was a long, slow journey home.  We arrived back just as it got dark and she was a sweaty mess, but she was glad to see Charlie and chill in the field.  I have ridden her everyday since, bar three days due to weather and my exhaustion! and hope to go on as we left off.  With the August 5^th day camp on the horizon, my plan is to get her hacking out and about till then and further our schooling with all systems go for August I hope…..

Phew!

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Charles Wilson
NH Clinics

 February 3^rd and 4^th, 2007
Shuttleworth Equitation Centre, Bedfordshire
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Vicki writes about Saturday 3^rd (Improving)

I had been thinking about this clinic from the day I sent my form off for Liz with a bit of apprehension due to it being the first clinic I was going to take J to on her own.  I knew she was OK travelling and loading with Charlie from a previous outing, but was apprehensive on how she would react on her own, anyway this apprehension rubbed off on her and so she didn't really go in the trailer that well and so we left later than anticipated.  She had a bit of a panic in the trailer and I nearly thought about turning around when it banged and bounced about but she seemed to settle so I carried on.  A good decision as the rest of the journey I hardly heard a thing from her other than the odd pitiful neigh! 

Anyway we got there half an hour late but Charlie was doing his introductions with Jackie and two new girls to the group, Erica and Aisha, and their two lovely horses, one of them being a lovely ex-racehorse the other a very compact looking little horse who proved to be as solid as a plank to start with but softened up throughout the day.  Unfortunately I was concentrating on my own work not to really be able to see a lot of what they were doing.  Hopefully they will do a write up from their perspective?

J came into the school a little snorty but not too panicked by the new environment without her boyfriend.  We had the local pony club jumping lessons next door with lots of shouting and 'PULL, KICK and GRRRing' going on, there was an air of calm on our side of the arena and a sort of manic confusion going on the other side with lots of parents watching their darling children pulling and kicking their ponies over fences every which way, quite a contrast!!

J was on top of me from the outset, I knew it, but seemed to be a bit incompetent at sorting it out, and felt rather rusty and pretty rubbish to start with, probably also the expectation as to what Charlie W would think I had done to one of his lovely youngsters!!  Anyway, he got hold of her and basically said she needed a firm but fair hand as was a bit like a petulant child, her indigence at being asked to do something she didn't want to resulted in squealing, stamping feet, shaking her head and using her shoulder against you and general annoyance, we worked through this by moving her about using sideways movements, shoulder out, sideways on a circle, backup and circles in a sort of pattern and this got her back with Charlie where lots of licking and chewing and blinking occurred.  She can be pretty feisty at times and Charlie commented I needed to be a lot more assertive.  Once she was back with me, I had to work on getting her out of my space and standing away at the end of the line which she does happily at home but she kept creeping in on me so it was a laborious task of keeping sending her back to where I wanted her to stand, she got it in the end.  We worked on hind quarter and front end yields and I demonstrated to Jackie back up from the nose with a soft yield and the horse lifting its back to move correctly something Murphy was struggling with a bit.  

I then worked on getting her to go out on a circle without squealing and leaping in the air first at walk and then leading up into trot once on the circle backed up with the stick if she didn't respond immediately and to keep her at the speed I wanted until I asked to come down to walk or up to canter, a lot of work in progress here but it reminded me of stuff I hadn't been doing.  She got it quite quickly so hope this will come on slowly.

I think this brought us up to lunchtime where Jackie kept us very amused as always with her wicked sense of humour and stories about Xtra and her fabulous six-week trip!!! out to the Savvy Center in the USA.  J happily munched her hay and wandered round the school occasionally taking a look at us through the window.  

After lunch, we got our saddles and warmed the horses up again.  Those who were riding got onto the first basic rein positions and getting a flex.  Jackie was riding about on Murphy and Charlie suggested I put J on a 22ft line and did walk trot and canter with the saddle on, on both reins to get any bucks and silliness out of her and get her working with me.  We had some fun with this and a couple of rope burns to boot when I had to hang on.  She is obviously pretty unbalanced and looked rather ungainly to start with but this will soon start to sort out the more work she does and muscle she builds up I guess.  After this she was rather hot but really listening to me with lots of blinking, licking and chewing, I was only using my finger as a cue to go up a gear which was good, but again work in progress.  I walked her about and then Charlie suggested I got her used to standing next to a mounting block which I did with me standing on it to a point she rather liked the chair and started to try and eat and lick it!!  I stood on a chair and practiced the leaning over the saddle both sides and putting some weight in the stirrups.  Cathy then very kindly held her for me and walked with her as she needed whilst I leant right over and rubbed and stroked each side, not a very comfortable position to be in however with all my weight on my lunch!!  After we had done this for a while, Row said why didn't I try and sit up, a natural progression so from standing on the chair I put my foot in the stirrup, I rather ungainly leaned over her and gently swung my leg over and there I was, on board, I lent forward to start with and then sat up for a few seconds and then got off and she was fine.  We did the same on the other side and walked a few steps and then I got off again.. Yehaa, fab!  I was very pleased with what we had done and decided to leave it there on a good note at about 4pm.  The others carried on so I did not see what else they did as I went to load up discovering I had a flat tyre, so had to sort that with the help of Frank.  Anyway, she loaded OK with a little encouragement from the carrot stick (more work to do here!) and the journey home was a lot better as she didn't make a sound, I think she was too tired. 

