Linda Parelli's Happy Horse Happy Life Conference

 What a stimulating couple of days at Linda Parelli’s HHHL Annual Conference. The theme was Connection, which is the base behavior of her progressive-oriented program. Here are a few takeaways for me, personally. [Note: The best way to really understand her working model / framework is to take the Happy Horse Happy Life course on How to Talk Horse at https://www.happyhorsehappylife.com/all-courses.Many of my comments are expansions or reinforcements of what I have learned in this curriculum, so my notes may seem cryptic to some readers.]

·     When wanting to connect with a horse in a herd, don’t “catch” first horse that comes to you, but go to dominant horse in the herd. Once the dominant horse is connected with you, the others will likely follow.

·     When feeding horses, feed the dominant horse first … that is what horses do with each other in a herd. Makes no “horse” sense to have the dominant horse wait until others are feed … not natural in herd dynamics.

·     Some techniques to Connect or reconnect with a horse?

o  Use backup

o  If horse is looking off and/or distracted or bored, use “Swirl to Twirl” exercise 

§ walk with horse a bit away from you and not on a circle 

§ when distracted or tuned out, move the hindquarters, such that horse is facing you, step forward and move the front end to change the direction. Only use until connected.

o  “Stick to me” at Liberty to test connection. Does horse want to be with you? My Goal: if Toby Horse is lagging and his head not at my shoulder, just looking over my outside shoulder should be cue to catch up (as opposed, to using stick string.)

o  Note: only do performance level Liberty (or riding) exercises/movements once a week. Too much energy too often makes for an unhappy horse, who will not want to stay connected to you. Liberty requires high energy for quality connection.

o  When riding, if horse is looking around, put nose back in direction you want to go and release rein.

o  If horse is not relaxed, read his body language and feel his bubble threshold. Return to comfort zone and repeat to build connection and trust. (As opposed to pushing horse over threshold, because “I am the boss.” Horse might submit, but at the cost of trusting you.)

·     For Relaxation, figure 8s and spirals help relax nervous horses.

·     For Responsiveness, do isolation exercises: back up with just reins; forward with  pelvic swing and soft legs; move hindquarters only, without going forward; move  front end, without backwards/forwards. To develop light aids, practice by isolating them – “skis” in direction you want to go; imagine headlights on knuckles, shoulders, eyes; pushing wheelbarrow using elbows to avoid pulling on one rein; when turning, keep wrists straight. 

·     To build Confidencewhen riding, do “touch it” … point nose at object and let go of reins. Correct with appropriate rein, if needed, and let go. Gives the horse a job. Don’t push horse to  targetobject, if worried … just retreat and repeat. Touch it is a no legs exercise.

·     Impulsionis about being able to regulate speed in all gaits. Use a speed scale of 1 (slowest) to 4 (fastest.) Eventually get to point of a gait speed #1 with the gait energy of a 4. For speed control, point tailbone forward to go forward and belly button (core) and elbows backward for reducing speed.

·     Bending: Exercise: think about “pinkie turns” … resting pinkies on saddle, which softens rider’s arm/elbow. Have contact and for a turn to inside, give outside rein (rather than pulling with inside rein) Imagine you are moving the whole bit in direction you want to go (rather than pulling on one side of the bit.)

·     Use Parking Lot(standing still) often for relaxation. Only allow 2 steps of movement before correcting.

·     Leadership is about being clear with your communications. Need to be able to go from soft to firm to everything in between in nanoseconds.

There were some wonderful demonstrations of Connection at Liberty and riding from Linda with Jazz and Highlander and Courtney Crane with Mele and Yuri. On Day 2, Courtney shared her adventure with Yuri, who is only 2 years old, drop-dead gorgeous, extremely high spirited and quite challenging. Fascinating to listen to the challenges and how, with Linda’s help, Courtney’s skills have grown to match the mischievous Yuri.  

 

Tony Vaught, a farrier and student of Jim Crew, gave an interesting talk about how a horse’s alignment and “crookedness” is often a hoof issue that can be corrected with proper shoeing/trimming. Now, if we could just clone Tony and Jim and have then come to all of us around the world on a regular basis.

 

There was an enlightening session by Joanna Mendl Shaw, who is an internationally recognized choreographer and dance educator. She teaches at Juilliard and has choreographed/taught at Alvin Ailey, among other places. And, she “dances with horses.” She led us through some interactive movement exercises, demonstrating the passage of leadership through movement, explaining how this relates to the giving and taking of leadership between humans and horses. Then, she performed and demonstrated by dancing with Courtney, who was riding Mele.  She is a dynamic presenter and the fluidity of her dance movements are a joy to watch. You can check out a current project of hers in NYC, called The Equus Projects, at equus-onsite.org.

 

There were many other wonderful sessions, like Courtney riding Mele and ponying Yuri, first on-line and then at Liberty. Courtney, with coaching from Linda, had to do some fancy riding to reconnect with Yuri  at one point. There was a session with 3 trailers and several horsewoman with multiple horses showing how to introduce the trailer to the horses, until it becomes the horses idea to load. Too much great stuff to mention it all … guess I’ll have to try to attend this Conference annually!