The Art of Natural Dressage

I'll have to find the link but you can search it. I went to one of their clinics this weekend and it was excellent. They talk about leading and following. They try to let the horse lead a lot- that is when it really gets fun.

I asked one of the dancers if she would want to dance with my horse at liberty. She jumped at the chance and it was so neet. My little mare really got into it and at the end the girl was dancing in one part of the arena while Asia trotted and cantered flamboyant circles around her.

The dancers of the troup have a really great perpective because they get to interact with the horses, but they have no specific agenda. Whatever the horse does they just shape the space around the horse and pay attension to how the horse receives it.

Very neat experience as I start AND!

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Learning to put the relationship first.

That sounds wonderful, Danee!

Could you tell us more about this group? Are they dancers or horsetrainers (or a combination of course ), and do they have a website? I'd love to read more about them!

And yes, having no agenda indeed is the hardest part when training AND... Only yesterday I was playing with Sjors, and I decided to ask him for a terre a terre. After a few tries Sjors did two marvellous terre a terre jumps after another - and I just heard myself thinking 'one more! just one more!'... Of course Sjors didn't, I totally lost that moment to reward him with all I had, and I felt really stupid and overdemanding. Sigh... Ah well, like the pony's say: 'Don't worry, you're only human.'

Found the link!

http://www.dancingwithhorses.org/go/shopping.html

Too bad they still use bits and bridles. For me personally a dance is only really a dance when both partners are equal and totally free in their movements. But that doesn't mean that we can't learn from them! I didn't really like the pictures of all the bitted horses, but their DVD on training the equestrian body on the ball sounds really interesting indeed! We actually do have a ball like that for the ponies to play with so I could steal that back and use it myself instead.

Did you do these ball exercises during the clinic, Danee? And what things did you do with Asia?

Yes we did do the ball exercises. They really talked about head/tail connection (of human!) and heel/seat bones connection. It is really a clinic for a good learner. It would be easy to go "fun weekend" come home and never apply a darn thing, but if you really think "Well, how can I phrase the movement when I ride? How does it change my movement if I think of raising by the head versus by the tailbone, or seat bones, or through my heels? Am I only working in the sagital plane (forwards, backwards, up and down) or am I truly balanced in the transverse plane too?" than you really have something.

The clinic is taught by JoAnna Shaw- a teacher at Juliard! For those of you not in the USA, Juliard is THE most prestigious dance school in the nation. I know nothing of dance schools, but I still know of Julliard. Anyway, there is a dance troup that comes with, about 8 dancers. They are all professionals. Some have danced with this troup a long time and have a lot of experience around horses, others are newer, but most of them know basic Parelli concepts. When the group first started they worked with tradtional dressage riders. Than David Lighman, a five start Parelli profesional, contacted them and told them they would benefit greatly by working with PNHers, and invited them to one of his clinics (I'll post his website when I get a chance.His horses obviously love him- good soldiers or not) But the dancers where experts on body language before they ever walked up the their first horse. They always introduce themselves nicely and then start to dance slowly around and near the horse and watch the horse's expression and go from there. Often the Dancers try to create draw, but if the horse doesn't draw, so what. They do something else. The Dancers do not train horses at all. They Dance with whoever comes, so if the partcipant comes in a double bridle, fine. If they come in a rope halter, fine. I know they haved Danced with Karen Rohlf (Grand Prix Dressage rider who now does Parelli) completely bridle-less, but in the clinic setting there are too many horses and riders together in a small area to do that.

I asked Lawrance (can any one fix my spelling? It's a french name...?) if she would like to dance with my horse at liberty during our breaks. She jumped at the chance! At first I put a cordeo with a line on it and showed Lawrance some of the language that Asia understands. We did that for 15 minutes maybe. Than later at lunch we turned her loose and Lawrance was still just figureing out Asia's communication system and not REALLY dancing, but when a beautiful professional dancers walks or runs, it is still dancing! They were trotting around together and I think Larance wanted her to stop or slow down, but was using her arms in a dance like way while she asked. Asia thought she meant to circle, so there Larance stands looking at me like "how do I stop her?" I said "Lawrance, just do your thing and she if she keeps circling!!!" It was magical! Larance started Dancing and Asia just circled, sometimes troting, sometimes cantering, sometimes tossing her long mane around, and sometimes watching Lawrance. She didn't want to push it so after three or four laps Lawarnce backed up and invited Asia in. Everyone who saw it was in awe.

What an awesome experience!

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Learning to put the relationship first.

Wow, sounds really great do you have any photos? Will you try to include something from this in your daily routine?

Great! I think it also must be a more pure experience to the dancers when a horse is totally free. Wow.. Julliard...

Brilliant, Danee, thanks for your wonderfully detailed report!

And yes, I do know Juliard (from the movie Save the Last Dance, but still ), and it sounds really impressive. And indeed, for me the same question as Bianca, did you learn things that you're going to incorporate in your own training sessions?

Wonderful to be able to learn from all these different people!

The things I wrote in the first paragraph are the ones that I will really be using day to day, but it also made me realize how at liberty I can make it more dance like and flowing in my own movements, and use more cues with my hips and shoulders, and less through the hands, as horses are used to reading the torso.

We were in an indoor so the pics came out really crappy.

JoAnna Shaw also talked a lot about "not dropping out". When a dancer is performing they have to be in the moment and aware every moment. As riders we should strive for the same, but in liberty we can strive for this too. There should never be a moment when you are not fully aware of what is going on, and where you are not centered, or grounded or whatever you prefer to call it. It should be a longer clinic though so you can work on those ideas longer and try to own them (or at least borrow them!) instead of standing there going, "I think I understand a little?" (scratch head here)

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Learning to put the relationship first.

indeed, looks amazing... too bad about the bit

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