The Foundation - Part 1 - Hip Control

The Foundation - Part 1 - Hip Control

In last week's post I touched briefly on willing submission.  I want to stress the importance of this.  If you don't have this, or a good grasp of it with your horse then what I will outline as the foundation will mean nothing.  Sure, you may be able to do the tasks that I talk about but it will be forced and will lead to troubles down the road.  I also want to stress that there will be times of unwilling submission.  Horses are just like us, they have attitudes all their own and have bad days too. There will be days that things just won't go right.  Horses will have unwilling submission due to miscommunication.  If they don't understand what you're asking of them, don't be surprised to see their heads in the air, their eyes wild and their jaw rock hard.  It's a defense mechanism.  However, we need to make sure that we keep willing submission as our goal and when it happens, it's a reward to not only our horses but ourselves.  If you've rode a horse under willing submission, it's sure hard to ride one without that in the fore front of your mind. The feeling of it is something that I crave and work for whenever I ride. 

Okay, now that we have that down let's move on.  I'm not going to list the tasks in order of importance because they are all important to me.  Nor will I order them in the order that they are taught because each horse is different.  So bare with me if I jump from one thing to the next.  

HIP CONTROL 

Back when I was in college the one rein stop was popular. Maybe it still is, I don't really follow Clinton Anderson or clinicians like him as much.  We used to do it a lot with our horses teaching them to not only stop, but give us their nose while disengaging their hind quarters at the same time.  Well, after these horses that we started got that down pat and we eventually started them on barrels, I started to see some problems. Such as, as soon as I would come into the barrel and ask for their nose, they disengaged their hind end. Not much when going slow but as I started asking for speed, watch out!  Talk about polar opposite of what I wanted to achieve! So we quit the whole disengaging thing for awhile.  Don't get me wrong, the one reined stop has its time and place and is a great safety mechanism but I was not seeing how it was helping me.  However, I've come to realize that not only did it have a place in our program as a good safety mechanism but also a stepping stone to a horse learning to "engage" their hind quarters. 

 The one rein stop is a great way for a horse to learn to disengage their hindquarters.  If you are not familiar with it, the horse will be asked to stop forward movement by giving its nose to the riders leg as its hindquarters move away from its nose. So for example, to disengage the hind quarters with a one reined stop, say I'm trotting a straight line. I would ask the horse to stop by bringing his left rein to my hip as I tip my weight forward and over to his right shoulder while putting leg pressure with my left leg to make his hindquarters swing to the right. When the horse stops his forward motion and moves his hindquarters over (disengages) then the rein is released.

 Maybe it's just me but teaching a horse to engage their hind quarters vs to disengage is much harder.  In regards to engaging a horses hindquarters in barrel racing, it requires forward movement.  For example, to engage the hindquarters, as you're walking in a straight line, you would lift the left rein slightly forward and up (note: never over and across the center of the horses neck) to where you see the brown of the horses eye, you put your weight on your right pants pocket and bring your right leg back and put pressure on the ribs to ask them to move their hips to the left essentially walking a straight line but with the body in a "C" shape.  I want to be able to shift my weight and put pressure with my leg and have them engage or "tip their hip" at a walk, trot, and lope easily.  

So how does disengaging help with the engaging? Well, with the help of a one rein stop, it's fairly easy to teach them to disengage.  However, to teach them to engage I will have them standing still and essentially disengage and then shape them with the reins as if they are engaged and ask them to move forward taking care that their first step is not to shift their hind quarters away to make their body straight but to go forward in that "C" position.  Their second step should be with the inside hind leg and should be reaching up and over, not back and away.  If they take one step in the correct frame, I release them and let them walk straight bodied. I keep building on this from one step to two to three, etc, to where even in forward motion the position of your body will engage the hindquarters.  

Where does this apply to barrel racing? Well disengaging, I have no clue.  There for awhile after our colts were riding nice and we didn't have to worry so much about using the one rein stop for safety purposes, I quit doing it.  It wasn't until I realized why I was having problems getting my horses to engage their hindquarters that I had the "ah ha" moment on its usefulness to my training program.   Engaging the hindquarters to me is a huge part of barrel racing.  They say if you can control the hip, you can control the shoulder.  When I bring my horses to the pocket of the barrel, I want them to engage their hind quarters and be reaching up with that inside leg to use as a driving force when turning.  In short, with an engaged hip you get the 4 wheel drive turn.  I expect my colts to have a good grasp of this before I show them the pattern as it is used the very first day in my program. 

