Dressage, Naturally with Karen Rohlf Creating healthy biomechanics and stronger partnerships through combining

natural horsemanship principles with the art of dressage.

photo: Coco

never underestimate the potential for harmony & lightness to improve in ways you cannot yet imagine

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.

Current Events...

Karen on Youtube! Checkout a video of Karen and Monty playing with col-lection, especially pirouettes...liberty, bridle-less and in the tack!

The Open Format Workshops series is well under way here at my place and it is going well...you will hear from students in this issue.

You also may have noticed that I have an updated website...A fresh, clean look!

I hope you have checked out the online magazine: Horses for Life (www.horsesforlife.com) It is beautiful and the November issue contains an article by me on Mental, Emotional and Physical Self Carriage. Watch for more contributions from me there in the future!

New: Ever feel like you want to enjoy the feel of the rope reins, but would prefer to have something that matches your dressage bridle? Are you working on developing your steady connection with the horse’s mouth and wish you had something quieter and steadier than metal on metal or a slobber strap to at-tach the reins to the bit? I designed just the thing!

Visit my WEB SHOP They can be purchased now and will be able to be shipped after Dec 10

Book: I am hoping to be able to take orders right before Christmas, and be able to ship a couple weeks after that...keep your fingers crossed!

SCHEDULE: click here for 2008 sched-ule

My upcoming workshops are:

Dec 1. FULL, but open for Auditors

January 5. FULL, but open for auditors

Feb 9. FULL, open to auditors

email: karenrohlf@dressagenaturally.net to submit something to newsletter.

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D,N Website: CLICK HERE

Info on clinics: CONTACT K2

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 7

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Finding Balanceby Peggy Finnerty and Sam (yes, the same Peggy who has taken some of the photos you have seen in these newslet-ters!)

Thank you Karen for your help at our last workshop. I've been stuck for a while and it never fails to amaze me how you quickly see the problem and, most importantly, you see solutions. My difficulties have shown up in many areas but seemed concentrated in the canter. In a nutshell, my horse was tipping into bends, pushing his shoulder, head and neck out, dropping his hindquar-ters in and then being so choppy, stiff and bracey that sometimes (a lot of times) I'd do very little cantering. Did I forget to say he was on his fore-hand. Yes, all that and I didn't know what to do or how to help him. So I showed it to Karen in the circling game online. He does it all the time, even at liberty, so I knew she'd spot it right away and she did. Karen suggested that we begin work-ing on shoulders in...aka hindquarters out...on a circle. She explained it to me and then took my horse and demonstrated how to begin this exer-cise. I watched Karen quickly put Sam into a balanced position that was asking him to stretch and explore a way of going he has forgotten (he wasn't always this unbalanced). I asked him to do the same and again I realize how quickly horses tune in when we use body language. Karen turns her shoulders and draws herself

up lifting her shoulders and arm and Sam followed her. Then she leads him into a relaxed low stretch on the cir-cle and the most beautiful trot he's ever done. It must have felt good to him because suddenly he was moving out, balanced and no cadence prob-lems, lack of impulsion or ugly ears. A lot of us have the same problem so it turned into a group exercise and we all played with it for a while. Then after lunch we rode around the round pen and practiced the same exercise with the rail to stop us from falling into our circle. We had about 10 horses all going around doing the ex-ercise at once. It was a blast and my horse "got it" right away. I think he winked at Karen and said thanks. Later I was scared to break the magic and actually test our work out on a canter where it all shows up, but I figured, this is the place to fall apart if you are going to because help is right there. So our canter was the best ever. My horse was round, relaxed and

smooth. At times, I'd feel him slip back into his old position and I'd push his hindquarters out and the smooth ride would come right back. Then Karen coached me into a better position with my arms (my arms were too far back and not allowing Sam to move forward as well as he could) and even though it was awkward and felt wrong I've been practicing my new position as well as the exercis-es to help balance and strengthen Sam at home and it's a lot better. It's hard to work at home alone and keep getting the same problem on different horses and in all areas and not know what to do. I could see it but didn't know where to start to solve it. Thank you Karen so much for showing me ways to channel my efforts. Just cantering more made it worse and now I understand how to help my horse find his balance and be comfortable before we even get to the canter.

