Frankie improving his balance.

“Trick training may not seem ‘serious enough’ for ‘serious riders’ but it is the means of helping humans make more of their horses than athletes or beasts of burden – it is one of the best ways to make your horse your friend.” Philippe Karl, French riding master and founder of the Ecole de Legerete

I’ve been enthusiastic about learning more circus type work, especially trick training, for the past several months. Trick training can help to develop a more confident and respectful horse, broaden the handler’s repertoire of training techniques, add variety and creativity into one’s daily interactions with one’s horses, and can significantly reduce the boredom that may develop (in horse and human) with traditional riding and training. Trick training, when done properly, can also be used to significantly improve a horse’s flexibility and strength.

Although trick training has a bad connotation for many  people due to the harsh methods and total disregard for the horse’s biomechanics that have been associated with some trick trainers in the past, there are many people out there today who are using humane training techniques to train tricks, to help horses improve phsyically, mentally, as well as from a behavioral standpoint.

“Through trick training, you can learn how to make your horse enthusiastic about his “serious”work….In fact, is is my own heartfelt desire to convey how the most difficult of disciplines – dressage, for example – can be ‘joyfully advanced’ with the help of these exercises….trick training helps to motivate horses to be ‘achievers’ and enables them to willingly perform schooling exercises that are otherwise likely to bore them.” Bea Borelle, Trick Training for Horses

Philippe Karl’s wife Bea Borelle, and the trainers at the Art of Natural Dressage, use trick training in conjunction with classical dressage exercises. Then there is Eva Wiemers’ who has a program called “Gym Circensis” in which she uses tricks to develop strength and flexibility , not necessarily for exhibition purposes.

Cynthia Royal of the Royal Academy and Equine Psychology Center in southern California uses trick training as part of her equine psychology program to rehabilitate horses with difficult behavior. I had the great fortune to spend two days training with her last October working with both her (very well) trained personal horses as well as some untrained horses. I learned tons and it has inspired me to further integrate circus work into my own training program with both Frankie and Valentine.

I’m currently using pedestal and teeter-totter work to improve Frankie’s proprioception, straightness, and balance as well as his behavior. I began seeing improvement in all areas within a couple of sessions and he seems to just keep getting better. With that said, I see much more trick training in our future!

Shifting his weight forwards...

…and shifting his weight backwards.

Balancing in the Middle

Frankie D. at the race training stable, 8/30/2005

Flashback to August 30, 2005. It was the day of my 9th wedding anniversary. My husband picked me up at work on my lunch break and in the pouring down rain we drove out to a large thoroughbred race training stable to see a 2 year old, 16 hand, solid bay thoroughbred that very much needed a home. He had a cervical spine injury that was discovered after he fell during a morning gallop. Attempts at finding a home for him had been unsuccessful and the farm owner had ordered him to be “taken off the books.”  We watched him walk and he displayed some minor signs of neurological issues with his hind end. Over the phone I spoke with his vet who informed me “he’ll have good days and bad days. Some days he may not be able to walk.”  After the farm manager put him up and closed his stall door all sorts of racket could be heard coming from within the stall. The manager opened the door above his feed bin and a very angry looking horse face appeared, ears pinned, teeth bared, demanding a flake of alfalfa which he promptly received from the manager. I thought to myself, “I’ll take him. He’s the one!” That horse was Frankie D.
Several months prior to this I had decided I was ready for another horse: a youngster that I could bring along and have fun training as I had done in my younger days. I was approaching age 40 and my practical mind told me I needed a calm, well mannered quarter horse that I could ride for pleasure. The first horse I looked at was a solid bay 3 year old quarter horse, 16 hands, with a wonderfully sweet disposition. The price was right, the horse seemed perfect, I knew his owner, but something in my gut told me, “Close, but he’s not the one.”
The next horse I looked at was Frankie D. So what made me discard what my practical mind was saying and rely on my intuition to make such a snap judgment? I have thought about this a lot over the past 5 years and feel I know the answer. As a child I always loved the challenge of difficult puzzles, reading mystery novels, and attempts at “training” the stubborn family dog. At age 11 I was introduced to horses and after a couple of years of riding lessons under my belt I fell in love with and began leasing a horse named Heidi. A former race horse and open jumper, she challenged me every time I rode her and I thrived on that!  I was bored out of my mind whenever I got stuck riding one of the “old faithfuls” at the riding stable where I took lessons or when I rode horses that easily won ribbons at the horse shows.
As an adult my horses have become, for conscious or unconscious reasons, my path of personal growth. They have challenged me to stretch myself, face my fears, discover new possibilities, and expand my growing edge. Horses are my passion and I will listen to the feedback that they give me before I will listen to any so-called human “expert” who might tell me what changes I need to make in my personality or behavior.  My desire to connect with them is so deep that I have found myself pursing personal change for the sole reason of improving my relationship with them, which in turn spills over into my everyday life. So, going back to that day when I first met Frankie, I believe my unconscious mind was thinking, “this horse is going to stretch you, he is going to challenge you and insist that you become a better human being.” And he has, hands down, no questions asked!

