The Clinic

We made it to the clinic in one piece, and I am so glad I chose morning because it was hot. I can’t even imagine what it was like in the afternoon. I wore one my long sleeve Orvis shirts that has sun protection, and gave my daughter one, too. That was a big help. They also had plenty of water available for us. The horses didn’t seem to mind the sun until about the 3 hour point, at which time they seemed to start demanding overtime pay and shutdown. Considering Tweed is usually good for 1 1/2 to 2 hours of work, he did pretty well.

As in all clinics, there is a lot of standing, watching, and listening. I trained for that scenario last week with Tweed, who has a hard time just standing, especially around horses he doesn’t know and his herd mate coming and going. In that photo above you can see T’s shadow, and there were a few times he became very interested it, especially when it moved when he did.  Funny boy.

Here’s a video where you can see T listening to the clinician and then looking at Epona, as if Tweed himself is absorbing the lesson.

So, what was the lesson? Well, it was a very simple little thing called circles or circling your horse. Our clinicians are not fans of the one rein stop, except in emergencies, but they do train the circle for bringing a horse into sync with the rider, especially when the horse is scared. They believe that you should regularly train your horse in this method so that when the emergency does arise, it is there for you, and your horse knows it well, and takes comfort from it.

This method of circling was a lot different than what we usually do in vertical flexion, but when things fell apart, I did go back to vertical flexion since Tweed knows it so well.

Here are some of the ground rules of this exercise:

1. Your legs are only for direction, not gait changes or speed. (The seat is for speed or gait changes) The reason why is because they don’t want their horses to speed up when they apply leg pressure to direct their path around the circle.

2. Your reins are to be as quiet as possible once you set the position. Outside rein loose, inside rein set to where you can only see eyelashes, then held steady at your belt loops.

3. If your horse drifts in, you apply inside leg and don’t release until they move their body back out on the circle. If they drift out, you use your outside leg the same way. If they get into the trot, keep the leg on until they come back to the walk. The leg release only comes from giving the right answer, and the answer is to be on the 20’-30’ circle.

I did a similar exercise with Leah from the ground a long time ago. We clipped one rein to the saddle for a slightly bent head, then lunged her at walk, trot and lope. This was the exact same concept, but you’re doing it in saddle and letting your horse find lateral flexion by holding the inside rein in one constant place. Unlike some other similar exercises I’ve seen, the outside rein was loose, and not used to support the horse. Your legs are the only structural support. The reason why is because they want the rein quiet. It’s there, but it’s consistent and not bugging on them. That leaves them to find it naturally.

You can see how this exercise is setting you up for neck reining. 

So, does this exercise sound easy? Indeed, it does. Is it actually easy? Indeed, it is not.

Every horse gave different answers as they searched for the right answer. Every rider gave different cues as they searched for the right cue. We were all dependent on using our reins for guidance and our legs for speed, and old habits are hard to break.

Within this “simple” exercise many other issues came up with rider and horse. For example, I found out Tweed has a more difficult time going to the right. No surprise since almost all horses have the same issue, but this exercise will be good at strengthening his weak side. Two of the riders were there to fix lead issues—to the right—when asking for the lope off, and this is all foundational to that. 

We learned some interesting techniques on asking for canter / lope, using an imaginary clock and aiming for 10:00 Left or 2:00 right, and shifting your legs and body to open up the hips.

The time flew by, and our horses did great, especially Epona, who has been working on circles every day for the last two months. She definitely had the advantage! They kept saying what a great horse she was and wanted to know more about her trainer who put such a solid foundation on her. Tumbleweed did great, too, and was his usual gorgeous self, but he is used to more support, and it was a new concept for him to just look for it on his own and only listen to my legs and seat.

We went off to work the circle exercise by ourselves at different gaits, but Tweed and Epona were kind of done. I got some beautiful work from Tweed, but could see he was mentally tired. 

Epona and my daughter were further down the arena and Epona had apparently decided something was scary. The clinician was helping her train through it, but when my daughter went to get back on Epona, she jumped, and we all kind of gasped. The other riders started offering possibilities like maybe she got stung by a bee or maybe the saddle slipped or my daughter kicked her when she swung her leg over or the cinch was too tight or not tight enough. After Epona had been such a rockstar, it was hard to believe she could do anything “wrong.” Whatever the case, we will never know, and it wouldn’t be an excuse anyway. I think Epona was just tired, hot, on edge, and done.

When she got that hop out of her system, it was like she was totally reset and my daughter got on her and they finished the day.

It is safe to say that every horse threw something at their rider during the clinic at some point, but nothing too big. 

In fact, the most dramatic responses came from a horse in training that the clinician was riding and who he purposely brought, rather than a dead broke one, so that we could see the process. We were all so thankful he did and we were able to see how to handle a variety of “wrong answers.” Tweed was looking back at me like, “see how good you have it, mom?”

I’m so glad we went to the clinic and exposed the horses to a new environment, new horses, and new concepts. It gives us a lot to work on and more tools for engaging their minds. Our end goal is to make them into neck reining trail horses, and this is a step towards that.