The power of the voice - of slouches and chatterboxes

With Sandy constantly encouraging me "talk to him" in order to get Saumur more relaxed I contemplated the whole talking issue, specifically why I need reminders to talk while riding.

Blame the riding lessons of my childhood: No speaking to the instructor, unless asked. And most certainly, no speaking to the horse. Do as told, and don't ask questions - or, more blunt "Shut up and ride!". Very old school instruction, based on the military roots.

Here and now: I am dealing with a horse that suffers from extreme insecurities, and I am supposed to relief his anxieties by talking to him. While I do not have any problems expressing myself in my day-to-day life, deep down I am a quiet person; constant and incessant chatter makes me nervous and actually irritates the heck out of me.

Fittingly, I just read a very interesting article in a German magazine on using voice aids (German riding instruction has come a long way, baby!).

Basically, there are five types of personalities:

Nervous Riders overwhelm their horses to deflect from their own insecurities. They tend to take short, shallow breaths, and have a high pitched voice. The body language could intensify this impression: These riders often have a hollow back and are very tense.
Slack Riders talk with a weak, dull and monotone voice, breathe shallow, and often get ignored by their horses. They have very little positive tension in their body, and have a problem sitting up straight in the saddle.
Motivated Riders are often so intense that they constantly hold their breaths while riding. Their tension transfers to the horse. Their voice tends to rise, and the horses are often spooky
Lonely Riders carry a lot of frustrations, and they try to get rid of them through loudly scolding their horses in long tirades. They often talk too much to their horse, which often also has to serve as a 'substitued child'.
Self-confident Riders have the correct positive body tension. They talk calmly and in a clear a voice. These riders get heard best by their horses.

It has been proven that horses have extremely keen and sensitive hearing, much better than humans. The human voice is an important instrument for dealing with horses, but it needs to be used well dosed and in combination with body language. Especially in training young horses the voice is indispensable, but again, it needs to be used cautiously. There have been studies showing that horses can learn between five and 90 different commands. Repetition is the key.

Often the use of the voice is more to calm the rider than the horse. The caveat is that calm as well as nervousness get transmitted through the voice immediately to the horse. It is very important that all the signals for the horse are crystal clear.

Body language is crucial. Without positive tension in the body the voice evaporates. For example, if you stand with your shoulders dropping in front of the horse, you give a weak command. Communication with the horse is 70% tone, gestures, body language, and only 30% content.

Training the voice while riding
1. Breathe right: Good tones are developed by breathing in deep into the belly, and breathing out through the throat and vocal chords.
2. Rhythm and tact: Count two to six trot steps. Then skip two trot steps and resume counting. You can repeat this with words like "Kit, Kat" or "Tik, Tak"
3. Find the right tone: Horses love calm and clear voices. A good exercise is to hum "wwww" in tune with the canter rhythm

It's interesting how this directly applies to leadership of people. Nobody respects a slouch or a nervous nelly. So pick yourself up, sit up straight, breathe right, talk in a clear and calm voice, hum along if needed. Or you could use some of my favorite body language tools to make a point: eye-rolling and  door slamming: Neither slouch nor chatterbox!

The bodybuilder and the dancer - and is it his rythm or mine?

I wasn't sure what exactly to expect today - the boys had time off due to the frigid weather, and Sundays at the barn are always very busy.

First thing we heard when we arrived was "watch out - everybody feels frisky today". And -oh no!- light and snow on the arena floor. I started with Remy, who hadn't been ridden all week (due to a business trip and then the inclement weather). To my surprise Remy went right to work on the longe line, not realizing that I would have forgiven him if he would have thrown in some exuberant bucks. That work ethic carried through into my ride, he was obedient and listening. With him the focus right now is on straight, connection, turns, stops. Remy's trot work was absolutely lovely. Our canter departs, however, are a work in progress. With a busy arena and snow sliding off the roof the smart thing was to end on a good note, and that's exactly what we did. I walked him out and continued to tell him the entire time how wonderful he is. This boy sure will not suffer from low self-esteem!

Speaking of low self-esteem: Yesterday I decided to let Saumur have a good roll in the indoor. Nobody was around so I just turned him loose. Well, Saumur took one look at the snow under the door and literally galloped into my arms. He put the sliding stop in just before slamming into me. Then he trotted to the far end of the arena for his roll. On one hand, it was nice that he came to me for comfort, OTOH - it's SNOW, for heaven's sake!

