Creating healthy biomechanics and stronger partnerships through combining

natural horsemanship principles with the art of dressage...

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

This Month• Student Feedback

• New filly!

• New dates for Spring Intensive

• Progress Report: Atomic

Upcoming Clinics: Clinic schedule: CLICK HERE

June 21-23Finding the Sweet SpotPort Clinton, OhioContact: Mary Ann MoorePhone: 419-341-2372theranch@theranchoutback.com

June 25, 26 Finding the Sweet SpotLindstrom, MNContact: Sally TaylorPhone: 612.616.2550email: zazz@aol.com

June 27-29 Upward Spiral of SuccessLindstrom, MNContact: Sally TaylorPhone: 612.616.2550email: zazz@aol.com

July 16-19Finding the Sweet SpotBridgewater, NHContact: Brenda Ladd603-217-0040 H603-715-0253 Claddfarmllc@me.com

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Welcome back to the Temenos...

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.

Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline.

When you have both firmly under your belt, that's real power."Clint Eastwood

Auditors Welcome At All Clinics!

Karen Rohlf

June 2010

Student Feedback

Dear Karen Many thanks for coming out to Aus-tralia to give us antipodeans a taste of Dressage Naturally. It was won-derful to gain instruction and insight into the world of performance and finesse from the perspective of it being an ‘art form’ rather than a ‘competition’ to succeed at. Your teaching skills are wonderful, you created a lovely secure envi-ronment for us to feel receptive to learn as well as confident enough to push ourselves beyond our usual comfort levels. Your passion for horses was almost palpable and your handling of equines and hu-mans a joy to watch and, be a part of. I’ve tarried somewhat with this thankyou note and I apologise. I’ve been wrestling with some concepts exposed throughout the course and trying to formulate them into a suc-cessful working regime with my young filly. The concepts pertinent to my pon-derings is the balance between, lov-

ing and respecting the horse, BUT being prepared to ‘Do What It Takes’ to get the desired response. I’ve found that this is very closely linked with how honest one is with oneself. This in turn is intricately linked with how happy my horse truly is. I never knew I lied so much – to myself that is, especially in the saddle. I ask my horse for 100%, she gives 70% and I think – oh that’s pretty good she is only young, and accept it. Or I make excuses for her, the ground is slippery, or per-haps she didn’t really feel my leg the first time. Or worst still I was wishy washy with my intentions. Since your course, I’ve ceased to lie, make excuses or be unclear with my intentions. Also I’m prepared ‘do what it takes’ to obtain the desired response, especially when riding. As a result, there have been some fairly unpleasant moments but …… happily, oh so happily, lots of light responsiveness and resultant fun for us both. To be honest it has been a tough couple of weeks at times, hence my tardiness in writing – I’ve been waiting for it all to be sunshine and roses to report my success. However I’ve realised that my filly,

being so confident and dominant will continue to test me, and as I am learning it doesn’t have to look perfect or pretty.  Thankfully, I’m now able to report the ‘unpleasantness’ is definitely abating, and she is happily moving forward with energy from mere sug-gestions …… most of the time ! So once again, many thanks Karen, the information and experience I obtained from your course has had an enormous impact on my horsemanship. I realise I’ve only just peeked inside the 'Dres-sage Naturally World' however I’m most keen to explore further. I’m very much looking forward to your next visit. Warm Regards Nell

Hi Nell,

Thanks so much for taking the time to write such a  thoughtful note. Yes, I think often those of us in the natural horse-manship style get caught up in a miscon-ception that all must be rainbows and smiles all the time... but nature isn't like that. Process isnʼt like that. If you observe horses in a herd, they aren't like that. But for sure they are clear and donʼt lie, and they absolutely live in the moment. In this way they are excellent models for us.

The important thing is to decide what questions to ask our horse, or what pic-ture to expect them to match... And know that we can feel free to change or adapt depending our picture depending on the moment. So do ask yourself during the more difficult moments: "Is what I am ask-ing fair, reasonable and possible?"