A good day for me in the end with so much work to do.  I hope everyone got as much out of it as I did.  Charlie W was on top form with his analogies making us all laugh as ever……hopefully there are some photos!

Debs writes about Sunday 4^th (Advancing)

Charlie started out assessing partnerships by asking you to lead your horse through walk, halt and backup transitions and also with some trot.  At the moment our groundwork is the bit that lets us down and he had some pointers to improve.  He wanted the horse in each case to be listening to the body of the handler and not the feel on the rope.  Eric just didn't feel that he needed to put too much effort in but just a few transitions switched him on and the whole thing started to look better, softer, sharper and more in tune.  Then we progressed to leading our horses from 6 to 8 feet away and surprisingly some horses were better at a distance, others worse.  This exercise looks a bit like a cross between circling and leading.  You use the whole school but use techniques borrowed from circling and sideways to get the horse where you want him, especially after Charlie asked us to add some shoulder-in/haunches out into the exercise.  We have quite a bit to work on there, let's just say we weren't that polished.  Heather and Harry were really very good at this exercise and did some really good work on this with Harry ending up licking and chewing. 

Then we tacked up with saddles and halter - one rein only though - and mounted.  We warmed up a bit and went through our paces.  As Eric and I were already out on the track and the others were resting we did our one rein riding first.  We hardly do any halter riding at all (only bareback up from the field) but bless him the only thing he did was to lean a little on my inside leg a little in canter because he'd rather be with the others.  He did some good transitions and finished with a nice backup from my body.  I was pretty happy with what he offered me.  Charlie said we need to be working on more refinement and that Eric needs to be coming through more from behind, not necessarily faster, just more impulsion.  I guess this is the see-saw of progression. Eric used to rush a lot, very much on the forehand and he is slower now and less on the forehand, but perhaps we've lost some impulsion but gained some balance.  He's not running on now because he's struggling to balance, but it looks less impulsive.

We then watched the other for riders doing their stuff and Charlie had some pointers for each Fiona and Dandy showed a few steps of canter and Jackie and Xtra just be adjusting a few things under Charlie's instruction made some real changes.  Xtra looks to be the kind of horse that can relax as long as he's not being given too many signals and Xtra was initially interpreting some of Jackie's leg movements as cues.  As Jackie became stiller on top, Xtra really relaxed and the partnership came together really well.  Soon it was lunch time so we all got some time off.

Charlie rode Eric after lunch (he often rides all the horses on a clinic) and I guess this is where being a youngster shows.  Although he was good for Charlie, Eric wasn't as impulsive as Charlie wanted and Eric needed a string to remind him to put a bit more effort in.  Eric also looked unsettled in trot, and couldn't relax his head down.  He does usually relax for me and the other few people he's used to but wasn't convinced about this stranger riding him.  But Eric did eventually give Charlie some nice shoulder-in at a jog trot on a circle and gave him some nice lateral yields.  Charlie showed us an exercise where you take a 12m circle and ask for a shoulder in on the circle.  You do this by moving your hips and having the inside sit bone slightly in front of the outer.  Then you gradually make the circle smaller and make the shoulder in more of a sideways yield until you end up doing turn around the FQ, just yielding the HQ and you gradually spiral back out the other way.  Eric found this quite hard and did need to be taken back to HQ yield to get him moving his HQ.  He made a reasonable job of it once his hips became unstuck and he understood the question. 

Charlie rode Whisper, Alex's horse, who, after a couple of grumpy kicks out, really showed us what she could do.  She's quite a talented and athletic horse, showing some very nice lateral and elevated work.  We were sat watching thinking 'wow'!

After some more riding practice it was getting cold so we left early at around 16:30, just after we watched Fiona and Dandy canter on the other lead. 

I had a good fun day and was reminded of the stuff we need to get polished up.  Thanks to Liz for organizing and Charlie for making the trip.

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Charles Wilson
NH Clinics

 October 7^th and 8^th, 2006
Shuttleworth Equitation Centre, Bedfordshire.

Carole writes about Saturday 7^th

Meg and I arrived at Shuttleworth in good time.  I took my bits and pieces round to my stable and proudly showed Meg`s paperwork to the yard manager although she wasn't particularly excited by it.  Then I went back to the trailer to unload Meg.  This can be quite a dramatic event as she loads beautifully but is inclined to shoot out and leap off the ramp.  Today, however, was different.  She decided she couldn't possibly come out of the trailer.  When I asked her to come forward she braced herself.  I actually thought I must have trapped her tail when I put the back up at home.  I put the bar back up and checked the back end.  There was no problem.  Then Charlie miraculously appeared.  We took the front bar down again and just waited for her to decide it would be OK to come out.  About five minutes went by and she lowered her head and came out, albeit with a bit of a rush.  Drama over.

She was a bit wound up at first but once we got moving and working together we were fine.  There were only four of us: Ann, Alex with Whisper and newcomer, Natalie, who had come all the way from Kent with the adorable five year old Baron.  Charlie was able to pinpoint where we were and tailor the tasks to each of us.

