Manuela Mclean clinic - Lesson 1

This week is the big week of clinics. Yesterday and today I have two lessons with Manuela Mclean of the Australian Equine Behaviour Centre. She and Andrew Mclean are world leaders in training using evidence based theories and especially learning theory. Their son, Warwick Mclean, is an FEI level dressage rider training with Kyra Kirkland. I've known Manu and Andrew for most of my life, having grown up riding in Tasmania where they were our local Pony Club instructors! Talk about lucky....

So, yesterday's lesson was really interesting and helpful. The most thought-provoking and fun aspect was the use of the whip to ask for halt and slowing. Manu had me tap Assegai twice on the chest (and keep tapping, increasing in frequency until he offered the right response) to halt. He was very quick to pick this up as he's quite sensitive, especially on his pecs! We'd been having lots of problems with him setting his jaw against the contact and stopping effectively, but heavily. This technique removed the bit from the equation and soon we were doing canter to halts with two taps of the whip. Manu increase the level of difficult further asking for slowing within the gait from one tap. He was pretty good at that too!

The other main issue we have is tension and hollowness throughout his frame. We would easily lose 2 marks per movement and has been very frustrating. Basically, he's simply not using his back and hindquarters effectively and has been really difficult to bend without resisting and sticking his head in the air!

Manu got me turning him with a direct inside rein, at walk to start, into a tighter and tighter circle until his head dropped and he became all 'gooey' under my leg and seat. It's a pretty accurate description! As soon as this correct response was offered we rode straight until his head came up again. This worked extremely well, and I was able to ask for trot from that bending exercise with no head movement.

Coming down a gait worked on the same premise. At canter Assegai found it very slippery (fresh woodchips) and I was initially worried about his footing as he'd never slipped before. Manu commented (along with helpful spectators and friends!) that he stopped slipping once he started bending and sitting more effectively. Essentially, he came off his forehand, started using his body and stopped shuffling along! Barefoot appeared to have no bearing on the going. A very interesting concept - perhaps our horses slip sometimes because they're on the forehand.

Second lesson today, then tomorrow off and a clinic with Chris Burton on the weekend. Very exciting!