JRFS Review 2012

So now we are home from the James Roberts Foundation Station with lots to thnk about. Coming back after two and a half years has helped me realise just how far we have come.  For instance - my confidence in trail riding, my confidence in my, and Liquorice's, ability to hold our own among the other students and their horses, Liquorice's improved impulsion.  
After every session James always asks his students what they learned this session and knowing you are going to be asked (and not wanting to have nothing to say in front of everybody else) concentrates the mind wonderfully! It really helps keep you focussed on what James is doing, why he is doing it, and this time I'm really starting to notice the litle things that make the big difference.  So these are the things that stood out for me each day - these lists are by no means exhaustive!

Day 1 

•  It was really good to revisit "The Plan" 
• The importance of making a connection with your horse before you start to do anything
• To do things 'for' your horse and not 'to'your horse

Day 2

• The "plan within a plan" so that we knew where we were in the programme and to help us be progressive 
• How to use our bodies to steer 
• That Liquorice will walk through water (if not actually 'on' it)

Day 3

• Not to be afraid to expect more of Liquorice - more work will improve his fitness
• Not to get in front of the 'drive line' when online or riding - it can block more sensitive horses
•  The cartwheel pattern

Day 4

• The absulute importance of absolute focus
• To ride out of a turn (a bit like when you are driving a car)
• To give your horse a job to do 

Day 5

•  That Liquorice can canter on demand 
• That my horse is amazing out on hacks
• That I wish I could stay for another week

Of course there is loads more but if I could ony take one of those things from the whole week it would be the 'ride with your body - I have wanted to this for so long and its so easy this way - it makes me feel like a proper rider at last!

JRFS Last Day

So the vet has just left. Mel is is foot sore and has a cut from a kick. and Liquorice has some bute to bring down the swelling on his sheath from all the fly bites. He is so swollen he looks like he's got a couple of testicles!. (Sorry if you're eating your tea while reading this.)



We can look back on another brilliant day. We started the day with only five minutes trotting (James must be getting soft) Then he asked Liz on Becks to canter a figure of eight around us without changing gait. I blithely thought "oh he is only going to ask Liz to do that because she is on Becks and she is a good rider." Then, when she stopped I thought I heard him say "OK, Lynne, when you're ready, tip him up to a canter." and I thought "Huh?" Then I realised that he really was talking to me and when James tells you to do something you don't think of not doing it - he's a kind of poor man's Pat Parelli and it is a £1 fine after all! So off we went and Liquorice cantered almost from a standstill three quarters of the way around the school! The most amazing thing was that for the very first time ever, Liquorice could do something that some of the other horses there couldn't do! We weren't at the botton of the class for once!


Then we all went out on a trail ride. When we got to the stubble field James said we were going to have a nice trot up the hill. Off we went and Liquorice offered a canter which I accepted as it would have been rude not to! Bella wasn't having any of Liquorice overtaking her so she joined in - they were fantastic!


Next we walked along the top of the field - the views are amazing! Then I spied a dropped wallet on the ground. Now here was a dilema. Do I admit to not keeping my focus on where I was going and get a £1 fine? I risked the fine and told about the wallet! It turned out to be James' wallet so, although I got fined £1 for not keeping my focus I got a £1 reward for finding his wallet!


We dropped down a bit to the top of another field and James suggested another trot but Liquorice had other ideas. He saw a line of horses, a wide open space and thought "Grand National  o'clock!" We'd really found his go button and I had to keep reining him back! When we got back we watched Smoke ridden again while James played some friendly game with a lasso rope.


So tonight we are going to gatecrash James' barbecue and get drunk and have a go on the bucking bronco. If we've got any teeth left in the morning I would be very surprised!
Read about my reflections of the week - http://carrotsinmypocket.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/jrfs-review-2012.html

JRSF Day Four

This morning we watched the working students continue the lesson they started yesterday. They warmed up with a Cartwheel pattern (not to be confused with Wagon Wheels- that's a different thing entirely!) then turned 180 degrees on the haunches in preparation for doing pirouettes. It was a very important lesson in maintaining focus as James was wickedly waving a flag at them to be "helpful" but it unfocussed some of them muchley. It was quite funny to hear James rant after one of them asked James to stop with the flag and to move a cup from the top of the rail. (The correct response would have been that they didn't even notice the flag or the cup as they were so focussed on the task - I expect it's easier said than done though!)


