Do what it takes! VS Do less!

[reata]

I rode at a clinic with a top Aussie hand a couple of months ago. Wayne Anderson. Wayne is a great friend of Bucks and has spent a lot of time with him. He is finally out doing Clinics in Aussieland now .. and hes great!!!
Anyways I had a big AHA!! moment with him.. in fact I had quite a few..
We were riding serpentines and inside leg back and outside leg forward..
I have been having some dressage lessons and this is very frowned upon in the dressage circles.. BUT all my horses have done their basics in this ..
I was riding the serpentines and Buster was not getting a nice bend through his body but he was going where I asked ..Wayne said I was not doing enough with my legs... he even said I was not putting my inside back and my outside forward.. I told him I was!!! he said I'm not.. I said LOOK AT THIS!!! .. he said your not doing ENOUGH!! he said stick your outside foot right on his shoulder and give him a kick like a bronc rider. So I Did!!
What a change it made.. Buster started to really soften and work those serpentines.. After a while I could get back to doing less and still Buster was soft and following the serpentine with all his body.
It got me thinking about doing less and doing what it takes..
I needed to do lots to get Buster to use himself in those serpentines.. and here I was doing less and not getting what I wanted.. Sometimes we DO have to do what it takes so we can do less and less and get more and more..
Doing less and less with out getting what you really want is not the way to go!!!
Thanks Wayne for getting that through to me!!! :eek:

[Ash]

Reata,

That makes a lot of sense. That situation is kind of like when you want the horse in front of your leg and you actually do have to kick or tap kinda hard with the whip, but when they do respond, after that all you have to do is whisper.

Why do Buck and others teach the opposite leg placement of dressage? I was watching Buck's snaffle horse video last night and was trying to ponder it. If you are taking dressage lessons too, is it hard to switch gears? (Although my dressage coach will have me tap the horse's outside shoulder if she is not moving through the bend well enough).

Ash

[Scout]

The way I've heard it that I like a lot is to do what it takes SO THAT you can one day do less.

[Cinch]

Sometimes you do less to get more & sometimes you do more to get more. There's a very fine line there.

[Mares Tales]

This is a great topic. It really is at the heart of good horsemanship; doing less. As humans, isn`t it just natural that we think that if we want to accomplish something that we have to do MORE to get it?, I think we are wired that way.

"Come on, if you want something you have to work HARD for it, right?", how many times have we heard that in our lives? A more fitting saying if you want to be good around horses is, "Work smarter, not harder". We need to be more observant so we can eventually be less physical. Ok so we think that we have to be obvious sometimes to get our voices heard, we may HAVE to because that is where we are in our abilities BUT.......do we really want to work that hard everytime we ask for something? I know I want to do the least because I want it to be an ejoyable experience with my horses, I don`t enjoy kicking up the dust and getting real physical if I don`t have to. How does a person get to the place where they can do as little as possible?..by watching for and rewarding the slightest try and rewarding it as quickly as they can and as completely as they can, then the horse searches for the release earlier and earlier, all building upon a positive attitude.

I (the rider) reward YOU (the horse) and then horse looks for the positive response for finding the proper answer and gets the the release. NOW, what kind of atmosphere is that going to create around a persons relationship with their animal? I`d much rather be around a person who is going to appreciate my efforts. I will know that all I have to do is search for the answer and I will consistantly be rewarded, if I am the horse I can feel like I am part of the partnership, that I have a say in the things that happen to me instead of having things just DONE to me and then reacting to them. The idea is to bring our horses to a place where they can think and not have to react to our requests, that way we can work with them in a place of calm, instead of them reverting back to their instincts of reacting; flee or fight, in a place of panic. It is this place of positive calm that I try to nurture in my horses to build their suredness. If my horse is not busy reacting/fleeing/fighting/defending itself and thus looking for an escape then I am less likely to be building a brace in my horse and I afford my horse the luxury of being able to think things out and search. You as the rider/handler set things up so the horse can always find it (the release/reward) in the direction of thinking that you want the horse to go. Remember when we were first starting on this path and we heard our mentors say "Be careful what you release for"? With the proper attitude and awareness you create an atmosphere of fairness. Now what critter, horse or human wouldn`t want fairness over a taskmaster, a mentor over what they perceive to be a TOR-mentor?

Less braces= less resistance= more harmony.

[red]

good thread for thought, guys. You know I think allot of times in our efforts to be in "communication sync" with our ponies, we loose a little of our "edge". In our quest to reward the least little try, always on the alert for that little "give"..that makes US feel good about our ability...we sell our horses short..especially a certain paint gelding, who tends to lazy up, every now and then..I came to expect the try, and NOT expect his best..so, he was sandbaggin me a little..I had to laugh when Reata had to pretend she was a bronc rider...and Buster had an ahaaaaaa moment...interestingly enough, in the arena, just doing the excercises, boredom sets in, (for both rider and horse) sometimes..but outside, and having a job to do, even a little job, like working the gates, gives purpose to the self same excercises, once deemed boring..maybe horses sense they need to be needed? The energy comes up, and the once boring, soon becomes the highlight of my day...go figure. The key for me is I can do less, when I know the horse more.

[kennewman]

good thoughts folks,,,,,,,,remember--who, what, where, WHEN, and how. yes, you all posting know just what the ole man means. it is all "different", and all the "same". you've heard me say, 't n t' [time and timing], it's dynamite.

[red]

I did not want you to believe that I thought the try was not important..it is..the begining of communication..where both horse and human speak the same language, the language of trust...and that peaceful calm is the most wonderful place to be..I was merely referring in my prior post where ONE little gelding, has been exposed...lol he believes less is more...lol..except when it comes to feed. The least amount of energy he has to expend, is his preferential mode...lol gotta love em. loved your post, miss mares...

[FrancaV]

What a change it made.. Buster started to really soften and work those serpentines.. After a while I could get back to doing less and still Buster was soft and following the serpentine with all his body.
It got me thinking about doing less and doing what it takes..
I needed to do lots to get Buster to use himself in those serpentines.. and here I was doing less and not getting what I wanted.. Sometimes we DO have to do what it takes so we can do less and less and get more and more..Yes. I was reminded of this at the Peter Campbell clinic I rode in last weekend. Over the winter I got stuck in between "as little as it takes" and "as much as necessary". Not a fun place to be. Peter got me back on track, and what a difference it made. My horse and I both kind of looked at each other and said, "Oh, *there* you are!" LOL.

I've been dealing with some physical issues and it's a miracle my horse isn't completely crooked and confused. When we got our act together on Sunday she got lots of compliments because she really uses herself nicely when I'm not getting in her way.

[Mares Tales]

Ah, how to put into words what one means.....that leap from feel to language. I fail miserably or at least it`s a frustration to me. I lack the ability of Tom, Ray and Cinch to say so much with so few pecks on my keyboard.

I guess what we should be asking ourselves when we say we would like to get more with doing less is...how do we encourage enthusiasm? How do we become an inspiration to our horses? How do we stop from DIScouraging them? How can working with us become invigorating for them?

When they have already become defensive we may have to go to measures where we can prove to them that it IS POSSIBLE for life to be good again and that we make some sense. Sometimes getting them to THAT PLACE takes some "doing" but the reasoning behind that is so we can eventually refine our communication when we have some understanding and trust between us.