The morning was ground work.  There was an exercise new to me of throwing the rope over the hors's back while in trot in a circle so that the horse comes down to halt.  Eventually you should be able to let go of the rope.  This showed me how quickly Meg learns as she was soon anticipating my movements and the rope action became secondary.  My challenge then was to keep changing what I was asking for so she was listening to me and couldn't anticipate. Next we worked on sideways, but at an angle of 45degrees.  This made a lot of sense.  It was a more natural movement for the horse and they could move more freely and with rhythm.  Before lunch we were backing up between two poles and realised how much more difficult it is when you start in front of the poles, ie so the first backward steps take you into the pole corridor. 

Lunch at last!!  Why am I always so hungry at clinics?  I was talking to another new face (another Heather) and I thought she asked me if Meg was "crabby " but what she actually was asking was "Is she a Crabbet?"  This meant nothing to me but it's to do with her blood lines so now I'm interested to find out more.  During lunch, while Sue from Biggleswade saddlery was microchipping saddles, a riderless horse appeared minus stirrups.  Someone set off by car to find the rider.  Luckily, neither was hurt but someone took them home by trailer.

In the afternoon, we rode.  At home I've been spending quite a bit of time with Meg helping her to realise that she doesn't move off as soon as I get on.  Charlie took this a step further for me and suggested I move my weight around in the saddle, ie leaning forward or touching my toes and asking her to stay still.  This is going to be my main "homework ".  This exercise progressed to an assimilation task of opening a gate, at which we'd been so useless at my Trec day.  More things to practise at home.

During the afternoon, Charlie rode each of the horses.  Meg went like a dream for him.  So there's my next challenge!!!!!!!!

We also had quite a discussion about weight and balance when riding a circle and also about bits.  I shan't go into detail as it's now stopped raining and I'd rather be out riding my horses.  Thanks guys for another great day and thanks to Liz for organising us all.  It seems you all went up another gear on Sunday.  Sorry I missed it but I was enjoying watching Lucy's Trec day.

Alex writes about Saturday 7^th

Firstly, I recommend you read up about Charlie on his website which explains his training and therefore his approach.  He is now saying that he teaches horsemanship rather than just natural or classical or whatever and I think that showed up this weekend.  I also asked him to me on his way home on Monday and we continued on from the clinic for Whisper and rode in her bridle. 

I sadly could not take Dancer to the Saturday and in the end took whisper - in my heart thinking that she would be bored and therefore wooden.  How wrong!  We did so much I can barely remember and so hopefully some others will fill in.  Charlie got us to introduce ourselves as usual and than asked us to warm up by trying to apply what we knew to playing over a pole in whatever way we wanted and then he started off a newbie with a young horse that had not had the right start and now was a bucking frenzy.  This was Natalie who did fantastically and I learnt so much just by catching sight of her sometimes.  Charlie then came round and asked us what we were doing, why and show him!  He then helped us correct and suggested what to do next to build or if necessary, what not to do and to go back a few steps.  During this exercise and throughout the weekend we were constantly asked to consider the type of horse and the type of emotions our horse had so that we worked relevantly. We are always able to tell him of any problems we are having generally with the horse or specifically and then Charlie will tell us how to do what we were working on to help that issue or honestly say that it could all be a work in progress! 

We moved on to circling the horse with body language starting at halt(!), moving up to walk, trot and possibly canter but stopping the horse by throwing the rope over the back as we dropped our life and turning our body.  Easier to write than to do.  Simple as it sounds, this was the foundation of the past 3 days for me.  No endless circling with cracking whips which saps Whisper's will to be in the arena with you; but concentrated intention to move the horse to the lightest response using leadership, body language and yielding the hindquarters only as necessary to get the stop.  This is to be built on.  At this stage I think we started to talk about how much time to spend doing things with your horse.  Charlie felt small amounts and then a break for Whisper and other horses needed to do more and maybe more complicated to stop them playing their own games.  I think Cal needed a few things linking to have his attention and, on the Sunday, Liz was asked to string a few tasks together to keep Nins entertained and at higher gaits.  That seemed to me to work very well.

This last exercise showed Whisper lack of hind quarter yield and this is to some extent a conformation problem as well as behavioural.  Charlie demonstrated this and the lightening of the forehand to go with this and although we have done this before this time we got it established calmly in a way that will stay.

During lunch, we talked about the gate problem some of us had at Carol's le Trec.  Charlie leapt on this and we did gate practise in the afternoon.  Brilliant. Three gate tasks were set up: a pole on the ground; a pole between two chairs; and a pole on two jump wings.  Before this I had asked for help to get sideways towards so that I can get on from a fence.  Quite quickly, Whisper shows how she bullies me and got cross about being asked for more than slobbing around the arena.  Charlie got on and really sorted her out but she was not going to go parallel to that big gate.  We were occupied with these tasks for the rest of the day as it showed up so many things to work on.  Precision stopping, backup, squeeze, turn on the forehand, hind quarter yield, leaning out of the saddle, one hand guidance(!), scary poles, making a noise with the gate, more than one horse doing the task: actually just about everything!  Whisper became so soft it was amazing and fantastic backups.

Heather comments on the tasks:

The first task was to come out of line using single rein and perform a 20m circle demonstrating a good flex to the inside and ribs away enabling the horse to step neatly underneath himself.  Smugly, I sat there thinking 'piece of cake' and was just musing whether to demonstrate our proficiency at said task on his easier rein (right) or the more difficult one to the left when we were called out of line.