So, today we had snow and light under the door. Luckily I got on pretty relaxed from the good ride I had on Remy. Sandy reminded me that it is really important for Saumur that I talk to him. I have a hard time with that, as talking to a horse was a big No-No in my initial training, and also I feel a bit silly doing it. But Saumur has special needs - and so do I. The talking helps me to relax. Actually I just saw an interesting article in German magazine that covers that subject, now there are even voice coaches for riders! Sandy is -as usual- right on top of things. Saumur absolutely needs a leader, he is very smart, but he cannot deal with situations where he feels he is on his own. I have not always been that leader, when his reactions scared me I either over-reacted (too many one rein stops) or threw the reins away and let him do his thing. Obviously, neither is good training, and we got stuck numerous times because of that.

The other key is to stop when Saumur gets worried. Let him think about it and then continue. We were able to have a great lesson, with both of us staying relaxed and happy. It seems such a small thing, but for us it us absolutely huge. Sandy had us focus on the rhythm, that I am in charge of and not him. The question to repeat is always "is it his rhythm or mine?". And the answer is "it better be mine!".

I marvel at being fortunate to have two so different and wonderful horses. Our work with Sandy has shaped Saumur into a very muscular athlete whereas young Remy is the light-footed dancer. Now my job is to put some of Saumur's traits into Remy and some of Remy's traits into Saumur. No problem. The bigger question is: "How do I get some of Sandy's qualities into me??".

Do I really need another book on Dressage?

Next to the horses another big passion of mine is reading. TV bores me and makes me cranky in no time. But give me good book and attempt to get my attention, let alone try to pry me away. No dice. I am old fashioned – I love good old hard covers, no Kindle for me. What would our house be without all the overflowing book cases and stacks of books? More organized, JP says. Less charming, I say. I just finished one of the most gripping books I’ve ever read “The Lucky Child” by Thomas Buergenthal. His story will stay with me for a very long time.

Books on Dressage I find sometimes a bit trying. Especially some of the more recent ones are either too basic, too dry, or somewhere in between. During my last trip to the tack store a new book caught my eye “Real Life Dressage” by Carl Hester and Polly Ellison. I’ve been a fan of Carl Hester for quite some time, so naturally I was drawn to this book, and I bought it. That’s another phenomenon: I go to the tack shop to pick up something simple like a brush – and I walk out with full shopping bags. Anyway, back to the book:

Carl did not disappoint. From the cover comment: ‘If there is a glimmer of hope’, says Carl, ‘it is worth persevering. It might take longer to get there, but if you, the rider, have the patience it may well still be possible – and this is just as true at the higher levels as it is at the lower ones.’

This book gives training advice from Novice to Grand Prix, and I really like it. The ‘stars’ of the book are all horses with real issues and problems. Carl’s common sense approach and exercises are easy to follow, and he always explains ‘why’.

I absolutely loved the final remarks, titled ‘Good Luck!’:

“Before signing off, I would like to stress the importance of listening to and enjoying your horses, for it is this that makes dressage, and riding generally, fascinating and pleasurable. Horses that are given time and patience can develop into stars. Remember to have fun along the way – I certainly have!” Carl Hester.

Well, Carl, I couldn’t have said it better myself!

So to answer my own question: Yes, I definitely needed to have this book.

The outside of a horse - and the inside of a woman

No matter how tired or stressed I am - spending time with the boys always makes me feel better. I was thinking about this last night, after a very stressful day at work. I basically had to force myself to make the 90 min. trip to the barn, but once there things looked up immediately. Just seeing Saumur having fun rolling in the indoor made me smile.

I find grooming very therapeutic. And I guess Remy feels the same, he basically fell asleep while I was grooming him. But, more realistically, he had a full day of play with his buddies behind him and was just plain tired from that. No matter what made him fall asleep: It made me feel good.

So to quote Sir Winston Churchill: There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man -or in this case- woman!

Building on the previous rides - and a dose of wormer at the wrong place

Two satisfying rides: Remy started where we left off the day before. Once I established a nice forward trot he (mostly) kept his balance and stayed in a nice rhythm. We practised our trot-canter-trot transitions. It's harder going to the right, the balancing outside rein is really important. My focus needs to be on being STILL, and not throwing my upper body 'over the fence'. I have a tendency to do that when the transition into the canter is sticky. As Sandy reminded me: It's the set up (as with almost everything!): At this stage we can only get smoothly into a correct canter from a forward trot. At the end of our session I let Remy stretch on a long rein, and he developed a nice, swinging walk with an excellent overtrack.

The work with Saumur also focused on the canter, albeit on a different level. It required me to really focus on what my body is doing: 10m canter circle, haunches in - shoulder-in - haunches in. To break it up we decreased and increased the circle, always trying to keep the canter rhythm even and to make him jump 'up' as opposed to 'out'. Saumur always proves that he can 'go all out', now the challenge is to channel this energy into 'up'. In an effort to get the difficult stuff right I am working too hard, which leads to stiffness on my part and in return on Saumur. Sandy pointed out that I need to let Saumur show me what he knows. What a difference: My project became my schoolmaster!!

