Episode 318: Talking of Many Things Pt 2: Loopy Training, The T’ai Chi Wall, Head Lowering and Pushy Horses

This is a continuation of a conversation that Dominique and I had together at the beginning of February.

Last week we were talking about the new on-line mini courses I am creating out of the original DVD Lesson series. I have recognized for a long time that people no longer have DVD players, so I am transferring the DVDs to the same platform that hosts my on-line clinics. But I’m not just transferring the original lessons, I am providing updates and additional material.

This work is very simple and very complex both at the same time. Most people, even if they are very experienced horse people, can’t jump in at the deep end. To get to the complexity that is really simple and the simplicity that is very complex, you have to start in the kiddie pool. And that’s where the DVDs begin. But it’s the nature of this work that at the same time we’re in kindergarten we’re also in a graduate level seminar.

Now I know there will be people listening to this who are thinking: “I just want to ride my horse. I’m not interested in all this mind-bendy stuff. Just tell me how to teach my horse to stand still so I can get on.”

The problem is you may just want to ride, but if you don’t have a simple, straightforward horse, you may need do dig deeper into this work. It’s all there in the books, the DVD lessons, the on-line courses, the blog, this podcast. I share both basic how-to lessons plus the details that the horses have shown us that make a difference to them.

Converting and up-dating the DVDs is a huge project. It’s also been a fun project. Revisiting these lessons has been filled with surprises. So, of course, I want to talk about them and that’s what Dominique and I did on a very cold February day.

Our conversation covers a wide range of topics: including loopy training, the T’ai chi wall - what that means and how to apply it, shaping on a point of contact, head lowering, and strategies for dealing with pushy horses.