"Stop Pulling! Stop Pulling!!"

I just watched this video of a bolting horse and I felt like I was channeling this rider's instructor, mouthing her words, feeling her concern.

Although I can't quite tell what started the bolt on this video, it's quite common for beginner riders to go off balance and tip forward after even a small jump. In fact, it's an inevitable part of learning, but more serious problems then arise because a horse understands leaning forward as a request for more speed. English riding instructor Heather Moffett, cleverly and appropriately, calls this curled position the "fatal crouch." The situation typically becomes even worse when the rider tries to slow down the horse by pulling. Again, it's a natural response. People instinctively want to bend forward to protect their soft bellies and to use their hands to force a stop. Unfortunately, this clashes with the horses' instincts to go faster when humans tip forward and to flee in terror when people grab and pull at their mouths. So, if a rider wants a recipe for a bolt here it is: Lean forward and pull.

Anyone wanting to see how experienced riders slow a horse down has only to watch a televised horse race. After the finish line, how do jockeys slow and stop their horses? Do they crouch and hang on tight? Hardly. That's what they did to get their mounts to try to break the sound barrier. To slow and stop, they stand straight up and slowly lengthen the reins.

Going back to the video, it also shows how pulling can also cause a horse to rear. This far more dangerous situation is from seconds 30 through 38 on the video. The horse had stopped, but the rider's adrenalized tension and lack of experience likely caused her to pull when the horse fidgeted. Luckily, this rider respected her instructor enough to follow her instruction to "stop pulling." Almost anyone who's ever taken a riding lesson understands how much bravery and discipline it takes to surrender to instruction and respond appropriately when the body is screaming clutch the reins and hang on for dear life.

Learning to disregard instincts is among the most difficult challenges for a rider. This is one reason my students typically spend months and months on the longe. And even when they go off the longe line, they ride in bosal hackamores or natural horsemanship halters for a long time before their introduction to the snaffle. A beginner can do enough damage with even a halter, but my no-bits-for-beginners policy helps keep my horses sane and,in turn, keeps my students safer. Meanwhile, they learn that even riding with a halter means working on lightness.

It takes a couple of years to develop a good seat, but it's generally a lot longer before a rider grasps--pun intended--the limited role of hands in good riding.

Who Are You? -- Part One

The English have this proverb: "Show me your horse and I will tell you who you are." Still one of the best lines I've ever heard, it deserves several posts on the history, psychology, politics, ethics, and meditative aspects of horsemanship.

I'll start with a personal story. My husband grew up in a wealthy Southern enclave, a place where women wore gloves and hats to shop and not just on Sunday. He once described his hometown as a place where people could live long, full lives without ever knowing what others thought of them. This most likely describes the ideal of a community where gatherings were superficial or politely guarded to promote a tolerant yet non-intimate type of social harmony. Such an ideal is, alas, far less likely between those brought up in less proper communities, and almost impossible between horse and rider where the horse will be direct and honest even if the rider isn't. In other words, the intimate relationship between horse and rider reveals the inner self whether the rider knows it or not. Aside from basic horsemanship skills, this relationship shows our ability to communicate, our basic assumptions on the use of force, fairness, reciprocity, and a whole bunch of other things. In short, it shows much about our personalities and even our politics.

Of course a few riders of extreme patience and skill avoid too many awkward and intimate revelations of their flaws and those of their horses. These few make themselves and their mounts look good no matter what problems they’ve encountered. I’ve seen some examples. A local woman regularly exhibits a Shire at the local county fair. In his early years, she rode him as both a dressage horse and a western reining horse. And now, showing him as an exhibition horse, she still makes a member of the coldest of the cold breeds look light and easy! On the international level, Many years ago, I watched a televised interview with veteran eventer J. Michael Plumb where he complained how dull and uninterestingly unpleasant his Olympic mount Bluestone was. I was surprised. Watching him on the cross-country course, I would have sworn they were a happy, harmonious pair. Those who have been lucky enough to see Reiner Klimke's victory lap with the heralded seventy-five consecutive flying changes on the once notoriously difficult Ahlerich will know what I mean. Such tactful, persistent skill in riders is rare indeed. At the very least, it shows a nearly miraculous connection with a horse. At best, it may well show the most noble, patient aspects of a human being.

