august 2011 newsletter
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Dressage, Naturally and Karen Rohlf's August NewsletterTRANSCRIPT
Creating healthy biomechanics and stronger partnerships through combining
natural horsemanship principles with the art of dressage...
never underestimate the potential for harmony & lightness to improve in ways you cannot yet imagine
This Month• CA clinic report
• Introductory Discount for clinics with Bre & Shelby
• Q & A: Rein Lameness
• Ancora Imparo: Clarity
• New Clinics at the Temenos
Upcoming Clinics: Clinic schedule: CLICK HERE
August 17-26 17-19 Sweet Spot, 20-22 Upward Spiral, 24-26 Advancing Private lessonsThe Mendip StudSomerset, UKContact: Stephanie Gauntemail: [email protected]
Sept. 16-17 Spots Open!2 days Focusing on Connection, Sept. 18-21 Spots Open!4 days Upward Spiral (smaller group, more private attention)Lindstrom, MNContact: Sally Taylor 612.616.2550email: [email protected]
Sept. 23-25 Custom Clinic! Co-teaching with 5* Parelli Professional, David LichmanBridgewater, NHContact: Brenda LaddPhone: 603.217.0205, 603.715.0253email: [email protected]
Oct 14-196 Days Focusing on ConnectionTemenos Fields, Ocala, FLContact: [email protected]
Oct 15, 16 Karen with MarcelUnmounted Exercises for ConnectionTemenos Fields, Ocala, FLContact: [email protected]
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Welcome back to the Temenos...
Temenos is an ancient Greek word. It refers to a sacred space that has no limits, where special rules apply and extra-ordinary events are free to occur.
“More important than the quest for certainty is the quest for clarity”
~Francois Gautier
Karen Rohlf
August 2011
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My new assistant here in the Temenos is Marcel Dou Roig, Some of you have met him when he was a performer with JoAnna Mendl Shaw and her Dancing with Horses troupe, some have met him during my clinics here in the past year, and some of you know him from the D,N Video Classroom (March 2011 Videos). Marcel has many talents that he draws upon to help his students develop skills that will help them in their horsemanship. He has been teaching tai chi to Dana, me and my friend (and fellow dres-sage trainer), Sharon Jerdeman since the winter. Now as a horse-owner himself he can even better relate to the needs of the student of the horse! check out his website (horsemanqi.com) if you would like to learn more.
6 Day Clinic with Karen to Focus on Connection (includes 2 day course with Karen + Marcel... See below). October 14-19 2011This clinic will focus, as always, on achieving the most harmonious connection with your horse. There are different layers of harmony: Harmony within your body, Harmony within your horseʼs body, and Harmony between you and your horse. There are many factors that go into achieving this harmony. In this clinic, 8 riders will get the chance to learn where their harmony needs to improve the most, and how to take the next best steps towards achieving it.We will especially look at the state of you and your horseʼs biomechanical harmony and will apply Dressage, Naturally exer-cises to improve you!This clinic includes the 2 day course co-taught by Karen & Marcel (see below). His exercises have been an invaluable part of my studentʼs progress. The rest of the clinic will be a mix of private lessons with Karen, discussion, & group sessions. (We will still have a riding session during the days with Marcel.
New Clinics on the schedule at the Temenos
2 Day Clinic with Karen & Marcel: Unmounted Exercises to Improve Yourself for Your Horse.
October 15, 16 2011This clinic will be co-taught by Karen & Marcel (See below). It is so easy to only think about what the horse must do or change in order to have more harmony, but harmony must start within ourselves. From there it is OUR responsibility to ap-proach our horses ready to offer the possibility of a harmonious connection with them. In Karenʼs experience as a teacher, the most common skills that every student could benefit from improving are: • Use of their breathing/energy• Body awareness, especially of tension and how to let it go• Balance• Ability to connect with another body without braceWhen these skills are better, EVERYTHING is better! Karen will discuss how these skills effect our riding, and Marcel will take us through a series of exercises, activations and simulations designed to give students new skills and awarenesses. He will draw upon his experience in dance, tai chi, yoga, and acting.Limited to 14 participants. No auditor rate (all present will participate fully) $200. Open to riders of all levels. No horsesContact [email protected] to register or for more details.
‘Golden pheasant stands on right leg’
copyright 2011 Temenos Fields, Inc August 3
The Dressage, Naturally Classroom is the place to be!
This monthʼs topics are:
Connecting to the Circuit of Energy with Monty and Breanne (Riding, 14 min)
Being at Liberty with Natilla and Solana (Liberty, 21 min)
Exploring to Find the Sweet Spot with Atomic (On Line, 27 min)
dnc.dressagenaturally.netFirst month is always half price!
Donʼt forget, now until September 1, 2011
there is a discount in the Web Shop!
During checkout enter this code:
summer10to receive a 10% discount off
the total.
Sweet Spot for Llamas?