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I hope I get this quote right (but if I don't, I'll get it from our quote/important thoughts chart we are making) but Karen told us to look for the simple problems inside the com-plex maneuvers. So that means breaking the complex moves down into parts and perfecting the small things first. Thanks for the help Karen. I appreci-ate your direct approach and not hav-ing to fumble around and discover it on my own. I am so excited about these workshops.~Peggy Finnerty, FLpfinn582@yahoo.com

Karen:

Photo: Coco

Thanks Peggy, for sending me this!The shoulder-in position is a really valuable one for the horse. Once we have responsiveness, we can get more particular about using this posi-tion correctly, not just for the sake of doing it, but in order to achieve its benefits. The shoulder-in position has these benefits:

1. Frees and supples the shoulders because the shoulders are now open-ing and not just swinging forward.

2. Increases the capability for bending bend in the horse. In order to do shoulder-in ‘just right’ the horse needs to bend.

3. Increases engagement of the hind end. If you get the positioning just right, the inside hind leg will land

more under the center of the body and will automatically be carrying more weight.

When horses have basic balance is-sues I don’t really think of fixing the horse, I think of giving the horse more possibilities, knowing that bal-ance will feel better to the horse, too. I love how Peggy said: [I had Sam] “explore a way of going he has for-gotten (he wasn't always this unbal-anced).”

I observed the horse, saw what direc-tion he was falling out of balance, then thought, what would the oppo-site of that look like, and set out to make sure:1. I had enough communication with the horse to ask for what I was pic-turing.2. The horse was in an open emo-tional state.

The I slowly (at the walk first) estab-lished communication about doing that positioning (in this case, shoulder-in), and let the horse prac-tice the coordination of finding it eas-ily. I let the horse have a release sometimes by stopping (when he needed to mentally process) and sometimes by changing to just stretching on the circle (which really feels good (to the horse) to do after a well-done shoulder-in!)

So it wasn’t so much about me keep-ing the horse in balance, it was just showing the horse a possibility, prov-ing to them that they can do it, and then letting them move how they would like...Often it works just like Peggy reported...the horses say “Thank you” and you see the best movement from them when it seems we are asking nothing, just allowing them.

’shoulder-in’

So how do you do a shoulder-in?

The diagram shows the positioning. Things to watch for are:

• Neck in alignment with the chest (don’t over-bend the neck, if the neck is over-bending probably the body isn’t bending enough. Better to have not enough bend anywhere than too much of the wrong bend.

• You will feel a little ‘push’ under your inside butt cheek if the inside hind is stepping under in the right place

• Stay on your line of travel. Know where your line of travel is and stay on it. Keep your focus on the line...most people end up looking down to the inside instead of where they are going.

• Keep the withers between your hands. Point your chest in and bring your hands and the horse’s front end with you. If the horse walks in instead of staying on the line of travel, don’t bring your hands back out to correct, (check your focus first) then reinforce with your inside seat and leg if neces-sary that those hind legs keep walking on the line of travel.

• Think about aligning your inside seat and outside hand. Like the horse’s inside hind is going through to his outside front foot. The con-nection between the horse’s inside hind and outside shoulder is impor-tant.

• Keep your energy and weight going in the direction of your line of travel...a common error is to lean over and collapse to the inside.

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I often say ‘shoulder-in’ is a secret code for ‘step the inside hind out’ because although, yes, we must put the shoulder in, often the predomi-nant focus and communication with the horse feels like reminding the hind end to not follow the front end and make a turn to the inside....in other words to remind that inside hind to stay out there. It is not about pushing the hind end way out (which will put them back on the forehand again) it is about getting it under the middle of the horse.