Next we watched a "Hand-over" as James talked to an owner about the start that had been put on her horse and what her plan for the next stage should be. She went off with one of the working students to learn how to get her horse to catch her and Smoke was brought in.


He was soon saddled and James took him off with one of his team on another horse and they rode off around the farm. This was only Smoke's second ride!


After lunch we were back in the arena ready to ride. Merlina was a little foot sore so James lent her his stunning and super talented showjumper Becks to ride for the afternoon. Liz could hardly contain her disappointment!


I thought that slavery was abolished in 1833! James has obviously never heard of Wilberforce - he's a slave driver! He had us trotting for ten minutes each way again, then he had us dragging poles and barrels around and trimming hedges, in the blazing midday sun to tidy up his sand arena!


After that he sent us off in small groups to check the fencing around the farm but we snuck off with Claire Spelling and played hooky in one of the big fields behind the trailor park so she could take pictures of us cantering against the back drop of Salisbury Plain! Well Liz WAS riding Becks so it would have been rude not to!
Read about the Last Day http://carrotsinmypocket.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/jrfs-last-day.html

JRFS Day Three

The day you have to trot for ten minutes on both diagonals (and if you break gait another minute gets added on for everybody) is not the day to discover you forgot to put on your shock absorber bra! Every body has been dreading this ordeal but it really wasn't that bad - I must be fitter than I thought. Liquorice was pretty puffed out though, and he DID break gait briefly to do a poo but James didn't notice despite saying he's got eyes everywhere. Liquorice kept breaking into a canter to try to solve the puzzle of what it was that I wanted then James did ask us to go into canter a couple of times. He showed us how, if we practice this every day and really improve our horse's fitness, it wouldn't be long before we would be able to do the level four freestyle tasks.



First thing in the morning we watched some of the working students get a lesson on leg isolations. They did the "cartwheel" in walk which is certainly one we can begin to practise at home, and another pattern which involved turning their horse using the outside leg and going through a squeeze. Then we watched Smoke get warmed up in the indoor school . Kim was being coached in the online warm-up by James and it was fascinating to see how where her bellybutton was pointing was shutting him down. James then rode Smoke and took him quickly through walk, trot and canter.


James wanted to see us back in the arena ready to ride at 5 o'clock when it would be cooler, and we would need it to be! So after the "ten minutes each way" we went out for another trail ride. James was riding a horse that, every now and then, refused to go forward and would try every trick in the book to avoid it including careering into all the other horses, so that was interesting!


We ended up back at the Royal Oak for drinks again and the manager brought us out carrots again - but little ones this time. James was impressed at how good Liquorice was at being led to a stone and standing still so I could remount. Liquorice hadn't brought his ipad so couldn't use the WiFi!
Read about Day Four - http://carrotsinmypocket.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/jrsf-day-four.html

JRFS Day Two

Today was best day ever! We started by watching Smoke learning to accept the saddle and accept the rider. It was very special for all of us who knew Smoke from the scrappy little bundle of legs that Liz first brought home from James 18 months ago to the very striking horse he is today.

James then went through a "plan within a plan" with us. This will help us see how far we are along the programme for what we want to do with our horses.


Next we watched as the team helped a dressage rider get her horse to be confident in the collection ring with lots of other horses around. Using lots of approach and retreat, and friendly game the changes in the dressage horse were pretty instant and James sent the rider home smiling with a plan for how to keep it going.


Both Jo and I were pretty apprehensive about the afternoon's ride up to the newly cut stubble field both for different reasons. We went through the phases of the "plan within a plan" but my confidence had plummeted and felt that I was not up to the new things that James was teaching us! I was that close to saying I wouldn't go out.


After we set off I started to feel better. Hacking is my thing and what Liquorice is best at. I soon felt well in my comfort zone again.


Liquorice and I were nearly always at the back and the group had to stop and wait for us to catch up several times.


James started to make comments like "here he comes" and "if he didn;t have such a long mane and tail he wouldn't be so slow!" I gave James the "finger" and he threatened to sneak round at night to chop it all off, so I threatened to sneak into his house at night to chop off things that were important to him!" What a merry band of travellers we were!