Jennifer Fulton grabbed this quick photo... Sure itʼs a little blurry, but she did her best to catch the moment with her phone camera... I wonder what this Llama will do with the information on the Dres-sage, Naturally Big Picture Poster?! He seems to be reading up on the section about Finding the Sweet Spot.
But Jenn, you may want to check his eyes... seems to be a bit near-sighted!
Thanks for sharing this, Jenn!
Sweet Spot clinic in Santa Cruz, CA
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NEWS
I had a great time in Santa Cruz, CA teaching the 3-Day Finding the Sweet Spot group clinic as well as a 4-Day Upward Spiral of Success clinic in a private lesson format. We were nestled among the redwoods at a beautiful private facility (Vigne Farms) And coming from Florida heat I was so excited to be wearing polar-fleece in July!
It was a nice blend of new and familiar faces. I was so excited to re-connect with Shelley Candelario, the clinic host and past 10-week Intensive student. She rode her Isabella to an instructorʼs dream: they both looked even better than how they looked at the end of the 10-week course! I also had the pleasure of having a mule in my clinic for the first time!
The Sweet Spot course, as always focuses on taking your foundation forward. We learn the kinds of conversations necessary to be able to start making changes in the horseʼs biomechanics. Before we expect them to change, we better make sure they understand the ingredients!
Clarity of the conversation, and getting all the way to 100% was a shared theme.
In the Upward Spiral course I did individual lessons with all the students. Many got a chance to feel what it is like to have me be relentless in my search for the result... While checking that we were being as fair and clear as possible! ;-) All made some really great progress that I hope will last them a long time!
The Sweet Spot clinic had the extra bonus of being at-tended by D,N Instructors Breanne Peters and Shelby Hume. They observed & assisted and I gave them their official in-structor certificates at the end of the clinic. Ta da!
By request, Shelby will be return-ing to teach a follow-up clinic in the same area this coming fall. If you are interested in attending please contact Shelley at: [email protected] right away. Priority will be given to students who attended this past clinic, but all students of appropri-ate level are welcome!
Here is what some of the students had to say about Bre and Shelby:
“Bre is an instructor who will hang in there with you until you get it. She will work with you until both you and the horse understand the
process and are making progress…Thanks Bre!”
“Shelby puts fun into the art of teaching dressage and allows stu-dents to immediately feel at ease. She is both approachable and ar-ticulate. Thanks, Shelby, for help-ing us out!”
~Sarah K
“I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with both Bre and Shelby! Bre is so positive and sweet that it made her persistence easy to fol-low. Shelby really took the time to help me with concerns I have with my horses saddle, posture and balance. I can't wait for Shelby to come back this fall!” ~Michele
“I want to thank you for your won-derful selection of Bre and Shelby, your new instructors, and making them a part of the clinic. These are definitely talented individuals and
have the ability to teach. The ex-tension they will bring to Natural Dressage will definitely be recog-nized and appreciated.
I have always had trouble keeping my hands quiet. Shelby was able to isolate the movement in my fin-gers, hands, fore-arm, elbows and into my shoulders. This gave me a focus for the movement in my up-per body and the ability to keep my hands quiet. She was really great.
I am sure Bre is equally compe-tent. She is very approachable and willing to help [....] I was comfort-able with her, and would not hesi-tate to involve her in my learning process. I also love what you are doing in the Classroom. Again, Thank You”
~Margaret
copyright 2011 Temenos Fields, Inc August 5
Introductory Price for
Finding the Sweet Spot Clinic with
Breanne or Shelby!We are really excited by the interest we are getting in Bre and Shelbyʼs clinics. As a “thank you” to all of you who are jumping at the chance to bring Dressage, Naturally to your area, we are giving a 15% discount to all hosts who book a clinic with Bre or Shelby before January 1st, 2012. (The clinic can be scheduled to take place anytime between now and January 1st 2013)
More details, contact: Sally at: [email protected]
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Mule Variations(anyone else here a Tom Waits fan?)This is my 1st time playing
with a mule!
A few images by Dana Rasmussen from the CA clinic
Gosh, I donʼt know why everyone is smiling so much... I keep trying to explain to people: Dressage is very very serious!
This was a question that appeared in the Video Classroom Forum. I an-swered it there, but because I recently had a couple other people ask me the same question, I thought I would an-swer it here also! ~Karen
Q: Rein Lameness Hi Karen,I had the opportunity to ride a young horse that had been in professional dressage training for several years that responded to rein pressure by becoming very choppy and uneven in his hind-end movement. I believe in his case that he was very tight and braced in his loin, but not exactly dropping his back down. At first I thought it was a chiropractic or pain issue but the horse moved quite well riderless or when ridden on a very loose rein. Any amount of contact or even movement from a medium length rein would elicit the response.
Recently I have met another horse that had been with this trainer for a short period of time and was well on his way to developing this same be-havior. The trainer could mask it somewhat by continuously kicking the hind end forward.