‘backwards shoulder-in’

I often teach shoulder-in the first time (to riders and horses) by going around the outside of the round pen (going track right, the rail would be on my right, I would ask the right hind to step out a bit until the horse was looking slightly in at the rail. The rail helps keep the line of travel with-out having to use so much leg and hand to correct. Thanks again Peggy!

Linda Johnson also shared a quick note on the shoulder-in exercise:

Karen had us do an exercise of _SHOULDER IN_where she had us to do this exercise around the outside of the round corral in the walk.  She had me think to move the inside rear leg over in a way to be able to see his inside eye. And still keep my eyes going in the same direction. Then af-ter just a few strides, give long rein for reward. It is such a simple solution not to think shoulder in, just move the inside rear leg over.

When I worked on it at home, It is harder for him to move the left leg un-der, so I occasionally do a turn on the forehand. Now when I lift my re-ins, position my body, now he is be-ginning to move from my seat bones!  We have started this in trot steps now! I have been riding Dressage for about 10 years. I started with a 15'3 h, Quarter Horse that I trained to second level that I sold as a lower level school master.  Then, I thought, I must have a Warm Blood!!  As I was shopping 3 things that I did not want were: a mare, Grey or 17h.  Well, I bought  a 17h, Grey Hanoverian, well at least no mare!   I was school-ing third level with him with some is-sues that I had not been able to work through, then I met Karen at Adult Horse Camp last summer. She is helping me with those issues and I am now a total Dressage Naturally convert!!

Linda Johnson, FL

ljohnsonusa@yahoo.com

Karen:

Thanks Linda for sharing that. In order to help the horse under-stand and keep sensitized, you can practice doing an exaggera-tion for a moment. This is what she was doing when she did a turn on the forehand (more exag-gerated yield of the hindquarters than in the shoulder-in) when she felt the horse get sticky. It is not used as a punishment or to be more difficult, just to be more ob-vious at this stage. The exaggera-tion is done at a walk. If you get that sensitive at a light phase, then the amount of yield you need for a shoulder-in should be...a fraction of that light phase! It also gives you and the horse an oppor-tunity to just practice the coordi-nation.

I did meet Linda when I co-taught at a United States Dressage Federation Adult Camp. She already had her heart in the right place for her horse, and I am so happy to be able to help them realize more of their goals!

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Quote: Anonymous? I saw this on a bumper sticker on the back of the tour truck for a mountain bike trip I took in Utah.Photo: Michael Grohmann

‘Natural’, ‘Normal’, ‘Traditional’, ‘Clas-sical’, ‘Gentle’, ‘Conscious’... what kind of horsemanship do YOU do?

As the last newsletter of this year, I just thought I would write a little about my thoughts on the names we use to de-scribe what we do. I named what I do: Dressage, Naturally... so as you might imagine, I get a chance to visit with many people who say the are dressage riders and many students who say they are natural horsemen. And unfortunately, I have seen a lot of righteousness in both camps.

NH student: “ My horse was abused be-fore I got him, that is why he is so ...(emo-tional, dull, shut down, etc).” Me: How was he abused? What hap-pened? NH student: “oh he used to be in a tradi-tional barn and they lunged him in side-reins.” Or: Dressage student: “Natural Horseman-ship people just let their horses run around as they want, they have no idea that’s wrong... you need to work to make your horse be correct.”

And of course, sometimes these state-ments are a fair description of a situation, but most of the time, in the above exam-ple, the NH (Natural Horsemanship) stu-dent may be placing blame and is not looking at their own current effect on the horse... and the dressage student may be

mentally/emotionally souring her horse as she forces his body in the name of correct biomechanics.

I have heard dressage riders making fun of Parelli students, saying: “It’s like a cult, they all dress the same. These NH train-ers are just about marketing.” They say this as they stand in Pikeur full-seat breeches, Kyra Kyrkland shirts, Dansko clogs, holding Jack Russel terriers (or corgie). NH students will whisper to each other about a professional that is a ‘nor-mal dressage’ trainer as if ‘normal’ and ‘dressage’ are inherently bad words. (What will we do when the majority of people are natural horsemen? Will the word: ‘normal’ then be ok?)