Please do keep me posted on your pro-gress, but it sounds like you are on your way. You may enjoy getting a copy of the book "Is your horse a rock star" by Dessa Hockley You can find it on my More Re-sources page on my website.. can help you to understand your filly's character even more. (continued on next page)

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Nell and her filly at my clinic. I was so impressed by Nellʼs abilities, especially her ability to keep a smile on her face even when her horse got ʻbigʼ. Nell described her problems with getting the mare to energize, but as we found, there was plenty of energy just below the surface, just not always going in the direction we would like!PHOTO: Dana Rasmussen

Anyway, it was a pleasure having you in my class and I hope I see you again! Please feel free to email anytime.

My Best,

Karen

Dear Karen,

I see you're back home and back with your horses - must be great, I bet you missed them! Hopefully memories of Australia are happy and will bring you back here soon. If there's anything I can do to assist that, please let me know...

Just wanted to thank you for a very uplifting week in Young. Your book and DVDs are fantastic re-sources and probably contain most of what you taught us, how-ever some of us need to see it for ourselves to get a better under-standing how to combine the ele-ments - get the measures andtiming right, and so on. And I think, get 'the vibe', and that for mewas most important; the love and respect for horses - and people, even though we probably test your patience more than horses ever could!

I also learnt that I can use some of my pre-Parelli experience withdressage without somehow feeling guilty, although am aware that it's all too easy to slip into using the hands too much, or plugging on for too long with something when short and focussed is far better. Unlearning takes time and effort!!

The posture exercises were great, and the top/bottom half independ-ent movement a physical break-through (personally!)...experienced

great balance and anchored-ness at times, from which body parts could have independent move-ment. It's so bleeding obvious, I just hadn't quite experienced it in this way! Perhaps I've been bend-ing in the waist before, losing that core balance.

In a strange twist of cause and ef-fect, it has improved my founda-tion in ways a levels course wouldn't have! Perhaps because I quickly realised where some of the bigger holes were. This is where the next few months' work for me and Alfie lies, but I'll also be play-ing a lot more with the relaxation exercises and finding that sweet spot of R+E+B. Nothing happens too fast here though, as I'm often away during the weeks and wehave a farm to tend to.

OK, time to stop this ramble before you tire of it...

Again, thank you so much, it was an absolute pleasure to meet you and Dana, and I hope we'll see you soon again. Angela

Karen,

Well it has been an amazing couple of weeks since your inspiring course and your newsletter reminded me of so many things. Thank you for all the knowledge and  insights you shared with us over the 5 days, it has been awesome to be able to begin to share some of it with my horses since com-ing home.

I am so excited with the changes I have been able to make for my horses, I just had to tell you!

 When I started working on D, N in January I had amazing results with

Rowley and in my quest for more in-formation I went to a riding instructor to improve my riding. As I mentioned to you after 3 lessons everything had fallen to pieces for Rowley and me. So after giving myself a hard time about it since then and trying to un-derstand where it went wrong I real-ised this morning at the end of the day it is all experience and I have been given an excellent opportunity to improve my foundation and that it really is fine line. What I realised was one of the things that made it so diffi-cult to draw that line was the lan-guage I hear you using and the lan-guage the riding instructor used. Not coming from a dressage back ground at all, I was hearing the same lan-guage but what I wasnʼt understand-ing was how different the techniques in applying that language are. Now I have experienced both, it is of course clearer.

So I was left with a mess, which I had created, and for the first time in a long time I was having real difficulty com-ing up with an answer. I knew I had to back off because I always have to with Rowley, but I had no idea how far. When I saw you do the relaxation exercises with Rowley I must admit I had tears in my eyes, because I could see how much confusion I had caused him and how much tension there was.  I have stayed with riding him in a halter and it has taken me the 3 weeks since the course to work out how much I need to back off and how to have those conversations while riding and as soon as he did, he came through for me and he just seem to balance himself, move for-ward and say to me “I can do this!”  He feels so proud to ride and we are now doing all sorts of fun things that we learnt on the course and even did a few circles this week and it has all held together, no more bucking, no more spooking, we have worked on a big hole in our foundation and are moving on! (now I am teary again)

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 I also want to tell you about another amazing experience, which is so mind blowing for me that I have to tell you. I have an Arabian/warmblood mare who is now 6 yrs old. She is very dominant, very ex-troverted and was very quiet. A cou-ple of years ago I had a few rides on her but decided to send her away to be started properly. She came back very dominant and very scared, and  very dangerous, I have struggled with her ever since and have only rid-den her on and off with little success. She came back from being started a ferocious bucker and would bare her teeth at my leg while riding.

