A survival breath or a thriving breath?

One time I asked Mark Rashid why it is that he very rarely talks to riders about their riding position.  His reply really got me thinking; he said that 90% of the issues of position and alignment are fixed by getting the person to breathe properly.

Could it really be that simple?

And there is even more to breathing as well...  When people (and animals) get frightened they breathe more quickly and more shallowly than when they are relaxed.  Horses can detect this a mile off, I’d argue that they know exactly when we are frightened by changes in our breathing patterns (and from other physiological changes that take place when we’re anxious).  They are programmed to be sensitive to things like that as they are prey animals.   But to add another challenge, people don’t just breathe poorly when concerned about something, it gets to be a habit and a huge percentage of us don’t breathe very well at any time, even when we are relaxed. 

You could think of this shallow breath as a “survival breath”.  It gets enough air into the body so that we don’t keel over but not enough to thrive in what we’re doing. Its hard to ever really be relaxed when survival breathing is the norm.  We get into bad habits when we are children and learn, develop and practice poor breathing patters as the result of copying parents or peers or as a response to stress or physical discomfort.  I asked my chiropractor, a specialist in working with babies and children, when the little ones stop breathing deeply and switch to a survival breath.  He said it started at the age of 2.  So some of us have been practicing for a little while!

 

Breathing and anatomy

The muscle groups that we need to use to breathe can be split into two; first of all the primary muscles of which the most important is the diaphragm and then the secondary muscles, which are located in the upper chest and neck, which are designed to be called into service in times of stress.  They are strong and adaptive but only designed to be used for the short term.  The problem is that due to our lifestyle, and factors discussed above, we tend to get into a habit of overusing the secondary respiration muscles (chest and shoulders) and under using the primary respiration muscles (diaphragm). 

The balance between these muscle groups should be such that 80% of the work is done by the primary muscles and 20% by the secondary muscles. In my experience, the majority of riders are completely reversing this pattern and 80% of the work to breathe is being left to the secondary muscles which are not designed to do this job long term.  If you want to see if you fall into the survival breathing majority then bring your awareness to your shoulders as you breathe in.  If your shoulders move upwards as you take an in breath this is a strong sign that you are overusing your secondary, upper chest muscles for breathing.  Instead your shoulders should move slightly outwards, widening the shoulders as you breathe in.  Other check is to put one hand on your stomach and the other on your upper chest.  Which moves the most?  If you upper hand on your chest is moving the most there is every chance that you are practicing survival breathing.  The stomach should be the place that moves the most, out on an in breath and back in again on an out breath.  Confirmed survival breathers may find that there is very little movement of the stomach during breathing.  Read on to find some exercises to change this pattern for the better!

Its worth getting familiar with the location and size of the parachute shaped muscle that forms the diaphragm.  This should be the star of the show when it comes to breathing.  Its really useful to be able to visualize the diaphragm so that you can have a go at the exercises below.  Note that the diaphragm is not symmetrical, its higher on the right to make room for the liver.  Its attached to each of the lower 6 ribs and to the lumbar spine.  The lower part at the back runs close to the psoas muscle which is one of the most important muscles for riders.  The psoas is the only muscle that attaches to both the spine and the leg, its main function is to flex the hip joint.  Poor breathing adversely affects the way the psoas works which comes right back to Mark’s words about breathing and alignment at the very start of this blog.  Correct breathing also rocks the pelvis slightly with each breath, rotating forward on an inhalation and backwards on an exhalation.  The exhalation straightens the lumbar curve and effectively puts you in a more “collected” position.  I think this is one of the reasons that an out breath serves very nicely as a half halt and helps with all transitions.  Good breathing also creates some motion at the sacroiliac joint (where the pelvis meets the lumbar spine), another critically important joint for riders.

A good breathing habit and full movement of the diaphragm is really important for our overall health.  The downward movement of the diaphragm gives the organs a massage with each breath and the diaphragm is attached to the heart by ligaments so correct breathing is also good for heart function.   Scientists have even proven that cancer is anaerobic and does not survive in high concentrations of oxygen (see www.breathing.com).

Breathing and fear

Fear, anxiety, anger, frustration and other negative emotions tend to cause shallow breathing.  This is part of the natural physiological response.  If we can learn to recognize when we are feeling these sort of negative emotions, and we know how to breathe deeply, then we can consciously calm ourselves down and, at the very least, stay in control of a situation.  While breathing is an unconscious process (we don’t need to think at all about breathing most of the time) it is one that we can consciously override for the better if we choose to.