Words are powerful in that they are just one step away from our thoughts. We humans like to name things and put them

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“When experience moves beyond words, life begins to have meaning.”

in categories. Our brains will work hard to find a label to put on everything we see. So, what are we thinking? What are our be-liefs about horsemanship and what is our level of understanding about what we are seeing? What do we really mean with these labels? What is ‘normal’? What is ‘natural’? What is ‘classical’? There are amazing horsemen who will never call themselves ‘natural’ and people who call themselves natural who will never be horsemen. Words may be powerful but they are also extremely inadequate to describe anything of real value. That is why, when some thing truly amazing happens, we be-come speechless. So be careful when giving something a label.

Does having a rope halter make you natural? Does having your horse wear a noseband make you predatory? Is it possible to train a horse in a double bridle and spurs from day one and be a true horseman? Is it possible to train your horse at liberty and bridle-less his whole life and be abusive? If someone doesn’t call themselves ‘natural’ does it mean they don’t love their horse? Exactly what are we looking for, really? Sometimes those quali-ties are difficult to define. I love to quote the Federation Equestre International’s definition of the object of dressage:

The object of dressage is the development of the horse into a happy athlete through harmonious education, resulting in a horse that is calm, loose, supple and flexible, but also confident, attentive and keen, thus achieving perfect understanding of his rider.

Pat Parelli describes natural horsemanship in this way:

The dynamics of horsemanship can be obtained naturally through communication, understanding and psychology, rather than fear, mechanics or force.

Doesn’t it seem like we all want the same thing? Can we train our eyes to see these qualities without confusing ourselves with la-bels or outfits? We all want to be horsemen. Maybe we should forget about all the differ-ences and focus on the commonality of the horsemanship. Or, as Parelli writes it:

Horse.Man.Ship: A horse and a human go-ing willingly together.

I feel it is important to understand that ‘dres-sage’ and ‘natural horsemanship’ want the same thing, (even though it may express in a different shape). Of course, only I know what I am picturing in my head when I use the terms ‘dressage’ and ‘NH’. I am not picturing dres-

sage as the ‘rollkur’ and horses with tight backs flicking out movements, I am picturing grace and athleticism and harmony. I am not picturing NH as flopping around with a horse, letting him do whatever he wants and then whacking him with a stick if he doesn’t do something right. I am picturing a bond and relationship where the horse is free to express himself and the human leads him in a way that makes sense to him. I do my best to not let the bad examples of each cloud my opin-ion of the ideal.

The examples of people attempting to achieve this ideal may be less that ideal at any particu-lar moment...Our best chance is be aware. To ask our minds to suspend judgement long enough to open our senses and feel what is going on. Every time a NH student has the urge to equate ‘dressage’ with ‘being unfair to your horse’, or a dressage student equates ‘NH’ as something ‘frivolous’, it stops the flow of knowledge in its tracks.

With our horses, we must be so careful to discern between what some may call ‘disrespect’/‘resistance’ and what is actually fear, or lack of understanding, coordination or strength. We must also be gentle with each other. If it is someone’s desire to be abusive, and use their horse in order to inflate their own ego...well that is not Horse.Man.Ship at all of any kind and this person should take up motorcycles. (And we must, as a community of horse-lovers, do our best to protect the horse.) But, if their intentions are for the horse, and they are just not ‘there’ yet with their skills, let’s not condemn them or our image of the ideal. Perhaps we can forgive them... meanwhile quietly doing our part to be the best example of what we dream horsemanship should be. Maybe they just have no idea how good it can get... yet.

So in 2008, imagine we simply have the clarity of mind to be able to see cause and effect. To really understand our horses, really know our-selves and to see exactly the influence we are having on our horses... so we may go willingly together. We need to keep the best of inten-tions, gather skills and observe. Horses are already perfect horses. Once you realize that they are training us to be better for them... amazing things can happen.