James took us to a dew pond for us to walk through and I thought "Ha! Liquorice is never going to walk through that!" However, all that on line cross country training paid off (thank you Tracy Duncan 1* Parelli Professional) Liquorice took one sniff and walked straight through. At the top of the hill we had drinks and Mangnums and James asked us all if we had entered the competition to win a day at JRFS. You had to say what would be the best thing about winning a day at the JRFS but I said I couldn't think of anything!


After walking through a copse of trees and using them to practice turning we made our way back down that hill to the Royal Oak in the village.At one time always being at the back would have made me very anxious as I would have thought that I was holding everyone back but James is very good at turning everything into a teaching point and told Jo and I to come to the front and told everyone else to try to cause their horses to go no faster than ours! Some people managed it!


The new management of the Royal Oak want to encourage more horse customers and have installed a stone water trough and bring big fat carrots out for the horses. They also have free WiFi for horses with iPads.
Read about Day Three - http://carrotsinmypocket.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/jrfs-day-three.html                                                                                                                         

Back at JRFS again!

Here we are again at James Roberts Foundation Station. It's been two and a half years since we were here before and there is now a tidy new hard standing area for parking and unloading so there was no risk of me demolishing the barn this time as I parked up.

This morning, Monday we watched James start to start Smoke, Liz's young horse. It didn't take long. After lunch James talked to us about what kind of horse we wanted to end up with (we all wanted a good riding horse) so he went through all the tools we needed like Passion, Vision, and Knowledge, then about the toolkit we need - we are not talking Black and Decker here and these ones are free.

Then we went to get our horses. Liquorice was standing by the water trough, pawing the ground. He couldn't get a drink from it as he had to partly put his head through the fence to get to the water. James said it wouldn't take longer than 3 days for him to get the idea and it would do his confidence a lot of good if I let him work it our for himself. Gulp!

After we had been through all the pre-saddling stages, James told us to see if we could get to the other side of our horse, withour our horse moving his feet and we could do it in a way he had never seen before we could have the week for free.

In desperation I climbed underneath Liqujorice but James said he had seen that before, There was, of course no way that was possible and that he hadn't seen before. It was a ruse to get us to use our imaginations to find ways to test the relationship we had with our horse. I was quite pleased, though, as I had always wanted to see if I could climb underneath Liquorice - don't know why!

So we have spent the evening doing our homework which is learning by heart the 8 Principles of Horsemanship and the 10 Qualities of a Horseman. James says that tomorrow we have to trot for ten minutes on both diagonals then puke over the gate!
Read about Day Two http://carrotsinmypocket.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/jrfs-day-two.html

On Beach Riding

An abrdged version of this blog has already been posted on Parelli Central Blogs, but this is the original!

When I first got into horses I used to go to the local riding school where I learned to just saddle a horse and get on, kick them to go, and pull the reins to stop. Worse than that, I was taught to smack them when they didn’t do what you wanted because they were being “lazy” or “naughty.”

After I had been going for half hour lessons for about six weeks, that’s a total of just three hours in the saddle, I was told that I was “experienced” enough to go on the “Beach Ride.” This was a ride of just under two hours with half an hour of road work to and from the beach.

When the ride arrived on the beach the horses walked until there was an area of beach that was relatively clear of rocks, the lead rider would ask if everybody was ready and the horses would leap into a gallop and race each other until the lead rider pulled up or the horses just got tired. What I was doing on my hired horse could not have been described as riding, it was more like hanging on for dear life and surviving! On almost every occasion someone would fall off. Most were able to get back on and continue the ride but, on a few occasions, riders left the beach in an ambulance.

You might ask “What was I thinking?” Looking back, I’m not sure why I kept doing it. It was sort of exhilarating, but in a “thank goodness I’m still alive” kind of way. I wanted to ride on the beach and I thought that was what riding on the beach was all about. In those days I had never heard of Parelli.

Fast forward about six years. I now own one of those riding school horses. I am older and, as a result of a couple of nasty, horse related, accidents I lost a lot of confidence and have a lot more respect for the fragility of my body. But I’ve found Parelli and have also found lots of very savvy friends.

Now read about a very different experience of beach riding.

It’s another unseasonably mild October day in West Sussex, on the south coast, here in the UK. Six horses, all different shapes, sizes and ages, walk down a short stony path to the beach led by their owners who are also all different sizes, shapes and ages!