Whilst at standstill, we gave a short demo of how beautifully we can achieve vertical flexion, then proceeded to give what has to be the most cringingly embarrassing and disgraceful exhibition it is possible to imagine. I was all over the place, and 'Harold' (name used in times of severe provocation) was not listening.  It went from bad to worse until Charlie got up on him and within a second was calmly and peacefully trotting my horse around demonstrating stunning lateral flexion with his ribs most obligingly scraping the sides of the school.

Serves me right.  I am not normally sure of myself, quite the reverse in fact, but oh the shame!  Happily the rest of the day passed with good friends, in a welter of laughter, learning and lots of fun whilst trying out a variety of fiendishly thought out tasks invented to test our ability to learn and our bravery in roughly equal parts.

Super day, great company, brilliantly inventive tuition and can't wait for next year when Charlie will be back with us again.

Alex  writes about Sunday 8^th (and Monday)

Sunday saw another bunch with me and Whisper being the only ones to do two days.  Whisper was livid to be there a second day!  The power of a Charlie clinic actually had Fiona there before it started (HE HE).

Charlie told us that he teaches a lady with one hand so asked us to start warming up over the pole again but with only one hand.  Very challenging and really really fascinating.  I ended up trying to reinforce my request by blowing on her.  Try it at home and let's hear your results.  I found that my body language had to be spot on and it can then work.

The exercises were all to soften the horse to improve the ridden work and we rode in the morning as well as the afternoon.  Flexion is a problem for Whisper and again I received help quickly from Charlie who can see what we are all doing.  We were encouraged to admit any worries and then gently encouraged to confront them or at least received advice on how to work on them.  What can I say except that we achieved the same softness as the day before?  Whisper was being better at being with other horses.  Vicki and I found that we needed to ask Charlie to separate the arena so that we could work on a task he had set - spiraling in and out on a circle to get a good flexion and bend to the outside with the ribs.  All targeting riding from the seat.  This is difficult in an arena when we are all moving all over the place.  Typically, Charlie decided to put us under the spotlight one by one after this request and a lot of basic tidying up was done with Charlie getting on when necessary.

After lunch, we each had a liberty session.  Whisper decided not to pick up any tips and went to sleep on the floor at this point.  Chilled or what?  I have done little liberty but this was our most successful yet and I put that down to the summer camp at Charlie's (with Dancer) and the improvement in my leadership of Whisper, helped by better riding and timing of cues.

Later, we worked on riding with our seats which meant stick riding.  We prepared well with using the stick at the proper length and tapping in the right place.  We did not drop the reins until we had flexion from the leg and the stick at halt and walk moving on to trot, if possible.  Then we were set free and it was fun but challenging.  Heather did it with single rope rein!  Much laughter and a few sharp intakes of breath.  We were challenged enough so that any latent fears surfaced and in as much as possible in the time Charlie helped us to overcome them.

We were asked if we rode in bridles and Charlie said to bring them next time as he would be happy to see us use them and get the right results.

Onto Monday and Charlie came to me in the afternoon.  We started by single rein riding with Whisper and then put on the bridle.  I did the same work as at the clinic in that I was trying to engage Whisper in lightness and therefore bringing her up into the hand.  I was pleased that Charlie confirmed that I was in the correct bit and I am pleased to say the ridden was really enjoyable but Charlie achieved straight away a beautifully light horsey, up in the hand and engaged in the hind quarters on a circle whereas I got her better in a straight line and my circle needs work!!!!! We then did a little two year old and it was a really good session to see first manners being established.  Next onto Dancer.  Charlie helped me to safely approach her poorly back legs and I am pleased to say that I have dressed both this morning safely and calmly.  We then worked on her trailer loading or rather my trailer loading!  This was done in my big courtyard where she has rarely been and never loaded.  Three quarters of an hour later she was in eating hay and not all sweated up!  I did it all and Charlie gave me advice on timing and the way I asked her was pared down.  It was dogged persistence really but in the correct way.  Exhausting for me but very satisfying to think I have found the way with her.  So a busy three days but I really feel I have stepped through another barrier on this horse journey. 

Well done Liz for organising Charlie to come.

Jayne Lavender
NH Clinics

 August 6^th, 2006
Shuttleworth Equitation Centre, Bedfordshire.

Sheril writes

There was a film entitled 'The Truth about Cats and Dogs' - well Sunday could have been called 'The Truth about Horses'.   We have come to expect a lot from Jayne and she really delivered, helping us to push the boundaries in the relationships with our horses, at whatever stage we were at.

Lucky participants were me and my Arab mare Zippy, Tanya and the enormous Flo, Fiona and coloured cob Dandy, and Anne and the palomino character, Cal.  The first three have all been at this natural horsemanship thing, in various guises, for quite some time.  Anne got involved more recently and well done to her and Cal that they jumped in this weekend at great depth and without water wings!

A preliminary chat in the tea room revealed that Tanya and I had rather lost direction and were seeking fresh challenges so that we could really develop the relationship with our horses further.  Anne was seeking more softness and responsiveness from Cal.   (I have been wracking my brains to remember what Fiona wanted to achieve and then remembered that she had not yet arrived at this point!)