The more I learn, the more the labels disap-pear. I do my best to only see Horse.Man.Ship or lack of Horse.Man.Ship. The rest is just really cool, amazing things that

horses & humans can do together. I saw a circus trainer demo at a dressage symposium, I saw amazing dressage during a bullfight. what is going on in the world?! This makes no sense! ;-) I demoed with Champion reiner, Craig Johnson...he rode my horse the way he rides and I rode his horse the way I ride..they ended up looking the same ... like something in the middle. That is another favorite quote of mine: The truth is always in the middle.

Dressage, Naturally...what is it? Is it an oxy-moron? A paradox? Is it two things combined? Is it dressage, is it natural...both or neither? Is the name redundant synonyms? Who knows! Maybe it’s an enigma or Japanese koan (like the ‘sound of one hand clapping’). Maybe by giving it a seeming oxymoron for a name I will keep our minds busy in the corner trying to make sense of that label, so our bodies will be free to feel, observe, sense and just BE a Horse.Man (well, Woman).

Dressage Naturally is a pledge to be a student of the whole horse, and to find the truth he holds in his center.~K1

“Be surprised. To wonder is to begin to understand.” ~Jose Ortega y Gasset

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TIFFANY MITCHELL :

Hi everyone, all you dressage natu-rally readers. I’m Tiffany Mitchell, currently one of Karen’s working stu-dents. I’m from Ocean Shores Washington, not a town many peo-ple know of. It’s just a tourist des-tination out on its own little peninsula. I grew up and worked there at a local stable. Where I learned to ride and became intro-duced to the Parelli program by my first instructor Nance. Around the time I turned fifteen I found a place called Cardinal Ranch. I was ac-cepted there as a volunteer, and wound up staying for a year and a half. A lot of what I have learned with horses came from being there. Where I met many more natural horsemanship enthusiasts to call friends, and where I first heard of Karen Rohlf. I went to a clinic of hers in June of this year and I was hooked. I just loved the way she presented and ex-plained things, it really helped every-thing make sense. I was so worried about talking to her; it took me a

while to work up enough nerve to ask about being her working student. When I finally did, she was so nice, I was able to relax .. well a little any way. Luckily it all worked out great and now I’m here learning from the best person I could have hoped for. I’ve been here for about two months now and it seems like no time has gone by at all. I love being able to watch her lessons and learn from oth-ers as well as learning directly from Karen. I’m also really enjoying how calm things stay, it’s a nice atmos-phere to be in. My ultimate goal is to compete in top level eventing, and it has been great getting started towards my goals a little more directly. I’m looking forward to my future here and to learning much more.

CLAIRE DEVISSE :

My name is Claire Devisse and I am currently a working student with Karen Rohlf. Before I arrived here at Temenos Fields I was in Naples, Florida where I was working and going to college. The summer before I arrived at Karen’s I was fortunate enough to attend the six week course at the Parelli center in Colorado. My education in natural horseman-

ship started at a young age where my sister Nancy and I be-gan our journey through the Par-elli levels. Ever since, we have been eager to learn as much as possible about our equine friend and today I am working on pass-ing my Level Three. During this journey through the levels I was taking part in a clinic with David Lichman where I first heard about Karen looking for a working student. Having only seen Karen in Parelli demos, I was ecstatic about having the possibility of working with her. David introduced me to Karen the following day where they were teaching a clinic together. A couple months later I was her new working student. From the moment I got here I have been constantly learning new things. There have been so many differ-

ent riders, horses, personalities, body types and biome-chanics to look at and learn from. I feel like I am fi-nally beginning to understand that learning is a jour-ney and not a des-tination. I look forward to all of the additional things I have to learn from Karen through this expe-rience. Karen is not only an amaz-

ing rider and teacher, but she is truly an amazing person to be around everyday as well, I feel like I will not only be a better horse-woman when I leave here, but a better altogether person as well.Thanks Karen!

Claire coodles88@aol.com

M E E T M Y W O R K I N G S T U D E N T S

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