Monday, April 11, 2011

Weekend at a Show with Marc De Champlain and Day 1 of Reining Cow Horse Training

We were in Perry, Georgia at a show hosted by the South Eastern Working Cow Horse Association (I do believe that is the right wording). The classes that were hosted were Halter, Horsemanship, Reining, Reining AMA, and Reining Youth, Roping, Roping AMA and Youth, Sorting, Cutting and Trail classes. The same shows happened on Sunday but they didn’t show in as many classes, we started loading up after lunch. Marc won every class he entered in, he said this was a fun show for him. A no pressure show just to enjoy himself and his horse, I could really tell he was a true master at what he was doing.

Pat was right when he compared him to Troy Henry (I do believe), he is TRULY a master and I am VERY honored to be working with him. In the early mornings and in between his classes, he rode Sundance and showed me what he was doing and then had me get on and coached me through it. Most of what we worked on was creating relaxation, creating my idea to become his, and flexion. We did bending exercises in circles, creating flexion throughout the body and bringing the inside leg in by asking him to give off of my leg. We did this at different gaits, the next day Marc rode him and he could see a big difference. Like I said, we left after lunch and went to settle at their beautiful spacious and peaceful home. Marc said I could put him out in the large pasture, there was a nice large herd of cattle and a pond. I hopped on bareback and bridless, walked around, moved through the cattle and moved a couple around. We had dinner and then settled into the hotel.

Day 1 started with my brother and I there early and mucking the stalls, feeding and grooming horses. We started out with his horse, Dunner, a STUNNING and talented buckskin. He rode and explained quite a few things, every word that comes from his mouth should be recorded and every move he makes should be caught on video… I am really lucky to be studying with him, I am writing everything down that I can. He went over things like…

Three things you transfer to your horse when with him…

  1. Complete transferal of your emotions. (Every emotion you feel, the horse feels all of the time.)
  2. Complete transferal of your mind. (This is how you want to communicate with your horse, this is what you want him to be responding to.)
  3. Complete transferal of your physical strength. (Which is used in a proper way to be assertive at the right time or can be used to enforce fear which is the second highest motivator to get the horse to do what you want.)

Marc brings across a lot of what Pat talks about, here are a few points he brought up that he said in his own words but could be translated into the things Pat says such as…

  • Mind>Flexion>Weight>Feet
  • Set the horse up to do what you want him to do, prepare him before asking.
  • Do in your body as you want him to do.
  • Make your seat like water, flow with your horse (fluid and independent seat).
  • Suggest, ask, tell and promise.
  • Use PATTERNS to communicate and train your horse and yourself… Circles, figure eights, serpentines, concepts of the precision pen.
  • Bringing your energy up and down for transitions and your weight and your eyes to turn.
  • Set it up and wait.
  • Direct and indirect rein, to create a roll back.
  • Know the exact placement of the feet, at walk and turn and above so you can know where to put them to set things up for things such as a stops, turns, departures and roll backs.
  • Simple things build up to the advanced and makes it easier.

A couple of the quotes I enjoyed of his were…

- If YOU have talent, get and work with a horse that has just as much talent or more so he can build you up and you can build him up.

- I have NEVER fed a horse in my life, they have always fed me.

He is also familiarizing me with the terminology he and other in the field uses, I will have a list that I will share when I get a longer one. Today I filled up two pages back and front with notes, I wish I could record him. I only got a half of a day with him today because I had to drive my mother to the Albany airport so she could scoot home, we will see them in two weeks when they bring the trailer to haul everyone home!

I will be meeting Marc again in the morning to start training again, Sundance was ridden by him today again and he is taking to it REALLY well… I am very proud, Parelli creates great students for any teacher in both people and horses. So we are REALLY looking forward to tomorrow! I will talk to you then!

1 comment:

Parelli Central said...

Thank you for sharing, Mariah. Cool stuff!

Petra Christensen
Parelli 2Star Junior Instructor
Parelli Central