Forming a True Arch
Dec 24th, 2009 by Carolyn Resnick Method
Hello, I hope you are enjoying this holiday time with your family. Today we are going to continue our exploration of the Uberstreichen Exercise by learning to use the first Exercise to recognize when the neck begins to form a true arch.
When a neck comes shorter it does not always arch, most of the time it just bends or lifts. As you practice, you will start to recognize when the neck arches and later to recognize when the shoulder raises, from the arching of the neck. You will learn more and more to see subtle shifts in the horse’s whole body that are needed for collection.
Before you start the practice of forming the arch in the horse’s neck, there are two new things to practice within the first exercise with the horse, when his poll is relaxed in a floating hold. So far we have been working on relaxation, cooperation, training the horse to accept us holding the halter with consistency, lowering and raising the head and neck, tipping the nose, along with straight and lateral flexions of the neck created when we rock the horses head from side to side. Now we are going to start doing little circles with the end of the horse’s nose while we are holding both sides of the halter. After some practice, this should cause the whole horse’s body to start to respond. It will not be easy, so all that you are looking for from your horse is any sign that he is relaxing and going with you. First pretend that when you ask, you can feel the slightest movement of the nose circling, then take a break and walk around your horse and wait for the pause and connection to occur once again on a no-contact line. In the second new exercise, you work with your horse doing infinity loops with the end of his nose (a horizontal figure of eight pattern). Just pretend that your horse has a paint brush in his mouth and you are going to influence his head in a way that would make loops and patterns in the air from the end of this nose. I prefer to call the figure of eight pattern infinity loops to bring a new feel and freedom to your approach.
The horse, from time to time, will stiffen when you ask him to do something. When this happens, return to the floating hold, then release, walk around him and repeat. Keep to the same format and just add the two new elements. The format is starting with the Exercises, standing in front of your horse and then asking him to drop the head into a floating hold, holding both sides of the halter and then release and walk around the horse. You are just adding the two new elements to the same exercise pattern. The two new exercises give you practice incorporating straight flexion and lateral flexion together. What you are looking for is that the horse feels completely relaxed and allows you to swing his head in this new pattern like you would operate the swinging of a pendulum.
In the beginning, the loops are so small that they cannot be seen, they are only lightly felt. When you begin, imagine that the horse is responding and try to guide your horse with the least amount of influence possible. The normal reaction of the horse will be to comply and allow his nose to move through your influence, but you can feel a slight resistance and often times, the horse will choose to pull his head up to release your hands. If this happens, just wait until he relaxes, then walk around him and wait for you both to relax before you try again. If you lose the horse’s willingness to stand still, focus on getting him to stand by always bringing him to the exact spot he was standing on, and waiting until he is comfortable to stand still on a no contact line.
If your horse starts to brace to the smallest of requests, go back into a floating hold for a moment, release, walk around him and start again from the beginning. Move on to the practice of creating the arch in the neck as you would do in any yoga exercise, no matter what the results are on the circles and loops you were working on.
In the beginning of practicing how to create an arch in the neck, you might have to pretend that you see it. This way you should be able to see some sort of change You will need to experiment by lowering and raising the neck and tipping the nose, working with the neck like operating a slinky toy, by hunting for the place that your horse will begin to arch the neck. When this occurs you will have gotten the right balance in the bend of the horse’s neck, between the poll and the base of the neck, that will bring on the arch. The poll and the base of the neck work together, so the neck can telescope creating an arch that causes the back to shorten, which brings the back up as well. When you see a slight arch starting to occur when you have lowered the head and tipped the nose the right amount, you will return to the floating holds and then let go and walk around your horse. As your skill grows using my Method, when you ask the horse to go forward while the arch is present on a no contact rein, he will automatically step under once put into movement.
I hope all that makes sense and am aiming to produce some videos in the New Year to help you further with this and the other Exercises.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Carolyn
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Great. Thanks for posting this. It is always nice to see someone educate the community.
