Dressage, Naturally with Karen Rohlf

Creating healthy biomechanics and stronger partnerships through combining natural horsemanship principles with the art of dressage...

photo: Dana Rasmussen

never underestimate the potential for harmony & lightness to improve in ways you cannot yet imagine

Welcome back to the Temenos...

This Month:• At it again... We are filming another

Results in Harmony DVD!

• Continued Holiday Savings at the web shop: The discount code (HLDY08) works until 1/31/09!

• News for the new year.

• Comment and Question from students.

• Ancora Imparo: “I’m still learning”... An essay from Karen about keeping your Beginner’s Mind

Clinic schedule: CLICK HERE

Upcoming Clinics:

Jan 25-30 6 Days at Temenos FieldsTemenos Fields, FL contact: K2

Feb 14 Open Format Workshop Temenos Fields, FL contact: K2

March 8-136 Days at Temenos FieldsTemenos Fields, FL contact: K2

J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 9

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Photo: Dana Rasmussen

Temenos is an ancient Greek word. It refers to a sacred space that has no limits, where special rules apply and

extra-ordinary events are free to occur.

Happy New Year!I hope that 2009 is off to a wonderful start for all of you! I am so excited for this upcoming year. I am grateful for the health and sound-ness of all my beautiful horses, wonderful students, and friends.

As I write this, a much-needed rain is falling and it is absolutely freezing outside ... Ok, I admit it, it feels more like a nice fall day in NY, but for us Floridians, 50 degrees Fahrenheit and raining is FREEZING!

Filming:

Monty takes his rightful place during filming of some test-footage

We just came in from filming the third in the Results in Harmony DVD series. This one is going to be a little... different. It is going to be about Playing with Posture and it is exercises for you, the human, more than for the horse. I wanted to target this one to come out this win-ter, at a time when I know many of you are snowed in, and find it difficult to ride. We still have all the editing and production to do with it, but I look forward to getting it to you. I think you will find it very entertaining as well as useful!

Horses:For those of you who may miss seeing Ova-tion, don’t worry! He is going so beautifully these days and I plan on doing more filming of him very soon. It is like he is coming out of the ‘gawky teenager’ stage and is coming fully into his body. This horse did not present him-self at all as a natural for dressage (especially as far as his motivation, crookedness and op-position reflex) , but all the foundation strate-gies, the isolated gymnastic skills I have in-stalled, the priority for developing keenness and responsiveness.and understanding.... is all starting to really pay off. In the end, the real test of a training method is not that it can work on the most talented horses, but that it can work on the less talented ones!

Speaking of challenges to the training sys-tem... my little ‘toy’, Atomic has been keeping me on my toes. We seem to be finally getting past the little issue of him biting me when I ride him. :-) With him I have really had to focus on two areas: Assessing my leadership style and using friendly game to change his reflexive reaction to ‘scary’ things. My latest focus has been on being more of a leader, but less dominant. Demanding attentiveness, but not pestering him. Being more of a boss mare, than a dominant bachelor male.

I will be writing more about him in future issues of this newsletter.

Atomic, (my big horse in a little package)

Monty, (the King) is just going fabulously. He is at the stage in his life where he really doesn’t need to be pushed. He has done so much for me, and his body is... well... past its prime, but not at all ready to stop. I feel like every step is precious. He does everything I ask and it is my responsibility now to preserve his body, his confidence and his pride. He is so funny, like some sort of zen master, a pic-ture of efficiency. He walks around the place doing what I call his: “thousand year old school horse” impersonation (imhorsina-tion??). Then when it is time, he springs to action in an embodiment of elasticity, grace, balance and power.

I am also now casually looking for a new member of the Temenos herd... I would like to find a horse that will mature at least 16.3.... 3-4 years old (already well started, but not much else done). Breed is not important (but I have been looking at warmbloods and warmblood/Lusitano or warmblood/Andalusion crosses. Gelding or mare. Movement of ‘7+’ at least for dressage gaits. Any breeders out there with a young prospect?