A horse is very aware when we are not breathing well.  Survival breathing gives him the message that all is not well and we are preparing for some kind of emergency.   As we tighten the secondary respiration muscles to drag air into the body the horse will tighten corresponding muscles and it affects the way horse moves as well as his mental state.  Often times this negative cycle can be reversed simply by the rider remembering to breathe properly!!!

Exercises

If you get at all dizzy during any of these exercises then stop right away. You are getting  more oxygen into your body than its used to and you are perhaps doing too much to start with.

1a) The general principle of breathing practice is that we focus on the out breath and the in breath will take care of itself.  For example practice breathing out through a straw.  Just take a normal breath to start with, no need to take an extra-deep breath before you exhale.  Push the air through the straw until you naturally reach the end of that breath.  Make sure you hold the straw in a relaxed way.  Practice for about 5 minutes and note the difference in your breathing when you have finished.  After a bit of practice with the straw try the same exercise without it, just imagining that you have a straw (from The Breathing Book by Donna Farhi).

1b) As an alternative you can imagine that your out breath creates a thin golden thread that winds and spirals away from you as you breathe out.

2) Lie on your back on the floor and put a book on top of your tummy. When the diaphragm is working properly the book will raise up with your in breath and down again as you breathe out.  Check that you are not using your stomach muscles to deliberately move the book, it will move naturally as you breath deeply.

3a) Imagine the diaphragm moving up on an inhalation and down on an exhalation.  The motion is going to be in line with your central axis.

3b) Imagine that the diaphragm as a lift (elevator) moving up and down in its shaft (your ribs).  As you inhale the lift goes down and as you exhale it moves up.

3c) Imagine the diaphragm to be a parachute.  As you inhale the centre of the parachute drops downwards, the sides billow and the strings loosen. As you exhale the parachute expands its dome upwards and the strings become taught again.  (3a to c from Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery by Eric Franklin)

3d) Visualize that you are breathing to a point below your belt line, this helps the diaphragm to descend.  (From Centered Riding by Sally Swift)

4) You can see in the diagram above that the diaphragm extends downwards at the back in two “cords”.  These are called crura and these attach to the lumbar spine. Imagine these two crura reach all the way to your tailbone.  Visualize someone pulling these cords as you inhale and releasing them as you exhale. (from Dynamic Alignment through imagery by Eric Franklin)

5) Try feeling that the air is going through a big, flexible tube, right the way down through the center of your body all the way to your feet.  It helps to imagine this tube any colour or texture that appeals to you. (From Centered Riding by Sally Swift)

6) When you are frightened or anxious you can imagine breathing in something that will give you the courage or relaxation that you need right now. You could imagine anything you like that might help the situation, whatever is right for you. The idea is to breathe in lots and lots of tiny versions of this object so that in every breath you will take many of them into your lungs and then breathe them out again.  It sounds a bit odd but can be an extremely effective technique. (from Denise McCluggage The Centered Skier)

7) Riding in walk, count how many strides your horse takes on one of your out breaths and one of your in breaths.  If its easier you can just count the number of times front legs move.  Are you able to lengthen the out breath and stay comfortable? What impact does this have on the way your horse is going? (Riding exercise from Mark Rashid)

You will find many, many more exercises in The Breathing Book by Donna Farhi which is a must for every breathing enthusiast!

If during any of these exercises you find that either the in breath or out breath feels a bit uncomfortable or “stuck” don’t panic! Sometimes people find that they can release the out breath but the in breath still feels like it is restricted in some way.  I think this is because the trachea in the upper chest, which leads air to the lungs, gets distorted by muscular tension.  That makes the in breath uncomfortable and often people describe some kind of stuck feeling or blockage in the upper chest.  This is the type of thing that we can resolve easily in lessons and clinics using visualization and NLP techniques.

 

 

Inspiring words

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking.  Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice.  And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuitions.  They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary....

You've got to find what you love.... The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.  And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.  If you haven't found it yet, keep looking.  Don't settle.  As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.  So keep looking until you find it. "

Steve Jobs (founder and CEO of Apple Inc) i

You can see the speech on youtube.com at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd_ptbiPoXM 

Magical patience

Once upon a time there was an old man named Yu Gong, he was almost 90 years old. In front of the entrance to his home were two big mountains which made it very inconvenient for his family to come and go. One day, Yu Gong said to his family, “These two mountains in front of the entrance, they are just too inconvenient, why not get rid of them?”

His son and grandson heard this and they said, “What you say is true, tomorrow we shall start to do it!”

His wife felt it was too difficult to move a mountain and said, “Do you guys see how tall those mountains are? How can you move such large mountains? And where will you put so many rocks and stones?” 

