{"id":20073,"date":"2015-01-07T16:14:36","date_gmt":"2015-01-07T05:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=20073"},"modified":"2017-03-22T16:18:22","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T05:18:22","slug":"colleen-brook-goes-alternative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2015\/01\/colleen-brook-goes-alternative\/","title":{"rendered":"Colleen Brook goes ALTERNATIVE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HeaderColAltWEB\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Story \u2013 Chris Hector & Photos \u2013 Roz Neave<\/h3>\n

I must confess when it comes to the training of the horse, I shy away from the \u2018alternative\u2019, it\u2019s just that so far as I can see, the classical system in its modern version aka the German Principles, does an absolutely wonderful job, and every time I\u2019ve tried to open my mind to the alternative, I\u2019ve found myself being ear-bashed by a loud mouthed salesman flogging the bleeding obvious. Which is why I was intrigued that a serious rider, competitor, trainer, and more importantly, deep thinker about matters equestrian like Colleen Brook, should dabble in these dark arts\u2026<\/p>\n

So there I was standing in the middle of Colleen\u2019s paddock watching her assemble her collection of whips, wavey things and bags and blankets with her long suffering 6 year old.<\/p>\n

\"Bamboo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bamboo cane used for in-hand work…<\/h1>\n

Colleen certainly comes well equipped for the task: \u201cI have three different sorts of whips. This bamboo whip, Jose Mendez used at the Horseman\u2019s Rendevous, he says he buys them at Bunnings. Jose\u2019s in hand work is marvellous, not many people here in Australia have those skills. The second stick is a carrot stick and it is a bit longer than a driving whip with a string rope about 1.20m long. The horse gets used the string landing softly on them like a tail and the horses like the feel. You can use this rope, it\u2019s a bit heavier to do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

more from Colleen follows<\/em><\/p>\n

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And right now Colleen is waving one of those whips around her head, and Corvette is totally ignoring her\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Walkingbeside\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Walking beside horse swinging lunge whip. It sounds whizzier and it is a step from the carrot stick. If you thick horses learn to ignore whips, if you do this, nothing could be further from the truth. They become very light to the whip signal. Just ask Guy McLean, the Dans, Kel Jeffrey from the 50’s, Steve Brady, Steve Jeffries, and so on…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI can wave the whip around, but because I am not looking at him, he knows it is nothing to do with him at the moment\u2013If my body language changes and I look at him with intent he knows, to be ready to move.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bay may look super laid back in the face of all this \u2018alternativeness\u2019, but apparently this was not always the case:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a sensitive horse and he hasn\u2019t been easy. So before I get on him in a strange place, I use this technique to make him feel comfortable, then I can feel comfortable at a show that if something goes wrong, he is not going to lose it, because in the beginning, he had been known to lose it. The guy who started him off, recognized that he was sensitive, and he started doing this and I\u2019ve kept on with it. If they lose their cool, it\u2019s not very nice if you are sitting on them. Anyone who starts horses for a living should be doing this sort of thing really well, and teach horses to yield to the pressures. Corvette is much easier these days.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"teachingrope\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Teaching him about rope pressure…<\/h1>\n

I\u2019m reminded of one of the great lines of English literature, Gully Jimson remarked that \u2018it was like farting annie laurie through the key hole \u2013 very clever, but was it art\u2026\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do it? Is that what you are saying? For a start, it\u2019s good fun and you get a lot closer to how they think. You can do things that you probably didn\u2019t think you\u2019d need to, but it is SAFE to have horses light to an easy pressure to move them around, they lead up well, they stop, they back. They are much easier to handle because they have a better understanding of what you are after, and the basics are the same: calm, forward and straight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is not yet a culture of the ground skills in Australia, the ground skills culture is small here so far. I\u2019m keen to learn more about that and get horses going in hand. I watch videos and I see people do it, and I think, that\u2019s pretty cool, I\u2019d like to be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

more exercises follow<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"Friendly\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Friendly games. Step one every day, Pat Parelli says, and in the classic books on horse training, they say, ‘Start with easier lessons or something the horse knows well, and gradually move on to the new or harder exercises…’<\/h1>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about control. Push them sideways to open a gate, I know not a lot of competition horses open gates, but it is moving away from the leg, and it is patience. It is good for the rider as well because it teaches you to go in progressive steps. Most of the problems we have in horse training are because we go too quickly to an end, to what we are trying to achieve, and we don\u2019t take slow enough steps in the beginning. We don\u2019t take the learning phase into consideration as much as we ought. We say today two plus two equals four, and tomorrow, two times four, and the poor old horse is struggling to keep up because we\u2019ve skipped too many steps in our training.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I go around the country teaching, that\u2019s what I see. If the horse doesn\u2019t get it, well you just kick it up the ribs and jerk it in the mouth and bully it \u2013 hey I said now! That\u2019s not training, that\u2019s just bullying the horse. We have to make sure we are clearly aware of the progressive steps, and that\u2019s what I see in my \u2018wacko\u2019 stuff. Throwing a tarp over a horse, is it going to make it jump higher? No, it isn\u2019t but I believe our duty to the horse is to educate them to all sorts of different situations. Much better for our safety as well of course. We all talk about this wonderful partnership we have with our horses \u2013 I think a lot of riders are dreaming. The interaction you have with the horses when you do this stuff is great. A lot of people think giving the horse a carrot is interacting, but it\u2019s not, it\u2019s a free lunch, they don\u2019t have to do anything for it. Ground skills are not circus or over-controlling, it\u2019s just a change, of not being so narrow in the focus of your training. As far as I know, no horse has ever gone backwards doing this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"props\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here I am, sitting on the fence with my props…<\/h1>\n

