Kate Little (KEL Equestrian) Clinic at Windsor Stables

 It has been a busy couple of weeks for the Pinto Party! I've got several posts bouncing around in my head, but I'm starting with the clinic we hosted at Windsor Stables nearly 2 weeks ago. 

Even the old mare got to participate!

Kate Little (KL) of KEL Equestrian provided two full days of fun and thought provoking instruction, and I was able to do ground work with each horse Saturday, followed by ridden work for each on Sunday. She did an excellent job of meeting each team where they were in skill and physical ability level, and I took 6 pages of notes in my journal based on my 4 sessions and watching others' work with her. I got to witness my fellow barnmates have some INCREDIBLE breakthroughs, including gaining respect from their horse and successfully completing one horse's first ride!

Ivan: "Oh, you mean I should listen to you?"

Spoiler: THIS IS A LONG POST. There was so much covered, but I'm going to do my best to convey the highlights. 

Pyro - Ground work

My first session was ground work with Pyro, and the prompt I gave Kate was that I wanted tools for teaching him to balance and bend on the ground to help when translating those skills to under saddle. I've worked with Kate virtually with Pyro before, and she greatly helped my understanding of how to gain/reinforce respect on the ground, so we had some working knowledge of the first skills she likes to teach. These mostly focus on moving the horse's feet (backwards, turn on forehand, yielding shoulder, etc.) while asking for softness and responsiveness from the horse.

Pyro had his thinking cap on all weekend.

The next level of skill Kate introduced was "advanced leading". She showed me how to encourage Pyro to walk back and to my side, without going in front of my shoulder or crossing my centerline. This not only encourages him to further respect my space, but also to move in a more biomechanically sound way even when leading as he picks up his shoulder and moves around me.

Protecting my centerline that his hip has crossed

Walking in the imaginary box, back and to the side, where he gets left alone

The next skills really focused on cultivating balance and bend: shoulder in and haunches in cued from the ground. 

Using the wall to keep his hips straight, we invite him to bend around us into the shoulder in by pointing our belly button where we want his shoulders pointing. We're looking for him to be soft and to keep his ears level so his vestibular system can work at its best. Once he understands the cue, I can start trying it away from the wall.

You can see how well he started bending through his ribcage. 

For the haunches in, we similarly used the wall to keep his head, neck, and shoulders straight, while encouraging him to step up with his hind legs. We blocked his front end from coming forward so he would step away from the wall with his hips. 

His right side is his hollow side, but he figured out stepping in and forward with his right hind. With time and repetitions, I can encourage him to have better bend this direction. 

As we progress in his training, I can build towards using the tail of my rope as my outside cue, just like my leg would be in the saddle.

I love being able to teach Pyro how to use his body without MY body being in his way, so this lesson gave us a lot to work with. I learned that, even on the ground, I need to change my body more slowly so Pyro has a chance to match me. I tend to apply my cues very quickly, without giving him the time to process and fit me, so we spend a lot of time not "together". 

Good boy, soft and listening

Missy - Ground work

My goals for Missy at this point are very different from those for Pyro. Since she has high ringbone in BOTH fronts causing issues now (more on that in a later post), I want to keep her comfortable and happy in her retirement. If we get to ride on good days, WONDERFUL, but I know that will depend on how she's feeling. As we deal with her arthritis and inevitable compensation when she's ouchy, I asked Kate for some tools to help keep her feeling her best. 

We started by getting our hands on her and feeling out trouble areas. One area that immediately stood out to Kate was above Missy's stifles. She didn't engage her quadriceps very much, and her left TFL in particular was extremely tight and overdeveloped. She showed me some ways to encourage proper engagement of the muscles surrounding Missy's stifle. 

Another problem area was between the top of her left scapula and withers. We did some cross-fiber massage, trigger point release, and stretching to create space and bring some movement to the area. The next time I stretched her front legs forward, she actually leaned into the stretch for the first time.

To work on Missy's proprioception, we started teaching her to lift and hold a leg, so she can build stability in the opposite standing leg, pressing it into the ground. 

We started shaping this for both front and hind legs... 

...cueing her to drop her head and relax over her topline as part of the behavior.

Additionally, we identified an imbalance in Missy's pectoral muscles. While she is very good at taking her front legs out away from her centerline (abduction), she has a much harder time with the opposite movement (adduction). As we do ground work, I'll focus on rewarding her when she crosses her front legs, rather than stepping apart and back together. 

Her descending pectorals (on the front of her chest) are far more developed than her transverse pectorals (under her chest/between front legs).

I spend a lot of time doing body work on Missy, massaging and releasing tension, and I focus on our dressage as a type of physical therapy for her. This lesson tucked a lot of tools in my toolkit for helping keep my beloved mare feeling her best. 

Pyro - Under saddle

Pyro: "What fresh hell is this?!"