They all replied, “We only need to work hard, and then we most certainly shall be able to move those mountains. We can take all the stones on the mountains and put them into the sea.” On the second day, Yu Gong and his family began to move the mountain. His neighbor joined them and happily they went to move the mountain together. They weren’t scared of strong winds or if it was raining, in summer they didn’t mind the heat, in winter they managed the cold, and everyday they worked non-stop. Many people thought that the project was ridiculous and said to Yu Gong, “Is it really possible to move the mountains?”

Yu Gong replied, “We will move the stones on the mountain little by little and it shall become smaller. If we work everyday non-stop, why should we not be able to move this mountain?”

There is a happy ending to this story, the heavenly emperor heard about how hard Yu Gong was working and asked the mountain gods to move the mountains away.

I had a bit of a project myself over the last couple of years with a young horse that really was extremely troubled about going out into the big wide world away from my fields. Taking her out for a walk, day after day in rain, shine and wind seemed quite a bit like moving a mountain one stone at a time.

Magic is rising 3 now, she is already a huge dark bay warmblood and has been fantastic in all respects, except for being very frightened about things out in the countryside, especially living animals, large and small things that move.

I don’t do a whole lot with my young horses before they are four or so but I do like them to be able to go for short walks in hand away from their field and friends from as early as is possible.  Before they can do this they need to lead well, stop, back and turn in order to manage gates.  Out in the big wide world they will have an introduction to traffic on my lane and get to meet ponies, cows and donkeys out on the New Forest, just a short walk away.  I much prefer to get this done before introducing a saddle and rider.

For Magic there was nothing simple about this idea, she was terrified of pretty much everything outside the field.  I went very slowly and wasn’t too concerned about this for the first couple of days but started to get a bit puzzled when things just didn’t improve.  Days turned to weeks, which turned to months and still Magic was very, very concerned away from the field. 

So I had to put my thinking hat on.

The keystone to Mark Rashid’s work, and central to what I aim to teach myself, is softness.  By this he is talking about both muscular relaxation (so that the horse will move readily without excess tension) as well as mental availability.  What we mean by availability is that the horse is a willing partner in our activity and, more than that, we are striving for a connection between the inside of the person and the inside of the horse.  That’s what Mark is talking about when he uses the word softness. 

The principle is that if the horse is soft you are going to be able to take that softness with you wherever you go as it’s a physical and mental state of connection.  So it followed that if Magic was struggling so much away from home I must have missed out something at home in our ground work.  When the horse seems fine at home but explodes in a new environment we talk about this as a horse being “light” but not “soft”, quite often when a horse is “light” everything looks and feels as if its OK but it all unravels when in a new situation.  Generally speaking it pays to go back and look at the relationship between you and your horse in more detail at home to find those tell-tail signs.

By now a year had passed, about 5 months of that over the winter had been spent taking Magic on short walks with a relatively small amount of progress to be honest. Then we stayed at home for the summer, partly to see if she was just too young mentally to deal with the questions asked by the big wide world and also to take the time to build the relationship further with some gentle long lining and attention to our basics of ground work.

In Autumn 2009 I decided to raise the subject of going out into the big wide world again.  By this time I was very happy with the relationship between us, Magic did seem to be very soft most of the time and there was a good deal of trust between the two of us.  So I was a little disappointed that things outside were not really any better at all. Going for a short walk was manageable but not especially pleasant.  However, as I was now really happy with all our groundwork I couldn’t see any option but to stick with it until we started to see some progress.  And that’s where I was reminded again of the story about moving the mountain one stone and a time!

The single most important thing I learnt from Magic is that some things can take a really, really, really long time.  Even though this was a young horse that had certainly had no bad experiences to do with going “on the trail” she really needed a lot of time to build confidence that it was going to be OK out there.  There were no particular separation anxiety issues to do with the other horses, it seemed to be a case of very genuine fear about things when out and about.

Now, in February 2010 she has definitely turned a corner.  She can go out for longer walks and cope with a wider range of things that happen such as the feral ponies, donkeys and dog walkers.  The explosions turned to balking and shying which turned to snorting which then turned to heavy breathing and now I know when she is challenged as the rhythm of the breathing changes.  I also get the feeling that she is much better able to control herself and does not need to resort to an instinctive behaviour as soon as she is challenged in some way. 

In total the project to get her walking out fairly calmly has taken 2 years work. Interestingly Magic is still not as confident, nor can she go a far, as her field companion of the same age went happily on her first ever walk out. 

