Hello All,
It's been awhile since I have posted, it's been a busy summer with lots going on.
The main thing that we have been working, is our new organization to preseve and promote,Californio riding and stockmanship.

Please check out the new website and let us know what you think

http://californiobridlehorseassociation.com/ 

Insights

I find the early Californio system of teaching horses suits me so much better since I quit worrying about results so much.

Now I just enjoy the process and look for the little changes in my horses and appreciate the small developments and relaxed happy attitudes of my horses.

Funny thing is,that since I quit being so results oriented,I'm getting better results then ever before with happier horses then ever before.

 

More thoughts on the hackamore

https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=293643877312686

A little video that shows how I believe a hackamore works best.

https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=319773494699724   

Some thoughts on the hackamore:

Refinement

As I was riding today on a horse that had gotten injured last fall,that I started riding again a couple of weeks ago.

When he got hurt, I was riding him in the two rein and he was doing very well,when I started riding him again I started back in the hackamore to give him some time to get back in the swing of things.

The funny thing is that,I have refined my use of the hackamore so much in the past several months that I was able to get allot more out of this horse with much less effort then I was getting when he got hurt.

I have ridden with a hackamore for over thirty years,and I now realized that I always over used it,always pulled too much and held too long with too big of movements.

The horse did not change he is the same horse I was riding before,I changed and it made a huge change in this horses movement and attitude.

This horse that was nice,yet a little bound up and over reactive is now free and responsive.

And all I had to do is change the way I was presenting things to him slightly,and watch for him getting nervous and bound up,and back off a bit instead of pushing him through it,and shaz-am it's like a whole different horse.

Anyway I put him back in the two rein today for a little ride and was just blown away at how responsive he was,he was always reactive but now he was smoothly responsive.

Amazing what a little refinement can do for you, all you have to do is be willing to change yourself not just try and change the horse to fit what you are doing. 

observations

 A lot of people now like to compare the Californio method with classical dressage. 

The difference that I see is that even great classical dressage is based on pressure and release type methods,the rider applies pressure and the horse yields to this pressure and is rewarded in the best scenario. The true Californio method ...

or at least what I believe to be the method based on how every piece of equipment is built and how I have found it works,is a balance based method where the rider move their body and equipment slightly out of balance without tension as the signal and the horse yields by finding the balance and the relief that is built into every piece of equipment and the knowing riders body.If ridden and taught correctly the only time pressure is used is when the horse is not paying attention to the balance change and this becomes less and less necessary throughout the horses life and training, as does the amount of balance change to get the same result from the horse. So to compare this style to others styles of riding is difficult because it's so much different then any other method I know of.

Softly Gathered

Here is a nice picture of my friend Anthony's horse Rhett.

I love the look in his eye and his softly gathered posture.

Believe in yourself

 Remember if you don't believe in yourself and what your doing then neither will your horse. You don't always have to be right in everything you do with your horse but you always need to be "sure"about what you are doing and want to get done.

Perspective

What we do or accomplish today,is only paving the way for smoothness or building an obstacle that we will have to overcome tomorrow.

Thoughts on Collection

In the old Californio method the horse should be gathered up or collected before any change,turn, stop,etc.  Many today seem to have collection confused with headset,here are some of my thoughts about the difference.

Collection is simply a shortening or gathering of the entire horse,where the horse comes up and in to the rider with roundness of the top line not down and away with their nose tucked. Evan's horse in the picture has a degree of collection ...

as it's not strung out,to ask a green horse for more collection then it's body can handle is not a very good idea for more then very short periods of time until they develop the strength necessary to maintain it. Different breeds also develop different kinds of collection,we always see people bringing up pictures of Spanish bred horses as an Ideal for collection when most of those horses are built with that type high neck and roundness from the start. Where many of our Q.H. types are not and it takes much more time and care to develop. Another thing you see is horses that are framed up pretty nice but the collection they have dose not go all the way to the ground or feet when a rider gathers a horse up the action of the feet should slow and the energy in the legs should become more up and in then out and away.IMO there is no reason to gather a horse up unless the change go's all the way to the ground. In this style I feel it's important not to try and hold the horse in collection,rather keep showing them the value of it to them, until they start to look for it and look for the balance in our hackamores and spade bit that will reward them for finding it.

Knowing when to quit

Often times when we are training our horses we tend to over do things.
Everything will be going well,and then we ask to much and it falls apart a little.

When this happens we should start to look for a positive spot to quit on a good note.

Look for even the slightest cooperation or relaxation in your horse and call it good for the day if you are able,by doing this you can take a pretty bad day and keep it from setting you back with your horse.

We need to push or horses at times to make progress and we will have bad days,yet by knowing when to quit before we do things we will later regret we can work though the difficulties and keep progressing.