Jayne announced that the image for the day was to be Shadowfax - the lovely white horse that thundered across the New Zealand plains for Gandalf, bareback and bridleless, in the Lord of the Rings movies.

She also quite reasonably pointed out that we would not ever meet all our individual needs in one instructor - and might have to seek help with our riding positions, for instance, from classical riding instructors, or Alexander practitioners, or whatever was appropriate for our needs, alongside the stuff we are learning from her.

With that we set off into the small indoor arena, warmed the horses up and tuned them in with some very brief ground games, and then removed their halters for what was supposed to be a 10 minute liberty session, prior to getting on.  Suffice it to say we were all still there at lunchtime!  They say liberty reveals the truth about your relationship with your horse and the truth can be quite uncomfortable to experience.

I learned a tremendous amount from watching Jayne do a short demo with Zippy - and the penny finally dropped for me about allowing her more time and more space and just 'listening' rather than 'doing'.  That was a lesson well learned because for the first time ever in such a pressured environment - at times there were three other horses thundering around and past us at full gallop - she chose to stay with me, even when she was prancing and up on her toes and had that 'joining in' twinkle in her eye.  I cannot describe what a joy that was and how privileged I felt by the experience.  It was a gift from her to me that I will always remember - even if it never happens again!  As Jayne kept saying, 'Zippy is just pleased she is being listened to…' and I could add to that '… at last!'

Meanwhile Tanya, with Jayne's help, was uncovering some deeper issues with Flo that probably have been sabotaging the development of their relationship in other areas.  Outwardly soft and compliant at the clinics, and with a lovely bond to Tanya, at liberty Flo was now showing a reluctance to move her feet that revealed some deeper emotional baggage.  She kept becoming stuck in her front feet or showed a slow response to stepping under with her rear - impulsion was lacking and it was coming from her emotional state.  Jayne had to use persistent pressure and accurate timing to obtain a more fluent response - and it was definitely a case of having to crack some eggs to make the omelette.  Flo felt the need to leave, and went, sometimes at a gallop, several times over the course of the morning.  But gradually everything began to come back together again and Flo and Tanya began to find a new harmony - and that new level of harmony and impulsion became even more apparent in the afternoon when we were riding, which goes to show how important the liberty session had been.

Cal, on the other hand, was exhibiting what Jayne described as that 'there's something missing but I'm not sure what' young gelding characteristic.  He felt that he was not finding the right sort of leadership from Anne and he kept leaving, looking for a new friend somewhere else out there.  This can be really tough to take - I know, as it has happened to me more times than I care to mention - so credit to Anne that she was able to keep her emotional cool and listen to Jayne's suggestions and suddenly things began to turn around.  The look on Cal's face altered completely and his eye became softer as he began to latch onto Anne more quickly each time and go back to her.  One really useful picture that came out of this for me was Jayne's description of the three parts of the eye in the horse, front, middle, and rear - and how it is so easy, when a horse is leaving you at liberty, to end up in that rear portion of the eye (looking miserable and deflated with no tools to bring the horse back), and actually to end up driving the horse, which is the last thing you want to do. Much better to step to one side away and forwards to bring yourself back into the mid or front part of the eye, where the horse will be more willing to see and come back to you.

At the times that Dandy left Fiona he was, according to Jayne, showing all the signs of a fellow deciding it was time to form his own herd.  So Fiona had a different set of challenges, to show him that she was more important than anyone else in the arena.  Soon he too was sticking with her.

We moved on to circling game at liberty - but only asking the horses for a very small try, then bringing them back in.  It is easy to get over-ambitious here and 'send' the horse right away with too big an 'ask'.  Zippy was tending to leave me with a brace in her neck and shoulder and her ribs towards me - a sure sign that she was thinking about leaving altogether.  Jayne demonstrated a way to 'draw her a picture' of what we were asking, by using two hands on her to request the desired shape.  With a very light hand on her nose and the other hand just behind her withers, asking for the 'forwards', it was possible to form her gently round the circle and soften her to the inside.  This was also a good exercise for Zippy because she showed hesitancy to move into the lightest of pressure of hand on her nose - and this is typical of what she does in a bridle as well, when she tends to back off any light contact and come 'behind the bit'.  Gradually, she began to understand what was required and move forwards into the pressure while softening at the same time.

Suddenly, at a point when all the horses and handlers were paired up and an air of restful harmony pervaded, it was lunchtime.  Some emotionally drained souls repaired to the tea room for sustenance while the horses got some much needed down time in their stables.

After lunch it was time to ride.  The instruction was to put on the horses as much kit as we felt necessary to feel safe, but as little as possible.  We all got going in a variety of halters, one rein, two reins, saddles or, in Tanya and Flo's case, bareback pad.  We also had the savvy strings around the horses' necks as the 'main rein' contact.

The first exercise was to establish the stop, as far as possible without reins.  This was done initially from a halt to back up.  Once we started in walk, we were only to think about halt and back up - no directional aids at all, so it was like a mini- passenger lesson, where the horse chose where to go in the arena.  Those that were ready for it were able to move up into faster gaits - trot and canter - again with only slow down and halt aids from the rider, no directional aids.  This was strangely liberating and the horses really seemed to enjoy the freedom and the single focus as well - and became much softer and more tuned in as a result.  It was like they were focusing on one thing so it became easier - rather than dealing with all that background 'static interference' we constantly throw at them.