In my work I frequently meet people who are having problems with hacking out, or trail riding.  Having had this experience with Magic I am coming to think that some horses really, really struggle with this.  Very often traditional horse training methods would back a horse at 3 and only once backed would the horse start to go out for walks.  Normally the horse would have a rider to think about as well as the new stimuli of the outside world.  I wonder if many horse just can’t cope with this amount of new information all at once, they need to understand what is expected of them when they go out, then repeat the process with the saddle and then again with the rider.  This doesn’t apply to all horses but for some I think its critical and fixing the problem later on could be even more time consuming that it was for Magic at the outset.

The are some other general observations and things that were clarified for me by this experience:

• Softness - Immediately before we had a big breakthrough I felt a very definite increase in trust between the two of us.  The feel changed. I trusted Magic not to explode in front of oncoming cars and I think she trusted me that I was not leading her to certain death.  I would describe this as the two of us getting on the same page and a lot of more softness was the result.
  
• Courage – there are times when there is no benefit in pushing a horse a little bit further as they are already fully stretched with what they have going on right now.  It would be dangerous and counter productive to try to do more.  But there are times when its essential to push further because you won’t get any learning until you do.  That means that both the human and the horse will be pushed beyond their comfort zone for a time.  Its easy for us humans to put that off as it’s a challenge but an essential one to progress. Courage does not mean that we are not frightened, just that we are able to deal with that fear and still function.
  
• Leadership and boundaries – In a potentially dangerous situation like this its essential that you are in charge and have clear boundaries about space (i.e. the horse cannot jump into your space if frightened).  I noticed a big improvement when I stopped worrying so much about how Magic was feeling and if she was OK and started being really clear about speed, direction and destination.  Kathleen Lindley described this type of situation beautifully by talking about how women tend to lead by consensus and men tend to just say what it is that we need to do.  A simple example would be that when a group of women are deciding what time to break for lunch they will check with everyone that 1pm is going to be OK.  A man is more likely to say “lunch is at one”.   We need to have a “lunch is at one” attitude with our horses, they often appreciate that.
  
• Time - I have ridden horses at the yards of some professional trainers and quite often there is a well schooled horse there that you will learn “cannot be ridden out”.  I wonder if these are the Magic’s of the world that really struggle, many people don’t have the time to invest in fixing the issue at the outset. 
  
• Breeding - Magic is a very specifically bred German dressage horse.  Could it be that even in a relatively short space of time we are artificially breeding horses that excel in their field (exaggerated movement in the arena) but accidentally we are breeding out qualities such as courage in the outside world, or we are just breeding more neurotic horses? If you read Temple Grandin’s book, Animals in Translation, you will find examples of how selective breeding can influence temperament in extremely short periods of time.
  

Sometimes I think that people want progress very quickly with their horses. Sometimes we can make a relatively simple change and there is a huge and immediate positive response, but not always.  What my experience with Magic has taught me is that sometimes you just need to work away at an issue one stone at a time and then when you are least expecting it you find that you have managed to move a mountain.

A festival of anatomy - Hilary Clayton

I had a great weekend at the Horses Inside Out conference (Feb 13/14 2010) and hugely enjoyed listening to Hilary Clayton give a full day of lectures covering the horse’s limbs, back, neck and exercises for mobilizing joints and strengthening muscles. 

There was far too much content covered to even try to put it all down on this page but there were a few points that I found particularly interesting:

Range of back motion

I’ve been interested in the amount of (or lack of) movement in the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae since Dr Dave Siemens introduced the concept to me that there is very little movement in this section of the back.  Hilary Clayton has used cadavers to estimate the range of motion in each joint of the back.  I Googled to see if I could find a picture similar to what she showed us in her slides and found a very useful diagram at the following link: http://nicholnl.wcp.muohio.edu/dingosBreakfastClub/BioMech/BioMechbend2.html

If you scroll down to “Degrees of motion of selected intervertebral joints” you can click through to a version of her detailed finding  about the motion found in cadavers.  There is only an average of 5 degrees of motion between each thoracic vertebrae and a picture at this link shows how this movement cumulates to give the overall movement of the spine.

My take on this is that its important to remember that the movement of the thoracic and lumber sections of the spine is relatively limited but that there is a movement in this section when you consider the compounding effect of a bit of movement at each joint.  The maximum amount of movement takes places between about T10 – T14.

It was also interesting to see the calculations for the axial twist of the spine (the movement that a foal makes to suckle that’s equivalent to us twisting the head to the left or right leaving the ears and eyes on the horizontal.)  There is no axial twist possible at all in the joint between Occiput/C1 and a 110 degree movement possible between the joint of C1/C2.  This anatomical fact is often mentioned by Mark Rashid as he uses the ability of the horse to twist at C1/C2 to help him release brace at Occiput/C1 in some contexts.

What supports the weight of the horses’ structure and the weight of the rider?

