January 2011 Newsletter by Dressage Naturally

January 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.

“By reading, riding & meditating, great results may be obtained if there is a feeling for the horse, provided the rider’s seat is good, without following exactly all the details of any one method.” ~Nuno Oliveira

New Clinics being organized...

This Month • Questions and Answers • Feedback • Thoughts for Trainers

Upcoming Clinics:

Clinic schedule: CLICK HERE

March 6-11 6 Days in the Temenos Spot open, closed to auditors Contact: K2@dressagenaturally.net April 17-22 6 Days in the Temenos Spot open, closed to auditors Contact: K2@dressagenaturally.net April 3 - June 11 10 Week Intensive Full!

I am coming to the UK (Somerset) in August! August 17-28! There will be three 3-day clinics, including a private lesson format for the more advanced students. Contact Stephanie Gaunt at

stefgaunt@yahoo.co.uk I am also working on being in MN in September Contact Sally Taylor at

zazz@aol.com Stay tuned as the rest of my clinic schedule takes shape!

A Note from Karen I hope everyoneʼs 2011 is going well! Mine is going wonderfully! The holidays were quiet and the New Year was rung in with some of my favorite people on the planet (the oneʼs on the other planets couldnʼt make it) ;-) I now have 2 working students in until the summer: Breanne Peters and Claire DeVisse. Both have been here before but not at the same time and I am feeling very lucky to have such a good team. They both have lovely horses with them and we are all looking forward to rolling up our proverbial sleeves and making some progress. I wouldnʼt mind rolling up my literal sleeves, either.. We have had some COLD weather here, (I had to wear an actual coat!) but it seems to be passing. To all you up north in the real cold: ʻI know, I know... I really have nothing to complain about!ʼ Early this month I finished up a month of training/rehab on an upper level dressage horse. I met his owner at the Gerd Heuschmann clinic in the fall. Gerd had just been to visit me and recommended that the owner come study with me. She is an adult amateur rider who, despite a highly educated

horse and some very top trainers, was needing to soak her hands in ice after each ride! Yuck! She was told he should only be ridden in a double bridle and he was ʻtoo much horse for herʼ and she should sell him. Oh, and he had flipped over twice in cross ties in the past, was terrified of getting hosed off in a wash stall and of farriers. Perhaps getting his splint bone broken by a farrier once didnʼt help. ;-( Oh, and he was rein lame, too. But as you will see, he is also a really sweet horse. He is a confident horse by nature, who had some trauma. Sigh He was here a month, and I recently visited him at his home. They have made such great progress. You will meet him in the February Video Classroom. I will show you my first ground session with him. It is actually rather undramatic, all things considered, but that was the intention... To just show him that I care. In the video I talk my way through what I want him to know and how I can translate that to him. The rest of his progress will show up in future monthʼs videos. Stay tuned!!

Dana and I have been staying busy with the videos for the Classroom, but we both really enjoy putting them together. I find it a very rewarding way of sharing information and based on the feedback, it seems that my students are also finding it helpful. I can now officially announce the new participants for the Spring 10 week Intensive! Liesbeth Jorna (Netherlands) Ewa Angantyr (Sweden), Sally Thompson (Australia), Michele Richardson (The UK) and Sarah Grimm (USA) will be at the Temenos April through mid June. I am excited to take a new group on the journey. Other than that I have been busy enjoying my horses, planning for the Spring Intensive, and thinking about some new formats for my 2011 clinics. I want to get some more private lesson time with smaller groups. Due to doing more at home this year, my traveling schedule is much less than the past 6 years. The good news is that with the Video Classroom, the Dressage, Naturally Book/DVD, The Results in Harmony DVD Series and of course, SiMoN, The School Master Noodle for learning lateral work in the Web Shop... I am confident that I can keep everyone with plenty to work on until I see you in person again!

My round pen and new fenced arena are getting a facelift! I was lucky enough to be able to get away with just the natural sand... for a while... but it just kept getting deeper and deeper. So this week has been full of trucks and tractors and piles of dirt. But they are turning out great! Last night and today it poured rain and this afternoon the footing was perfect! I am excited about this because soon I will be riding around in them on Natilla! I have been doing a slow start on my PRE filly because she is only 2.5 yrs old and over 16.2 hands. I donʼt want to stress her growing body. She is doing great 2

though and I just canʼt wait to ride her! Ovation is also happy to have a new job of ponying Natilla and Solana. So as soon as all that footing is fixed we will be up and going with that again.