Students:We just had another of our monthly work-shops here. It was great to see everyone again and I was thrilled at the progress everyone made. It has been so satisfying to teach in general this year. With the book/DVDs to

support the clinics, students have been pro-gressing so much better!

Fun:

(Monty , me and some dancers from The Equus Project)

I had the pleasure of playing with the dancers from The Equus Project (you can find out more about them at: www.Dancingwithhorses.org). I am al-ways happy to watch their horsemanship evolve, and to see just how beautiful it can look to play with a horse when you have such amazing awareness and coor-dination in your own body. JoAnna and her company will be back in Ocala March 14,15 to teach a clinic. I will be making some sort of appearance at it on the Sun-day of the clinic.

I and three of my students also just had an introduction to Pilates from Janice Du-lak. It was a great class, adding yet an-other piece to the puzzle of being the best riders we can be. She had a clear way of communicating some of the biomechani-cal pieces that are necessary to have an engaged seat.

This recent experience with the dancers and Janice both solidified my confidence in the usefulness of the DVD we just filmed!

Enjoy!

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copyright 2009 Temenos Fields, Inc Jan

Holiday Discount Code: HLDY08 valid until Jan 31, 2009Organic Cotton T-Shirts available in Women’s style in Chocolate and Black Unisex style in BlackFront (all shirts): the horse illustration that is on the book cover plus “Dressage Naturally... results in harmony”

Back (all shirts): these words: --->They come packaged in their own 100% recycled paper bags (no plastic!)

Results In Harmony Volume 2: Developing MobilityOvation continues to develop his gymnastic skills! Here Karen shows the intermediary steps between basic foundational yields and mobility exercises (lateral work) both on-line and riding.This DVD is 50 minutes (20 minutes longer than the last one...) at the same price!

Special Package!The Book/DVD plus volume 1 & 2 in the Re-sults in Harmony DVD series at a special sav-ings (10% off)

*****DISCOUNT CODE -- HLDY08 *********An additional 10% off everything on my website, just for you, my newsletter subscribers. This code is good through JAN. 31, 2009. The code is: HLDY08 (as in Holiday ’08)And yes, it takes an additional 10% off even the Special Package shown above!Remember, in order to get the discount, you need to enter the code when prompted by the web store!

Visit the web shop at dressagenaturally.net

Women’s Unisex

Results In Harmony Volume 1: Riding in Connection with the ReinsKaren discusses her philosophy of establishing a positive connection with the reins. You will see her put theory to practice and listen to a real time commentary as she plays with her horse Ovation, who, at the time of this filming, is at a stage where he is just learning about this. You will see the ingredients that she develops and techniques she uses to dissolve Ovation's potential for bracing in the contact.

D,N Reins These reins have the elegant look and quiet con-nection to the bit of a leather dressage rein, but the 'live feel' of a rope. They are hand made from quality yachting line and leather.These reins are getting rave reviews for looks and feel. Many long time dressage riders with sore hands are opting for this rein as it is easy to hold in a soft hand. Natural horsemanship riders love the clean, classy look and quiet connection com-pared to rope reins that attach with a metal snap.Available in 10 and 12 foot lengths.

Some student feedback and questions.

Dear Mrs. Rohlf,some days ago I received your dvd-book package. I started learning im-mediately. I am totally hooked (is that the right explanation? I am not so sure concerning my english;-)). After 3 days of training - today - I could al-ready sit on my horse without reins, without a halter, and let him trot to-tally loose. He understood that when I let my spine loose, he should relax, put his nose down and let loose. For me this was unbelievable some days ago (I am now riding for 32 years, doing PNH for 10 years) . It is amaz-ing!

Best regards,Sybille

Thank you so much, Sybille, for taking the time to write me to tell me that, it is SO appreciated... and for the re-cord, everyone can call me Karen! :-) ~Karen

Hi Karen,

Many times when I start to ride my Arab/QH he is distracted by other things going on around him. He seems to focus well at play now that I have slowed things down so much that he has to watch me to see what's next.:-)

Anyway, my question is when I begin to ride him I usually check that I have flexion, move the front end around, check my freestyle back up etc. When I begin to "ride" he often seems

distracted. I was wondering if I should try to obtain the "let loose" posture at this time? I thought about it today as I rode, after he had several days off, and wondered if it was the best way to get his body supple and loose enough to do more things?