As I close this week's post I want to clarify something.  Because I start a lot of our colts on barrels with only 30 days on them, a lot of the tasks that I want them to know beforehand will not be set in stone. However, each and every ride I make with them we will be progressing on the foundation and working hard to make it solid.  I will stress though that before my colts are loping the pattern, these tasks will be fairly solid and will be relatively easy for the horse to do. 

So much for not turning this series into a novel!  Kudos to any of you that made it through that!  I hope you stick with me for next week's Foundations post about Leads! 

The Foundation - Introduction

Wow! Summer has flown by at an alarming rate of speed. I wonder if anyone ever has a summer that drags by though.  When I started this blog I had a vision of writing a post at least every week.  I wanted to share my struggles and triumphs in my barrel racing journey, share some inspiration and motivate individuals who might be able to relate and maybe throw in a training tip or too.  Needless to say, this summer I failed miserably at my blog upkeep.  I've had tons of thoughts but never could really get the words to flow when I finally sat down to the computer.   You see when I actually write a blog post, the words come flying out at my fingertips.  Many times what is published is a rough draft as by the time I'm done writing there's a baby that's woke up from his nap, a mess to clean up, or a horse to be rode.  I write what I'm passionate about and wear my heart on my sleeve.  So why am I having this funk of a writers block? I'm not sure.  However, I started thinking of answering some of most popular questions I've been asked with barrel racing and most of them all stem back to what I expect for a colt to be able to do before I start them on the pattern.  So in an effort to break out of my writers block funk, I'm going to do a series of blog posts of just that, what I call the fundamentals - the foundation. 

As a disclaimer, I'm not claiming to be the worlds best trainer, a world champion or any one worth noting really.  I'm going to share my thoughts on training and what works for me.  It might not work for everyone.  It's up to you to decide if it will work for you or even worth your time to read through in the first place. However, if it could help even one person, then my goal has been accomplished. 

I do not know how many posts it will take to get through it all.  If anyone knows me, they know how much of a fanatic I am when it comes to this subject so please bare with me as I try to condense these next posts so that they do not turn into a novel.  

 

I'm going to end this post with the foundation - the first brick - willing submission.  If you're a follower of my blog, you're familiar with this term.  I use it regularly but I will try to explain it for those that are unfamiliar with the term or concept or for those needing a refresher as it will be used multiple times over the next series of posts. 

I learned about willing submission while in college taking a colt starting class with Wade Black.  Although I had a very good grasp of horsemanship and the concept of willing submission before, there hadn't been a term linked to it.  So what is willing submission? Willing submission as defined by Wade is when a request is made, the horse willingly performs the task requiring little to no pressure; it is the horse's idea. After initial contact, the horse performs the task on a loose rein with no leg pressure.  Willing submission is a horse seeking relief rather than just giving to pressure. The horse chooses to do what is asked and tries to please their rider. This is achieved by feel, timing, and balance.  You can judge a lot if you have willing submission just by looking at the horse's head. Is it high?  Is it chomping the bit? Is it's mouth open as you're asking it to turn or stop? There are tons of indicators of unwilling submission, but our goal is to work towards willing submission every ride.  We look for their poll to be soft, their head down, their eye soft and relaxed, their jaw soft, the mouth closed, etc.  We want the colt to work with us, to have trust in us and most of all, enjoy us and the job that we are asking them to do. 

I hope that you enjoy the rest of this series of The Foundation as I continue next week! 

Positive Thinking

Riding and running colts can be a humbling time.  Well, really horses in general can be a humbling experience.  They always keep you on your toes but it seems with futurity age colts, you have to ride the lows to be able to get to the highs and then when you least expect it, you hit the lows again.  This roller coaster ride comes with the territory and isn't limited to just colts. Not everyone can handle it, which this includes myself sometimes.