Ok, Thatʼs it for now... Enjoy this newsletter and Iʼll be seeing you on FaceBook, in the Classroom, in my InBox or in the field! My Best, Karen And here is an always appropriate quote from Martin Luther King, Jr in honor of MLK day:

“Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.” MLK, Jr

Questions: How low is too low? Hi Karen Happy New Year to you and Dana! I am so excited about this year, just hope it goes a wee bit slower. I am loving your videos YAY. Just one quick question, when working online helping the horse find their sweet spot, if they go so long in the frame so that their nose is almost on the ground is this still OK? The horse seem relaxed but something is telling me to ask anyway. He is a nervous horse, he is the "Accountant". Thanks in advance. Kind regards Paulette, Australia Ribbleton Warmbloods Hi Paulette, Happy New Year to you and Graeme too! Re: the head low... trust your instincts, some horses have a very easy time putting their heads down, but depending on the horse they can be 'hiding' or dominating... or just zoned out. I like it to feel like a let loose, focused thing. Some horses are just flexible enough to do it but it doesnʼt feel like a biomechanically helpful thing if they just run around ignoring me with their head low. To some horses I say, "yes, thank you, that's nice... now can you listen to these other cues?" (... transitions, changes of direction, etc)

it... It is possible to have all the benefit of the stretched/released top-line in the first few inches of the stretch... Hope that helps... let me know! Cheers, Karen

How much backing is too much backing? Hi Karen, I have read in the past in different books and also heard it again recently how dressage training promotes you to NOT do much backing up . . I am guessing they feel its one of those things they want you to do well, or not do at all? Whatʼs your thought on it? To me a horse that can go backwards easily is more easily adjusted or half-halted. . . Just another one of those big question marks in my head at the moment! thanks ladies! ~Laurie French hi Laurie, It all depends on why you are doing the back up... If you are looking for quality steps (dressage-ly speaking), often the quality goes down with more steps until the horse is advanced...

The back up is a two-beat diagonal move (like a trot) except it doesnʼt have a moment of suspension... So when the front foot steps back, if we ask for too big or too fast a step, they can easily step on the hind foot on the same side because it is on the ground. In order to not step on themselves, horses may contort by holThe stretch should be a result of good lowing their backs, or get crooked, or balance, focus and trust.... so one way to wide, or drag their front feet or push out test it is to try transitions in and out, check the back with their back feet...or will simthey can still back up easily and raise ply be less willing to try it! All these probtheir front end.... lems are real concerns for horses that naturally take a big step in their back ups. Also the stretch really is about the middle of the horse releasing (the back and base So I think it is important to be conscious of neck) due to alignment and balance... of this physical consideration. A horse can so a truly good stretch is less about how do an active, quality back up, with low it goes, and more about the quality of throughness for many steps, so this alone copyright 2011 temenos fields, inc January

is not a reason to me to make a ʻruleʼ to never back up more than a few steps. Another reason Dressage-Land doesnʼt like to do a lot of backing up is that they are afraid that the horse 'will start thinking backwards". I donʼt believe that is necessarily true, because you can easily have a horse that is ʻthinking backwardsʼ even when he is going forwards (and with some of those horses, the more you push them the more committed they become to thinking backwards!). And it is perfectly reasonable to expect to be able to take steps in the backwards direction without losing the ability to be willing to go forward. The circuit of energy (see December 2010 Newsletter) is so important in Dressage... and you could imagine that it is relatively easy to think of keeping the energy going forward while going forward, and more challenging to keep it flowing forward while going backwards... And from a training point of view, a horse that gets stuck going backwards is a much more difficult and dangerous issue to fix than a horse that goes forward too much... but still, as a rule, getting let loose to backing up does not, in my experience, create a horse that does not think forward. In my thinking, if we want a horse to flow forward while backing up, we need to have excellent conversations about flowing forward AND about backing up, so we can then combine them... And the way to do that is to practice them both equally! The benefits of doing a back up are great.... Leadership, respect, rebalancing, letting loose to it, enough steps to find their coordination.... When they are let loose to it, their posture and biomecahnics will likely be better than if they werenʼt. The key is to get through the learning and coordination building stage efficiently, so they donʼt just practice a million miles of bad back-ups! For me it is such an important communication to have, and I am willing to do as many steps as it takes for them to get good at it... Some horses need more, or less or faster or slower in order to understand it and get good at it! So I vary the 3