It worked wonderfully but I was won-dering what you would suggest if a horse is distracted with his surround-ings and obviously not giving his body to you 100% should you suggest the let loose posture initially just to get everything supple so that it might be possible to do other more athletic things?

Thank you in advance for any advise.

Diane,Freezing up north where we now have SNOW!

Hi Diane,thanks for your patience in waiting for my reply! Interesting question... and like many things with horses.... my answer will be... sometimes, maybe and perhaps! :-)

The alignment exercise for a let loose posture can definitely help a horse focus more internally and therefore can help change their attention. But, if they are nervous about their envi-ronment, or anything, doing the

alignment exercise sometimes makes it worse (they feel like they are being blindfolded and can't watch for danger and then can feel more anx-ious)

My little Nat'l show horse, Atomic, gets very distracted and I have to really watch... if i start talking to his body too, much too soon he gets mad and feels worse! I have to do a com-bination of confidence building if he is really nervous about something, and then also just clear leadership about : 'hey, here we go,..' being more pre-cise about acceptance of leadership, his general state and things like line of direction and his responsibilities than posture... then he settles in to what I am doing... and then the pos-ture is better already with out neces-sarily working on it.

On the other hand, another horse gets distracted and the alignment ex-ercise really helps him focus on what

is going on inside his body and it breaks the cycle of: distraction leads to twisting around, leads to crooked, leads to braced...

I guess the difference between the two horses and two strate-gies is determined by if there is any fear in the distraction. I would also note that you men-

tioned that his ‘distraction’ comes up when you begin to “ride” him, which i guess means when the warm up is over... he may be telling you that he is not so confident in that moment, and taking time to help him understand, and be more successful will also im-prove his state of mind and posture.

I hope this helps,let me know!My Best,Karen(in sunny florida!)

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I strongly agree with the quote above,

by the Japanese Zen priest, Suzuki...but, as a professional, especially, it can be a real trick to live by it. How do you bal-ance confidence, expertise and experi-ence, with humbleness, openness and curiosity?

There is a constant balance that needs to happen in every moment. If we are al-ways questioning ourselves, then perhaps we are open to magical moments that we might not have consciously created... but can be ‘wishy-washy’ or vague leaders. If we are always non-negotiable, we may be confident , clear communicators/leaders, but we may miss some amazing moments that are better than we may have thought

of. And so we must make small decisions in every moment, so we balance our abil-ity to be a teacher/leader at the same time we are a student/observer.

For me there is also a larger cycle. A cycle of blocks of time when I am a student and a teacher. When I was in NY, I was first a student, then I became professional and was a teacher/trainer, but I still took les-sons from my trainer so I was also a stu-dent. When I came to Parelli I decided to be 100% student during the first year I spent with them. It was the best way to stop my own ideas and learn some new ones.

During the next year I did my best to try to make sense out of what I had learned, and the next several years assimilating,

experimenting, learning from my horses, teaching, writing, systematizing... (What a wonderful whirlwind this was! My brain loves this job!)

But one day recently I realized... My most recent block of time has been the longest I have gone without a trainer/teacher in close proximity to me on a daily basis... and I thought it was beginning to ‘show’. My Temenos Fields is gloriously private. And after so many years teaching and training at a facility with 40 boarders and 8 instructors... I am LOVING it! BUT... Something happens when I ride by my-self all the time... without really realizing it.... even for an obsessively motivated and dedicated person like me... I start to make these little decisions... decisions that allow me to rest before I need to, or

A N C O R A I M P A R O

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Ancora Imparo

“In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few”

— Shunryu SuzukiPhoto: Dana Rasmussen

to do rising trot when I could sit, or to become obsessive when my horse is really fabulous and I need to relax. I start doing the same things I always do... and get only the same results I always get. My crooked side gets ‘crookeder’, my weak side gets weaker. (Yes, all these things happen to professionals, too!)