Over the past 3 years I have taken Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lessons. The benefits have been amazing. The quality of my riding has reached a level that I once only dreamed about.  This year I decided to attend a retreat in Asheville, NC, taught by Feldenkrais instructor Lavinia Plonka whose classes I have taken when visiting my parents in NC in the summer. When I signed up for the retreat I  realized that a technique called Alba Emoting was also being taught there by Laura Facciponti Bond.   From AlbaEmoting.org I learned that Alba Emoting is a method that identifies specific, universal patterns of breath, posture, relative states of tension and relaxation, in aspects of emotional expression, and systematizes them into a technique to produce and express emotion at will. It allows individuals to learn to recognize and express emotion directly and purely. In her teaching, Laura uses the Alba Emoting techniques to help both actors and the general public increase awareness of breathing, facial expressions, and postural patterns that evoke and exhibit specific emotional states.

Reading about this thrilled me when I thought of its applications to horsemanship. Although horses can be taught verbal cues, they communicate primarily through emotion, facial expression, and body language. Gaining more awareness and control of these patterns in oneself is of the utmost importance to anyone training horses from the ground, whether it be for simple behavior modification, liberty work, or haute ecole dressage. In a culture where most of us focus on verbal and written communication, these skills often seem elusive.

“A person who is emotionally incongruent, who feels one way and acts another, appears dangerously out of focus to the equine awareness system.” Linda Kohanov, The Tao of Equus

Over the course of the 6 day retreat, the Feldenkrais lessons provided me with more insights into my movement patterns, healthier movement, and a wonderful sense of relaxation. The Alba Emoting lessons were simply fascinating to me because I have never studied breath work or facial expression, especially in the context of emotion. Although the amount of Alba Emoting instruction I received at the retreat was simply an introduction to the work, it gave me a great deal of awareness of how I am mixing patterns of different emotions at times, possibly sending mixed signals to others, the horses included, through my facial expression and body language. I also learned that mixed emotional patterns can become habituated over time, so do not simply vanish through gaining awareness of them. I began wondering how many times I have been trying to convey to Frankie “good boy” as he is trotting around me, while at the same time scrutinizing his biomechanics with a tensed brow that says, “That doesn’t look quite right.”?  How many times have I tried to assert myself through confident posture when he explodes while my facial expression conveys fear or anger?

Just like anything else, the first step to changing one’s habits of emotional expression is awareness of what one is doing and discovery of new choices. Through Alba Emoting I see a new door opening full of possibilities that I hope to explore deeper in the future for application in both my professional life and in my interactions with my horses.

If you would like to learn more about the methods or practitioners mentioned above I recommend visiting the following websites
http://laviniaplonka.com
http://breathxpress.com
http://albaemoting.org
http://www.feldenkrais.com

I also highly recommend Lavinia Plonka’s book, Walking Your Talk – Changing Your Life through the Magic of Body Language

George, age 23, January 2010

I think this photo answers that question. George and I started our path down the road of classical dressage when he was age 18 and terribly lame from years of being ridden incorrectly.  He is, no doubt, my silk purse! (see below)

From Sylvia Loch’s website, regarding classical dressage:

“There are many reasons why it matters to do things correctly, but the truth is an incorrect way of riding will impair the horse’s movement and athletic ability and can do much damage both physically and mentally. Practised over a period of time, it generally leads to unsoundness in the horse and back pain for both horse and rider. But let’s not be negative about this. The positive side is so compelling, it would be madness to reject it. We will go deeper into the psychological benefits later, but from a purely practical point of view -

• Classical dressage is safer
• Classical dressage is logical
• Classical dressage tones and builds your horse’s body (naturally)
• Classical dressage makes horses more beautiful
• Classical dressage makes horses happier
• Classical dressage allows horses to live to a much greater age – e.g. the horses of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna
• Classical dressage reduces stress both in human and horse
• Classical dressage tones and balances the rider’s body
• Classical dressage challenges the rider’s mind

Many classical riders are not interested in competing, since for them the art is to work quietly at home with whatever horses come their way. Making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear can be far more challenging than winning a medal on a million dollar superstar.”

Well said, Sylvia!!  Creating a sound and happy horse has been much more challenging and rewarding than any blue ribbon I ever won during my 20 years of showing, before I discovered classical dressage.

And if you want more proof as to the benefits of Classical Dressage, check out the Spanish Riding School’s website where they give bio’s and ages on their performing stallions. Most of them are in the 18-24 year old age range. Wow!!

It has been so long since I have posted. In December 2009 I began lunge work with Frankie again with the goal of improving his biomechanics.  I contacted Terry to come out and help me as I have never learned how to properly lunge a horse, and boy do I have a lot to learn. I worried that lunging would bore Frankie too much but I also felt in my heart he was up the challenge and would comply once he realized we were doing it to help his body come into better balance, alignment, and strength. Several weeks into the lunge work I saw an amazing expression on Frankie’s face at a moment when he accidentally found engagement and balance. Ever since then it has amazed me how hard he has tried and how much he actually appears to enjoy the lunging. His biomechanics appeared to improve until February when he all of a sudden got caught in one of his unhealthy habitual movement patterns. It was clear to me that he was making every effort to align his body but it was stuck in a crooked pattern and he could not straighten out of it. Unlike prior months and years when he would panic and explode, this time he stood quietly and waited for me to figure something out to help him. I ended his session and walked him back to the barn instead of trying to help him sort out his body issues as I knew it was beyond my scope. I put him up and then went on to work that morning and asked for guidance regarding my next step.

