Horse and Handler #2
The second pair I will call the horse, A. and the handler S. A and S had been at the Harry Whitney camp during the previous week, so I guess a lot had happened then. Apparently, A. has a history of running away and/or rearing as well. The mare requires that S. do a lot to get very little response...A. tends to be "dull."
A. has trouble with a rider on her trotting a circle to the right. She won't look to the right, but retains the brace. Brace causes the horse to use muscles and joints in a way that are counter-productive.
I have to say, during the entire week, I had the most difficulty following what this pair were working on and what was changing. My first exposure to them had been at a Ross Jacobs clinic a few months prior. This handler is a trainer in her own right and has quite advanced knowledge that goes far beyond my ability to even evaluate...I can't even pretend to!
Harry got on this mare during this first session and wanted A. to be with him...her *thought*, not just her body.
Trying to make the feet do what we want without the mind saying "Let's do it!" is setting the horse up for an argument all the time....
===============
Horse and Handler #3
JM had a yearling warmblood, called S., with her this week. S. had just recovered from a broken coffin bone and had been on stall rest for much of his young life, followed by being turned out. JM was just beginning to re-establish a relationship with the yearling and was concerned about his pawing (which I guess was how he broke his coffin bone).
S. is at liberty in the round pen and Harry is in the center, waiting on the horse for his attention to be drawn to him. Harry has a flag that he uses to get the attention of the horse. Again, Harry reiterates that this is not doing things TO the horse, but FOR the horse.
In a short time, the colt begins to hang out with Harry in the center of the round pen. There hasn't been much dust flying in this case. JM said that she has been concerned that S would kick when she handles his feet.
"We have part of his thoughts, but we haven't taken all of the thoughts captive. Until he gets these thoughts captive (which is S's responsibility), we can't do my will."
When curiosity about a prop moves S. not to care about the humans space, he is corrected.
The whack of the flag, when it happens, is to remind S that Harry is there, not to run S. around. This is a common assumption among people who think all round pen work is brutality...chasing a horse until he is exhausted. That is NOT the way Harry uses a round pen at all or a flag. In fact, Harry made a reference that some folks feel that if they make life out on the edge of the round pen rough enough, the horse will want to come in. This is NOT the way Harry works. He wants the horse to *want* to be here. He wants not just to have the horse's feet near him, but he wants his thought...his "heart" in effect.
So too does the Lord with us. God wants not just our feet in "religious duty." In fact, he doesn't want the mechanics...he wants our hearts...he wants my heart...not just my feet.
Harry shared something that was, for me, a theme of the week and affected me even yesterday as I worked with Harley at home...Harry often waits on a horse and then reaches out to stroke the horse's face...the center of his nose. He pointed out that if a horse isn't ready to let you touch the center of his face (or pet it from what I can tell :-)), things aren't right between the two of you...They can't have their thoughts elsewhere and let you touch the center of their face. Harry waited for S. to be willing and receptive by not feeling a need to look away. Harry wants the horse to feel good enough to make it happen.
Harry pointed out that WE want to love and kiss on the horse, but if the horse doesn't *like* it and isn't ready for it, we shouldn't do it. We want the centeredness that comes with being receptive to the human's touch.
"Give the horse choices."
"Don't beg him not to leave."
Harry pointed out that this colt hasn't really developed a use for humans just yet...or even a real meaning attributed to humans. The colt didn't want to search for what the human wanted. He was putting out effort to search *elsewhere* for a distraction, in fact.
How often do I act like this with God? How often do I have a sense that there is something He is drawing me to do, be, think, feel, release, surrender...but I earnestly look everywhere I possibly can for a distraction...some way to avoid what I know is calling to the deeper places in me?
Harry never chased the hindquarters, though the more focused the hrose is on Harry, the more the hindquarters step away automatically. He never needed to ask the horse to move the HQs away...Other clinicians and programs teach a chasing of the HQs away, but there is a lack of quality in it. With this horse now in the round pen, as he moves his HQs away, he isn't just escaping...not like those that teach the horse to jump the HQs away "snappy like."