The trouble is when problems start to arise, if you are in ‘Expert Mode’ you will tend to see the problem as other than yourself... It is the horse, ‘of course’, who is not learning well. You tend to get more clear and determined in your idea, you stick with it until it works. In ‘Student Mode’, you err on the side of caution, you seek help. You get curious, you investi-gate and you look at yourself first. Of course you may doubt yourself and get frustrated... but you are a student! You can always ask for help! I am being a lit-tle exaggerated here, but I think you get the idea.

Many times I hear students telling me how it is difficult for them to stay in-spired, how they can’t get help... And here I was alone in my beautiful place thinking almost the same thing.

So I called my friend, neighbor and fel-low dressage professional who lives ALL THE WAY across the street and booked a lesson.

“What am I going to teach you?” she asked when I showed up, check in hand.“ I should be taking lessons from you.” She said. And so we began our barter, hand-ing the symbolic check back and forth to each other. Because even though we live right across the street and have been wanting help from each other, we never scheduled it. It was so easy and conven-ient that we never did it.

Now we are trading back and forth, she helps me with my horses, (trying to figure out what to say instead of “on the bit” when I ride in the halter), and I try to use the word ‘rest’ instead of ‘dwell’. She is ruthless about my position and I give her strange exercises and make her drop the reins a lot. Are we doing dressage? Are we doing natural horsemanship? Are we

doing Dressage, Naturally? Who knows. What we ARE doing is listening to each other. A good instructor listens to the student, listens to the horse, and then the good student listens back.

What we share is a similar picture of the end product. I prepare my horses to be ready for her, she prepares to be ready for me. We think about what specifically we want help with. We discuss. We laugh a lot. It is like this because we are peers. It is like this because we both have a respect for what the other has experience with.

She told me I could sit back more and was surprised when I was so excited. I loved the idea that I had thought I was in the best position, and here someone just told me there was an even more ideal way for me to be sitting! I loved that even though I was sure that my horse’s shoulder was falling to the left, it was asking for a haunches in right that made it feel better! Who would have guessed that?! ;-)

The thing is, this can happen between professionals, or between student peers. The information and lessons I have been getting are very helpful, for sure. But perhaps just as valuable was the shift in my brain that made me set up the cir-cumstance of signing up to be a student for that moment. It put me back into ‘Be-ginner’s Mind’ It put me back in a state of curiosity.

Thank Goodness I don’t know every-thing!! Thank Goodness I still have many many ways to improve!! Thank Goodness that what I can do now is not the best I can ever do.

Conversely, In NY I had many students on ‘full training’ and what happened with them, is often they were only stu-dents, and lost confidence to ride on their own with out a lesson.

Everything must be in balance. For me I sometimes need to remember to just ride ... to not always train. I need to always know that I am first a student, and sec-ond an expert.

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”

Maybe its just me, but I like the idea of a lot of possibilities. But I guess that makes sense in that one of my own favorite mot-tos is: “Never underestimate the potential for things to improve in ways you cannot yet imagine.”

Even (or maybe especially) for profes-sionals, or more advanced students, it is easy to run out of ideas when you spend too much time alone without some one to be your mirror, or audience, or even to present a challenge or person to try to impress. All these things are necessary to step up, to stay inspired, energized, de-veloping... So for all you students out rid-ing in your back yards, or alone in a field most of the time... I know how gloriously wonderful it is, and I know the challenge it presents for staying confident. Go teach someone, even if you just explain what you are doing to your dog. For the professionals/advanced students who seem stuck, or find that easy things are becoming difficult again... remember to be a student. Give yourself some tests, ask someone to observe you and give you feedback. Students can help each other.

As soon as you find your Beginner’s Mind, you instantly have the feeling of possibility, and with that comes hope, curiosity, excitement and motivation.

Well, at least for me!

I will share more about these lessons in the future!

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The clinic participants in Texas, Nov 2008!

My working student, Breanne Peters and I get a very special visitor to Temenos Fields: Walter Zettl

Buster O’Connor of Verdeo, on a shoot for the new Results in Harmony DVD.

Graphic design, video... and he’s getting pretty good at handling a carrot stick!

Monty and Karen get to play with the ‘Dancing With Horses Dancers!