By Jennifer Klitzke

The Lesson I didn’t Expect was the Lesson I needed Most

How many of you have trailered in for a lesson or clinic with expectations, only to be caught by surprise? What was your reaction? I’ll tell you about mine…

Ecole de Légèreté (School of Lightness) is for ALL horses

If you have been following Naturally Gaited the last few years, you know how much I respect the teachings of Classical French Dressage Master Philippe Karl and his training philosophy and methodology called the Ecole de Légèreté (School of Lightness).

In the last few years, Ecole de Légèreté clinics have come to the United States to host teacher certification training. This is a long process and for the dedicated few, they become certified Ecole de Légèreté instructors. I am thrilled that the United States is hosting more and more Ecole de Légèreté teacher certification clinics and even more excited that the United States has teachers in training with a handful of certified Ecole de Légèreté instructors.

What I love so much about Ecole de Légèreté, is that it is training “for” the horse. It meets the horse’s needs, not by the demands of the rider. It isn’t a “make” the horse do, it is an “ask” the horse to do philosophy that builds partnership, harmony, and trust between horse and rider. Ecole de Légèreté teaches the rider a balanced riding position and effective use and timing of rein, leg, seat and weight aids to bring the horse into balance, relaxation, rhythm, connection, engagement, straightness and collection over time.

Best of all, Philippe Karl believes that if the training is good, it will work with all horses, not just the talented ones. This includes the upper level movements such as piaffe, passage, and Spanish walk.

And if Ecole de Légèreté benefits all horses, I will add, including naturally gaited horses.

In 2016, while on vacation in Seattle, WA, I learned of Nichole Walters, an Ecole de Légèreté instructor in training. I took a few lessons on her school horse while I was in Seattle, and she got me started on my path.

I spent the first two lessons just working in hand—not exactly what I had in mind.

Was I disappointed? If I am honest, yes. However, these lessons were foundational and exactly what I needed to learn BEFORE I applied these concepts in the saddle, such as following the horse’s head and neck with a light, equal connection to the horse’s mouth. Learning these in-hand exercises made it so much easier for both me and the horse when I began riding.

Ecole de Légèreté is coming to the Midwest

Since 2016, I have been applying what Nichole taught me with her school horses at home with my naturally gaited horses. I have longed to audit and/or ride at an Ecole de Légèreté clinic, but they have been so far away until now.

Ecole de Légèreté is coming to Schmitt Training Center in Somerset, Wisconsin October 2019 and taught by Master Ecole de Légèreté clinician Bertrand Ravoux. He is one of only six Master clinicians in the world (which includes Philippe Karl). What a treat to witness this training in person! Auditing space is limited, so I mailed my check in right away. Nothing will keep me from witnessing Ecole de Légèreté  first hand!

The lessons I didn’t expect

Excited to know of like-minded instructors near me, I trailered both of my naturally gaited horses to Schmitt Training Center to take some lessons with owners Rick and Carrie Schmitt. Before I had arrived, I gave Rick and Kari background on my naturally gaited horses: where we are in our dressage training, what we have been working on, and some of our challenges.

I came to my lessons equipped for Ecole de Légèreté and to work on lateral exercises with my naturally gaited foxtrotting horse Lady and maybe dabble with some counted walk and piaffe with my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse Makana.

I never rode either horse. Instead we worked in hand!

Was I disappointed? If I am honest, yes, I was a little bit disappointed. With over 30 years studying dressage, I thought we would have had some saddle time. Sigh.

Come on Jennifer, dust off your pride and put on your big girl pants! Just how much do you think you can cover in a 45-minute lesson!

I realized that if I had  held on to a disappointed attitude, I would have missed the miracles I had just experienced. And miracles they were!

These lessons weren’t the lessons I had expected, but they were the lessons we needed most.

Meeting the horse where the horse is at

In each 45-minute lesson, Rick, a natural horsemanship trainer, focused on the challenges I mentioned, so each horse received the training they needed, and I receive the education I needed to help my horses where they’re at right now. Each lesson taught me how to more effectively communicate with each horse and meet their individual needs. This is something that I missed by learning on a school horse in Seattle and reading Philippe Karl’s books and watching his videos.

While I receive excellent information through lessons on a school horse and watching videos and reading books that I can apply with my horses, this information isn’t like the first-hand, one-on-one instruction I get in a lesson with my horse. This is a big difference. The former teaches me important concepts. The latter meets me and my horse where we are at.

For me, there is no better way to learn than by taking lessons with my own horse. I LOVE learning. One clinician referred to learning a new approach as adding another tool to your training tool box. In this case, I added two new tools leading to two miracles.

Miracle #1: The secret to establishing contact with a horse that pulls the reins away

My fifteen-year-old naturally gaited foxtrotting horse Lady loves to be ridden on a long floppy rein with no contact, but there is no two-way communication on a long floppy rein. Dressage requires that the horse accepts and follows an even, steady snaffle bit contact and that the rider maintains a steady, light, even connection with the horse through the reins. This also means that the rider remains relaxed in the shoulders, elbows, and hands to FOLLOW the natural head and neck motion of the horse—whether that be following the horse as I direct her to lower her head from a collected walk position to a free walk position or following the natural head and neck motion of the walk, flat walk, running walk, or fox trot.