Hi Carolyn,
This week I was able to get Jake to relax into my hand on the halter! It has been extremely cold and windy here and the horses have been in alot. No one has felt like working, etc. etc. Last night, the mood in the barn was harmonious. Dutchess is in heat and her usually challenging energy toward the others was softened. I worked with her a bit. She is very easy and willing when she puts her mind to her work. We are working on softening and following. I tried the infinity loops with her. She didn’t understand what I was asking her to do, so we ended on softening and releasing. I feel awkward at the disconnection step. I feel that it is too abrupt.
With Jake, the key seems to be to center and to wait for him to center. I can feel him connect in this place and then he seems to understand instantly. I closed my eyes and could feel him – first surprised at what I was doing, then ah, ok. When I opened them and asked him to allow me to control his head, he did! I was amazed. This was a new level of connection. I feel especially close to him in a way that I have never felt with any other horse and I feel very close to all of them.
This morning at the barn, everyone was particularly interested in connecting with me. I had to leave for work and regret not having the time to join them in their excitement. They felt like kids at Christmas! I can’t wait to get back and explore this some more. i feel like I’ve entered into a new understanding woith them and we are all excited about it!
My heartfelt gratitude to you for all of your guidance. May the New Year bring you the returns of all that you give to others.
A Happy, Horsey New Year to everyone!
Jan
Hello Carolyn,
Checking in…..thanks for this next step in the UE exercises and your previous blog about your journey. I admire your patience and persistence……good traits to bring to horses, and to life!
Regards,
Dyann & Raffin
carolyn, it would really help to see more video of this! also i am trying to stay right in front of barbie when i do this so hard to tell if shes raising her withers? thanks for the comment on treats. i have felt before why would they do this for me unless i give them a treat? but i have found the less treats i give the more i actually get from them.
Hi Carolyn
Like some other readers I too am not at the stage of the UE but read eagerly and store away for future reference. Harry going very well. Extremely pleased with the results under saddle with the stop and go and how lovely and soft he is.
Kay
Dear Nan Pantle, 57
Your letter is so valuabe as well as a gift to letting me know that the points I am shareing in my writings as a teaching aid are being utlized. Your letter is an indication to me that others in the class room may be receiving the same benifits.This is good news. Thank you for taking the time and sharing this with me. From your keen insight and perspective for details and your abilibty to see the whole picture for your self and others is what is required in being good with horses. Having this skills would give you a naturaly gift for teaching and training horses.
I am honored you are in my classroom. It is my dream that I can watch my students achieve great things with their horses and I am able to support them on their journey as my family did for me.
I am glad to see that you too have found the world of “And”.
Thank you again for sharing,
Carolyn
gaa, just reread… first the left hand, then the right. Sorry…
Hi Carolyn,
If it has been hard for you to understand what all went wrong with Capricho, it is my fault. In fact I am coming to understand it all only now.
We had a very close bond before the accident. I used to cradle his head in my arms and sing to him, his eyes drooping shut, before our accident. After that, I had a bandaged hand for six weeks. Not only did the bandages disturb him, but he also felt my palpable fear of getting gangrene. I nearly lost a finger, and in addition to the bulk of the bandage, I could not touch him with that hand. I did all our liberty work signaling him with the left hand – he wouldn’t even accept signals from the bandaged one. My friend who came to visit – whom Capricho followed too through liberty work – said this out loud, how much he was put off by the bandage. He let her touch his “owies” but I know he saw my pain and wondered. Also, I developed a deep fear of even putting a rope or halter on a horse after what he went through.
Things got really good between us anyway, minus handling his head for three months. No sooner had I gotten the bandages off my miraculously recovered left hand – which my husband was certain I would have to have the finger amputated, the doctor not thinking much more optimistically – than I had a cooking accident and got blisters all over the right hand. Then there I was, that one bandaged, and working with Capricho. Mind you, we live in Mexico and the threat of gangrene was off the charts. It is a miracle I have either hand in a way.
So all that time I could not really deal with his face to halter him. We are now repairing our traumatized bond. It seems to be going well. He actually has usually been really good about treats, and also once the bandages were off – simultaneously with the advent of the UE exercises – he would begin following my hands without treats to do the circles. Going back to use of a halter is all new for us, and there is a significant problem I bring now. I have a lot of fear of putting a horse in any kind of constraint. I will never forget the sight of him dying, suffocating on his own blood on his knees. I know it is irrational of me, but it cut me to the quick. So I am hiring the daughter of a horse trainer to be my assistant to do most all halter and rope work. I have to get the other horses out for walks. My joint is still in pain, with a lot of proud flesh around the joint, and if I have one more screw-up with a rope, I am concerned I will never be able to play guitar again. It is so amazing that I kept my finger.
