Refined Performance Horsemanship - PATH Intl · 2014-09-13 · through relaxation, suppleness, balance, and biomechanical principles incorporating groundwork exercises” For the

Copyright (c) 2012 Karen Ososki Riding Instructor LLCPATH Horse Expo Saturday, November 3, 2012

Refined Performance Horsemanshipempowering riders and horses to be their individual best

The PATH International Conference Horse Expo Co-Keynote Demonstration

Refined Performance Horsemanship

Karen OsoskiBozeman, Montana

www.KarenOsoski.comARIA Certified Level III Dressage and Level II Hunt Seat Instructor

Certified Ride-Right Instructor

“Improving performance and maintaining mental and physical soundness for the therapeutic equine through relaxation, suppleness, balance, and biomechanical principles incorporating groundwork exercises”

For the past two years, Eagle Mount in Bozeman has utilized Refined Performance Horsemanship’s groundwork training as an essential part of their horse conditioning and schooling program with great success. Eagle Mount Bozeman is very excited and happy with the improved behavior and physical results they have observed in their horse herd utilizing this groundwork exercise program.

This “Refined Performance Horsemanship” session will demonstrate how to improve performance and maintain mental and physical soundness for the therapeutic equine through relaxation, suppleness, balance, and biomechanical principles.

Equine-Assisted Activities and Therapies (EAAT) program horses are worked in an intense mental and physical regimen that can create behavioral and lameness issues. To add to this, these programs are often given aged horses or horses with pre-existing lameness problems.

The EAAT leaders and side-walkers need to be educated in basic horse behavior and movement biomechanics to ensure safety for the participants

and to ensure healthy equine partners. It is essential that the equine conditioning program be designed to include relaxation, suppleness, and balance exercises and biomechanical principles.

Leaders and side-walkers can easily learn these techniques. Groundwork exercises open up the equine conditioning program to non-rider handlers. While keeping the handler in a safe environment, these

exercises establish and maintain a healthy leading partnership between the horse and the handler.

The active components of my conditioning program include Natural Horse-manship and Classical groundwork exercises and principles. Equine groundwork is a series of struc-tured unmounted exercises to improve a horse’s athleticism, responsiveness and mental attitude. Groundwork exercises prepare the horse to per-form movements in a healthy and efficient way.

Groundwork gives the handler a different perspective for how the horse moves without a rider. Any tension within the horse can be felt

Leaders and side-walkers can easily learn these techniques. Groundwork exercises open up the

equine conditioning program to non-rider handlers.


and observed. Groundwork adds to the handler’s understanding of why the horse needs suppling, strengthening, and conditioning to perform well.

Biomechanical understanding of how a horse moves by muscle and skeleton interaction can be applied to all equine exercises. Training is more efficient if one un-derstands which muscles need to develop for a specific discipline and how a horse needs to move to create that development. Healthy and efficient movement in the horse can lead to greater performance and longevity.

This presentation (applicable to all disciplines) includes: the biomechanics of horse movement and how that directly relates to developing a healthy and athletically sound equine athlete, how a mounted rider affects the way a horse moves, and why horses need to be fit and have a healthy posture to reduce “burnout” and lameness.

Mental and physical relaxation is a key foundation for all equine activities. Horses that are tense are more reactive and will spook more easily. Relaxation is an essential component of muscle control, reflexes, and expansive breathing. Muscle relaxation cannot happen if the mind is not relaxed. For physical relaxation, the horse must find a balanced posture that enables free movement without tension.

Relaxed horses have more swing during each stride, more elasticity within the movement, and better balance for participant safety. The participant experiences a larger and less jerky movement.

When the horse is physically and mentally comfortable while working with a participant, the horse will welcome such work in the future.

Why is relaxation so important?

According to Dr. Hilary Clayton in “Conditioning Sport Horses”:

“Locomotion involves the coordinated action of antagonistic muscle groups to move the limb segments and stabilize the joints against the effect of gravity. The balance between the antagonistic muscles is optimal when the horse moves in a relaxed manner. When the horse is tense, there is an increase in energy expenditure due to excessive tension in the antagonistic muscles. …Muscular tension sometimes restricts joint movement … effects of muscular tension [are] evident throughout the range of motion.”

Why is suppling, flexibility, and balance so important?

Suppleness and flexibility describe the range of motion around joints. Suppling exercises system-atically get the horse’s musculoskeletal system working in a synchronized way that develops suppleness and flexibility throughout the body. Through lateral exercises, the horse stretches and bends on both sides of his body. This increase in flexibility leads to straightness and the most efficient and healthy movement for the horse.

For relaxation, the horse must find a place of bal-ance. When the horse is in balance, his motion can move without hindrance. To relax, the horse needs to find his own lateral and longitudinal bal-ance and to be able to carry himself with “light-ness and self-carriage”. When the horse is able to retain this unrestrained way of moving, it relaxes.


