A way to think of how to "pop"/release your core when releasing your horse

One thing Karen has continually said and reminded as critical to a release of the horse is the “pop” in your core. Whether you’re taking space, “touch releasing” your horse (touching your horse on a body part then “zinging” your fingers away to get him to more that body part away), or anything else, a good release needs a “pop” in your core to accompany it. Actually, you could say that release within you/your core is the main part of the release, regardless of what you’re doing with your hands/rope/etc.

However, I was just not getting it. I would try to manufacture this big “pop” in my core when I released Maia and all I got was some sort of bizarre half-crunch thing that probably looked like I had a stomachache. Not to mention I didn’t feel any different. Other than feeling silly.

But something happened today that has clarified it a little for me. It actually came in a way I’m not proud of, but to be totally honest, I got frustrated with Maia. We were riding, which tends to bring up more frustrations for me, and she was careening all over and I was struggling to get with her and it was just getting pretty annoying. So I thought, well, this is a good time to get off, then—let’s not keep that going. So I got off, brought her back to the stall, and found her standing heavily and totally not in tune to being released off the space that I needed to get around her and untack. So I, still quite annoyed at this point, stuck my fingers on her and just by George zinged them off of her with this huge pop in my core and—poor Maia—she practically did a backflip to the rear of the stall.

I stood there dumbfounded. Well, wow, that worked. It was perhaps the biggest release she’s ever given me, especially because, sensitive as she is, I’ve really

6-21-2011: Starting riding and turns through feel/release

I rode her today in the round pen; it’s been several weeks since our last ride! I instantly realized how completely, woefully inadequate my braided leather reins were, though. Not only were they too light with no “feel” to be able to drop them down her shoulders, these particular ones are stiff the last foot to her mouth, so don’t ever give a good release! Terrible. Got to change that.

We often tend to get going like this under saddle -- she gets unbalanced/rushy and I counter with pressure. Oops. Will keep working on that!

I just worked on turning, stopping, and backing. We kind of careen all over at the moment but we’re starting to get with each other’s feel a little more.


But we persisted and I made a few mental notes:

1. Sliding the rein vs. releasing the rein to turn

For turning through feel/release, I’m supposed to play with sliding my outside rein down her shoulder groove while releasing my inside leg to let her inside hind come through. If she doesn’t respond or tries to go somewhere else, lift the inside rein straight up until her jaw releases and she can respond to the released leg/outside rein.

This more or less worked, and the better coordinated I got (turn-look-release inside rein-slide outside rein-release inside leg-lift inside rein-YIKES!! ;) ) the more she responded. But something still wasn’t connecting with her. She wasn’t really responding to the turn or feeling released in it. Now, I could definitely

Another way to think of "releasing a horse off a space"

Now, I know this whole “release them off a spot” thing is, well, weird. For me, for a long time, it was actually beyond weird and had moved into the realm of unintelligible. ;) It wasn’t for a lack of fantastic explanation by Karen—it was just some sort of block in me. But the other day I thought of something that helped me a lot, though, and might help you.

Basically, I think of releasing a horse off a spot as freeing/setting them loose from it’s draw/drag. Meaning, let’s say your horse is just standing there and you want him to move. Imagine that his back feet are “tied” to a peg somewhere off behind him. You can pick a spot 15’ or 1500’ away, it all depends on what “feels” right (there you go—the feel and release! ;) ). However, he can’t move until you break that peg, because it’s tying down the rope that’s holding his back feet in place. So you’ve got to explode that peg. You might be able to do it by just looking at it and exploding it in your head, but most likely, the horse is a little dull and

6-19-2011: Playing with feel/release at liberty

Poor dear has a cut on her leg and I’ve been having to clean it out with Betadine. It hurts her so much; I feel it, and it kills me to clean it… this last time I think it was as hard on me as it was on her! But she seems to know I’m helping. Once I show her what it is and make sure I’m letting her know that I am helping her (not, “doing it to her”), she stands so beautifully—I can even do it in the pasture at liberty. But I still feel horrible for her. :(

Anyway, I played with her just a little at liberty, thinking a lot about how Karen did it the other day. We were in a closed off paddock-type space between a bunch of pastures/barn, so it was a bizarre shape with lots of places for her to get “stuck”—a great test of how feel and release might work!

As soon as I started with her, she thought we were going to pressure, so started tearing around away from me. Her intent is clearly to run through any pressure I might put out there. Meaning, if I gently ask her off from behind, she’ll often take off so she can get ahead of me so I can’t put pressure ahead of her to have her stop/turn. I’ve built in a pretty bad habit in her, then—not only does she want to run through pressure, she wants to run through anticipated pressure! Yikes. Especially given she anticipates pressure everywhere…

Here's an example of one of our previous horses at liberty. See how totally calm and free she looks? No one is judging her regarding whether where she's going is good or bad. She's totally free and released. That's what I'm looking for in Maia.

But I just kept releasing her again and again, this way, that way, turn here, turn there. No judgment about the space, just getting her to feel free. She started calming way down (instead of galloping everywhere) and thinking through what I was doing. After a little while, I could turn her quietly at a walk in a smallish area, even though she was still a ways away. Not too long after, she came up to me. Not with the same confidence as Karen (probably a combination of my still learning, plus all our previous history), but definitely came up. I sat down and we hung out for a while, then I got up and we did a little more, ending with her coming up to me again and putting her away.

6-17-2011: Liberty - feel/release vs. pressure/release vs. treats

Karen played with her in a pasture at liberty, because we had just let her loose out there and I was showing some of how I “used” to do liberty (i.e, before this summer and trying to learn feel and release). Maia was tearing all over, trying to avoid me, and clearly completely disconnected.

So Karen went in there to play with her (of course we didn’t video it… grrr…) and as Maia was pacing the fenceline and trotting around, she just very, very quietly would release her off a spot a few hundred feet away and turn her the other way on the fence line, then release her off another spot and turn the other way, etc. Maia soon realized she was never being pushed or even asked to go anywhere—only to be released off a spot—and then she could choose where she went; the whole world was open to her, in a sense. She loved that freedom and immediately started to calm down. She even lay down and rolled, then suddenly went straight up to Karen (I couldn’t get near her earlier) and followed her around, totally connected and calm. It was really amazing.

As if that wasn’t good enough, after a few minutes of following Karen, she very calmly left for the other side of the pasture. It wasn’t an escape like earlier had been; she really looked as if she needed to go off and think about that. So she went all the way to the other side of the pasture, put her head down, thought, and suddenly threw up her head and came tearing back over to us at a gallop, screeched to a stop in