length and number of steps to suit the goal. The strategy will look different, depending on if the goal is leadership or learning or coordination... It would be a handicap to limit myself to only a couple steps. In the end, it must be in balance... that they can go forward ready to back up and back up ready to go forward. In Dressage, we release the back up after the going forward... In NH the release is usually after the back up... It is important to balance it out and think about getting in AND out of it.

high and out and stepping 3 steps while alternating the leg lifts, and she is offering every step too. So my question is when she does every step it seems to create her staying in place more. What shall I do when she gets stuck or how do I expand on the forward? Pitfalls to watch for?

Funny my mustang, Bria, comes very easily to lifting her leg high and out . . . but tends to slam or end up pawing, so she only gets rewarded for soft holding ones which are usually much much smaller, but today I think she turned a I think it is a challenge to stay in that corner and realized that the powerful but magic place of mentally and biomechani- violent lifting of the leg gets her nothing. cally ready to go in and out of backing up The "good" verbal praise at the right (with quality steps) for very many steps... moment is really valuable. I can see why You will likely experience when teaching a one would put off teaching rearing or horse a back up they may get it from a spanish walk with some horses. stand still, but then you walk 3 steps forThanks for your help. ward and it is suddenly difficult to get back into it with quality. Shelley

If she still needs to stop and stay still to find her balance, but she IS able to find her balance, then you can hustle her for a quicker initiation to the leg stepping.... And also reward the moving after the step... Hope that helps!! K Susan replied to to your post on the Dressage, Naturally - Classroom Forum, to SiMoN arrived!, which you are subscribed to.

Susan wrote: My SiMoN arrived about a month ago and I didn’t have a pool noodle handy, but as I watched the DVD, I stood up and followed along with Karen like it was an exercise class. It really reminded me of Latin dancing. And the noodle makes it easy to visualize how carefully you have to ask to for a bend if you don’t want to swing that tail around. Even without being able to practice with an actual noodle, this has been very beneficial to me. Now, it’s one thing on your own horse that you alThe same works in the other direction... Hi ready have a lot of communication with, your horse may be able to go willingly There are parts to each step.... The lift, have been doing free style with, riding forward, but after a couple steps of back the hold, the stepping forward from bewith your body, etc. But what about a up, it is a sticky transition to forward... if hind. horse that you don’t know? The other day that is the case it will be even harder to The long hold is more of a process exerI was able to try it out on a horse I have do with quality after a lot of steps backcise... In the end they do not hold, but never ridden before, with good results. I wards. In Dressage-Land they are saying: move through.... So always your commu- had a lunge line lesson to work on my that is is difficult to get a good transition nication about forward must match every- seat (in the indoor, which we don’t have at my barn) and when I came off the forward from a backup, so in Second thing else. lunge, I discovered that the horse really Level they only ask for 3-4 steps and it had no idea what I was saying with my isnʼt until much later that you can expect The hold is important though, because hands. A 17 hh, 6 year old TB and, oops, up to 6 steps backwards with an expecta- that is what helps develop their balance. no steering on this model. It reminded me tion of quality. Of course some horses have that balance that I should be using my body position easily.... Like Atomic ... So I get the prod- and legs to communicate with the horse. I So like any tool.... The tool isn't bad or uct easily then move on. Ovation is just said, hmm, how can I get this horse to good... It is knowing when and why you now coming out of the hold stage as he is key into what I am saying? I put my inside are using it... And what you want the rejust now getting the balance. hip forward to establish the bend, a little tap, tap at the girth with my leg and viola! sult to be Lovely bend. Balanced horse. And she Hope that helps! But yes at some point the moving is imwas listening to what my body was saying K portant and you emphasize that.... to her body now that my hands weren’t Lift, hold... Now MOVE.... Yay! Rest. confusing the issue. The idea that you How much sustain is too really don’t need the inside rein for the Just like a back up.... We put the dwell at bend, well, we have probably all heard much sustain in the Spanish the important movement du jour. that before... But seeing it demonstrated In the beginning of back up teaching we on the DVD, beginning to believe it and Walk? dwell at the attempt, then when they do it then discovering, hey it’s true: look mom, willingly, then when let lose (like they no hands! Priceless. Hi Karen, would do it until further notice) then in the I hope all is well. I thought I might ask if Susan from New York end we have to get forward out of it just you have any advice or direction on finas well so it is: forward, back up, FORishing up the Spanish Walk training. IsaWARD.... thank you bella has gotten so much better at it since I've been home. I have her easily lifting