Working in halt to back up, Fiona and Anne were shown how if necessary they could use their full weight leaning back on the savvy string for a moment, to reinforce the back-up cue if the horse was leaning on its front end and not responding.

We all went on to work on forequarter yield and hindquarter disengagement using seat aids rather than the reins - and moved on to ask for small hindquarter yields from the hips in all gaits.  I found that Zippy had to break gait down to trot when asked for this in canter - which Jayne said is not unusual at this early stage.

At a certain point in the afternoon, Jayne announced that it was time for Tanya and I to take Flo's and Zippy's halters off altogether, so we were riding only in the savvy string.  Actually this felt quite OK by this time, having built up to it gradually in appropriate stages.  The horses certainly seemed to enjoy the experience and Zippy for one kept stretching her nose downwards as though relishing the freedom.

Coming to the end of the session, we were asked if there was anything else we wanted to know or ask for the day.  I piped up with my personal challenge/goal - which is that I would love to teach Zippy flying canter lead changes as I have never had a horse that could do this under saddle, other than accidentally!

So for the last half hour or so Tanya and I, still with only savvy string around the horses' necks, were attempting half-pass in walk and then in trot from the centre-line to the side of the arena.  Quite a challenge, but we both got a few creditable steps each time before it all went pear-shaped!  The idea being to build up until you can do this in all gaits and then add the change of direction, in other words being able to start heading right in half-pass, and then switch directions to left half-pass - at which point, if it all happens as planned, Jayne said leap off and reward your horse because that is the foundation of the lead change.

All in all a tremendously inspiring and interesting day - and one of those where I, for one, felt that some quantum leaps had been made for everyone taking part.  Jayne did add one caveat at the end, which was to be very careful in trying these things outside a managed environment, for example at a play day where no instructor is present to guide the progress.  The liberty games in the morning were very carefully supervised by Jayne and in an unregulated situation, with no-one to interpret the behaviour correctly and guide the responses, could become dangerous for both horses and handlers.

If I have missed anyone's special moments of the day - I apologize unreservedly and admit that the day was so intensive and I was so wrapped up in what I was learning with Zippy, that I did not always pay full attention to what was going on elsewhere in the arena.

Charles Wilson Improving and Advancing Clinics

24^th and 25^th June, 2006
Shuttleworth College Equitation Centre, Bedfordshire

Nettie writes about Saturday 24^th

On arrival at Shuttleworth the first item on the agenda was to secure a stable for Hal.  This entailed finding a member of the staff to whom I could present his passport to satisfy them that all required vaccinations were up to date.  The appropriate entry was eventually located, (after initial approval of the wrong page!), although there were no checks that the passport produced was for the horse which was to occupy the stable - obviously a very trusting soul!  I still do not quite understand the logic of why we could bring a horse on to the premises and into the arena without a vaccination status check but could not put it in an adjacent stable unless the required paperwork was apparently present.  As there were only four stables for six horses and it was first come first served, I was very grateful I was in time to claim one though.

We spent the first few minutes of the day with a discussion over a cup of coffee, discovering what each of us thought were our aims and our good and bad points, which led on to Charlie's stated theme for the day - balance, both physical and mental.  Then it was into the school to make a start online.  I was slightly taken aback to discover when I entered the school that there was a loose horse in there - at that point I did not know it was Jackie's Murphy, who did not have a stable.  Of course Murphy immediately came over to greet Hal and Cal, who were first in, and Charlie had to send him away while Hal showed off by performing passage.  Fortunately Jackie very quickly appeared to secure Murphy and Hal settled down in record time.  Heather with Harry and Carol with Meg then appeared and we made a start on just getting some language going and the horses listening to us.  Alex joined us a few minutes later with Dancer, having been slightly delayed by having to do the school run on the way.

Hal decided he just had to roll in that nice surface, and unfortunately I was just too slow to get into the right position with the rope, so it ended up underneath his back as he rolled over and I had to let go or risk being flailed by those incredibly long legs.  I could not get round and grab the end again before Hal upped and left, to renew his previously interrupted acquaintance with Murphy at the other end of the arena.  Fortunately Charlie was very sweet about it all and caught him for me and returned him to my care, telling him who was in charge en route, a message which Hal seemed to take on board very nicely.

Charlie then issued us each with a pole, to use in whatever way we wished in order to develop the communication and softness.  I do not know what others did with theirs (presumably not pole dancing though!) as I had all my concentration on trying to get Hal to back up along one side of the pole, move sideways across the end and come forward along the other side, then back again.  The only thing was, the backwards which is so easy at home had somehow become broken in transit!  We had to mend that before anything like my intended move could be achieved, but we got there.  Having done it a couple of times facing one way, we turned around and did it in the other direction, with a different view, which of course set us right back to square one.  However the time flew by amazingly quickly while we repeated this from four different compass points.