The Demonstration Exercises

My slow, progressive stretching and bending exercises are designed to encourage mental relaxation, balance, and increased physical suppleness. This demonstration will concentrate on mental and physical relaxation, suppleness, and balance. Relaxation exercises result in the horse swinging through its back and lengthening and stretching its frame. Relaxation, both mental and physical, is a foundation cornerstone for all disciplines and levels.

Exercises will be demonstrated with Natural Horse- manship groundwork and Classical in-hand work. These exercises have been modified to follow biomechanical and classical principles. A cornerstone classical prin-ciple is that for a horse to move efficiently impulsion should come from “back to front. The study of force vectors reaffirms that horses move more efficiently by creating impulsion from their haunches. A relaxed and supple back aids the horse in forward movement.

In classical riding, a rider does not pull back or down with the hand. Such hand movement can impede the efficient forward movement of the horse. A rider that tries to create a round downward posture in their horse by pulling can hinder the horse’s ability to push from behind. Then, the horse loses the possibility of using his back efficiently for movement. These scenarios can lead to soundness issues and less efficiency in the performance horse.

These two classical concepts will be a focus of these demonstration exercises. During groundwork, the horse needs to be encouraged to move from back to front and the handler needs to have a giving and soft hand with constant contact. The horse is encouraged to give flexion by moving into it from behind into soft and giving contact– pulling does not create the flexion.

The exercises are done very slowly with detailed concentration on which muscle groups are involved while maintaining the overall lateral and longitudinal balance of the horse. Great care is taken to prevent overstretching and to minimize reflex muscular tension. According to Clayton, “For suppling exercises the muscle is stretched slowly so the myotatic stretch reflex is minimally activated.”

Licking and chewing during haunches-in work

Haunches-In seen from the side with diagonal leg wraps It is essential to keep the horse moving forward and not

allow him to pivot on the inside front leg

Haunches-In seen from behind Note that there is no pressure on the noseband; the hand

only provides a pivot point


The exercises, a blend of Natural Horsemanship, Biomechanical, and Classical principles, include: disengaging the haunches, backing the horse in circles, stretching the head down, backing with soft feel and collection, leg-yield, shoulder-in, shoulder-out, half-pass, and others.

The demonstration exercises:

Passive suppling exercises

Lowering the horse’s head

Flexion at the poll

Dynamic (slow and weight-bearing) suppling exercises

Disengaging the haunches and variations

Shoulder suppling on the circle

Backing in a circle with soft feel and collection

Variations

Move the horse forward and back one step

Back the horse up one step at a time

Various lateral exercises

Leg-yield

Shoulder –in

Change direction on the circle

Conclusion

Refined Performance Horsemanship groundwork provides the rider with a fresh perspective on how their horse moves and a deeper awareness of any tensions within the horse. This adds an important dimension to the rider’s understanding of the horse’s body and the suppling, strengthening, and conditioning the horse needs to perform well.

Groundwork allows the handler to refine his/her skills and aids. It also allows the horse to find his/her own balance and throughness without the rider’s weight or potential lack of balance.

Groundwork exercises prepare the horse to perform movements in a healthy and efficient way. When the horse is physically and mentally comfortable during the exercises, a positive experience is created for the horse and handler, which leads them both to welcome such work in the future.

These exercises can be used to help school a green or young horse, relax a mount prior to riding, and confirm lateral movements on the ground before attempting them in the saddle.

Strengthen your calm, assertive, empathetic,leading partnership with your horse


Karen Ososki - Refined Performance Horsemanship

Born to a Montana rodeo family, Karen worked on cattle ranches before college. For more than 30 years, she has ridden in various English and western disciplines. Karen has participated in lessons, clinics and shows for 18 years, including 12 years riding jumpers and eventers and more than 6 years in full-time dressage training.

Karen has successfully completed the American Riding Instructors Association ARICP Level III Dressage and Level II Hunter Seat Certifications and is currently working on the Western Certification. She also holds certifications in Daniel Stewart’s Ride Right Program. Karen presently lives and teaches in Bozeman, Montana.

Karen has spent years developing her Refined Performance Horsemanship Program. The program is designed to improve performance and soundness for all disciplines and equine activities. RPH assists the “gentled horse” in attaining success in the performance world.

The core principles for the program focus on helping riders develop a mentally and athletically healthy training program for their equine athletes. The following principles are the foundation blocks from which the program was developed:

• Natural Horsemanship• Classical Principles• Equine and Rider Biomechanics• Discipline specific conditioning and schooling

plans

For more information, visit:KarenOsoski.comfacebook.com/RefinedPerformanceHorsemanship

Love what you do. Love how you do it. Enjoy the journey.

Karen is profiled in the Spring 2012 Riding Instructor Magazine

ARIA recognized her in 2011 as one of the“Top 50 Riding Instructors in America”

Even a Warmblood can chase cows

Karen demonstrating self-carriage with forward reins

Documents

Refined Performance Horsemanship - PATH Intl · 2014-09-13 · through relaxation, suppleness, balance, and biomechanical principles incorporating groundwork exercises” For the