August 2011 Newsletter by Dressage Naturally

August 2011 Creating healthy biomechanics and stronger partnerships through combining natural horsemanship principles with the art of dressage... Karen Rohlf

never underestimate the potential for harmony & lightness to improve in ways you cannot yet imagine

Welcome back to the Temenos... Temenos is an ancient Greek word. It refers to a sacred space that has no limits, where special rules apply and extra-ordinary events are free to occur.

“More important than the quest for certainty is the quest for clarity” ~Francois Gautier

Sept. 23-25 August 17-26

This Month • CA clinic report • Introductory Discount for clinics with Bre & Shelby

• Q & A: Rein Lameness

17-19 Sweet Spot, 20-22 Upward Spiral, 24-26 Advancing Private lessons

The Mendip Stud Somerset, UK Contact: Stephanie Gaunt

Sept. 18-21 Spots Open!

Oct 15, 16 Karen with Marcel

Lindstrom, MN Contact: Sally Taylor 612.616.2550

Unmounted Exercises for Connection Temenos Fields, Ocala, FL Contact: karenrohlf@dressagenaturally.net

• New Clinics at the Temenos

4 days Upward Spiral (smaller group, more private attention)

email: zazz@aol.com

Oct 14-19

Sept. 16-17 Spots Open!

2 days Focusing on Connection,

Clinic schedule: CLICK HERE

Bridgewater, NH Contact: Brenda Ladd Phone: 603.217.0205, 603.715.0253 email: laddfarmllc@me.com

6 Days Focusing on Connection Temenos Fields, Ocala, FL Contact: karenrohlf@dressagenaturally.net

email: stefgaunt@yahoo.co.uk

• Ancora Imparo: Clarity Upcoming Clinics:

Custom Clinic! Co-teaching with 5* Parelli Professional, David Lichman

New Clinics on the schedule at the Temenos 6 Day Clinic with Karen to Focus on Connection (includes 2 day course with Karen + Marcel... See below). October 14-19 2011 This clinic will focus, as always, on achieving the most harmonious connection with your horse. There are different layers of harmony: Harmony within your body, Harmony within your horseʼs body, and Harmony between you and your horse. There are many factors that go into achieving this harmony. In this clinic, 8 riders will get the chance to learn where their harmony needs to improve the most, and how to take the next best steps towards achieving it. We will especially look at the state of you and your horseʼs biomechanical harmony and will apply Dressage, Naturally exercises to improve you! This clinic includes the 2 day course co-taught by Karen & Marcel (see below). His exercises have been an invaluable part of my studentʼs progress. The rest of the clinic will be a mix of private lessons with Karen, discussion, & group sessions. (We will still have a riding session during the days with Marcel.

2 Day Clinic with Karen & Marcel: Unmounted Exercises to Improve Yourself for Your Horse. October 15, 16 2011 This clinic will be co-taught by Karen & Marcel (See below). It is so easy to only think about what the horse must do or change in order to have more harmony, but harmony must start within ourselves. From there it is OUR responsibility to approach our horses ready to offer the possibility of a harmonious connection with them. In Karenʼs experience as a teacher, the most common skills that every student could benefit from improving are: • Use of their breathing/energy • Body awareness, especially of tension and how to let it go • Balance • Ability to connect with another body without brace When these skills are better, EVERYTHING is better! Karen will discuss how these skills effect our riding, and Marcel will take us through a series of exercises, activations and simulations designed to give students new skills and awarenesses. He will draw upon his experience in dance, tai chi, yoga, and acting. Limited to 14 participants. No auditor rate (all present will participate fully) $200. Open to riders of all levels. No horses Contact karenrohlf@dressagenaturall.net to register or for more details. My new assistant here in the Temenos is Marcel Dou Roig, Some of you have met him when he was a performer with JoAnna Mendl Shaw and her Dancing with Horses troupe, some have met him during my clinics here in the past year, and some of you know him from the D,N

Video Classroom (March 2011 Videos). Marcel has

‘Golden pheasant stands on right leg’

many talents that he draws upon to help his students develop skills that will help them in their horsemanship. He has been teaching tai chi to Dana, me and my friend (and fellow dressage trainer), Sharon Jerdeman since the winter. Now as a horse-owner himself he can even better relate to the needs of the student of the horse!

check out his website (horsemanqi.com) if you would like to learn more.

The Dressage, Naturally Classroom is the place to be!

This month始s topics are: Connecting to the Circuit of Energy with Monty and Breanne (Riding, 14 min)

Being at Liberty with Natilla and Solana (Liberty, 21 min)

Exploring to Find the Sweet Spot with Atomic (On Line, 27 min)

dnc.dressagenaturally.net First month is always half price!

Don始t forget, now until September 1, 2011 there is a discount in the

Web Shop! During checkout enter this code:

summer10 to receive a 10% discount off the total.