The simple answer is the ligaments. Hilary Clayton quoted some research by Zschokke who took all the muscles off an equine cadaver leaving the ligaments in place.  Even without any muscles the structure could still support the weight of a rider.  The conclusion is that muscles affect function but not integrity. 

The role of the abdominals is to;

• Stabilize the trunk
  
• Support the guts (which weight a few hundred kilos)
  
• Flex the back and the lumbosacral joint.
  

They are not specifically part of the mechanism for movement.

Muscles along the back

Running along the back are the long back muscles, the longissimus and the deep back muscles, the multifidus and the iliocostalis.  If the horse experiences back pain the multifidus will be turned off and will atrophy.  The deep back muscles are very important for stabilization so its really detrimental when they are turned off.  The interesting part is that the muscle will not automatically start to function again when the pain has been resolved.  So it specifically needs to be activated by suitable exercises.  Narelle Stubbs and Hilary Clayton have developed a series of exercises in the book ‘Activate Your Horse's Core: Unmounted Exercises for Dynamic Mobility, Strength & Balance’ which she spent a whole session of the day talking about.  There are some relatively simple, dismounted exercises that anyone can do with their horse to help activate appropriate muscles. 

Pliance system saddle mat

Hilary’s team have been doing some testing of saddle fit and rider balance using a Pliance System saddle mat.  This has 128 sensors built into a pad that can be placed under the saddle. It shows the amount of pressure at each sensor with a colour coded system.  Not only can the pressure of a poorly fitting saddle be assessed but also the impact of a rider leaning backwards or forwards, mounting or turning.  Interestingly, the impact of poor saddle fit was softened by a sheepskin pad more than any other pad that was tested.   Apparently reindeer pads have the same effect and are cooler!

Rein gauge

Another interesting piece of research that Hilary has conducted, and developed over a period of time, is using a rein gauge to measure rein tension.  She discovered that the tension alternates during the phases of the stride, in the trot the diagonal stance phase (weight on the ground for one diagonal pair underneath the body) has greater rein tension and the suspension phase has less tension.  Interestingly it didn’t feel like this to the rider to the extent that they originally thought that the readings must be incorrect.  The horses were tested without riders and the same pattern emerged.

In Mark Rashid’s work we talk about softness in the reins and a steady contact. For what its worth, there is a slight fluctuation in the feel about 3 times a second.  I think as riders we average this feel out and look for the overall feel and softness of the contact but if you concentrate on it you can feel the differences between the stance and suspension phases in the trot.

Bitting study

In a study of bits and bitting, Hilary looked at 4 different bits; a single jointed snaffle, Sprenger Ultra KK, Boucher and a Myler comfort snaffle.  A number of different behaviours were shown by the horses when some rein pressure was applied to the bit.  These included desirable behaviours such as a quiet mouth and gentle chewing.  There were also less desirable behaviours such as opening and closing the mouth (which produces a clanking noise), raising the bit closer to the cheek teeth (and even holding in the teeth), drawing up the tongue under the mouthpiece and finally raising the tongue over the bit which seemed to form a cushion between the bit and the hard pallet. 

There was no pattern as to which bit all horses liked or did not like or which behaviour was shown with any particular bit.  Hilary was of the opinion that it was the pallet pressure that the horses did not like and she suggests that this is why many of the horses liked the Sprenger Ultra KK bit.   You could argue that any of pallet pressure, tongue pressure or bar pressure could be causing the problems. 

X-rays did clearly show the very small amount of space in the horses’ mouth between the tongue and the hard pallet.  There is not much room in there.  X-rays also showed the “Mickey mouse ears” formed by the single jointed bits.  These are little curvatures at the joint of the bit which could clearly be seen to make contact with the hard pallet.   However I got the impression that there was no clear evidence that the horses consistently reacted badly to this, it was more than the x-ray showed that the contact surface with the pallet was smoother on the Sprenger and Myler bits. 

This research is useful in that it provides some great x-ray video of the actual behaviour going on inside the horses mouth (you can see this at the link below) but does not help me to understand from a scientific point of view why it is that so many horses seem to get on very well with the Rocking S bits.  I can only think that the stability offered by the design of the rings on the side of the mouth assist with stabilizing the bit so that the movement is not so uncomfortable on bars, tongue or pallet.  (See more info about this bit at http://www.markrashid.com/forsale_bit.html).

You can see http://cvm.msu.edu/research/research-centers/mcphail-equine-performance-center/publications for a full list of Hilary Clayton’s research and books.  A particularly useful link is http://cvm.msu.edu/research/research-centers/mcphail-equine-performance-center/publications/usdf-connection-1/ where you can see the bit research and x-ray videos of the behaviours discussed.  There is also research on a host of other subjects such as mounting problems, sway in horses and the effect of head and neck position on balance, all of which were referred to during the day.