 When I came home from your course I started the micro yields with her and got some beautiful relaxation, it was all very soft and dreamy. After a few days I saddled her, there was no bucking until I asked her up to a trot. My usual tactics, out of desperation, where to shut her down or send her on, I was really out of answers. But this time I walked up to her, put my hand on her belly and said in my best Karen Rohlf voice “Why have you got so much tension in your belly” and held my hand there until she relaxed, she has not bucked since she has shown me how to help Rowley by showing me how a re-laxed, energized and balanced horse should feel like and how I can be a better person for them. (Teary again)

So I just wanted to say again, Thank You. I canʼt even find the words to express how grateful I am for your help with my Rowley and all my horses and how this has changed and will continue to change everything I do.

 Anne

PS My daughter Lola asked me to show her how to do some of what we learnt on the course. She loved the ʻQueen of the Worldʼ exercise and showed me how to use body lan-

guage to ride in connection with the reins!

She asked if I would send this very short video on to you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSxd3U-_FPo

(note from Karen; This video is sooo cute. Watch this 8 year old do transi-tions from stretch to riding in connec-tion with the reins on her pony.)

Hi Karen,

I had a huge success with Rowley this weekend in our second dres-sage test. It started off a disaster and we ran so late that I was hav-ing my gear check when the rider before me was doing their test. It was freezing cold and Rowley was super wired and I was so ready to scratch. Anyway we got in the

arena, with no warm up and did the first half with Rowley totally strung out, head and neck in the air and all the energy coming up through his back in the most negative way, he did a big shy and nearly put me over his shoulder in the first, it was like riding in quicksand, it was seri-ously yucky! There was no way I could ask for anything to do with

his head or even his body. Then he started to blow, relax, move forward, start thinking and it started to come together and look for a good place to be! It was amazing I felt him really start to look for it within himself, thinking about it now I realize that if I had added to his stress by messing with his head (which of course the judge said I should do) how far backwards we would have goneagain and at the same time I real-ise how much progress we have made for him to start to look for that by himself!!! THANK YOU! :)

Of course your newest student did an amazing job given the rush start to the day!

Anyway riding is over for us for the winter now, so I just wanted to letyou know that without your amaz-ing knowledge and instruction Rowley and I are moving towards achieving what I thought was look-ing impossible for us. Sothanks again! :)

Anne

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Anne and Rowley

Anneʼs daughter, Lola

NEWS

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Girl Power!

As you may know, this winter I welcomed a 2 yr old Andalusian filly named Natilla to the Temenos (Pictured above). She is doing great, her character is really coming out. She is high up in the pecking order in the herd, so I am on alert for her dominant tendencies, but she is also very curious and friendly. Similar to Ovation, she is a low energy Left brain extrovert. She is going to be quite an impressive size, unusual for the breed.So there I was, minding my own business, happily content with the number of equine partners I have... Then I found out about this special individual shown below. She is 1 year old, her mother is a Kiger mustang/Andalusian. The Anda-lusian is Gaucho III a fabulous Grand Prix dressage horse. Kiger mustangs have been genetically tested, and were found to be one of the most pure herds of Spanish mustangs existing in the wild today. The fillyʼs sire is Sandro Hit (Oldenburg), currently one of the most desirable stallions for dressage in the world.

So you can understand my difficulty in passing her up. It didnʼt hurt that she was born about 10 minutes from my house. I have named her Solana, which is a Spanish name related to ʻsunshineʼ. She is very feminine and her color is called ʻsooty buckskinʼ. She is just settling in now, so I will wait patiently for her real self to show! Fun Fun!