NEWS Sweet Spot for Llamas?

Jennifer Fulton grabbed this quick photo... Sure it始s a little blurry, but she did her best to catch the moment with her phone camera... I wonder what this Llama will do with the information on the Dressage, Naturally Big Picture Poster?! He seems to be reading up on the section about Finding the Sweet Spot. But Jenn, you may want to check his eyes... seems to be a bit near-sighted! Thanks for sharing this, Jenn!

Sweet Spot clinic in Santa Cruz, CA I had a great time in Santa Cruz, CA teaching the 3-Day Finding the Sweet Spot group clinic as well as a 4-Day Upward Spiral of Success clinic in a private lesson format. We were nestled among the redwoods at a beautiful private facility (Vigne Farms) And coming from Florida heat I was so excited to be wearing polar-fleece in July! It was a nice blend of new and familiar faces. I was so excited to re-connect with Shelley Candelario, the clinic host and past 10-week Intensive student. She rode her Isabella to an instructor始s dream: they both looked even better than how they looked at the end of the 10-week course! I also had the pleasure of having a mule in my clinic for the first time! The Sweet Spot course, as always focuses on taking your foundation forward. We learn the kinds of conversations necessary to be able to start making changes in the horse始s biomechanics. Before we expect them to change, we better make sure they understand the ingredients! Clarity of the conversation, and getting all the way to 100% was a shared theme. In the Upward Spiral course I did individual lessons with all the students. Many got a chance to feel what it is like to have me be relentless in my search for the result... While checking that we were being as fair and clear as possible! ;-) All made some really great progress that I hope will last them a long time!

Introductory Price for Finding the Sweet Spot Clinic with Breanne or Shelby! We are really excited by the interest we are getting in Bre and Shelbyʼs clinics. As a “thank you” to all of you who are jumping at the chance to bring Dressage, Naturally to your area, we are giving a 15% discount to all hosts who book a clinic with Bre or Shelby before January 1st, 2012. (The clinic can be scheduled to take place anytime between now and January 1st 2013)

More details, contact: Sally at: clinics@dressagenaturally.net

The Sweet Spot clinic had the extra bonus of being attended by D,N Instructors Breanne Peters and Shelby Hume. They observed & assisted and I gave them their official instructor certificates at the end of the clinic. Ta da! By request, Shelby will be returning to teach a follow-up clinic in the same area this coming fall. If you are interested in attending please contact Shelley at: shelleycandelario@yahoo.com right away. Priority will be given to students who attended this past clinic, but all students of appropriate level are welcome!

process and are making progress…Thanks Bre!” “Shelby puts fun into the art of teaching dressage and allows students to immediately feel at ease. She is both approachable and articulate. Thanks, Shelby, for helping us out!” ~Sarah K

“I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with both Bre and Shelby! Bre is so positive and sweet that it made her persistence easy to follow. Shelby really took the time to help me with concerns I have with my horses saddle, posture and balance. I can't wait for Shelby to come back this fall!” Here is what some of the students had to say about Bre and Shelby: ~Michele “Bre is an instructor who will hang in there with you until you get it. She will work with you until both you and the horse understand the copyright 2011 Temenos Fields, Inc August

have the ability to teach. The extension they will bring to Natural Dressage will definitely be recognized and appreciated. I have always had trouble keeping my hands quiet. Shelby was able to isolate the movement in my fingers, hands, fore-arm, elbows and into my shoulders. This gave me a focus for the movement in my upper body and the ability to keep my hands quiet. She was really great. I am sure Bre is equally competent. She is very approachable and willing to help [....] I was comfortable with her, and would not hesitate to involve her in my learning process. I also love what you are doing in the Classroom. Again, Thank You”

“I want to thank you for your wonderful selection of Bre and Shelby, your new instructors, and making them a part of the clinic. These are ~Margaret definitely talented individuals and

A few images by Dana Rasmussen from the CA clinic Mule Variations (anyone else here a Tom Waits fan?)

This is my 1st time playing with a mule!

Gosh, I don始t know why everyone is smiling so much... I keep trying to explain to people: Dressage is very very serious!

