Sprout reminder...... :-)

I have just written a long reply ... so long I got logged out and lost it .... so will try again with a shorter version! :rolleyes:

Mark Rashid was absolutely BRILLIANT.
He made such a transformation to the riders and horses so quickly, just using softness and visualization.
The best demo for me was a novice male rider - lots of work was done on various aspects, but the most incredibe was this horse had a very heavy footfall in canter, with a big lumbering stride, and Mark challenged the rider to make the footfall lighter ... but didnt tell him how to achieve this. The rider thought for a bit, imagined how he wanted it to feel, put the horse in to canter and ..... immediately the horse did the most wonderful light, floaty canter ...... AMAZING! :D

So much more I could tell you, but wont bore you.

What a truly incredible man, a real inspiration.

Let me know if you want more, or have any specific questions. x
 
Bit worried I am not putting it across very well, and it sounds silly or boring instead of inspirational, but here is a little more ...

A lady was having trouble doing gates ... like you would in a Le Trec type comp, and her mare was rushing too much. Mark asked her to have a go, so he could see what was going on. Lady rode up to the gate, mare didnt quite end up in the right place, so rider sat quietly for a bit, then tried to reposition, same again, and on it went .... eventually she finally managed to get through.
Mark's opinion was that she was breaking a simple thing down into too many sections, and when the mare was in the wrong position, the rider spent too long sitting thinking about how to deal with what had gone wrong, the mare was not receiving any instructions, so had completely switched off, and by then, the rider was so busy thinking about one move, she had completely lost focus of what she wanted to achieve!
Mark said just picture riding up to the gate opening it riding through and closing it. I have typed that without comas because that was how he described it .... a simple flowing movement.
She sorted her head out ..... and did it beautifully! :D

I will try and remember some more and get back to you later, if you are interested. :D
 
Yes please! Couldn't go see it but would love to hear what else happened at the clinic. Loved his books but such a shame the clinics were so far :(
 
I was lucky enough to be one of the riders at the clinic - Working with Mark was wonderful - feels like we made so much progress in a few days - From redirecting his energy to allow him to relax and come back to me - to soft transitions by thinking of changing rhythm and then focus. We managed to get my boy breathing in the canter - he was holding his breathe and hence falling back into a trot. We also made a huge breakthrough around making an opening for him to move into and applied this idea to gates, poles and eventually little jumps. We lightened his trot so his footfall became softer. On the final sunday we had some lovely soft sideways and backups. All of this done by what felt like the smallest of changes and my horse looked completely different on the last day to the one I started with, softer more connected and relaxed.
I hope you all have as much fun this weekend as I did last week. I'll be around helping so come say hi!

Helen
 
Helen, you are SO lucky to have been one of the riders .... in some ways I wish had, even though I am atrocious!

Can I ask which horse was yours?

I cant stop thinking about the day, and what I saw and learned .... I was there with my family and we all felt 9 hours was not enough, and we would like a mass exodus to his ranch for a month or two .... :D
 
I know - I felt like I had won the lottery when I got a riding place :-) My horse was the little grey arab (Mutley) - not sure which days you were there but you'd recognise us by
Day 1 - Bucking and running from the spectators
Day 2- Lots of work on getting him breathing in his canter
Day 3 - Openings - Starting to Jump him and going sideways and backwards.

I still can't get over how much we achieved on that last day. I'm sure the jumps looked tiny to most people but given how terrified he used to be about poles it really was an amazing change in him!
 
I've been to see Mark Rashid and have all his books, he is brilliant and the books are fantastic. I was gonna sell them as read them all but keep thinking I could read them again.
 
Oh yes, I did see you, and your gorgeous horse.

You did so well, popping those jumps so sweetly, and the backing up at the end ws so soft and lovely. :D

The only downside was ..... it was FREEZING sitting for 9 hours in a howling gale! :eek:

Well done, hope you achieve all you want with your horse, he is really lovely.
 
Hi,

Thanks very much :-) He really is a big softie. I think Friday was the coldest day - I don't think I've ever worn so many layers!

Glad to hear you enjoyed watching :-) and hopefully you've defrosted now.
 
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