Photos above: Dana Rasmussen

New Dates for a Spring 2011 10 week Intensive!I have had such a good response about the 10 week Dressage, Naturally Inten-sive, that I am going to do another course in the Spring of 2011.

For full description of the course, please go to my website it can be found under the Education tab at the top menu (or Click Here).

I still have applications from the Fall 2010 dates that didnʼt make it in, and I want to allow others, who didnʼt apply for the Fall 2010 to have a chance to apply... So I will accept applications until August 31, 2010, then on Sept 1, I will take the strongest applicants (based on the prerequisites), and do a random drawing. From there I will need to make sure that I have enough people with their own horses (I aim for 3 with their own and 2 that need to lease horses). I hope this seems fair to all. It is just too hard to choose!

Please contact me at Karenrohlf@dressagenaturally.net if you have any questions. For those of you who have already applied for the Fall and have told me to consider you again for the Spring, donʼt worry, I have your appli-cations and you will be in the drawing!

And donʼt forget, Oct 3 and dec 11, 2010 are the auditor days for the Fall Intensive.

Click Here for more information

Results in Harmony DVD #6 is in the works, I promise!As usual I under-estimate the time it will take to get a new DVD out after it is filmed. (Positive thinking to a fault). In my mind, once it is filmed, we got it... Itʼs done, right? You think I would learn by now. I have a pretty good excuse, there was a 5-week trip to Australia that hap-pened right after the filming, and upon my return, the editors were having trouble wrapping up another project. BUT...

They have officially started working on it and I got a little peek at it today. This one will have a ton of information about the conversations necessary to embark on

the Upward Spiral of Success as well as an enactment of one of my favorite analogies, with the help of 9 clinic partici-pants who happened to be at the ʻwrong place at the wrong timeʼ and were invol-untarily volunteered! They did an amazing job and will soon be famous! ;-)

So stay patient, it is in the works!

Want to see even more video of me and my students?We are working on a project to bring you footage of me teaching students. I have heard your requests to see more of the process as well as to see fellow students. I am really excited about this new internet Dressage, Naturally Video Classroom I am working on. Stay tuned!

Don’t even think about play-ing friendly game with me about this one.Ever have something happen when you are all by yourself and you are really glad no one was there to see it? Or after it happens you think about how ridiculous that must have looked... I had that hap-pen the other day.

I had my 2 yr old, Natilla up in the barn. She was practicing standing still by her-self in the grooming area, picking up her feet, and generally being a wonderful partner. I thought I would take a saddle pad that was drying there and rub her with it, do some Friendly Game... She sniffed it, probably wondered how horse sweat smell got on the thing, but was otherwise not very impressed. I rubbed her all over and that was no problem so I started swinging it up over her, down her hindquarters, down her neck and legs... Rhythmically, relaxed. She stood quietly while gently playing with her lead rope and watching Carlos, the chihuahua trot by.

This Friendly Game suddenly became much much more challenging.... For me. What I didnʼt know was there was a BIG PLUMP Florida roach on the pad... Other Floridians will relate... It was one of those couple-inch sized ones.

Anyone who knows me knows I DONʼT DO BUGS. Snakes, no problem, I used to have an 11 foot python. Rats, no problem, had those as pets, too once. Even bats are kinda cute. But bugs... No.

So when, in mid swing, this giant attack roach threw himself towards my chest and got momentarily caught on my shirt, the flailing that ensued was of a style that only a professional, and experienced bug-a-phobe could do.

Although to my credit, it was only about 60% of my full display... You know, had to be there for my horse. ;-)

Luckily my jump, screech, mad double-handed flicking of the roach off my shirt (like some kind of psychotic hamster on a wheel) while doing a human piaffe im-pressed her about as much as the saddle pad... Not much.

This was good, because if she hadnʼt been ok I would have had to keep repeat-ing it rhythmically perhaps with a little ap-proach and retreat until she was ok. Now wouldnʼt that have been a site?!

Imagine if Natilla wanted to improve her human: She may have thought she needed to get someone to throw roaches at me rhythmically, in a relaxed manner, perhaps while yawning, and with a little approach and retreat... Starting with smaller roaches, then gradually increas-ing the size of them. Lucky for me she doesnʼt think that way.