 

Does your communication have one possible meaning (….or more?)

Something that I have heard Mark Rashid say on a number of occasions is that our children help us with our horsemanship and our horsemanship helps us with our children.  I reflected on this recently as another meal time at home dissolved into a great game for our 18 month old as she ran around the kitchen (when she was meant to be sitting down eating) and more of the food was finding its way onto the floor then into a little mouth.  The time I spent cleaning up later gave me an opportunity to reflect on why it is that in some situations we had complete clarity (bedtime in our case) while other times were much more confusing and stressful for everyone concerned (dinner time).

It didn’t take too long before I started to see a similar pattern in my own and in clients’ horses.  Some things were going really well and other areas just didn’t seem to have the same clarity, the outcomes were not as consistent or as predictable.  And that got me onto ambiguity.

For those reading for whom English is not your first language, I’ll help you out a bit with this word.  Sometimes there is a word which is just ‘right on the money’ as it says exactly what you’re trying to say and ambiguity is just such a word in this case.  Depending on which dictionary you have to hand, it means “having several possible meanings or interpretations” or “lacking clearness or definiteness”.  I think horses really struggle with any message that has several possible meanings.

A simple example of a mixed message would be a forward leg cue given simultaneously with a tight, holding rein, this would give the horse an instruction to stop and go all at the same time, which is pretty hard to do.  But I think the implications of mixed messages are far more subtle. 

I was working with a friend and client yesterday who is an experienced rider and a very considerate one as well.  She absolutely wants to do the best for her horse and to learn from his responses so that she can refine her cues to be both subtle and effective.  She also has some concerns about her saddle fit at the moment.  When she gives a forward cue sometimes her horse goes forwards and sometime he swishes his tail and slows down.  This is a perfect example of ambiguity coming from the rider.  When she gives the forward cue, in part she wants her horse to go forward but because she has concerns about her saddle, concerns about asking in the right way and concerns about wanting her cue to be as subtle as possible, she sometime takes the cue away before the horse has responded.  In other words she is not crystal clear about what she wants from the horse when she applies the leg cue.  The result is that we teach the horse that sometimes we do need him to go forward but sometimes we will release the cue if he swishes his tail, puts his ears back and backs off. In this case there was a lack of clarity from the rider because of concerns about making a mistake or discomfort caused by the saddle.  The long and the short of it is that the horse ends up thinking that the leg cue has two possible meanings, that’s ambiguous and its not going to give the best results.

Fear and other emotions in the rider is another area that can create an enormous amount of ambiguity for the horse. When we are frightened we generally leave large “openings” where we are not offering the horse direction because we are dealing with our own internal physiological stress responses.  This is another time where we can give the horse mixed messages and we lack the clarity that he needs to help him through the situation. 

The feeling that there is a “right” or “wrong” way to do anything with a horse gets in the way of a lot of people’s clarity.  I really like Mark Rashid’s argument that there are many ways to do just about anything.  Some may be better or safer or more efficient than others but if we leave the idea of “right” and “wrong” behind its much easier to try something with a horse with conviction and see what happens.  Once we have some conviction that its OK to try something its easier to get clear and it really helps to stop those mixed messages. 

So back to dinner time, what mixed messages had I been giving my daughter in relation to meal times?  Well plenty!  “Please sit down” didn’t always have any meaning and I needed to take a good hard look at my own attitudes to food, experimenting with new flavors and textures so that I could think about the subtle ways in which I was influencing the situation. 

In summary, if something is not working out with your horse (or your children) then take some time to check that what you are communicating has only one possible meaning.

The Elephant in the Room - Part 2

In the vein of thinking about personal examples of great leadership another wonderful and inspiring story came from the same clinic from my friend Helle in Denmark.....

She has kindly written it for us here.....  (thank you Helle!)

My Old Boss….  

In 2002 I had the privilege to start working for ”my old Boss” in the top end of Denmark… at that time I was 25 years old, and needed a year’s work to finish my apprenticeship as a dairy farmer. My Old Boss was 54 at the time, and going to the job interview was the beginning of an ongoing relation based on genuine friendship, acknowledgement, and deep respect going both ways. I was the ”girly-type” girl in farming (I thought) - I was really good with all sorts of animals, and because of that I hadn’t really had the chance to drive any machinery outside the stables with my former bosses.