When it is time to ask S. to move a bit, just do enough with the flag to ask him to not be stopped any more instead of asking him to leave. Set things up so the horse has choices.
This reminds me of the way that God gives us free will. He sets things up so we have choices...and beckons...calls...directs...asks for my thoughts....
Within 20 minutes, what Harry is doing hasn't changed, but S.'s response to it has. He feels different about it. His knowledge has changed.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Day 1 - Horse/Handler #1
Handler/Horse #1
Horse 1 appeared wadded up as he moved...Handler 1 wants to change directions a lot because he isn't relaxing enough to find softness.
A lot of people think that what we are seeing is good...but the truth is, Horse 1 is just conforming, he isn't submissive...not willingly surrendering his will. His feet are close to his handler. The lowering of the head and yawning is what people look for, but horse's insides aren't ok yet. Handler struggles with losing her energy (due to chronic illness) which means that horse has releases without meaning to him.
If we see no need for God, we see no need to take direction.
What do we mean by "fear?" We don't want horse to be fearful of us. Though, this might seem to be happening in the beginning.
At this point with horse/handler pair 1, I got very confused. A flag entered the picture. It seemed to scare the SNOT out of the horse and it did out of me. Everything *I* thought *I* knew was tossed out! Interestingly, his transitions up and down began to look better. He was still carrying tension in his tail...I wrote in my notes this line "I have no idea what I am seeing."
Horse 1 wouldn't change diectinos to the right. He turns in to the left to change direction or out to the left to change direction. He doesn't want to tor right at all. (Handler is on the ground.)
Session 1 with Horse/Handler 1 ended with him online again. It did look a lot better.
"All that happens when you get up in speed is an amplification of what was tehre in the slower gaits." (I am pretty sure Harry Whitney said this a couple of times during the week.) This sort of goes along with the statement that if we discover a troubled place due to being away from home or away from a horse buddy or whatever, then the trouble was likely there all along, we just now found an opportunity in which the trouble was amplified enough for us, as amateurs, to finally see/hear it.
Horse 1 appeared wadded up as he moved...Handler 1 wants to change directions a lot because he isn't relaxing enough to find softness.
A lot of people think that what we are seeing is good...but the truth is, Horse 1 is just conforming, he isn't submissive...not willingly surrendering his will. His feet are close to his handler. The lowering of the head and yawning is what people look for, but horse's insides aren't ok yet. Handler struggles with losing her energy (due to chronic illness) which means that horse has releases without meaning to him.
If we see no need for God, we see no need to take direction.
What do we mean by "fear?" We don't want horse to be fearful of us. Though, this might seem to be happening in the beginning.
At this point with horse/handler pair 1, I got very confused. A flag entered the picture. It seemed to scare the SNOT out of the horse and it did out of me. Everything *I* thought *I* knew was tossed out! Interestingly, his transitions up and down began to look better. He was still carrying tension in his tail...I wrote in my notes this line "I have no idea what I am seeing."
Horse 1 wouldn't change diectinos to the right. He turns in to the left to change direction or out to the left to change direction. He doesn't want to tor right at all. (Handler is on the ground.)
Session 1 with Horse/Handler 1 ended with him online again. It did look a lot better.
"All that happens when you get up in speed is an amplification of what was tehre in the slower gaits." (I am pretty sure Harry Whitney said this a couple of times during the week.) This sort of goes along with the statement that if we discover a troubled place due to being away from home or away from a horse buddy or whatever, then the trouble was likely there all along, we just now found an opportunity in which the trouble was amplified enough for us, as amateurs, to finally see/hear it.
Day 1 Notes at Bible Study with Ronnie Moyer
Ronnie, in his horsemanship, had to let go of his old view of colt-starting...lay a new foundation after all his life of assuming that he knew it all.
The same is true with our world view and our view of God.
With Ronnie, a little bit of understanding of a new way of doing things with horses has changed things (helped things) quite a lot.