Anyway, I wanted you to understand this bizarre angle to our relationship. I have gone out and haltered him, and will keep doing this when he is in his pen. But if I go out, I will be hiring someone to go along. I also carry a good sharp knife in a sheath every time I put any constraint on a horse now. I hope every last soul who reads this will listen and learn, and never, ever impede a horse’s liberty with rope or leather, unless they have that immediate antidote – a knife to cut it instantly if the horse gets tangled up. May it be that our trauma will bring a blessing to every horse and horseperson on this blog by improving safety. I wouldn’t wish our story on anyone.
I’ve discovered that if I curl my fingers over the halter’s side “intersections” (where the sides meet the nose strap) so that my fingers, rather than the halter, loosely touch his face, Dodger loses his need to jerk his head away quite so much. I think he prefers the touch of fingers over the metal and strap pieces of the halter on the side of his face. I’ve been able to hold him there long enough that he relaxes and closes his eyes then we go easily into both the circular and infinity moves. His neck arches momentarily and minimally, but he’s closer to having a ewe neck than not, so I’m just happy to have him relaxing in my hands with a loose neck.
AND…because of your #49 post about treats…and the fact that I definitely fell into that “not feeling like enough for my horse without treats” category, prior to the UE’s last night I put out several cavalletties and short jumps in a new pattern for him and for the first time, we played at liberty without my handing out treats every time he participated. He not only participated willingly, but stayed very focused with me the whole time. Really fun
So thank you for saying that, Carolyn.
Michelle
Hi Carolyn,
I am just checking in this week. I am behind because of holiday preparations and activities but will still be following along now that sanity is returning.
Thanks for your wonderful Christmas day post, I am eagerly anticipating exploring this next piece of the UE with Gunny.
~Holly
Dear Carolyn,
Happy winter holidays.
Thank you for this week’s installment. I am checking in.
As i am on a break from work Sun and I are working on the UEs each day.
The initial contact of hands on headcollar continues to reveal a little resistance – Sun jerks her head up a little in an irritated way but i go with her and we settle into the exercises. This is a change from the head flailing she was doing a couple of weeks ago.
With this week’s lesson i have experienced a few seconds of the more circular motion (we are not at infinity yet!). I experimented with snaking my own body to add more flow to the movement and it appears to work well.
Thank you for comment #49 – that was the instruction around treats that i have been looking for for ages, “You do not yet believe you are enough for your horse” – that struck a a chord!
Many thanks,
Joanna
Dear Carolyn,
I have been so moved by your words these recent past blog postings and by those of your readers responding, I have hardly known how to attempt to reply myself. Please know, at very least, your on-line classroom has brought a richness to my winter days here . . . even as we struggle through snow (20 inches), wind, and freezing temperatures.
I reread your entry out of struggle into practice, reheard the honesty and “voice” there. I found once more your words:
“I also thought that, if I had to get involved with a how-to book, I would loose my talent and stop my evolution as an artist and dancer. I was afraid I would loose my touch by being captured in the side of the brain that deals in the facts of thing rather than the feel and connection. Then I decided that developing my weakness into a strength could help my creativity.”
I am glad you have found the place of “and” as you more on in your journey. For what you seem about is much more than any “how-to” book; it is a new genre of teaching that includes vision, wisdom, and a long intimacy with the nature of horse (and probably a keen understanding of humans too). Thank you for reaching out to others on this journey and encouraging us too to attempt to transform our own weaknesses into strengths. Thank you for those hours you have put in struggling to reach out to us for the sake of the horse. We have been blessed as well.
Here with bad weather, I am a bit behind and have not yet tried the “infinity circle”. I am trying to find my way out of a practice of having used treats in an unhelpful way with my horses to reward their learning (You so kindly helped me see in a former posting what was happening and many thanks for your posting through Allesandra on 12/27/09 on a similar subject). I am understanding I want more for my horses now, that we can find our way through trust and relation rather than mere automatic conditioning. I am trying.
