Dancing with Horses Clinic-June 11, 2007
(Copied from the Natural Dressage Forum)

JoAnna Shaw is amazing. To be around someone who is THAT good at what they do- I don't think it even matters what they do once they get to that level it is just incredible! I listened to her just in friendly conversation talking about riders like Karen Rohlf and Linda Parelli. What she sees when she watches the human body is in so much more detail and so much more complex than what even a very observant, gifted, and experienced dressage rider would see. She talked about Parelli students who learn to wiggle their finger, while they are broken at the waist with no head/tail connection, or seat bone/heel connection and the horse doesn't read the finger- he looks at the person's BODY!!! I learned that I can move my scapula without moving the shoulder joint... I didn't know humans could do that! It is very interesting when the hand connected to that scapula is holding the outside rein and trying to shape a shoulder-in!!! It also makes sense why dressage riders often hold the reins wide. Try pretending to hug a WIDE tree and then lower your arms to riding level, keeping your scapulas out wide. Cool, huh?!?!


Different horses responded better to different dancers. Laurence was a dancer that my mare LOVED. She really gave the horse room and created a lot of draw. Also, when she used her arms, she always used tham as if she were puling the air into her- never flicking it away. My filly appreciated this because if anyone used their arms in an outward direction Asia was very offended. Luke is a dancer that is so long limbed he makes my cowboy husband look squat! He is a very energetic dancer and at first my mare was NOT impressed. She was intimidated by him. He has been with the troupe quite awhile and picked up on her sensitivy and started to create more draw and she took to him, but was still leary of his gumby arms! The participating auditors also "danced" with the horses. We did exercises where the person (Dancer or auditor) would walk with the horse, hand on shoulder, and feel the horse's stride and mimic his/her movement. Then the person would pull away, creating draw, and then help redirect the horse for a change of direction. My mare does this at liberty, so I really gave her freedom. The auditors LOVED this (and her small, not intimidating size and easy to keep up with stride) so I got "stuck" with an auditor, instead of an actual dancer, a lot of the time. The auditors were elated at the chance to work with a Parelli Level 3/4 horse and started to get an attidue of "lets see what I can make her do." At first it was a lot offun, but after the third person doing it wrong and invading her space Asia got fed up with it. She was also intimidated by other horses, and we were in a prety tight space. By the time we had a real Dancer (three at once actually!) she wasn't as into it, but it was still pretty cool! (especially since JoAnna was one of the three!) It got a little chaotic (which JoAnna later admitted that she purposely creates because it makes people stay aware and in the moment which uses a part of the brain that people don't access often- what a smart women!) What I initially thought was disappointing (working with mostly auditors) ended up being my biggest lesson. My mare WANTS my leadership. Allowing others to draw and direct her was doing her no favors. I can shorten my reins and still take her tiny ideas and let her know, "YES, we can do that!" This was a big lesson that the open structure of this clinic allowed.


We did a lot of ground exercises on leading and following, which I was lucky enough to do with Laurance. WOW! Mimicing a professional dancer is so awesome once you realize that it is ok if you look stupid and no one expects you to look like the Juliard Grads!!!! What was more intimidating was having the pro dancer mimic you! At first JoAnna would tell us when to trade leadership. Sometimes we would mimc one in front of another, mirror style, other times beside each other. Sometimes we would be in sync but also allow for "echo." At one point we just concentrated on the hands. The coolest was when we just concentrated on the torso (I never told Laurance that I had her doing a half pass zig zag!). What was absolutly amazing was when we did the exercises where we would switch back and forth the leadership without knowing where or when we were switching! JoAnna pointed out how sometimes you don't know who is leading!!! She said that Karen Rohlf was a little obsessed with this idea, but the problem is that there is a lot of hesitation when no one leads. The best seemed to come when you tried to constantly "steal" the leadership from your partner in a surpriding way, but you also had to take care of you partner at the same time. Very cool. It made me think about the times when I think I am being nice to my horse by "leaving her alone" but all I am doing is being vauge. It also showed me why my mare got quirky when I was leaving the ground person direct her without me guiding.


