Well, here it is, almost two weeks since I had the opportunity to ride
with Lee Smith again. I audited one day, and rode the other two days
with her over at the Natural Gait in Iowa. I've been wanting to write
something up to share with my friends in Natural Horsemanship, but I'm
practically at a loss for words. I learned so much about softness,
about preparing the horse for the job they're to do, about meeting the
resistance in a horse an turning it into softness, about looking for the
try, about the fact that I think my horse really does want to do things
with me rather than against me, the list goes on and on. The reason
that it's been difficult to get at this is because I just don't feel
like whatever I say would do justice to what I've learned. Pardon me if
I ramble, but I think I may just try and relate what things really stood
out and made a difference in my horsemanship. If you want details and
techniques, find out when the good lady is in your area and go see for
yourself. :-)
Lee talks about setting it up and waiting and meeting the resistance.
Those seem almost opposite ends of the spectrum. When do you do each
one? At the clinic here in South Dakota, she spent quite a bit a time
with a couple of very scared horses. She was incredibly patient and did
nothing to cause those horses further worry. I was amazed at how long
she waited for things at first, but then equally amazed at how soon she
didn't have to wait it out. She was able to help these horses
understand that what she was asking wouldn't hurt them or scared them,
like maybe it had in the past, and that it was okay to trust the human.
These horses were scared and needed to build trust with humans. But, I
wondered about the other end of the spectrum, the pushy ones. Well,
that weekend she encountered a couple of those. One horse made it
pretty clear during trailer loading, that he'd just as soon run her
over. I'm guessing that this horse had learned that if it bulldozed the
human, the human would move and would then quit asking. Well, this
horse came at Lee to try to squeeze between her and the trailer door and
she met the resistance. She had a flag and a 12 ft. lead.
(Incidentally, Lee will use whatever is handy, she trailer loaded
another horse just before this one and used a lariat, then switched for
the next horse just to show how it's not in the equipment, it's in the
timing and understanding.) Boy did the flag and her arms get busy, but
her feet never moved. She met the resistance in that horse and the
horse jumped back and looked amazed. She uses the time honored statement
of "causing the wrong thing to be difficult, and the right thing easy".
That horse certainly did not find going through Lee to be comfortable or
right. Lee explained that she doesn't really enjoy getting that firm
with a horse, but this horse meant business. As soon as that horse
realized that bulldozing the human didn't work, Lee turned as polite as
could be and in 10 - 15 minutes had that horse loading and unloading
from a two horse trailer from wherever she wanted. From the right, from
the left, from 12 ft. away, from the fender, once that horse knew it's
job, it did it from wherever Lee asked. She said once the horse
understood what it was supposed to do, it wouldn't matter how the horse
was asked to load, from on top, 45 ft. away, sitting in a lawn chair, or
even by the kids. I guess the reason that this really stood out in my
mind was because of how well it seemed that she could see what the horse
was trying to say. She seems to really be able to read the attitude in
a horse, whether it's scared, confused, pushy, or actually willing. She
could explain why she was soft one moment, firm the next, and why she
would switch from one way to another, or why she chose a particular
moment to firm up. It was really fun to watch how some horses could go
through all of those attitudes in just a few moment.
We worked on soft feel work. I've learned from Lee to not be afraid to
pick up the reins to communicate with my horse. I was always feeling
like I didn't have a good enough seat, that my hands might be to heavy,
I thought that riding with a soft feel was for someone quite advanced.
But, instead, I saw several people (myself included) who maybe didn't
have the best seats in the world start to begin to communicate with
their horses because they used the reins as a bridge to teach the horses
to listen to their seat. The importance of rhythm is one thing that has
made the world of difference to me. Lee spends a lot of time working
with the soft feel and rhythm. Counting cadence, learning where the
feet are going. It seems tedious and mundane at first, but wow what a
difference!! By using the soft feel together with the rhythm in your
seat, in no time horses were responding to three speeds within the gait
at a walk and trot. This was something I thought of as pretty advanced,
but you know, it ain't that hard!! Under Lee's watchful eye, (believe
me, she caught me in old habits plenty of times) I started to feel
things so much better, and my horse started to respond so much better.
I just started feeling a harmony with my horse that I had never felt
before.