This was a question that appeared in the Video Classroom Forum. I answered it there, but because I recently had a couple other people ask me the same question, I thought I would answer it here also! ~Karen

rider or on a long rein, but goes lame when a connection is made.

naturally pushes more than another. Because all the energy has been taught to land in the hands, the What can happen, is when a horse is asymmetrical push also lands in the 'held together' or forced to appear hands. Since the neck is so flexible symmetrical and balanced when it is and the mouth so sensitive, that is not, or if a crooked rider is constantly where the asymmetry will show up, hanging on one rein (or both reins), or even though it comes from a hind end if the horse is chronically asked to do weakness or crookedness. Another things beyond its ability / what it has reason for creating a relatively balHi Karen, been prepared to do, he must contort anced body BEFORE trying to conI had the opportunity to ride a young in order to do it.... A cycle of brace nect with it! horse that had been in professional can develop. This alone can cause an dressage training for several years immediate irregularity, and then over A strong rider may, indeed be able to that responded to rein pressure by force the issue, and make the horse becoming very choppy and uneven in time it can become chronic. appear symmetrical again... But what his hind-end movement. I believe in It may be pain, or it may be actually the horse really needs is physical his case that he was very tight and developing them in this strange irtherapy (which is what dressage is braced in his loin, but not exactly regularity... Their muscles simply desupposed to be!) dropping his back down. At first I velop so that in that 'connected posthought it was a chiropractic or pain ture' one leg can swing more than The good news is that it can be corissue but the horse moved quite well another, and the other is chronically rected! I personally like to first change riderless or when ridden on a very loose rein. Any amount of contact or tight, causing an irregular movement. the movement-patten as best I can, then support with chiropractic, maseven movement from a medium Chronic brace in front will block the sage, or what ever else is needed. If length rein would elicit the response. back and so the hind end will be reyou simply use those therapies withstricted and the weak leg stays weak out changing the movement pattern, Recently I have met another horse and the strong leg stays strong. the muscles will pull the body right that had been with this trainer for a back out of whack as fast as you can short period of time and was well on We have to be careful though, besay: "20 meter circle". his way to developing this same because often when the reins are havior. The trainer could mask it When the cycle of brace is broken, somewhat by continuously kicking the shorter, the horse also is asked to carry more weight behind and move and the coordination, self carriage, hind end forward. their shoulders differently, so it can be and balance restored, you may find a true that the horse can be experienc- veterinary reason why the difficulty Does anyone have experience with rein-lame horses? Aside from pulling ing pain in a specific range of motion started in the first place, but at least then, the lameness can be more easand kicking - what training techniques only with a rider, but that pain could have come from running around ily identified and therefore aided in its or tools would lead to this behavior? loose, yet it only shows up when the recovery. (or you find out the horse hind leg carries or the shoulder sits shouldn't be doing this work...) either Makes me sad. ~Laura taller...So we may not always have to way it will be good for the horse to blame the rider..... that is the most find this out.... OR you will end up optimistic way of looking at it. with a lovely and ever-so-appreciative horse!! Hi Laura, It can be due the horse learning to Unfortunately this is very common.. support himself on the contact. Some- What an interesting question, huh? (yes, it is sad). One bit of good news times the rider feels a horse really Karen about it is that you can often "ride push into the contact and they misinthem sound" (meaning it is possible to terpret it as a good connection, when rehabilitate them through using really the horse has learned to thrust healthy biomechanics as a tool, like itself into the riderʼs hands. The if one physical therapy. hind leg is weaker than another, or if the straightness hasnʼt been ad"Rein Lame” is the term used for a dressed, often one hind leg quite horse that seems sound without a

Q: Rein Lameness

Ancora Imparo

“For me the greatest beauty always lies in the greatest clarity.”

“Ancora Imparo” is what Michelangelo is quoted to have said upon finishing the Sistine Chapel. It translates: “I am still learning” When training horses or learning to ride, we have this dream of what we want the result to be (at least I hope we all do!). But most of the time we live in a place where the reality doesnʼt quite match the dream and we are left searching for the answers. We may look to this or that system, or this or that magic technique. “Maybe this will be the thing that changes everything for me!” The reality is any method or technique is only as good as how you apply it. More and more I am focusing on being clear, and helping my students to communicate clearly with their horses. (See June videos in the Classroom and Article on ʻYes Momentsʼ)

— Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Lack of clarity is often the first cause of a cascade of events that lead to lack of harmony. Sometimes the lack of clarity is within the human: We donʼt really have the picture. Sometimes it is within the horse: They donʼt yet understand the cue. Sometimes it is between the horse and human: The human is giving conflicting signals, is not giving feedback to the horse about how they responded, or the human is not listening to or is misinterpreting what the horse is telling them.

ings if I think the session wasnʼt ideal... Simply attempt to see it from the horseʼs perspective so the next session can be even clearer. Itʼs a great thing to do in the middle of a session before itʼs too late to change things. Do your best to achieve clarity, no matter how simple you may have to make it. In clarity, there is beauty.

At the end of an exercise I like to ask myself and my students this question:

“When your horse goes back to the pasture, and his buddy comes up and asks him: ʻHey, what was that you were doing out there with your human?ʼ ...What will your horse say?” I do my best to answer that question honestly and from the heart, without needless judgement, rationalization, or protecting of my feel-

Left: Shelby Hume and Papagayo Right: Karen’s filly, Natilla