Thank you, Betty! What a wonderful story you have regarding dance -- I am sure that made a deep impression on your neighbors who weren't yet followers of Yahweh. Thank you for your encouraging words as well, that means so much to me and gives me strength. I hope someday we can indeed meet face to face. :)

Thank you, Charity! You're so sweet. :)

I am so excited for you!! This is absolutely wonderful! Yes, slowing down is huge. Often when I'm playing with release for a horse, I go incredibly slowly -- I might offer them some rope and wait for a full minute, sometimes even minutes, especially if they seem like they're thinking a lot (quivering their lips, wiggling ears, etc.). I'm so glad you slowed down a bit and he caught on!

And you're exactly right -- when bends come from release, they are usually much straighter. A big sign that lateral flexion has been trained through pressure (as is usual!) is that the horse's head is usually tilted. However, through release, they usually keep it straight and turn from their shoulders versus twisting at the poll. Way to notice that!

Don't worry, you're going to not always know when it's a "fluke" and when it isn't -- that's another hallmark of release. ;) It'll get easier to see when they've actually responded and when they just turned to bite at a fly or look at something in the distance, but honestly, even that is sometimes intertwined. Often with release, the horse feels very free and like he has a voice in how he does something -- not pressured -- and so sometimes will put a purpose to whatever you asked through release, such as grabbing a bite of grass, rubbing their nose on their fetlock (when they dropped their head), or looking off in the distance. I believe this comes also because the horse doesn't see it as "training" or "learning a new cue" and so it becomes his idea, and if it's his idea, he'll naturally do something natural for a horse to do, such as turn to look/eat grass/etc. Does that make sense?

Next steps! Play with getting lateral flexion on the ground, and you can even play with it in a cordeo/neckrope. Also start asking him to drop his head through release from the ground. I got a bit of video of me doing that with some horses yesterday I'll try to put up. You'll stand maybe back by their shoulder, or if it's better, way out in front (like the horse were at the end of the Parelli Yo-Yo Game). Offer some release, and really visualize you filling up the space above their head with a vacuum below their head. You're not visualizing pressuring the head down, instead, I like to think of it as more of painting a color above their head and clear (no color) below their head. Make sure you keep breathing and don't stare into their eyes OR at the space below their muzzle, because they'll feel that pressure. Offer some release AND BREATHE! :)

Sometimes it'll take a full minute or more for them to understand the first few times. If they're wiggling or turning their head, see if you can straighten it out a bit. Scratch the rope with your fingernails, even put a teeny pressure on it and then offer some nice release, really really experiment. There are no rules!!

Let me know how it goes!

Sounds awesome, I can't wait to see the video!

Interesting about holding the lateral flexion. Have you tried surprising him when he goes into that, like handing him a treat or playing with his tongue or walking away or...? Does it seem like he goes introverted and shut down or is it just his way of being a little unsure? :) Is he a right brain introvert?

Thank you, Hannah. It is beautiful how much faith and hope are intertwined; one doesn't live without the other.

Great! Yes, try slowing down a lot, a lot. In fact, when I'm introducing a horse to release, I might slooowly offer the rope and then just hold the slack there for 30... 60... 90... seconds or even more. It feels like an eternity, but sometimes they really have to take a lot of time to process. The more focused and calm they can be the better, which is why I try to do it when there aren't other horses around, grass, flies, etc. But you just do what you can. :) One thing that helps with grass is the "My Grass Game," where essentially, if the horse starts eating grass, I'll take that piece of territory by wiggling my foot in it (mild) to even whacking the ground there with the rope (extreme). It depends on how strongly the horse had gone down for grass and what I can do without offending them too badly. I often try to let them actually take a bite before I take the territory, because otherwise I get defensive and take the territory when maybe they were just dropping their head and not eating at all. It's like Parelli will say -- let the horse make the mistake and then correct it, versus trying to prevent mistakes.

Okay, I see what you're saying about the lateral flexion sometimes being confusion. It's very possible that's what he was doing! It's just that in most horses, you can tell if it's a more released movement because they'll hold it -- be it collection, a trick, lateral flexion, etc. If they instantly pop out of it the moment you stop cueing (or pressuring), that's often a sign that it was done through pressure and the horse perhaps doesn't quite have the relaxed "feel" of the movement; their mind isn't as calm and involved and processing. :)

Hi Lauren!

Awesome job! I uploaded my comments to a voiceover here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN5a3GhFe4Y.

Let me know what questions you have!
Hannah

Yep. Didn't work. Gave it a shot. Now reverting. ;)

Hmm, whatever you think of sounds fun! No, really. :) Do what you really feel strongest about, and if you want to maybe play with release (even if Sonny stands there without twitching an ear, no big deal, that's EXACTLY what happened when I started it!) to lateral flexion, that might be a good place to start.

Inner horse... well, I've stopped focusing much on externally what the horse is doing as much as the place he's doing it from. It might be subtle -- for example, I might not try to "teach" stretching/long and low at all, but instead teach the horse how to TRULY relax in movement, which leads to stretching and a beautiful frame naturally, coming from the "inner horse." Or, perhaps a horse rears. Do I ALWAYS retaliate? Do I always ignore it? Maybe, maybe not. Totally depends on the place the horse is doing it from. Basically, I'm taking the emphasis off behavior and onto internal state.

Yes, video is great! Release is one of the hardest things to teach long distance, and I'm going to try to get some videos up about it this summer. It's 100% experimentation and feel -- you may never do it the same way twice. If the horse is tense, not in his comfort zone, or WAITING for pressure, often they will not respond to release, so you have to wait a bit or touch their side to "wake" them up, perhaps. Really visualize it in your head, open your body, and if you need to help the horse, you can always pick up on the rope ever so slightly (like if you're asking for lateral flexion), and as soon as they THINK (not actually do it, but think) about turning, release. This will help them realize that they can turn their heads without preceding pressure.