Whether you're naturally a pessimist or an optimist; when things aren't going right, it's easy to get into that "Negative Nelly" kind of attitude.  However, you won't ever get ahead of the game if you keep that kind of attitude.  When you have a negative attitude, you've beat yourself before you ever make it to the arena, and many times before you even leave the arena.

It's easy to come out of the arena and think of all the bad things that happened.  Your horse tipped a barrel, you sat down too soon, he shouldered, etc. etc.  In fact it's so easy to think of all the bad things that it's hard sometimes to think of the good things.  When these negative thoughts flood our minds when we leave the arena, they start to infiltrate our minds before we go into the arena next time - setting us up for failure.

We've all heard about the power of positive thinking, but how many of us put that to use?  There are many exercises to do to help you achieve a higher power of positive thinking.  I'm by no means an expert but here is one thing that I will leave you;  Instead of thinking of all the negative things that happened in a run, I want you to also make sure you count and credit the positive things too.  It might be as simple as I stayed on! or my horse was quieter at the gate.  It doesn't matter how big the positive it is we need to make sure we acknowledge it.

Now, I'm not going to say that we are supposed to forget the negatives.  Looking back on what went wrong in a run is just as important as what went right.  We need to look at the negatives so that we know what we need to work on to turn that negative into a positive the next time.  However, too often we focus solely on the negative.  Try to have a time frame after your run that you're allowed to dissect and think about the negatives AND the positives.  For me, I will allow myself five minutes.  It might not be right after a run since often times I'm riding more than one horse, but I will pick out five minutes when I will go through my run.  I'll pick out all the negatives, not forgetting about those positives too, and will form a game plan for the next run or what I'll do in the time I have until the next run to turn those negatives into positives.

Too often we overlook the positives.  My challenge to you is the next run you make, as soon as you come out of the arena, think of at least one positive thing in your run BEFORE you think of the negatives.  Get yourself out of the negative mindset and start working towards one that is positive!

Photo by Tina Graham

Don't Settle

The past couple of years I have had the pleasure of having one solid horse and the rest  have been colts.  Thank goodness for that solid horse that allowed me to keep somewhat what's left of my sanity.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE riding and training colts.  It's what keeps me going but if I never get to jump on those solid horses, I can't keep myself up to snuff and it allows me to breathe and just enjoy the moment.  My solid horse right now is one that went through the ranks here as a just started colt to futurity colt to now my solid #1 horse.

Now, what do I classify as a solid horse?  Well, for me it is one that I can spend most of my time riding to get in shape.  There is little to no tuning and the pressure is taken off as to if I need to get to the barrel race early and exhibition, see the arena, how many times have I gotten to the barrel patch since the last race, etc.  The mare that I have now is definitely one that I know will show up to work as long as I've gotten her in shape.  It doesn't matter if I get there too early before hand to see the arena and she allows me to spend more time on my futurity colt that does need those things.  She allows me to breathe.

However, I have found that although we clock, there are still mistakes being made.  We are not at our full potential and as solid as I thought she was, I'm realizing that she has her holes.  In my time on my colts and needing that breather, I've become lenient. I've over looked this or that because well she was further than anything else that I had (and still was pulling checks).  I've spent most of my time just riding her and not fine tuning things that are rough around the edges.  I settled.

I think about how well we've done despite not being completely tuned up and realize how lucky we are to pull checks despite this. Just think of what could be if we were as tuned up as my colts were? If my colt were to come into a barrel and get stiff, you can bet that I'd be doing something about it.  Why don't I hold the same standards to my solid horse?  The answer is that I've been lazy.  I've taken the easy way out and just went to ride rather than put in the extra effort.  Now, don't get me wrong, those solid horses don't need to be tuned and tortured and those quiet rides are great for them, but they need to be tuned enough that they hold the same standards as your colts.

So, my poor, sweet, beautiful mare that thought she had this whole game figured out has come to a world stopping reality check that although she may be "all that", she's not quite "all that and a bag of chips" just yet.  No more free passes no more get out of jail free cards.  If I expect to be better, then we need to go the extra mile and take the extra effort.  In the last few months of working harder and figuring this and that out and just holding her to a higher standard, it's been fun and rewarding to see the changes.  Not only has it helped her but it's helped me grow as a horsewoman.