It seemed no time at all before we were fetching saddles and the poles disappeared.  I always like to tighten up the girth gradually and ensure all is well before mounting, and Hal certainly showed that this is a good policy, as he decided to have a tiny bucking session online - very half-hearted though, for him.  Charlie suggested that I might like to defer getting aboard until he lowered his head and showed some submission - a suggestion I was very happy to go along with!  However, all went fine after that and within a very few minutes I was tying up the rope into reins and climbing on top.  We then spent a while just establishing that we could stop and turn at will.  Charlie showed some individually how to maintain their weight over the correct side of the horse to aid the turns rather than unbalance them.  There were a few minor distractions - there was a moderate degree of activity outside and those inside could hear horses moving about outside and the sound of running taps/hoses.  We also had doves fluttering about in the rafters, but nothing too problematic.  I think Anne and Cal had a bit more difficulty with them as Cal is more naturally spooky than Hal.  It seemed that as soon as everyone was walking and trotting round happily with the horses going softly and freely forward, but also coming back on a suggestion, then it was time to stop for lunch.

After lunch, Charlie used each of the horses present to illustrate various points of conformation and point out how they affected the horse's ability to perform various activities and how comfortable they might therefore be to ride.  He explained how an upright shoulder, with weight naturally more on the forehand and a shorter stride will be less comfortable to sit on and incur more concussion through the horse's joints than one with a more sloping shoulder and with the hind legs more naturally underneath to carry the weight.  I was slightly surprised however that he did not mention length and slope of pasterns, although these often tend to echo shoulder line in any case.  Hence Murphy, although very kind and obliging, would tend to jar more than, for instance Dancer, simply because of the way they are put together.  All the horses had good and bad points, as would be expected - the perfect horse has not yet been born.  Hal, in common with a couple of the others, has rather straight hocks, although in his case this is offset by the fact that he is very short in the back and naturally carries a lot of his weight on his hind quarters, and uses his hocks actively to step forward and under.  Meg had a rather straight back which made saddle fitting, and especially securing, quite challenging, and Harry was generally a very good sort but had a plain head!

After this discussion of the individual conformation of each horse we went off to practice an exercise which would hopefully help each one's way of going and balance, with a major emphasis on going forward.  The walk must be really marching and the trot must really track up.  For some this would mean lots of transitions to try and get the weight more to the back, for others it might mean bending or sideways.  I decided that Hal's suppleness and attentiveness would be best improved by trotting circles in a shoulder-in position to get him bending round the inside and stepping right under. Charlie was quite complimentary and said how smoothly he was going.  Then, once again, time to mount up, this time with the suggestion that we should consider riding with one rein.  Here begins the hilarity from my point of view.  I have not actually done this before, and I soon discovered that I had far less control than I thought over direction - in fact very little at all!  At about the same time some riders from the Centre started setting up show jumps and jumping, but this caused less disturbance than might have been expected.  I had no problem turning to the side where the rein was, but moving away from it was another kettle of fish altogether.  At one point poor Hal got the loop of rope in his eye as I was flailing it frantically near his face in order to turn him away from it.  We eventually sort of got some turns but clearly some work is needed if we are to make that look in any way natural!  And there I was thinking I rode reasonably well with my body and legs - just goes to show how much we kid ourselves into believing what we want to believe.

The day flew by very quickly, and I was very pleased indeed with how much more quickly Hal settled down and focused on me than previously.   Charlie ended the day with a little discussion of a horseman (Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling) who had classified horses into 26 different character types, and further stated that horses and their people generally had similar characteristics. I cannot remember everyone's type, but apparently Murphy was a 'friend', which I guess confirms that Jackie is a nice person, but Hal would come under 'difficult' - although Charlie later decided to amend it so that Hal and I are merely both 'full of character'.  Maybe I should send him one of those flyers I keep getting at work advertising courses in dealing with difficult people?

Charlie's smiling face appeared from the depths of his car to welcome us on another hot and sultry day at Shuttleworth. 

The participants were Caroline with her snowy white probable Andalucian/Lippizaner, Luna, Liz and her personal yellow peril, Nenagh; a newly Parelli Level 1 passed, Diane and the lovely chestnut, Ola; Fabulous Fiona and Dinky Dandy, Sheril and her nearly-four, quarterhorse/Connemara, Woody, and lastly Harry and I - who are not by any stretch of the imagination 'advancing' - but we thought we would 'give it a go' to make up the numbers.

Ever a stickler for a prompt start, Charlie herded us into the lecture room and started with a chat over a cup of tea (aaaaah, tea). Charlie asked us in turn, what would give us the greatest joy and what would be our greatest nightmare with our horse. Then went on to ask what quality in ourselves, we could offer our horse.  Lastly, what our greatest strengths and weaknesses were.

The replies were fascinating and gave a good insight into why the human/horse partnerships are perhaps as they are.

Charlie then summarised our replies and asked us to apply our strengths to our work and be aware of our weaknesses as we progressed throughout the day.

In the school, each person was given a pole and instructions to aim for imagination and lightness in conducting each game, whilst Charlie wandered around, corrected, encouraged, reminded us of our weaknesses, or to play to our strengths, and demonstrated for us.

In a rare moment of relaxation, I watched Caroline who was producing some good stuff once the exquisitely vertically flexed, passaging Luna had finished having a nervous breakdown over the heavy breathing issuing from Charlie's loud speaker!