Feeling obliged to tell the truth, I was only 10 minutes into my job interview when I promised him that I was the best card on the hand with his beautiful Red Danish dairy cows, and I could drive the machinery needed to do this, but NOT very handy with field machinery… not that I wouldn’t give it a go, but just pretty confident that he could chase up better people for these assignments. He just nodded his head and started asking me all sorts of other questions.

I got the job, and a month later I had my first day at work. The Old Boss’s place had 80 Red Danish dairy Cows and about 80 ha. This was a suitable size for one apprentice and the boss. A couple of hours into my first day, again I started feeling obliged to tell the truth - this time that I suffered really badly from Arachnophobia. This is often confused with people just being scared of spiders - but I was terrified, from several bad experiences in school etc, so it was very important to me to work on this - but also working in a cow stable is not the best spot for phobias of this sort!

I grabbed the bull by the horns and decided to tell him…I spent the next two hours working out how! I finally came across it about lunchtime, feeling pretty darn childish I tried to make the most of it, and to my complete surprise once again he just nodded his head (Danes from the north often talk slow) and after a short brake he just looked at me and said: “Well that’s understandable- I’ll make you a deal, I’m shit scared of mice - how about you do the ”Micey” jobs, and I do the ”Spidery” jobs??” That solved that one, and from that day on my old boss would sweep down cobwebs, and check for spiders at my tiniest suggestion….. and I carried old bags out- and checked for mice….and fairdinkum –I once saw him pull on a rain suit in the stable - and ALSO watched him jump out of it ever so elegantly when a mouse dropped out of one leg!! Time went by and spring came, with all the paddock work that needs to be done. I was driving tractors and big front end loaders in the stable and felt right at home doing it, but dreaded the suspicion that I might get set with paddock work. Here he took me by surprise - one day he came up to me and in the most normal tone he said; Helle I’ve hooked the Mulcher on the Ferguson tractor, do you think you can take it to the front paddock and have a go at mulching that paddock? 

Now - what’s the answer to a question like that?? I was completely surprised to hear myself answer a big clear “Yeah I can do that!” Thinking back this question did not have “No” as an option….he was merely asking me to TRY- That was the least I could do! My old boss just had that way about him, he would always ask if I could “Give It A Go”, and of course I could! Through that year I was mulching, plowing, pulling tree stumps, loading big bales of straw, driving huge big straw trailers around the sharpest corners, and reversing them all the way back to be unloaded. For this bloke I would give it a go anytime!

It didn’t take long before he started having me do the hard stuff - like padding down the fresh grass for silage - with big front end loaders, working very precisely with putting down concrete blocks for the road around the stable and so on. He would simply come up and ask me If I could give it a go, and then he did not hesitate to let me know that now he was actually asking me this because I could do the job better than him!

On the other hand, this boss also admitted when he was wrong. I remember one day when I had a black heifer that got sick. She had just calved one or two days before, and starting having vaginal discharge, but very smelly. I told my boss that I separated her from the rest of the cows, and that my gut feeling was that she needed treatment (not all do). He didn’t agree with me, and besides it was out of phone hours at the vet. During the day she got a bit worse- the smell got heaps worse, and I talked to him again - and again he did not agree. Heaps of cows get this and its easily treated, and not very aggressive. He reckoned that she could wait until the morning. Just about an hour later she got really bad, started laying down and uneasy, so I went to my boss and put my foot down and said to him that she needed the vet today if he wanted her to live till tomorrow. He called the vet but NOT overly convinced - until the vet came, and concluded that this was an unusually aggressive vaginal discharge after calving, and that the heifer wouldn’t have lasted until the next day!

Now I wasn’t there, but was passing when they were doing the examinations and the talk. As I passed my old boss stopped me, looked at the vet, and said; Well then I have my apprentice to thank for this - she has been saying what you just said, all day!

So what’s the sum of all this cow talk?

I have had the privilege to work for one great personality, that showed me only opportunities, and kept me safe from any defeats I couldn’t handle. By accepting my spider issue, he had me brushing down cobwebs at the end of the year. By merely asking for The Try - he had me succeeding at great tasks, and developing from ”no good ”, to ”confident and knowing ”. By acknowledging his own mistakes, and giving me credits when it was mine to claim, he showed me respect.

My old boss is a bloke to whom I owe a lot more than he will ever admit too. I’m very proud to consider him my friend, and have close contact with him and his family still. He was splendid at developing exactly what I thought to be my weak spots, and he always went about it in the softest way without any fuss. He took part in shitty jobs, and he listened  intensely to my suggestions….he never lost his temper, had a mountain of patience….but if you ask me Would he put his foot down? The answer is Yes! He never had too, but not one single moment did I ever doubt that he would….he just didn’t need to - and to that there is a great difference!