My challenge to you is to not get lazy.  Don't settle. It's okay to go out and breathe and enjoy the horse on a nice ride because those horses need that too, but don't forget to put in the work and reach for the stars!

Stay True To Yourself

Barrel racing is my passion.  Besides my family, I live and breathe it.  I watch barrel racing videos, read articles, talk to people and basically try to learn everything that I can.  At a barrel race you will see me watching people work their horses, trying to pick up any tidbit that I can. I'm not afraid to ask people for advice and as far as I'm concerned, I can never learn enough. Every day is an opportunity to learn.

I've never participated to a barrel racing "clinic" although I have years of private instruction from my great friend and mentor Mary Ketchum.  The foundation she gave me is incredible.  However, in my quest to learn more, I decided to go to my first barrel racing clinic.  At the time, I was in a very low spot in my confidence and having trouble.  I was willing to change everything because what I was doing just wasn't working (in my low self esteem mind).  

I learned a different style and changed how I worked my horse.  This style is proven through and through with champion after champion winning from it. However, it wasn't me.  The rest of that summer I tried and tried.  I worked and worked.  In my desperation, I flung almost everything I knew out the window and adopted this new style.  Now, I'm not going to say it screwed up my horses or me, but it just wasn't me and it wasn't working for me. 

I see fads all the time in barrel racing.  People will flock to those that are winning and just like me, forget their foundation in a sheep - follow the flock - type of mentality.  There is much to be learned from everyone from those winning to those that are not. I decided to go back to my roots and incorporate tidbits that I'd learned from the clinic that I felt would be useful to my style.  The reality of things hit me like a slap in the face. I realized that I needed to stay true to myself.  After all, my foundation was what got me to where I was - I was just needing help to build to the next level.   

My training is made up of my foundation from Mary Ketchum and has been tweaked and tuned and turned into my own through trial and error and learning from other people and horses. What I've realized most is this; Be the best version of yourself and never quit working or most of all learning. Find what works best for you and throw out what doesn't.  Don't be afraid to pick up bits and pieces from someone else to help fill in the cracks or to build you to the next level, but never lose track of your foundation. I'm excited to go to another clinic, work with another person, work with Mary but I'll always keep in mind this - Stay true to yourself and don't become a victim of a "fad". 

Disclaimer: I am by no means saying or meaning anything negative about any clinician, especially the clinician that I went to.  They are a wealth of knowledge and their clinic is a great opportunity to take their knowledge and apply it to our own.  

The Greatest Competitor

Barrel Racing as we all know is a very competitive sport. The magnitude of how far barrel racing reaches world wide is simply amazing.  One of the reasons why I was drawn to barrel racing was the fact that it was not a judged event. The only thing that I had to prove was going to be reflected on what the timer said.  Barrel racing should not be political or judged, however I've found over the years that behind the scenes that it is more and more.  With making a business in our horses with raising, training and selling barrel horses and prospects, it is hard not to worry about what another person think's about our program. After all, if no one likes or believes in our product then we are out of business.

As our young program is growing and reaching new stages, the importance of our performance is directly correlated in the future of our program.  Our first foals are reaching performance age and we will be hitting the arena.  Although I believe with all my heart in these colts, it's hard not to feel that outside pressure of what other people will think of them as well.  Remember, this is our business.  

I was really beginning to feel that pressure as I was sitting on the sidelines waiting until I could get back on my colts. I watched all my friends and fellow competitors making their strides with their colts and thought there was no way that I could catch up.  As I worried about where I'd end up with my own colts I came across this quote.

"If you continuously compete with others, you become bitter, but if you continuously compete with yourself, you become better." ~unknown 

I've always believed in this idea, but it's hard not to get caught up in the politics and have the "What did she think?", "How did he do?", "What time did they run?" etc, etc going on in the back of your mind.

Since getting back on my colts, I've focused mostly on myself and trying very hard to make up for lost time.  It's been great just seeing the difference in my colts after getting to ride them consistently as well as the change in myself.  I have tried hard not to put my thoughts on others and what they are doing.  They may be my competition on the weekend, but day in and day out, my biggest competitor is me! Myself of today is competing against myself of yesterday.  