We think we are making it and God may shake up life for us, not to us. Just like Harry has taught Ronnie that he does things for the horse, not to the horse. Like Harry raising dust for helping the horse find peace, contentment, relaxation, the dust had to fly. In a similar way, the Lord may stir up the dust a bit for our benefit not to hurt us.
Proverbs 1:2 - Discipline is getting one to desire to follow...it is the difference between the horse having to be with us vs. wanting to be with us.
Wisdom is the application of knowledge. Discipline is that process of "for" us, not "to" us. Proverbs 1:3 - If you get rid of truth, you have no standard.
Proverbs 1:7 - We can have a lot of knowledge, but it needs to be the right foundation. The fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. People learn to distrust because people aren't trustworthy...then we take that approach and apply our distrust toward God.
Harry attempts not to merely draw the feet of the horse, but the mind of the horse. It may need to begin with a fear of sorts like that spoken of in Proverbs 1:7...In the round pen there might be enough that goes on to wake up the horse to the possibility that someone important is present, involved, interested, wanting interaction. Again...not to do anything TO the horse, but FOR the horse, ulimately.
God is in the business of helping those who are helpless NOT in "helping those who help themselves." Proverbs 3:5-7 says Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknoweldge him and he will direct your paths.
Let go of the baggage. Just as we ask our horses to do likewise and to trust us.
Embrace what God brings.
Trust is the strongest of all foundations, but, ironically, is also the most easily broken.
Man has always tried to put God in a box. In a similar way, our horses often assume they know what we bring to them...and put us in a box. Assume they know what we offer and depending on their experience, they may not want what they assume we offer.
We will talk more about submission...voluntary surrender of the will to another.
The same is true with our world view and our view of God.
With Ronnie, a little bit of understanding of a new way of doing things with horses has changed things (helped things) quite a lot.
We think we are making it and God may shake up life for us, not to us. Just like Harry has taught Ronnie that he does things for the horse, not to the horse. Like Harry raising dust for helping the horse find peace, contentment, relaxation, the dust had to fly. In a similar way, the Lord may stir up the dust a bit for our benefit not to hurt us.
Proverbs 1:2 - Discipline is getting one to desire to follow...it is the difference between the horse having to be with us vs. wanting to be with us.
Wisdom is the application of knowledge. Discipline is that process of "for" us, not "to" us. Proverbs 1:3 - If you get rid of truth, you have no standard.
Proverbs 1:7 - We can have a lot of knowledge, but it needs to be the right foundation. The fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. People learn to distrust because people aren't trustworthy...then we take that approach and apply our distrust toward God.
Harry attempts not to merely draw the feet of the horse, but the mind of the horse. It may need to begin with a fear of sorts like that spoken of in Proverbs 1:7...In the round pen there might be enough that goes on to wake up the horse to the possibility that someone important is present, involved, interested, wanting interaction. Again...not to do anything TO the horse, but FOR the horse, ulimately.
God is in the business of helping those who are helpless NOT in "helping those who help themselves." Proverbs 3:5-7 says Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknoweldge him and he will direct your paths.
Let go of the baggage. Just as we ask our horses to do likewise and to trust us.
Embrace what God brings.
Trust is the strongest of all foundations, but, ironically, is also the most easily broken.
Man has always tried to put God in a box. In a similar way, our horses often assume they know what we bring to them...and put us in a box. Assume they know what we offer and depending on their experience, they may not want what they assume we offer.
We will talk more about submission...voluntary surrender of the will to another.
Day 1 Notes at Bible Study with Harry
Some of us are going through the motions with the horse without knowing why we are doing it. This is modern horsemanship. It is as if we need to stay safe from the very essence of the horse..."organized horsemanship." It is performance based. "Do you realize what the horses are saying while we are working with them? 'AMATEURS! I'm working with AMATEURS!' at being a horse!
With organized religion, it is the same thing. It protects us from coming into contact with the very essence of God.
Likewise, we are amaterus at being Christ-like. We do such a sorry job of it.