Following is a post from the Video Classroom forum regarding Results in Harmony DVD #3: OK, this was hysterical. I almost fell off my couch at the end when KC and Katerina showed up! At first, after I watched the video I thought, that’s it? I thought there would be more exercises. But then as I thought about what was in the material, a couple of things jumped out at me, and the importance of these ideas started to become clearer. Posture is language/ language is posture, this is an important concept that I hadn’t really thought about before. What do I need to look like for my horse to perceive me as calm, confident, in control and interesting? Well, that bears some thinking about. Which of those are my weak points and which of my friends can I imitate that have those qualities as their core strengths? Definitely going to play around with this. And how to look interesting to my horse? Hmmm. Do I go to get her with a big grin, thinking boy are we gonna have some FUN today! No, can’t say I do. Could this attitude possibly affect the horse’s enthusiasm? Do you think???? I am going to practice ‘looking interesting’ thinking about fun, being excited to see what the session has in store for us. Will be really interesting to see how Daisy reacts. And I am going to be paying attention to how I ask for transitions in my groundwork. I have always been impressed by Karen’s incredible ground work; you can hardly see her ask and yet the horse gives a perfect walk to canter transition. She has no trouble communicating, ‘let loose on the circle. OK, thanks, now a collected trot please.’ Going to be exploring this too. Susan from New York I just read the December newsletter and absolutely thrilled with pgs. 7 & 8!!! Circuits of Energy / Riding in Connection with the Reins ~~ Thank you Karen! “…the physical sensation is of the horse ‘filling up the contact’. The sensation is more like what the mast gets from the sail.” I read this and felt a little giddy Wonderful metaphor ~ WOW. copyright 2011 temenos fields, inc January

Because connection has such a broad range of understanding, use/abuse, and applications, I have found it a fascinating subject all on its’ own. Perhaps the essence of riding in harmony and true lightness? I feel so grateful that Karen teaches the kind of contact that I dream of with my girls. I'm an ungodly slow learner, but we'll get there. At least now I am having more fun with my foibles than frustration because I see tangible results that others are getting and sharing! In the meantime, I read and observe as much as I can and already loving what I am learning in Karen’s classroom. aaaaahhhh, when the snow melts... ~Deborah Hi Karen, I am finding the D,N Classroom just so incredibly helpful. Your teaching style coupled with the footage makes things much clearer than I've ever experienced. It's just gold. I've ordered SiMoN and I'm looking forward to next month's classroom. All the best for 2011! Lynne T.

Thank you to all the subscribers in the Video Classroom! We now have 4 months of video archives... There have been some great discussion threads on the Forum, and I have been listening to your suggestions for future videos! Did you know: The archive is searchable? After you log in... go to the Video Menu Tab and click on Search Videos. There is a field on the right where you can enter any word you are interested in: (balance, circles, collection, etc), it will bring up any video where I use that word in my description of it! This will be a handy tool as the months go by.

Did you know: Videos now can be viewed on iphones & ipads? Yup! We finally worked it out so you can take it with you even if you are a Mac fan (like me) And as always, the first month is automatically half price so check it out!

Go to the Video Classroom January Videos: You can find me on Face Book too! Search for Karen Rohlf, but also check out my Dressage, Naturally page

Creating Lightness on Circles (on line) Improving Balance & Self Carriage (teaching a student and riding her horse) ʻLess Than Sweet Spotsʼ (a discussion)

Some thoughts for trainers

1st Priority: A horse / human that are calm, open, confident

A trainer's job is to assist in this process... Not to try to force #4 to work if #â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1-3 aren't there.

2nd Priority: They understand each other

3rd Priority: Curiosity enough to experiment, to find a place that feels good... Understand the intention of each exercise.

4th Priority: Consistency/focus/discipline enough to make progress