Go right, left, up, and down: Parelli Finesse Patterns DVD review

I recently had the opportunity to watch the Parelli Finesse Patterns DVD. In these DVDs, multiple patterns are explained, one by one, with variations on the pattern shown for different levels of riders and horses.

Having quite a lot of dressage background, I was interested to see what patterns they would bring forward to improve my horse’s dressage and carriage. As long as one does not expect traditional dressage patterns/exercises (such as “trot to X, turn at C, collected trot at E,” etc.), the patterns could be quite helpful. They were very similar to the patterns shown in the On Line Patterns DVD, containing weaving through cones, the Corners game, circling around a point, and more. (A few patterns were recycled from the Parelli’s old Impulsion Programs, which are excellent.) These patterns do seem to be deceptively simple and would provide many dressage horses today with plenty to work on.

What was most interesting about the DVD was showing the levels to which you could take even the most basic pattern, such as weaving through cones. Beyond just weaving comes flying and simple changes, lateral work, reinback, sidepass, and more. The DVD does a great job reminding the person how much can be done with the most simple pattern – and yet, when you always keep the simplicity of the original pattern in mind, the more complex variations of it become far more accessible.

In the end, this would be a good DVD to view perhaps once or twice, but if you are already familiar with Parelli or with dressage, probably a purchase is not entirely necessary.

Progress every session could be quite a desirable thing

I have been playing with a new training concept lately, and for lack of a better word, call it “breakthrough-based training.” This means that I work on some concept or behavior until the horse truly understands it, and only then in the session do I move on (provided I/the horse has not gotten frustrated).

When teaching Maia jambette, in one session I insisted she get the breakthrough of holding her leg up until I said she could drop it. This led to a much-improved Spanish Walk.

Indeed, many trainers seem to refer to this, and yet I feel most address it quite enough to actually make a difference. You see, it goes something like this. Let’s say the trainer is working on the reinback. So he does it on the ground and the horse backs up, and the trainer repeats it a few times, and the horse keeps on backing up more or less, and the trainer figures there is progress made and calls it a day. But has the horse really understood? Generally not. He has gone through the motions, but if you could talk to him, you would generally find that although his body was somewhat performing the motion, he wasn’t absolutely clear on what he was supposed to do.

So although this trainer might attest to “breakthrough training,” he does not actually practice it. What is breakthrough training, then?

Breakthrough training becomes much clearer once you start incorporating elements of free-choice training, allowing my horses to offer behaviors (at times). When doing this, I began to find that if my horse truly understood what he was supposed to do, he would be willing to offer it on his own. This was humbling, however, for I very quickly found that my horses understood far less than I actually thought. They were so used to my pushing and helping them (even very lightly) into position that they had never fully engaged and understood the entirety of what I was asking. After all the years of dressage, my Thoroughbred couldn’t even comprehend softening and rounding his neck! He had never truly understood it.

Further, I believe horses are far more intelligent than we give them credit for and can learn much faster than we think. The speed with which a horse can learn what the grain pan sounds like – or become scared of a trailer – or recognize another horse’s smell – is the same speed with which he can learn dressage, or jumping, or tricks. You do not have to be stuck in years of minimal progress.

One way to help them learn at this remarkable pace is to never leave them confused. This is a foundation of the breakthrough training. I was playing with breakthroughs with Maia and found that if I could have a very tangible (and often very optimistic) goal that I worked towards until she got it fully in that one session, preferably offering it on her own, she progressed at a lightning fast pace. For example, teaching to bow. With Caspian, this took weeks of painfully slow work. I’d pick up his foot and try to get him to lean back and maybe he would and then he’d jump away and perhaps every session he’d do it a bit and then I’d stop and the poor guy never knew what on earth I wanted. With Maia, using breakthroughs, it was radically different. Within the first session or two, my goal was to get her to understand that I wanted her knee to touch the ground – she didn’t need to stay, do it on her own, or anything like that, but she needed to make the connection between her knee and the ground. She did, and that helped her learn the bow in just a few sessions.

Giving horses tangible goals like that makes them feel successful. It increases your connection with him, as he realizes he is an active part of the training process and you have a purpose in ind for him.

Finally, the horse remarkably does not usually feel drilled in breakthrough training. Although it may seem like drilling when I work on one behavior for a long period, and perhaps the whole session, because the horse is trying to find the breakthrough, he doesn’t see it as drilling. What he does see as drilling is endless repetition of an exercise with no goal in sight or breakthrough in mind, so he has no idea why he is doing this again and again.

Play around with this concept – I hope reading this has led you to your own breakthrough!

Do I choose to turn my back?

“So I will stretch out My hand against…

those who have turned back from following the LORD,

And those who have not sought the LORD or inquired of Him."

~Zephaniah 1:4, 6 (NAS)

One thing I’ve been doing lately with Maia is making her much more aware of when she turns her hindquarters to me. I never much paid attention to when she did this before – turning away from me head first (presenting her hindquarters), walking away with me directly behind her, and so on – but after watching several Chris Irwin DVDs, I suddenly see this behavior everywhere with horses. They are constantly turning their back on humans.

Do I turn my back?

When I’m working with Maia on this, I don’t always “punish” her for it. Sometimes, yes, it is a strong correction, but many times, all I do is make her aware of it. As she is becoming more sensitive to when she turns her back on me, she is doing it less and less, her decision to do it being more of a deliberate choice and less of a mindless habit.

I feel like it is the same with my relationship with Christ. In so many ways, turning my back on Him, if even for a moment, becomes a mindless habit. It’s so natural that it would seem to be the right thing to do, if He didn’t start making me aware of it. And He does. Sometime it’s subtle, some discomfort, or shame, or unease. Other times it is a massive repercussion, with my whole life seeming to rock and spin.

The faster I start seeing those reminders that I just turned my back on Him, the quicker I will know that I’m doing it. And once I know I’m doing it, I can then make the choice to do it. Of course, then it is up to me to choose; just as it’s my job to tell Maia when she has done it, then let her make the choice, God lets me know when I’ve turned away, but it is still my choice to turn back.

Once Maia has chosen to not turn away, no matter what, things are right. Would it not be even better for things to be right like that with Christ?


Hope for the Horsemanship

All right, so the next time you feel unimaginative in working with your horse, you need to watch this video. Is there anything this horse doesn't know -- I mean, even backwards Spanish walk!

Horsemanship - Haute-école - Fantasy work (José Vintém)