08/06/2025
Sometimes training looks like piaffe, flying changes or jumping a meter. But at the beginning, it can look a lot like this.
“There can be no learning without relaxation.” - Philippe Karl
“What happens before what happens happens?” - Tom Dorrance
5 year old Willow has just joined our program to be started. While lovingly cared for and handled, she has not been in any sort of formal training since her 2 year old year (groundwork only, thankfully!). This means her body has been given time to grow and develop, but her coping systems and emotional management are left largely to her own nature. We found that during her first outing in the arena to explore, and in proceeding walks to and from pasture, she often crowds into our personal space. This isn’t out of maliciousness or aggression, on the contrary, she looks for comfort in contact, closeness, and touch.
So today after reviewing our keeping the distance on the lead, I introduced the whip. This may seem like an odd choice - given that whips are associated with pressure, force, and hitting. And surely, creating greater stress for a horse who is already demonstrating a difficulty with anxiety and self management wouldn’t be a wise choice. However, in this instance, I am using the whip as it was designed in classical dressage- as an arm extender.
First, I stroked her all over on both sides, giving as much the same feeling with the whip as I do with my hands, as possible. I let her become comfortable with the whip stroking and approaching. Then, I used the whip in place of my hand or gesture for our TRT method patterns. Any time her stress level would rise, I could reach her with the whip to stroke her, without her barging in to me, or bumping into me with her nose or shoulder.
By doing this, she could find a connection with me, even at a distance, which kept my body safer, but helped her understand I was not pushing her away or leaving her alone.
In this series of photos you can see moments across about a 15 minute session, starting with her initial posture entering the arena, her postural shift to a much more relaxed position after the introduction of the whip and the TRT patterns, a few big yawning releases. Then, I could see that she was considering lying down in the nice warm arena footing. Because I want, first and foremost, that she feels safe and comfortable with me and in this space for future learning, I invite and encourage this idea by kneeling, then sitting. She follows my gesture, and has a good roll, and a few minutes of lying down with me, before we exit the arena for the day.
In the future, we will expand her understanding of how to find comfort in her own body, with or without my touch, using a combination of TRT method groundwork, and academic work in hand from Philippe Karl’s Ecole de Legerete. But, for now, she will have this foundational comfort with my presence, and the space I will ask her to learn in. This foundation is invaluable for all future training.