Mette Larson, a dressage rider who also helped teach the clinic here and there, did a few demo's. When I first saw her ride, she has a very typical strong well contected seat that you expect from a top dressage rider. She appeared to be really PULLING her horse together. I wasn't really that impressed despite the obvious collection and suspesion she was getting. I'm trying to not get suckered into any more pull them in front, kick them behind methods. She did one demo where she rode one of the participant's horse. She did release and reward, so I did like that. At one point she was really strong coming around the courner and I couldn't help but think "there ya go- pull his lips to his ears why don't you." But as she got close I saw she only had one finger around the reins... NOT what I expected!!! The horse had obvious resistance as she asked him to bring his haunches under. She pushed him through it, but always gave him a long, long time to respond and rewarded his effort. During the initial process there was some teeth grinding going on, but once he figured it out he was happy agian- AND on his hind end. When she got off, they said "anyone else?" I said "anyone else, what?" They asked if anyone else wanted Mette to ride their horse. I had Asia tacked up in two minutes! Mette commented that as a western horse Asia would be finished. But as a dressage horse she is just at the beggining. When Asia got confused she lifted her head. Mette would than raise her hands REALY high. It looked aweful, but Mette explained that she doesn't like 'holding' the horses head in and down, and that keeping her hands up keeps the pressure on the lips instead of the bars, which is much more polite. She didn't pull hard at all, but she did make it awkward. It took half a lap for Asia to bring her head down.. the next two times it took 5 or 6 steps. Than one step. Than it never came back up. Mette did get her a little more on her haunches. We gave Asia five minutes and than I got on. She felt a little taller. Mette made me much more aware of when Aisa falls on her inside shoulder. To get more collection she had me get really light in my seat and use my ankles. You know how dressgae riders often spur the horse every step? Well I could use that same rhythm without my heel even touching her! She could feel the top of my calf rubbing the hairs upwards each step. It wasn't much, but she got some detectable spring to her step. Than Mette told me to open my knees and let it forward. "My knees???" I"m not one to argue. Asia lengthend a split second before falling on her forhand, so we went back to light seat and bouncing ankles. On our third or fouth try, I was having a hard time concentrating and listening to Mette at the same time. We were really nice and collected and she said let it forward. It took me a bit to process and I started to let it forward but never really quit asking for collection. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. I don't know what it looked like, but the ohhs, and ahhs of the crowd watching was enough for me!!! It was definintly the closest thing to an extension that I ever felt out of her. I threw the reins at her and praised her!!!


They really talked about head/tail connection (of human!) and heel/seat bones connection. It is really a clinic for a good learner. It would be easy to go "fun weekend" come home and never apply a darn thing, but if you really think "Well, how can I phrase the movement when I ride? How does it change my movement if I think of raising by the head versus by the tailbone, or seat bones, or through my heels? Am I only working in the sagital plane (forwards, backwards, up and down) or am I truly balanced in the transverse plane too?" than you really have something. I find myself using these ideas a lot too when I give lessons.


JoAnna also talked about not "dropping out". Dropping out is when you lose the here and now- even if only for a slipt second. This happens to riders a lot- they are not in the moment, and do not catch evasions (like dropping the weight on a shoulder or bulging in) near soon enough. When we "drop out" we lose more than just a moment- it is a break in the communication.


I asked Laurence, one of the dancers, if she would like to dance with my horse at liberty during our breaks. She jumped at the chance! At first I put a savvy string on her neck with a line on it and showed Laurence some of the language that Asia understands. We did that for 15 minutes maybe. Than later at lunch we turned her loose and Laurence was still just figuring out Asia's communication system and not REALLY dancing, but when a beautiful professional dancer walks or runs, it is still dancing! They were trotting around together and I think Laurence wanted her to stop or slow down, but was using her arms in a dance like way while she asked. Asia thought she meant to circle, so there Laurence stands looking at me like "how do I stop her?" I said "Laurence, just do your thing and she if she keeps circling!!!" It was magical! Larance started Dancing and Asia just circled, sometimes troting, sometimes cantering, sometimes tossing her long mane around, and sometimes watching Laurence. She didn't want to push it so after three or four laps Laurence backed up and invited Asia in. Everyone who saw it was in awe.


What an awesome experience! I would suggest that anyone interested go to one of these clinics. I hope to get to work with them again.