The boys must think I am nuts - as a 'reward' for all their efforts I was doling out wormer afterwards. Chased by apples and carrots, but still... We worm based on fecal egg counts, and although Remy and Saumur's results were clean, Chambord had some Strongyles. The vet recommended treating everybody turned out together as a precaution. Remy deserved a gold star: He even left his yummy alfalfa hay and obediently swallowed the orange stuff. Saumur was no problem, either. But the one that really needed it -Chambord- of course had to throw a fit. I just had finally finished getting it into his mouth when Jim, the farrier, showed up to replace the lost shoe. Grumbling about "don't you people watch the Superbowl?" he worked on the shoe while I was holding Chambord. Chambord was rubbing my neck with his nose, which I took as a sign of affection. A look in the bathroom mirror taught me otherwise: I was sporting orange wormer all over my neck!

Adjusting to two very different horses - and where is the shoe?

Two rides today on two very different horses. With Remy it was quite the eye-opener for me when Sandy continuously urged me on "forward, forward, more forward". I thought I had Remy in a good forward moving trot, but he started to 'hop up', which felt like he was trying to go into the canter. Sandy pointed out that it was a balance issue, and that Remy needed to be more in front of my leg. "Going forward will take care of the hip-hop". Sure enough, once he was moving energetically forward Remy's stride got longer, he searched the connection to the bit, and carried himself in a nice training level frame. Sandy pointed out that I need to ride Remy like a trained horse, and not like a baby. That basically means I just have to ride and not worry about him fussing, falling over the outside shoulder on the circle, etc. Fix it and ride on.

Saumur reminded me again today that we (I!) still have trust issues. Sure enough, first the door was no problem, then the light rays changed, and he spooked. Instead of just ignoring it I kind of lost it, and things went downhill from here. With Sandy's help we got over it and were able to go by the door without any further meltdowns. She reminded me that he needs me to give him confidence and by my getting upset we are again feeding on each other's insecurities. In her words "Saumur will always be Saumur, that's just how he is" and added deadpan "When you come with all your intensity I tell myself: this is Birgit, and this is just how she is"...Uh, Oh-kay. Good point!

In contrast to Remy, the goal with Saumur is to S L O W down. Ten years -and counting- on working on relaxation and slowing down... Today we focused on the canter work, and the correct 10m circles, especially in the 'scary' areas. I need to remember that I can only supple him on the inside AFTER I have a good connection on the outside. We finished with a good collected walk, which is usually one of our weaker points in the tests.

Summary of today: Forward with Remy: "He is a trained horse (and the fussing will go away)". Slow and relaxed with Saumur: "He is Saumur, that's just how he is (and the spooks don't matter)".  And yes, Birgit is just Birgit...

Last week Chambord found JP's car keys, this week he lost a shoe. It seemed to have vanished in the muddy pasture. Win some - lose some I guess.  I told Britney that JP is out looking for a shoe - and she innocently asked "What, did JP now lose a shoe??"

There must be a horse underneath somewhere...

Mud season started early this year - I didn't think I'll ever say this, but I am actually missing the nice, fluffy white stuff! JP and I stared on awe at the guys.. their original coat colors were no longer recognizable. Saumur is wearing a sheet due to his trace clip, so at least he was 'only' wearing a dirty sheet.

Scraping off the mud was something else. Note to self: Wear goggles next time! My previously clean black jacket turned into a grayish mess by the time I finally had Remy somewhat decent. He must have enjoyed the 'massage', as he was falling asleep in the cross ties! When we finally went to work he was fully awake again, and happy to get moving. It's amazing, his body seems to change almost from day to day. He is still growing, and his body is filling out. While this is all very positive, of course, the bad part is the saddle fit. I just had it adjusted not too long ago, and now it looks like it's already getting tight.

Seems I have my own 'little Nureyev' in the barn - Saumur is doing canter pirouettes with Sandy! "Mr. Twinkletoes" is making great progress. Can't wait to see how he will be in my lesson tomorrow.

This time of the year it's just hard to be motivated, at least for me. I am still hoping to get the MDA scholarship for the training with George Williams. That would be so awesome and really something to look forward to. I submitted the application in November, but haven't heard anything. I am sure there is a lot of competition vying for this.

According to the groundhog (Groundhog day was yesterday) Spring should be upon us soon. Wonderful, more mud to look forward to. Better invest in an industrial strength vacuum cleaner for the boys so we can find them!