The Elephant in the Room (don’t mention the ‘L’ word)

I was in the arena working with Judy and her bay gelding, Sam.  It was coming to the end of the last of our sessions together at the end of a three day clinic.  She had come to the clinic wanting to work on some issues she was having with her horse when they were riding out in the countryside together, Sam had a tendency to spin and spook and got particularly upset when they passed other horses on the trail.

Although its hard to work directly on this sort of issue while in a totally enclosed indoor arena there were plenty of issues that did come to light that seemed as if they might be closely connected with the problems Judy was having.  Throughout all our sessions I made many references to leadership, and I was talking about the clarity of Judy’s leadership of her horse.   My plan was to use some exercises to show Judy that if she were to get sure about some boundaries with her horse and showed him how fast to go, where to go and which way to go (speed, direction and destination) then there was every chance that she would quickly find some improvements in the situations she was encountering out on the trail.

We were just about to finish up when Judy said something that really got me thinking; “You know”, she said, “I really don’t feel comfortable using the word ‘leadership’ in relation to my horse”.

I think Judy’s honest comment reflects a widely held view, certainly among women in the horse riding community and it does not matter if I talk to people in the UK, US or mainland Europe, I think this feeling is fairly common.

So why is the ‘L’ word the elephant in the room with us?  (Saying that the elephant is in the room with us is an English expression for an obvious truth that is being ignored or goes unaddressed.) I think leadership has become a dirty word in many riding circles because of heavy handed or dominance based work that we have all seen at demos, on DVDs or in some clinics where the trainer is attempting to establish some kind of dominant control over a horse in the name of leadership.  For many of us women, lacking the skill or physical strength that is demonstrated in that sort of demo, we see a picture that we don’t want to copy in our own horsemanship and so reject the whole picture, including the label that goes with it: “Leadership”.

So, its really easy to focus on the things that we don’t want, but it isn’t the whole concept of leadership that’s flawed but just one particular interpretation that some of us are not comfortable with.  So what interpretation are we happy with?

A clinics recently I have been getting right in to have a good look at the elephant right from the start of the clinic at the group dismounted session.  What I ask participants to do is to find one example of a great leader they have come across at some point and in some area of their lives.  This might be a teacher, a friend, a work colleague or boss, it could even be someone on the TV, a national figure, a fictional character or an animal.  I ask people to think about what it is about this leadership style that they really like and to sum up the most important characteristics of this style in just a few words. 

Here is an example of one of the leadership stories that we discussed at a clinic, this is about an English teacher, kindly shared here by Steine. 

Kirsten Mcguire was an exceptional woman and teacher. She possessed so many admirable qualities that did not only influence the way we were taught but the way we lived. First of all she was a calm and balanced woman. She never lost her self control, never raised her voice and never seemed annoyed. No matter what happened she was always in complete balance. You might think we could do as we pleased since she never corrected us, but she possessed a large amount of authority which made us respect her, we had no doubt that she could put her foot down if necessary and for exactly that reason it never became necessary.
Beside this she was highly motivating. Especially because she had the amazing ability to meet each individual where they were. This made everybody feel good enough and encouraged a positive development because she would always focus on the things you did well. She was so enthusiastic that you could not help but being caught by her joy.
When it all comes down to it she was an encouraging teacher who gave us all trust in ourselves, she was dependable, a steady rock to lean on. She was consistent and present and she made the classes a sanctuary for us all.
I never thought about leadership back then, but the moment I was asked to think about one person whom I looked upon as a great leader she was the one just coming to my mind. She possessed every value which is important to me, and most importantly she made everybody feel accepted and good enough, made them comfortable and to me this is the greatest thing to do for another person.

From this story we can establish certain values that are important to this person, for example; calm, balance, authority, motivation, the ability to meet people where they are, consistency, presence, dependability, trust and acceptance.   Its really useful to know what your values are as they are associated with worth, meaning and desire for you.  They are the primary source of motivation and when values are met people feel a sense of satisfaction and harmony, when they are not met the feelings are often the opposite.  Note that our values are very personal to us.  Other typical values identified by others on the same clinic were achievement, creativity, integrity, caring and freedom.

Any time someone encourages you to adopt someone else’s leadership style, and the values which go with it, then its likely that the elephant will continue to stand quietly in the room with us.  However it is worth noting that leaders do just that, they do lead effectively so on some level our great leaders do need to have an ability to find authority and present things in a way that we actually want to follow.

Our job it to design a personal and effective leadership style which incorporates these qualities and is going to have integrity and congruence for us.  We may need to learn some new skills that are going to help us to do that in all situations with a horse but just a change in attitude and acceptance that leadership can be a positive idea can turn around many human - horse relationships for the better.