If I can make improvements each and every day, I won't have to worry about the competitors of the weekend.  That doesn't mean that I will win the barrel race, but it does mean that I will beat my main competition (myself) and in that, is a win win situation.  If you continually better yourself, then the results will be reflected in the results of the barrel race.  As one of my favorite sayings goes, "The proof will be in the pudding." 

Broke Or Too Broke?

I have always been one of those people that thought that you could never have a horse "too broke".  Especially when it came to barrels.  I wanted to be able to move my horse this way and shape him that way and be able to do it with just my finger tips.  Last winter I spent most of my time focusing on just getting my 2015 futurity horse "broke" and being able to ride her where ever I wanted her to go.  I have to admit, my time was well spent and she's become one of the handiest horses I've ever rode.  We work well together with willing submission being the cornerstone of our foundation.  With her, I got one of the biggest compliments that I've ever received, "If you're not careful, she's going to be too broke to run barrels."

At first I just took it as face value that it was a compliment and to me, a dang good one.  However, as I'm returning to riding after my maternity leave and like you've heard me over and over trying to find my feel, timing, and balance again, I'm realizing that it might not have been the greatest thing to have this little mare this light and "broke".

Obviously if you've followed my blog, you know that returning from having kids is a struggle and something that I talk about a lot on here.  It's the story of my life right now and one that I wouldn't have changed for the world.  I envy those that can just jump back on after having kids and ride off like they've never skipped a day. However, in the effort to get it all back, I'm learning and appreciating things so much more than ever before.

I'm fortunate enough to live just a mile from an indoor arena that although I try not to work my young horses on the barrels in there due to it being so narrow, I do have plenty of room to set up drills and work on stations.  I realize the importance of working on barrels, away from the barrels if you know what I mean and on those cold days that I wuss out from riding outside at home, I take full advantage of working on these drills.

One of my favorite drills is just using a single barrel and setting it up anywhere in the arena and I can approach and turn it like it's the 1st barrel, 2nd, 3rd, from any direction of the arena.  Reiterating to my horse to listen to me and follow my body to turn the barrel.  I'm realizing that the more time in the saddle is the best thing for me, but with each horse I'm having to figure out my timing and balance again.

I decided that I was going to work my mare as if it was a first barrel.  Going slow she nailed it. Staying balanced and smooth.  I added some speed knowing full well that things weren't going to be quite as nice as they were going slow.  What I didn't realize was the fault would be solely on me!  I added some speed and came into the barrel in very good position and on the backside I barely moved my hand, (I'm talking an inch at most) and she spun around like it was a reining competition.  Whoa! We went through this process several times before I realized that by moving my hand an inch or less is what caused the reaction.  She wasn't being bad (which I knew she wasn't, I just couldn't quite figure out why she was doing it), she was just doing what she was asked to do.  So finally with my good friend Amanda coaching me, I made the turn and focused solely on my hand and not moving it.  She came around the turn smooth and effortlessly just like she had when we were going slow.

"If you're not careful, she's going to be too broke to run barrels" came flooding to my mind. Sure enough he was right about that that particular day and situation.  However, I still strongly believe that no horse can be too broke to run barrels.  The problem lies with the rider such as myself.  When the horse is cued into our every thought, movement, and feel it just makes it that much more important to be at the top of our game in order for the horse to be at the top of theirs.  Horsemanship can be summed up riding a horse with willing submission by mastering feel, timing and balance. Every day that I saddle up, I try to work on these things with my horses. It's a team effort.  However, we need to realize what we're asking our horses to do. Right now my horse is holding her end of the bargain and I need to uphold mine.

 To me, a broke horse isn't a horse that it on auto pilot. It is a horse that when watching it with it's rider, you see a dance.  A horse reading the rider and the rider reading the horse so that the horse puts the slack in the reins as you take it out.   So no, I don't believe a horse can be too broke to run barrels, but I do believe that as the level of brokeness increases, the importance of the rider's feel, timing, and balance increases as well.

One of the best feelings I ever felt was in this run where Holly and I were running on willing submission  - a team. Holly is the dam the my 2015 futurity colt that I talk about in this blog.