Thoughts on Energy, Focus and Intention January 22, 2011
Energy: It is a given that life up signals to the horse that something is coming like the military “tenshun”. Also letting my energy out is friendly and signals game over, at ease, etc. This applies to On Line, Liberty and to riding. I think I do this without thinking pretty much BUT it would be wise to take the time to check myself on this and even to film it to see what I am doing.
Focus: This is such an important way for me to communicate with Try as horses are all about body language and pick up on the focus of other horses so intuitively.
Current focus game suggested to me by Dan Thompson: Teach Try to hunt for my focus (physical focus/where I am actually looking) and line up on it. So I focus on something in the distance and KEEP my focus there and use phases/tools/etc to bring Try into line with my focus. Remember the stages of learning a new skill: teach, control, reinforce, refine. Try and I are at the control/reinforce stage with this. Because she likes the trick of vertically straddling a cavaletti pole that is a fun way to play the game and she quickly knows what to do—the trick of all this is that although I may be cueing her to line up my focus needs to remain in the distance beyond the cavaletti pole.
This then applies to the 7 games i.e. backing—hunt my focus and stay in sync with it. Sideways—focus over and beyond zone 3 and cue zone 3 without losing my focus. Etc.
Intention: Then this goes beyond physical focus to hunt my focus including hunt my intention. i.e. my intention is for you to remain on the circle even though my eyes are not focusing on the circle. Or my intention is for you to follow me at 15’. So Try learns the GOOD DEAL for her is to search for what I want. (As opposed to ignoring me, waiting for a phase 4, or anticipating and offering things she thinks I might like to see.)
Simulations:
Dan had me do some simulations with him. No tools, using energy and focus primarily and some body language. Ie. Yoyo, circling game.
Great stuff! Reminds me of something I just wrote. I begin to think this is the kind of stuff we need to teach in highschool!
ReplyDeletePeterC