Does anyone have experience with rein-lame horses? Aside from pulling and kicking - what training techniques or tools would lead to this behavior?
Makes me sad. ~Laura
A:Hi Laura,Unfortunately this is very common.. (yes, it is sad). One bit of good news about it is that you can often "ride them sound" (meaning it is possible to rehabilitate them through using healthy biomechanics as a tool, like physical therapy.
"Rein Lame” is the term used for a horse that seems sound without a
rider or on a long rein, but goes lame when a connection is made.
What can happen, is when a horse is 'held together' or forced to appear symmetrical and balanced when it is not, or if a crooked rider is constantly hanging on one rein (or both reins), or if the horse is chronically asked to do things beyond its ability / what it has been prepared to do, he must contort in order to do it.... A cycle of brace can develop. This alone can cause an immediate irregularity, and then over time it can become chronic.
It may be pain, or it may be actually developing them in this strange ir-regularity... Their muscles simply de-velop so that in that 'connected pos-ture' one leg can swing more than another, and the other is chronically tight, causing an irregular movement.
Chronic brace in front will block the back and so the hind end will be re-stricted and the weak leg stays weak and the strong leg stays strong. We have to be careful though, be-cause often when the reins are shorter, the horse also is asked to carry more weight behind and move their shoulders differently, so it can be true that the horse can be experienc-ing pain in a specific range of motion only with a rider, but that pain could have come from running around loose, yet it only shows up when the hind leg carries or the shoulder sits taller...So we may not always have to blame the rider..... that is the most optimistic way of looking at it.
It can be due the horse learning to support himself on the contact. Some-times the rider feels a horse really push into the contact and they misin-terpret it as a good connection, when really the horse has learned to thrust itself into the riderʼs hands. The if one hind leg is weaker than another, or if the straightness hasnʼt been ad-dressed, often one hind leg quite
naturally pushes more than another. Because all the energy has been taught to land in the hands, the asymmetrical push also lands in the hands. Since the neck is so flexible and the mouth so sensitive, that is where the asymmetry will show up, even though it comes from a hind end weakness or crookedness. Another reason for creating a relatively bal-anced body BEFORE trying to con-nect with it!
A strong rider may, indeed be able to force the issue, and make the horse appear symmetrical again... But what the horse really needs is physical therapy (which is what dressage is supposed to be!)
The good news is that it can be cor-rected! I personally like to first change the movement-patten as best I can, then support with chiropractic, mas-sage, or what ever else is needed. If you simply use those therapies with-out changing the movement pattern, the muscles will pull the body right back out of whack as fast as you can say: "20 meter circle".
When the cycle of brace is broken, and the coordination, self carriage, and balance restored, you may find a veterinary reason why the difficulty started in the first place, but at least then, the lameness can be more eas-ily identified and therefore aided in its recovery. (or you find out the horse shouldn't be doing this work...) either way it will be good for the horse to find this out.... OR you will end up with a lovely and ever-so-appreciative horse!!
What an interesting question, huh?Karen
copyright 2011 Temenos Fields, Inc August 7
“Ancora Imparo” is what Michelangelo is quoted to have said upon finishing the Sistine Chapel. It translates: “I am still learning”
When training horses or learning to ride, we have this dream of what we want the result to be (at least I hope we all do!). But most of the time we live in a place where the reality doesnʼt quite match the dream and we are left searching for the answers. We may look to this or that system, or this or that magic tech-nique. “Maybe this will be the thing that changes everything for me!”
The reality is any method or technique is only as good as how you apply it. More and more I am focusing on being clear, and helping my students to communicate clearly with their horses. (See June videos in the Class-room and Article on ʻYes Momentsʼ)
Lack of clarity is often the first cause of a cascade of events that lead to lack of har-mony. Sometimes the lack of clarity is within the human: We donʼt really have the picture. Sometimes it is within the horse: They donʼt yet understand the cue. Sometimes it is be-tween the horse and human: The human is giving conflicting signals, is not giving feed-back to the horse about how they responded, or the human is not listening to or is misinter-preting what the horse is telling them.
At the end of an exercise I like to ask myself and my students this question:
“When your horse goes back to the pasture, and his buddy comes up and asks him: ʻHey, what was that you were doing out there with your hu-man?ʼ ...What will your horse say?”
I do my best to answer that question honestly and from the heart, without needless judge-ment, rationalization, or protecting of my feel-
ings if I think the session wasnʼt ideal... Simply attempt to see it from the horseʼs perspective so the next session can be even clearer. Itʼs a great thing to do in the middle of a session before itʼs too late to change things.
Do your best to achieve clarity, no matter how simple you may have to make it.
In clarity, there is beauty.
Left: Shelby Hume and Papagayo
Right: Karen’s filly, Natilla
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Ancora Imparo
“For me the greatest beauty always lies in the greatest clarity.” — Gotthold Ephraim Lessing