A few hours later I had a voice inside me tell me to try and locate Julie, my equine massage therapist from 10+ years ago. Amazingly, although she had changed her name and moved to a new town I was able to track her down via the internet. I e-mailed her that morning and she promptly responded. She now does Ortho Bionomy on horses instead of massage. A few days later Frankie was in her hands and I realized her work was exactly what his body needed. He was so incredibly receptive to it. She believes, as I do, that Frankie’s body had reorganized itself around his neck injury and formed some very unhealthy movement patterns that make it impossible for him to move in alignment. I gave him a few weeks off after his session with Julie then gradually brought him back into work, watching him experiment with new movement patterns with some positive results. Julie came out again a few weeks later and worked on him a second time, this time for much longer as that was what he was asking for and receptive to.  He went through some awkward weeks after this second session but then one day he just seemed to blossom into perfect alignment. The past few weeks he has had moments of alignment and balance at the trot where he engages his hind end, lifts through his sternum and his ears perk up like I have never seen before. He seems so happy and cooperative and eager to strengthen his new alignment. Any question I ever had about continuing down this path he has answered for me quite easily.

On another note, it has been about 2 years since Frankie bucked me off and I stopped riding him. Over the course of those two years I have asked the universe repeatedly to please send me some signal about what the future holds for my path with Frankie. I have had to let go of agendas and goals with him and take things one day at a time, something that is incredibly difficult for me, yet very calming when I allow myself to do so. I have continued to work on my relationship with him, but always with the attitude of “when can I move on from this and work on something else?”.  A few weeks ago I went and saw Cavalia in Tampa.  One performance touched me in a way that I have never been touched before by an equine performance. It was Sylvia Zerbini’s grand liberte’ performance with her 9 Arabians. It was the relationship that she has with her horses that was so evident that just captured my heart.

What I saw really made me think about how I would like to relate to Frankie. At first I thought, “I know, if I can never ride him I will just do liberty work since he really enjoys that.” Then I realized that whether I ride him or do liberty work I must improve my relationship with him, that must be my focus. Once I realized that it was like 2 years of angst melted away. I had the answer: just focus on the relationship and things will blossom on their own, whatever they may be. The relationship will always be the focus. I thought that was the path I was following but now I realize that for the past two years I have been adding onto that, “but when can I move on to something else?”. Once again I have found that I had been wandering away from what my heart really desires. I had been asking the wrong question for the past two years. Wow – what an insight!

Most of the women that I know consider great summer reading to be a funny, light novel that one can breeze through while on vacation at the beach.  Not me.  As in prior summers, my summer reading has been more in the realm of movement education and horse training/biomechanics.

First up is Cavalletti by Reiner Klimke.  I pulled this off my bookshelf and dusted it off one day last month when trying to become a bit more creative and purposeful in my ground work with Frankie.  This book was origninally published in 1969 but remains an excellent resource manual for anyone wanting to learn how to set up and school or ride one’s horse over ground rails.  I have been using some of his recommended patterns and lessons with Frankie, both on-line and loose, with great success.  Not only do the ground rails help Frankie to focus on the task at hand, he also seems to be gaining strength in his hind end.

Second is Pelvic Power by Eric Franklin.  Don’t be disuaded by the riske photo on the cover.  This book has many wonderful drawings and diagrams that are useful to anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of the workings of the pelvis.  And anyone who takes their riding seriously, should be interested in gaining a better understanding of their “seat”.

I first heard of Eric Franklin a few years ago at a Centered Riding clinic when one of the instructors brought his little green “Franklin balls” with her.  We each took turns riding with these balls under our seatbones and experienced the miracle of achieving a “deep seat” through relaxation of the pelvic floor. I myself have been going through physical therapy for pelvic floor issues the past few months.  I already had a pair of Franklin balls and my therapist recommended I buy this book.  I’m so glad I did as I know have a better understanding of how my “seat” actually works and how it is connected with the rest of my body.  I cannot recommend this book enough for anyone who rides.  The imagery and ball exercises contained in it, alone are invaluable.

Finally, another book by Eric Franklin, Franklin Method: Ball and Imagery exercises for relaxed and flexible shoulders, neck, and thorax.  I just had to buy this one after reading Pelvic Power.  This book is really a booklet filled only with exercises, for those not interested in wading through the explanations of anatomy and biomechanics.  What rider doesn’t want to to have relaxed shoulders, neck, and thorax?  I have found these exercises to be highly effective and easy to do.  The movements are very similar to Feldenkrais but the little balls act like ball bearings for one’s joints, allowing the relaxation in the joints and muscles to happen much faster.  Also similar to the Miracle Ball Method, but Franklin incorporates movement with his balls which seems to result in better movement in the body rather than just relaxation.