Most of us can expect our horses to tell the world—at least the world of horsemen—exactly who we are. Non-horseman may argue with this. In fact, one of my daily vocabulary emails arrived just now with this as the daily quotation:

         The animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older
         and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete,
         gifted with extension of the senses we have lost or never
         attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not
         brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught
         with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of
         the splendor and travail of the earth.
                        -Henry Beston, naturalist and author (1888-1968).

With the horse, Beston was wrong. While most of the elements Beston describes are true, the horse did not arrive “finished and complete.” Man selected and shaped the horse, and, for better or worse, that selection and shaping of the species and finally the development of specific breeds, for work, for war, and for display, allowed man to spread across the world and dominate the earth. This shaping and developing also reveals much about the people who changed horses and horsemanship

That's what I want to talk about over the next series of posts.

Zenyatta and Company

I hope you have some time, because this is a long, link-heavy homage to Zenyatta and her connections.

Before the 2009 Breeder's Cup, I had never seen Zenyatta run. An ambivalent fan of racing, I had read a bit at The Blood Horse website, but that was all. Frankly, I'm not even sure why I watched the Breeder's Cup Classic, but I'm glad I did.

Everything about this mare is unusual--her behavior and style, her speed, and her training and handling.

When I first saw her behavior, my heart almost stopped. My horses only act that way when they have colic. However, diva that she is, Zenyatta had a well known pre-race routine. Several YouTube videos feature just her pre-race "dancing."

Here she is in the paddock of at the 2009 Breeder's Cup.

And here's an edited homage to her career titled "She's a Freak." (At 3:48 of this, she does a respectable Spanish walk, a move I will no longer call artificial.)

Update: I like this homage much better. Some good conformation poses here: "Zenyatta Starstruck"

As to the Breeder's Cup race itself, I again panicked when Quality Road broke out of the gate while blindfolded. That took my concentration off Zenyatta for a while too. After poor Quality Road's panic attack caused the unloading and reloading of all the horses, I wasn't surprised when Zenyatta broke slowly and galloped awkwardly looking around. I just didn't know she had a patented last-to-first pattern.

If you're short on time, here's HGTV's recap of all of her 14 wins.

My favorite now is her second win, one with a great race call.

But it's also well worth watching--and rewatching--the 2009 Breeder's Cup Classic.



I suppose the racing style and the $5,474,580 in winnings would be enough, but from what I've seen and found out since this race, there's a lot more going on here.

This mare is a darling. Watch her eyes and ears. Observant. Charismatic. She's obviously competitive, but from what I'm reading and seeing on YouTube, she's about as far from being crazy as any race horse can be.

Keeping a race horse keen and yet relaxed is not an easy job, but I suspect her trainer John Shirreffs is a master of this. In one article somewhere, I read that his favorite picture of Zenyatta is of her getting a massage. The then filly was flat out in her straw and her masseur was sitting in the straw with her.

Apparently this sort of relaxation is not unusual in his barn. Here's Life Is Sweet, the winner of the 2009 Breeder's Cup Ladies' Classic (G1), in a video uploaded to YouTube by Shirreffs himself.

I'm impressed by everything I've heard, seen, read so far. Shirreffs held Zenyatta's massive body together as well as her brain. The mare was foaled on April 1, 2004 and her first start was on November 22, 2007. I bow towards California. Shirreffs didn't start Zenyatta until she was almost 44 months old--ancient by American race standards.

Most American race horses start as two year olds, which means they were started under saddle as yearlings--a practice I consider obscene. I don't like the Triple Crown races either. Running three year olds is only marginally better than running two year olds. Horses physically mature at five, folks. This is why I'm ambivalent about horse racing.