[[NOTE: Much of what is here in this blog are quotes from Harry Whitney or Ronnie Moyer. However, I hesitate indicating this with quotation marks as no matter what a person says, there is something lost in the translation and I certainly don't want to misquote. So while much of what I share here is what I *think* I heard one or the other of them say...well, if you don't like what you read, then just blame me and don't go emailing Harry that I am quoting him...I am not. I am quoting my remembrance of things he said based on my notes. In the instant that I *am* very sure (like when he repeated it numerous times)...then sure...I might add quotation marks...]]
We must shift to a different hill to look at things the way horses do. It doesn't look the same as the view from my own little hill. And to understand God's view of the world, we need to move to another hill, too.
People get braced and some animosity comes out--they use what us amateurs present to try to understand God...and all the while they don't understand that we are amateurs at being Christ-like.
With organized religion, it is the same thing. It protects us from coming into contact with the very essence of God.
Likewise, we are amaterus at being Christ-like. We do such a sorry job of it.
[[NOTE: Much of what is here in this blog are quotes from Harry Whitney or Ronnie Moyer. However, I hesitate indicating this with quotation marks as no matter what a person says, there is something lost in the translation and I certainly don't want to misquote. So while much of what I share here is what I *think* I heard one or the other of them say...well, if you don't like what you read, then just blame me and don't go emailing Harry that I am quoting him...I am not. I am quoting my remembrance of things he said based on my notes. In the instant that I *am* very sure (like when he repeated it numerous times)...then sure...I might add quotation marks...]]
We must shift to a different hill to look at things the way horses do. It doesn't look the same as the view from my own little hill. And to understand God's view of the world, we need to move to another hill, too.
People get braced and some animosity comes out--they use what us amateurs present to try to understand God...and all the while they don't understand that we are amateurs at being Christ-like.
Day 1 Early Morning Thoughts
For two years (almost), I have looked forward to being here with Harley. It is so strange that now I'm here, and it isn't with Harley!
I wondered about taking Harley or Breezy--a sore horse I might not be able to work with, or "Old Reliable." I knew I could learn a lot with Breezy, yes, and likely have a great time, too...the least amount of stress.
Then, I realized that I should leave Harley home because of him being so sore. Set aside my selfishness. I realized the question was Dodger or Breezy. I settled on Breezy to make things easiest on myself and left a message for Melissa Pelletier (our trainer) who was scheduled to be at the clinic, too. Late the night before I was to leave, she called and said to absolutely, no question, bring DODGER.
Yesterday, I knew I needed to be able to not feel anxious. In my quiet time with watching the Beth Moore DVD on the book of Daniel in the bible, my fear was spoken to DIRECTLY. I needed to trust that God had a plan and that this is IT. Would I choose to go through my fear for the greater good of helping Dodger?
Then, I "randomly" read something in the book She Flies With Wings about a person regretting that she hadn't had the opportunity to see if there wasn't a prince trapped inside a troubled horse (or something like that)....if maybe somehow, some way, she could have helped set free the true nature of the horse if she had just...well...just something. That felt like a confirmation, too.
I planned on taking the Chicken Soup book with me to show Dodger's and Daniel's story to anyone who might want to know about it.
It came time to leave and I got Dodger. Bob held the door partway shut and there was hay in the trailer for the long ride. Dodger looked in the trailer and seemed present for it (we had worked on this with Melissa during the previous lesson). He seemed to ask me if I was certain about him having to get in. I took the halter off so there'd be no danger of him doing anything nutty in there (I am not sure he will tie ok) and then said "yes...go on..." I felt he was present and thinking. Of course, I wanted to think that...but he stepped on in and seemed settled.
As we headed up the road, Michaela my 13-year old daughter was my navigator and Bob and Daniel followed me (yes, the entire way) in Bob's car. I told Michaela I was disappointed I had left the Chicken Soup book behind! Well, she looked at me with the funniest expression...dumbfounded really. She said, "Look..." and reached down and pulled out the Chicken Soup book! How weird is that? She never takes that book anywhere...I felt like God had again confirmed the choice to take Dodger.