Blessings, blessings on your New Year, and thank you for your latest Christmas gift—your blog. When it had not been there earlier on Christmas Eve Day at 2:00 I was so disappointed and thought you had taken the holiday off. It seems you were about making this wonderful present of clarity and thought instead.
Nan Pantle
Hi Carolyn,
This is an exciting next step- I can’t wait to try the infinity circles. I worked with Alger today and he was floating in my hands. I think I have already been watching his neck arch- but I will pay closer attention now.
Thanks,
Lori and Alger
Lucky and I are checking in, now that the holiday rush is over. We will be back to playing together next week. I’m also getting back to posting about our journey on my blog for my clients and friends to read. Thank you for the great posts and the video. The video is especially helpful to us.
Happy Holidays!
Checking in. I’m still at the standing-in-a-floating-hold phase. Yesterday my mare was relaxed as I held her head for a short while. Today she was happy and very relaxed standing close to me, but as soon as I put my hands on her halter (however light and soft), she apparently felt restricted, and pulled her head away. But she didn’t walk. Then, as I let go and waited, after a while she suddenly put her head in my hands for a moment. A great moment, because it was her decision.
checking in, for now it is hard to work with the pony’s due to the weather over here. The ground is muddy and frozen, so a bit hard to walk and do some exercise. It will take some more weeks they told on the weather forecast. So i keep everything in mind and will try it sometime later.
Hi Carolyn,
Just a footnote, I watched the video of Alessandra again. I went out after rereading everything and worked him in a halter. At first he didn’t want his head handled too much. Then I sang to him. He just melts. No treats, either. Once I “melted” him, I stood in front of him as Alessandra did, and got him to let me move his head around, just saying “good boy” when he does what I ask. In fact I say “good boy” when he doesn’t, pretending he did what I requested, if I understood your suggestion (?). He will do what I ask the third time. But he goes in and out of relaxation, like someone awaking out of a dream. Then I hum to him again, and he gets all buttery and soft, lets out a big sigh.
It is possible we have more “feel” than you might suppose. We really had a tender relationship about his head until the accident. I think we are getting back to that. But I guess I need to know if it is against our best interests to calm him by singing. He really loves that. Thanks, Carolyn.
And thanks Alessandra, don’t worry about the posting mix-up. May we all learn from each other’s adventure!
Hi Carolyn,
Thanks very much for your eloquent and inspiring words in your response.
I need to share this one aspect that is a problem.
Before the rope accident, I had finally gotten Capricho to allow me to cradle his head in my hands, to let me massage his face, to stroke his ears. This was a monumental thing. His previous owners had left him so head-shy it took months to get there.
Because of his injuries, first the vet had to sedate him to stitch his jaws and tongue. Then nine days later he developed infection, and I asked the vet to come back again. I asked the vet to give him carrots. I was still all bandaged up and couldn’t so much as tie a knot (hard to do with one hand). The vet refused to first just make friends, wanting to be macho. He and his assistant only wanted to give him a shot, but Capricho was already afraid from the stitches and fought. They hauled on his halter and put a twitch on his nose (I had not seen one before and didn’t realize from a distance just what was going on).
Well it has been such a struggle to get back to being able to touch his head.
Before the accident I would sing to him. One time his eyes got misty, half-closed, and as he and I were on the concrete ramp to a garage, he actually slipped a little, it relaxed him so much.
So I have been trying to sing to him again. I usually have to put a halter on to touch his face very much.
Am I making a mistake by singing to him (e.g., like a treat instead of pure connection)? Poor guy, he has been through so much at the hands of men. I can touch him on his face and ears now when haltered, but he has a hard time relaxing. It is so slow. It is another reason I have not wanted to halter him. I see now I’ll have to halter him to work on the exercises.
After graciously spending time answering me before, I admit I feel like a pain by asking your advice again. By the way, we’ve found a new vet. It has been so sad. It is so amazing the way he still loves me and follows me around despite this all.
Also, I have been sharing territory with very minimal treats. He still comes right beside me to just stand and hang out.
Thanks very much, Carolyn.