So kudos to her trainer and owners for giving Zenyatta some time. Over seventeen hands, Zenyatta was a prime candidate for dire injuries. Instead, as far as I know, she retired clean-legged.

I'll end with my favorite video, another one uploaded by Shirreffs. Mike Smith, Zenyatta's regular jockey, was wearing a helmet camera during a regular work session. This video is--well, just watch it.

NOW.

I'll wait.

Did you watch it?

If not, here's the link again.

It wouldn't surprise me if die-hard horsemen watch it again. And, uh, again. I'm already past counting.

Great video, isn't it? Kind, competent people. Kind, more than competent mare. Those ears! And if you didn't feel an adrenaline rush when Mike Smith coos, "Come on, big baby girl" and the mare's stride changes, you ain't no horseman.

Kendell's Leg

Kendell was just trotting around on my OTTB when I snapped these. Most are fuzzy, but as I sifted through them, I realized how consistently lovely Kendell's leg position is. As her instructor, I'm taking total credit for this.

Relaxed Riders

Kendell on Red after a ride



Erica on Razz during a dramatic strikeoff

The American Baucher

Tom Bass (1859-1934)

My title "The American Baucher" is not meant as an insult to Tom Bass. Although Francois Baucher (1796-1873) is controversial in dressage circles--to say the least--few people deny his talent. I associated Bass with Baucher because both trained equines to canter backwards and do other circus dressage movements that are unnatural and hence outside the parameters of "classical" dressage. In fact, Bass rode saddleseat and trained gaited horses. So he wasn't a dressage rider at all.

Or was he?

Take a look at the photos below.

June 2014 UPDATE:  This site has much info: http://www.audrain.org/tom_bass.aspx  

This recent video of Edward Gal's freestyle ride on Moorlands Totilas, a Dutch warmblood, inspired me to look up more info on Tom Bass:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEMHt1dUzQg

Read the comments about Gal's ride. Some people are wowed. Others are appalled.

I'm both.

It's not that Gal's ride is bad. It's not. It's masterful, but it's not classical dressage. It's "modern" dressage, and "modern" dressage is starting to look less and less like "classical" dressage and more like a version of the movements of many gaited horses. Disengaged hocks, lowered backs, tight necks, and obvious front end flash.

But then there's old Tom Bass and HIS gaited horses.

Look at the trot of Gal's horse and then look at the photo of Bass on his gray Columbus. Which horse has more impulsion and better parallelism of shannon and cannon? How many contemporary dressage riders with their deep seat, heavily blocked saddles get the sort of forward movement that Bass is getting from his position on his cutback saddle? Need more proof that dressage masters like Walter Zettl and Paul Belasik are right about the seat being more important for impulsion than the lower leg?

From everything I know, Bass was a natural, a gentle genius. He surpassed the limitations of his time and culture, but for lesser mortals, problems usually creep into a riding system without an emphasis on the classical principles descending from Xenophon to Pluvinel to the other great dressage masters.

It's ironic I suppose that after watching Gal's ride, I immediately sought out photos of a saddleseat rider. But, after studying the photos and the video, which reflects a deeper understanding of the principles of "classical" dressage?

In fact, if Bass had studied "classical" dressage, might I have been able to retitle this entry "The American Master" instead of "The American Baucher." I think so because the gifts and sympathy I see in these photos and read about in his biographical information reminds me of Nuno Oliviera, the man still known simply as The Master.

Brag time.

I once met an old, old man who'd ridden horses trained by a "colored boy down the road" in his hometown of Mexico, Missouri.

I said, "Mexico, Missouri? Tom Bass?"

Old Nolan nodded and said that these horses were the kindest, most responsive he'd ever ridden. This moment was in 1976 and it's still a highlight of my life. I not only met a man who KNEW Tom Bass; I knew a man who'd RIDDEN Tom Bass-trained horses!

I'm still sorry so few people know about Tom Bass. What a remarkable human being.

The New Improved Razz

Relaxed rider. Relaxed horse. Beautiful.