Just 10 minutes away from home, I looked at M. and said, "I've now gone twice as far hauling Dodger as I have ever gone!" It was a moment where I was delighted that I had pushed out of my comfort zone. God answered my prayers for peace to rest on me and on Dodger. Dodger was relatively quiet for the entire drive.
We got to Kim's (the clinic venue) and Melissa went in to the trailer, haltered Dodger and out they came like it was no big deal. He wasn't sweating. WOW! (I must admit to wondering about this...is there a stress level that causes a horse NOT to be able to sweat???)
We put him in a 12x12 and he was calm but didn't seem in the least shut down. I wasn't sure if a 12x12 panel pen might concern him with his history.
Later, Gail Ivey arrived and we were able to turn Dodger and Jackpot out together in the turnout. They spent all night together out there. Jackpot is great, very steady, calm and surprised Dodger (I think) with how willing he was to get along. I am sure it helped that he was a Harley look alike, given Harley is Dodger's best friend.
I wondered about taking Harley or Breezy--a sore horse I might not be able to work with, or "Old Reliable." I knew I could learn a lot with Breezy, yes, and likely have a great time, too...the least amount of stress.
Then, I realized that I should leave Harley home because of him being so sore. Set aside my selfishness. I realized the question was Dodger or Breezy. I settled on Breezy to make things easiest on myself and left a message for Melissa Pelletier (our trainer) who was scheduled to be at the clinic, too. Late the night before I was to leave, she called and said to absolutely, no question, bring DODGER.
Yesterday, I knew I needed to be able to not feel anxious. In my quiet time with watching the Beth Moore DVD on the book of Daniel in the bible, my fear was spoken to DIRECTLY. I needed to trust that God had a plan and that this is IT. Would I choose to go through my fear for the greater good of helping Dodger?
Then, I "randomly" read something in the book She Flies With Wings about a person regretting that she hadn't had the opportunity to see if there wasn't a prince trapped inside a troubled horse (or something like that)....if maybe somehow, some way, she could have helped set free the true nature of the horse if she had just...well...just something. That felt like a confirmation, too.
I planned on taking the Chicken Soup book with me to show Dodger's and Daniel's story to anyone who might want to know about it.
It came time to leave and I got Dodger. Bob held the door partway shut and there was hay in the trailer for the long ride. Dodger looked in the trailer and seemed present for it (we had worked on this with Melissa during the previous lesson). He seemed to ask me if I was certain about him having to get in. I took the halter off so there'd be no danger of him doing anything nutty in there (I am not sure he will tie ok) and then said "yes...go on..." I felt he was present and thinking. Of course, I wanted to think that...but he stepped on in and seemed settled.
As we headed up the road, Michaela my 13-year old daughter was my navigator and Bob and Daniel followed me (yes, the entire way) in Bob's car. I told Michaela I was disappointed I had left the Chicken Soup book behind! Well, she looked at me with the funniest expression...dumbfounded really. She said, "Look..." and reached down and pulled out the Chicken Soup book! How weird is that? She never takes that book anywhere...I felt like God had again confirmed the choice to take Dodger.
Just 10 minutes away from home, I looked at M. and said, "I've now gone twice as far hauling Dodger as I have ever gone!" It was a moment where I was delighted that I had pushed out of my comfort zone. God answered my prayers for peace to rest on me and on Dodger. Dodger was relatively quiet for the entire drive.
We got to Kim's (the clinic venue) and Melissa went in to the trailer, haltered Dodger and out they came like it was no big deal. He wasn't sweating. WOW! (I must admit to wondering about this...is there a stress level that causes a horse NOT to be able to sweat???)
We put him in a 12x12 and he was calm but didn't seem in the least shut down. I wasn't sure if a 12x12 panel pen might concern him with his history.
Later, Gail Ivey arrived and we were able to turn Dodger and Jackpot out together in the turnout. They spent all night together out there. Jackpot is great, very steady, calm and surprised Dodger (I think) with how willing he was to get along. I am sure it helped that he was a Harley look alike, given Harley is Dodger's best friend.
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