When satisfied that our horses were 'with us' we were asked to saddle up.  After the initial flex to a stop, disengage on both reins, Charlie wanted us to ask our horses to flex to the inside whist keeping our weight to the inside to enable the horse to melt round our leg.  This was done first in walk then in trot.  As each person demonstrated this it became apparent that for most of us, either the horse flung our weight to the outside, or we 'forgot' to keep the weight to the inside after the first couple of circles.  This proved to be a great exercise for discovering how loose the girth is on the saddle…  For those that had trouble with the horse bracing against the request (generally coming to a stop) Charlie demonstrated that diminishing circles increasing to larger circles and then to smaller ones would encourage the horse to keep the flex going.

I looked up at one stage and watched Sheril and Woody.  It struck me at this stage that Woody was doing everything that the older and more experienced horses were doing.  He was beautifully behaved for such a young horse, which says a great deal about the competency of the owner.

After lunch Charlie took each of our horses in turn and gave us a critique on its conformation.  He then advised and demonstrated the best exercises to improve the weaker qualities.  For example, those with an 'upright' shoulder and consequently a 'pony' or 'choppy' trot tending to lean on the forehand would benefit from more engagement from the quarters, and the use of straight lines as well as lengthening and shortening of the stride exercises.  Necks that were more developed on the underside than the top would benefit from lengthening and head/neck stretching exercises on the circle.  Those with poor quarters would benefit from circling and flexing thus encouraging the horse bring it's legs underneath it and thus use its quarters in a more effective way - and so forth.

Charlie gave us time to practice on the exercises he had recommended.  Following this we were then invited for five minutes of his undivided attention each whilst the others looked on.  He put us on a circle and asked for a flex.  Quite apart from the specific task in hand, he addressed the horse's way of going.  My horse, who has a lack of impulsion and a tendency to be heavy off the leg, had me doing transitions (still keeping the flex and the weight distribution going) with back-up's in between, each time aiming for lighter and lighter phases.  Fiona (who arrived back to a well deserved round of cheers and applause) Sheril and Liz were also encouraged to push their horses forward and step up the impulsion.

We were treated to a short but spectacular demonstration of relaxed horse and rider transforming into a twisting, bucking and rearing rodeo show, all in the space of a few seconds by a freshly bitten Ola and a rather surprised Diane.  It says much for Diane's exquisite balance and stickability that she stayed on.

Charlie gave us so much positive instruction that by the end of the day everyone felt they had really cracked on', we all left with a smile on our faces, but no one more so than Liz, who had reins the length of washing lines and was roaring around at a spanking pace on a very happy and relaxed Nenagh.  It was really a joy to watch.

Another step on the ladder, and with another experience under our belts, we departed tired, hot, dirty and happy.  Great stuff!

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Martha Clinic

June 17^th, 2006

Diane writes

I was very apprehensive about taking Ola to another clinic after her objection to going to the Silke clinic in February but I needn’t have worried as she was like a perfect horse.  The morning was devoted to ground skills.  First of all Martha got us to work on the last four games to warm our horses up and so she could see how we handled them.  She said that Ola responded by a suggestion and so we were going to work on moving her with a feel which I found really difficult at first but it was amazing to see how quickly she picked it up.  The first task was to move the horses near side front hoof to tread on the savvy string that was by the off side front hoof whist standing a metre in front of them.  Ola’s norm is once moving her feet she can’t stop moving them and Martha explained to me that it was because she was on her shoulders all the time so I had to make sure that she was up off her shoulders before asking for that one step sideways at a time.

Next, we did short circling.  This involved holding the rope about a metre from the halter and sending the horse around first at walk then trot with feel on the rope.  This was really interesting with Ola as it showed up how unbalanced she was and how supportive it was to her to show her how to find her balance.  Another task was to move the horses front feet only on a circle one step at a time.  All these tasks I found really difficult to start with but when I set Ola up correctly they became really easy. 

After lunch was the ridden work.  The main objective with all the horses was to get them off their shoulders as we all had the same problem.  We started by warming up on a large circle.  This was not only for the benefit of the horses but for the riders as well, to get all the joints oiled and supple as if we were stiff it would reflect in our horses.  We worked on trying to remember to lift our body first before asking for a forward flexion to lift them off their shoulders and to keep the inside hand higher, all things we know we should do but forget, well I do anyway.  Then we practised our backing up and sideways all things that helps to get the horses off their shoulders.

I enjoyed the day enormously and felt that Ola and I achieved a lot and I would like to thank Kate for providing a great venue and all those much needed drinks on such a hot day.

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Ken Faulkner ANH Clinic

May 16^th to 20^th, 2006
Fleckney, Leicestershire

Kate writes

The venue in Leicester was only about an hour and a half drive with the trailer and Daisy was happy to stay inside while I made up her pen.  After feeling sick with worry about all the logistics, never mind the actual horsemanship, I soon realized there was no need for concern.

Debs put the gorgeous Eric in beside Daisy and I reckon it took her about 3 minutes to come into season.  The class was a real mixture of people, some had done quite a bit of ANH with Ken before, there was one total novice and 2 newly started 3 year olds, the one that was started at the Shuttleworth demo and the other that was started the night before at a demo in Leicester.

The novice was a very nervous lady in her 60’s with a bargy little pony, she even had to be helped to get it from the field into the ménage – I thought she would never last.  But the transformation of her and her pony was a joy to see, the lady tried really hard and the pony got beautifully sof