How did you get started on \u2018this stuff\u2019?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSame old story, difficult horse. He wouldn\u2019t stay down in my jumping paddock, he\u2019d whinny, then porpoise leap his way back to the yard gate\u2026 with me on his back! That\u2019s 800 metres, and I couldn\u2019t do anything about it. It was a crossbred horse, big strong thing, and I couldn\u2019t do anything. He was quite nicely schooled on the flat, but anything out of that arena, he couldn\u2019t cope. So if he wouldn\u2019t stay down in the jumping paddock there wasn\u2019t a lot I could do with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colleen found a solution<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

RING – Saddle-Up 03 9727 400<\/p>\n

\u201cMy farrier at the time was a Parelli instructor, Mark Rodney, and he was trying to entice me into doing his thing, so I said, right, here\u2019s your chance! He definitely made a big difference to the horse. I could ride him down in the jumping paddock without being dragged back up to the stables. The horse was going to be sold, and Mark ended up buying him and having a great time with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat got me really interested. He didn\u2019t have to beat it up to stop it doing the wrong thing. In the old days, when you had a tough horse you got your local hit man in to rough them up a bit \u2013 you\u2019re not going to do that again \u2013 <\/em>and that would last a month, then you\u2019d have to ring him up and say, come out, it\u2019s doing it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was interested. Mark was able to turn that horse around without getting rough with it\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to one of Pat and Linda Parelli\u2019s clinics, 30 people there, wielding ropes and sticks. My horse was bug-eyed for the first day, but after five days \u2013 although we didn\u2019t seem to do a lot, it wasn\u2019t working them into the ground by any measure \u2013 we had a session in the morning and a session in the afternoon, and we did two or three things a session, 30 people and one instructor, and the horse came back from those five days, just so relaxed and switched on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c The ground skills were great and the riding wasn\u2019t on the bit like we would do. There was a lot of just teaching horses to go where they were asked, to stay calm, going under things, through things, up and down, anything that a young horse should learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed it \u2013 and the way they taught was totally different, it was very low key, and there was a lot of self-discovery about it. You talked about it. It was demonstrated. You had a go. The teacher just cruised around, pointing out a few things here and there. I quite enjoyed the style of teaching, I saw how good the method was. You weren\u2019t bombarded with information, you were allowed to go a little away from the mark and it wasn\u2019t the end of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"throwing\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Throwing bags, horse not worried, rope loose…<\/h1>\n

\u201cI think as a coach you get to a certain skill level, and when you start to teach people, you expect too much of your students and you don\u2019t allow them to go wrong, going wrong is definitely part of learning. We have all done lots of things we shouldn\u2019t have done, and we\u2019ve learnt from the experience. Of course, we all love a trainer on the ground and that\u2019s the best way to become highly skilled, but self-discovery time is also very important. I don\u2019t care if people go a bit wrong here and there, as long as they keep seeking the information, and keep wanting to fix things.\u201d<\/p>\n

You started with Parelli, that is respectable enough, are there other murky depths of the alternative culture that you have dived into?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIs Georgia Bruce murky?\u201d<\/p>\n

No Georgia Bruce is wonderful\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve attended a couple of clicker training sessions and again, I thought the process that Georgia had, the way she taught\u2026 you asked the horse to do this, click, can he do that again? Yes. Then the next thing, we add a little bit, we add a little bit, we add a little bit, and I very much like that because it made sense to me \u2013 this is how it should be, easy to learn. Lots of people ask me how does clicker training work whilst you ride. If you are continually stopping to reward the horse what is the point. Georgia has a good method and she makes it easy for the horse to follow instructions and help make the rider consistent. The common theme is make it easy for the horse. Okay once you are experienced you can be thinking about a hundred things at once, you have your position, you don’t have to be reminded too much, it is only small things – but when you are learning, you can\u2019t fire off a hundred instructions and expect to succeed, but we all do that when we are teaching. It was the way of teaching that got my attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do we do it? I am interested in the history of training and love watching those people who can do different things. Also with the pressure of competition you need a break from the pressure, and the horses need a break too. Not holidays, but a break from the weekly grind of competition, we have to do a good job and make it not like the weekly grind, and that is the art of training: how to make those little steps all count to arrive at the goal at the end, without making the horse, or the rider for that matter, feel too much under pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

So there you are. Convinced? Ready to twirl a rope or two\u2026 seems it can\u2019t hurt and it might just open new doors.<\/p>\n

\n

Thinking about what stallion to use this season? How about one a\u00a0<\/strong>stallion with the best\u00a0available bloodlines and you can buy frozen semen here in Australia?\u00a0Conquistador is as close to a full brother to Cornet Obolensky as you can get – 7\/8ths Plus he has sired winners, and is a winner\u00a0himself. Contact Helen Chugg – www.diamondfarm.com.au<\/a> or ring 0438 274 170<\/b><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professional showjumping trainer, Colleen Brook talks about the alternative training techniques she uses…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[1030,393,98],"class_list":["post-20073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horse-care-and-health","tag-alternative-training","tag-colleen-brook","tag-horsemanship"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20073"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33909,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20073\/revisions\/33909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}