Another thing that Lee spends a lot of time in is preparing the horse to
a position. There are a lot of things that she talks about, but one
really made the difference for me. When teaching a horse to yield the
forequarter and the hindquarter, Lee instructed us to think about our
seat position. There are 3 she told us. Forward, center, and back.
This isn't leaning, but more of a rock forward or backwards of the
pelvis. It's not a large tilt either, just enough so the horse can
notice it. By shifting your weight forward, it prepares a horse to a
position so he can better yield his hindquarter, for forequarter yields,
shift back. It only makes sense to lighten the load in the part that
you want moved. She had introduced me to this when I spent some time
with her back in July, but I don't think I used it to the full
potential. When I really noticed the difference when we were asking for
lateral movements on our horses. She had us all moving parallel to the
fence had us ask our horses to yield off our inside leg towards the
fence. Not directly sideways, just kind of a two-tracking movement.
(Can't remember it that's what she really called it or not, that's the
term I used to help me remember.) Anyway, we were going along moving
towards the fence and she said that if the forequarter or hindquarter
were lagging, use the appropriate seat position to straighten the horse
out. At that moment my horse was lagging in the hindquarter, I shifted
my weight slightly forward and the hindquarter caught up immediately and
we straightened out. After a little bit of experimenting, I could begin
to feel where I needed to be in order to help my horse travel more
straight as we moved laterally. It was a real eye opener for me!!
As for Lee's teaching style, she teaches us to not be critical of our
horses, and she tries to not be critical of people riding in the
clinic. She doesn't go around criticizing people's choices of
equipment, unless it seems to be really interfering or causing the horse
to be uncomfortable. She said it just plain doesn't put people in a
learning frame of mind to tell them, "you have the wrong bit", "you
don't ride in rhythm well", "you can't use spurs", "put your legs here,
your hands here". Instead, by getting in rhythm and harmony with the
horse, those things just start to happen. Now, when people asked
directly about equipment choices, she would explain what she chooses to
use and why. People have to be in a learning frame of mind, just as
well as our horses. It seemed that she could tell when people were
ready for her to become more critical.
I guess what it all really boils down to is how well I could use what
Lee teaches. I returned Monday from the clinic and on Tuesday we
started moving cattle home from pasture to wean calves. My horse was
responsive, alert, light on the front end, and just plain fun to ride.
He seemed to be saying, "ahh, you've finally learned how to stay out of
my way at the right times so I can do my job". We traveled at various
speeds within the gait, incredibly useful when moving cattle. I used
the soft feel to prepare my horse and tell him that something's going to
change. He had more life in his feet than I've felt in the almost 3
years that he's lived with me. When he got speedy, it was easy to
control, other times he would just kind of get in a frenzy.
Unfortunately, one morning all the cows and calves went crashing through
a fence, and a grove of trees, out into a soybean field and adjacent
alfalfa field. (Okay you caught me, it was unfortunate, but it sure was
fun!!) We zoomed all over the place gathering those cattle. Across
the alfalfa field, across the bean rows, through the trees... We did
everything from a fast gallop to a slow walk, and I felt harmony almost
the whole time. Well, of course, I didn't learn everything just this
last weekend. I've been studying NH for the last two years or so, it
just seemed to me that Lee was able to put things together so that I
could actually use them. One of the statements on her web page is
"Performance Through Preparation". I think I've just begun learning
how to really prepare my horse to do a job, whether that's a nice calm
trail ride, or a fast canter to "head the cows off at the pass" kind of
thing. Her goal is to start showing people that natural is for more
than just back yard riders or starting colts. She wants to help people
see that yes, natural is great for those things, but it can take you
into performance too. She sees a lot of people use natural methods for
starting horses, but then when they want to "do something" with the
horse they go back to side reins, bigger bits and all that stuff.
I think the thing that excites me most is where it all can go. This was
a 3 day progressive clinic that starts with foundation work and gets to
the beginning of what she called advanced work. We just got to the very
tip of it. She talked about all the different things that could be
worked on in an advanced clinic. I really hope to be able to get to one
of those some time. She also does cow working or ranch horse clinics.
I'm planning on attending one of those next summer. I think she's doing
one in the Kansas City area Oct. 8 - 10 or so. Check her web site
www.LeeSmithDiamondS.com to see her schedule. If you're close, I'd
encourage you to go give it a look.