I once had someone try to cure me of my distrust of automatic doors by holding me in the opening of an elevator and letting the doors close on me repeatedly, and rhythmically. I didnʼt like it, I still donʼt trust those doors (youʼll never catch me run-ning up to a subway car that is getting ready to leave and sticking my arm in there), and I donʼt like that person so much any more.

Some situations are improved simply through better management.

I am happy to wait for the next subway train or elevator, and I now check items thoroughly for bugs before I go flinging them around.

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Progress Report: Atomic

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Atomic is coming along nicely... getting more power-ful and relaxed. It has been quite interesting to teach this reactive National Show horse how to use his back.. He especially reminds me everyday how vital it is to create a positive, relaxed state of mind in order allow his body to move properly. He also reminds me that that positive state can change in a heartbeat. He is starting to wear a ʻsoft focusʼ expression now when we do dressage; Ears are neither pinned back nor pricked forward looking for an escape route!We are at a stage now where we can begin our Upward Spiral of Success by doing gymnastic patterns. He now accepts all the aids (when we are in a good state of mind!). The challenge is if he shows some objection, to diagnose whether it is due to: 1. Leadership issues (“Hey, whatʼs Ovation doing over there?” or “Rider? What rider? Youʼre not talking to me, are you?”) or is it: 2. Physical lack of coordination (“Hey, youʼre turning me the wrong way at the canter, I canʼt keep my balance doing that!”) or: 3. Lack of understanding (“Hang on, what do you mean you donʼt want me to slam on the brakes when I do any sort of hint of a down transition?”)Those are all different scenarios with different solutions. For scenario 1. It is a leadership issue and the rules are: If you donʼt pay at-tention you lose rank. If you are paying attention and accept me I wonʼt pick on you, but I will surprise you or ask you a question if you are not paying attention. For 2. it is about building either strength, stamina or coordination, doing the move slowly, deliberately or just a few steps at a time, in a way that he will be stronger or more coordinated over time. For 3. it would likely be doing things in a way that helps explain to him the desired difference. If he is so ʻgoodʼ at halting that he slams on the brakes when I do a trot to walk transi-tion I can simply do some trot-walk-trot transitions. Every time he shuts down in the trot-walk I change my mind and go up to the trot again until I have a little more of a clutch, where I can down-shift (where the rpmʼs increase) to slow down instead of just throwing it into ʻparkʼ. He will start to do down transitions in a way that he is still ready to go back up a gait. in dressage-land this is part of what is called ʻthinking forwardʼ even in a down transition.He has the basics of all the lateral positions but cannot yet maintain his cadence. That is quite normal at this stage, so i just need to put the investments in the gymnastic bank and he will become stronger soon enough. His gaits have developed enough pushing power to do some lengthenings, so I just keep checking on those; doing short numbers of strides just to see if it is in there, and then come back to check we still have balance. He is quite capable of counter canter, but I have to be very clear in my mind when I do it, because he is a thinker, and if he sees the turn coming up in the ʻwrongʼ direction he gets worried. For him it was easier to pick up the counter canter than to turn into it. Now that he understands he can do it, I am able to turn. It was a mental problem... Something to be improved with cleverness not insistence! Canter-walks are just in the developing stage; it is still too easy for him to just plop out of the canter right when he needs to carry and lower himself down, but again that is strength, which requires some time to build. I make sure I do several of them each ride in short sessions (like doing sets of repetitions in the gym). Walk to canter is very easy for him. I have started Spanish walk. I was delayed in this because he was too aggressive with his front end. But now we have enough part-nership and understanding of who the leader is to do it.It is coming together. More and more days the stars align in a way that we have really positive dressage rides. There is the saying that if the horse isnʼt getting more beautiful, you are doing something wrong, and I am really happy with how his body is developing. It is hard to believe from these photos that he is only 14.3 (and I am 5ʼ10”). He can carry himself so ʻbigʼ!... We, of course mix up our dressage with enough liberty and adventure to keep his mind as beautiful as his body and his life interesting! My little King in Training!