Pyro came into day two unsure if he liked this new coach who was showing me how to make work harder. The focus of our ridden session was teaching Pyro to match me, pay attention to quieter cues, and carry himself. 

We started with showing him he should listen to the quieter cues of my seat via an exercise called the "air back". From the halt on a loose rein, I would cue for a back with just my seat and core, the SLOWLY take up the reins until I made contact with the corners of his mouth. Once there, I wouldn't increase the rein pressure or change my seat to get him to step back, instead touching his shoulder with my whip, adding pressure that way until he shifted his weight. As he started to understand, I increased the criteria to stepping back, stepping back without bracing, and softly stepping back in diagonal pairs. 

We took this concept to the walk and trot, using the same escalation of cues to bring him to a halt and back off of my seat and core, rather than increasing pressure on the bit past making contact with the corners of his mouth. Soon, when I would shift my weight, he would do a lovely half halt, and I let him carry on with that rebalancing rather than bringing him all the way down to the halt and back. 

Pretty quickly, he was matching the tempo I was setting for him with my body (rather than me just going along with whatever he gave me) and rocking his weight back (rather steadily building speed like a boulder rolling downhill) on a very light to no contact. 

To build on that, I started to shape how he carried himself, SLOWLY lifting the inside rein and adding inside leg to ask him to bend and carry himself better. If I made contact with the corner of his mouth, and he still hadn't made a change, I made it harder by asking him to go on a smaller circle, letting him back out on the larger circle and leaving him alone once he lifted his withers. 

He gave me some very nice moments where I felt like I wasn't having to hold his head up for him and that we were "together". 

We did try taking this exercise up to canter, but it became pretty obvious that it'll take time for him to build the strength and balance needed to successfully carry himself on a loose rein. 

This ride was such an eye-opening experience for me. You don't know how light your horse can be to subtle cues until you FEEL it, and I sure didn't realize how "grabby" I tend to be with the reins. I apply cues so quickly that Pyro doesn't have a chance to accommodate me. Teaching him the half halt in this way encouraged him to try to match me, as being "with" my body feels good and is rewarding in and of itself. It wasn't ever a tug-o-war, so the bit was a communication tool, and never a punishment. 

Missy - Under saddle

Thankfully, Missy was having a good enough day that we could share a walk ride. Every ride with her is a gift, and this one was no exception. Continuing the theme from our ground work the prior day, I wanted to encourage Missy to use herself under saddle in such a way that it was a sort of "physical therapy", improving her comfort in light of her arthritis. This includes evening out muscle groups that are weak vs. compensating as well as showing her how to move through her range of motion and softly let her hooves land rather than plodding with more concussion in each step. 

Stepping out in a fresh set of shoes and her "new" WOW retirement saddle. 

Tessa politely joined us at heel for the start of our ride as Kate got a feel for where we are.

Miss and I have many years of bad habits together, so we also introduced the "air back" to her to start finding lightness and encourage her to listen to my more subtle seat cues. 

We played with finding the balance point between forward and backward, then took that same feeling of directing her with my seat and core to leg yielding either way. This was difficult at first, but SUPER cool once it clicked. 

Additionally, Kate introduced me to the French school half halt (demi-arrêt), in which you lift your hands straight up, vibrating the reins with your hands, until the horse lifts their chest and base of neck. This was IMMENSELY helpful for Missy, who likes to drop her chest and chug along like a train gathering speed if left to her own devices. It doesn't require a lot of actual pressure on the reins since you're vibrating them, so it doesn't give Missy something to brace against. Kate had me look at it as "if she has that energy, that's great! We can just ask her to redirect it so she picks up her withers."

Surprise! We also worked on shoulder in and haunches in with Missy (both on the rail and in a figure 8) to encourage proper use of her body. We looked for correct bend, level ears (very difficult for her), and moments of softness. 

To give her a better ride, I once again had to focus on slowing down my cues so she had a chance to match me. I needed to give her room to bend with the outside rein, as well as encourage her to transition between shoulders in and haunches in as though I'm a post she's pivoting around. I also kept catching myself translating my ribcage left, rather than sitting evenly in the middle of the saddle. 

We increased the challenge by adding the half pass at the walk, along with walk pirouettes. Kate encouraged me to view upper level dressage freestyle tests for ideas, as I can do any of the canter half pass and pirouette work at the walk. 

It was a long hour for Missy, but she was a trooper and gave me a very good feeling at the end of our ride of what it's like when she gets her hind end straight, her front end straight, and lifts her withers straight up. It was VERY cool to feel her using her body like that. 

I so rarely get to have in person instruction, and it was such a positive experience to work with someone who clearly "speaks horse" and has the skills to impart that knowledge to her students. I'm still unpacking everything Kate shared with us each time I work with either horse, but I feel it's starting to sink in. I'm happy to say I get the opportunity to continue learning from her through virtual lessons, so more to come on this journey!

Photo credits for most of this post go to Jen S.!