The tide is on its way out leaving a clean sandy beach. Some of the horses have never seen the sea before. Some of the riders have never ridden on the beach before and are about to fulfil a lifelong dream. All of us are there to support each other. By the end of the day all the horses will have been ridden.

We all pause at the top of the high shingle bank while the new horses take in the sight and smell of the constantly moving monster that is the sea. The more experienced beach horses, and the left brain introverts, take the opportunity to eat a little of the salty grass growing there.

Gradually the horses test out the shifting shingles beneath their feet as they part walk, part slide down the bank to the sand.

Everybody starts playing on the ground with their horses online. Some people are not even thinking about getting on their horses today, they are prepared to take the time it takes and they play the friendly game with the waves, the rockpools and the breakwaters.

I am the first to mount my horse, Liquorice. He is a beach veteran but as an ex-riding school hack I have had to spend some time teaching him to walk calmly and not to do what he had been expected to do in his previous life and take off with me as a helpless passenger. As we are lucky enough to live fairly close to the sea, being able to ride safely on the beach was one of my early goals and we only really began to achieve it last summer. I’ve never ridden him on the beach with this many other horses though, and my confidence as a rider is still easily shaken.

Linda is the next to mount up. Her horse, Tizzy, is twenty years old and has been on the beach once before at the beginning of the summer when Linda prepared her for today by playing with her on-line.

We start to walk about on the beach encouraging our horses to get further and further into the sea water which will do their legs a power of good. There is a brisk wind and it’s making the waves quite choppy, giving the horses plenty to be curious about. I ask Linda if she would like to ride a little way up the beach and she agrees. There are plenty of other horses so two of us leaving for a while shouldn’t upset the rest. We don’t go too far and, as we turn round, Linda asks if I fancy having a trot back. Liquorice is a bit keen to get back to the rest of the herd so does a quick trot that almost breaks into a canter but I still feel completely safe and in control.

Liz, who didn’t bring her saddle down to the beach today, has got up on her horse, Merlina, bareback. A year ago Liz, although an experienced rider, didn’t feel confident about getting on this complex mare without having the support of a Parelli Professional there with her. Since then, Merlina has been restarted by James Roberts, Parelli Professional, and Liz has continued to follow the programme. The relationship she now has with Merlina is enabling her to achieve the horsemanship goals she had all but given up on a year ago.

All the horses now have a rider, even the two year old horse has his owner’s young daughter kneeling on his back – a testament to the foundation that has been put on this young horse.

We all move off together down the beach. My horse is more relaxed now that the whole herd is with him and it’s teaching me that I need to work harder on our relationship so that he is as happy to be with just me as he is with other horses. As I ride alongside Liz I ask her if, this time last year, she would ever have believed that she would be riding Merlina on the beach bareback. She said that she wouldn’t have believed it 6 months ago!

Jo’s horse, Bella, gets tense and then throws in a couple of bucks. Jo, to preserve her confidence, gets off and continues leading from the ground. By the time we get some way along the beach, she feels her horse is ready for her to get back on and she completes the ride mounted.

As we turn to head back the way we came I feel my horse remember his past. The last time he was on the beach with this many horses was when he was a riding school hack and turning for home was a green light to just GO!

But now I know how to do the Parelli “emergency stop” and I quickly disengaged his hind quarters and hold him there until he stops turning. I have to do this three times until I can feel that he will not take off. He walks quickly and I let him get to the front where I know he will happier and he calms down.

And so we arrive back at the field where we have parked our trailers and horseboxes. Everybody is smiling and the horses are relaxed. We put the relationship first. Nobody fell off, no horses got out of control, or got kicked or bitten by other horses, there were no dramas and nobody went home in an ambulance. Nobody cried – except perhaps a few private tears of happiness at an ambition fulfilled.

We have all set up our next beach ride for success and we’re already making plans about what we’ll do next time – maybe Linda and I will try for a canter. Jo will see if taking more notice of Bella’s bubble around other horses will help Bella to be more relaxed and less likely to buck. Liz will take a saddle next time and find out what more Merlina is able to offer to their partnership.

Now, isn’t that just how it should be?

Photos by Gill Langridge. http://www.gmlimages.co.uk