The challenge I have had with Lady is that each time I take up a light even contact with a snaffle bit, Lady will yank the reins out of my hands after a  few strides. This has developed a herky-jerky bit connection: she’s light for a few steps, and then WONK, she grabs the bit and yanks the reins out of my hands. In anticipation of her doing this, I get tense in my shoulders, arms and hands which aggravates the situation. Lady doesn’t trust my hands so she pulls and I don’t trust that she will accept a light stead contact with the bit so she doesn’t.

So why does Lady yank the bit out of my hands? Maybe someone was rough with her mouth in her first seven years before my friend purchased her from the sale barn? Maybe she likes to be on the forehand and is resisting coming into balance? Or maybe I am not following enough with my hands and Lady doesn’t trust my connection?

I have tried lateral exercises which get Lady light until I turn her into a straight line and then she’s back to yanking the bit out of my hands. I have tried lifting my hands higher to connect with the corners of her lips which are less sensitive, and I have vibrated the reins up whenever she leans on them. This helps her get light for a few steps and then WONK. Here we go again.

I have also tried all types of bits from hollow mouth to regular snaffles with one joint and two joints to curbs. Lady can be ridden on a floppy loose rein in a curb, but that’s not dressage. She needs to learn how to accept a light even contact with a snaffle bit. One person encouraged me to ride her in a twisted wire snaffle, but in my opinion, all a harsh bit does is teach the horse bit avoidance rather than bit acceptance.

Rick showed another way—establishing contact while working in hand. He showed me how to maintain a light, even, steady, following contact with both reins AT ALL TIMES—no more herky-jerky, contact-on-contact-off connection with Lady. Teaching me and Lady how to have a light, even, steady, following contact from the ground will make it so much easier from the saddle.

And Rick is right! The next day, I worked Lady in hand applying everything we learned the day before. Then I got on and we rode with light, even, steady, following contact. She followed the bit in a variety of lengths, and I followed her natural head and neck motion. There was no pulling at a walk. This light, even, steady, following bit connection is essential for a two-way conversation. It is a miracle!

Miracle #2: The secret to redirecting an emotional, insecure and reactive mare to relaxation

My fifteen-year-old naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse Makana can be challenging to ride when there are lots of distractions. Whether it is a plastic bag blowing in the wind, birds darting in and out of the bushes, the amplified sound of an announcer, or being in an indoor arena.

Makana is reactive, emotional, spooky and insecure. She needs a trusted leader—only some days, I feel like I’m riding a keg of dynamite. When she is insecure and reactive, shying, spooking, spinning, and bolting, I become insecure and feel like I need to protect myself from falling off.  (My grandma body doesn’t bounce like it used to.)

The combination of our insecurity just encourages more insecurity—she doesn’t trust that I will keep her safe and I don’t trust that I will survive the ride without injury!

Our lesson made the perfect environment to address Makana’s anxiousness and reactivity. “You can’t teach a nervous horse to stand still,” Rick said. “Instead you can redirect her observant awareness of her environment by engaging her intelligence and directing her to relaxation.”

Rick showed me ways to work with Makana by establishing a light contact with one rein that worked on the outside of her face by the bar of the fulmer snaffle bit. While holding a light touch of the rein and standing in place by her shoulder, I focused my mind on moving her hind foot a step under her body with a simple cluck and as soon as she did, I released her to relaxation.

Engaging the Mind
What was fascinating about this approach was that there was no urging her with my body language or using a whip to get her to step under. She was encouraged to figure it out with her mind and her ability to notice small details. Connecting to her with one rein, visualizing in my mind what I wanted her to do, I used a simple cluck to engage her while I stood still. As soon as she did what I visualized, I released her to relaxation so that she knew that’s what I wanted.

After the one hind leg stepping under, we changed the exercise to a front leg crossing over to a release to relaxation. Then both hind leg and fore leg crossing over a step to a release to relaxation, and finally a rein back to a release to relaxation. All of these exercises utilized the same a one rein connection, no prompting on my part to make her do the exercise, other than clucking and visualizing in my mind, and a release to relaxation as soon as Makana did what I thought.

These exercises utilized Makana’s sensitivity, intelligence and gift for noticing minute details. They rewarded her efforts with relaxation, and established two-way communication between us where she realized I can help her relax in reactive environments.

Within a few minutes through these in-hand exercises, I became the trusted leader Makana needs and I have purposed to become.

The instruction I received from Rick was insightful, timely, and meaningful. He ended my lesson with Makana in teaching her to side pass to the mounting block and stand still. He used the same one rein connection, visualizing, and clucking to engage method that he used with the other exercises. In less than three minutes, Makana knew exactly what Rick meant. My jaw dropped watching Makana side pass to the mounting block and stop. I was humbled to realize how intelligent Makana is, and I am encouraged with new tools to communicate with her to help her relax in distracting environments and develop the trusted partnership I’ve always wanted in every circumstance.

The next day, Makana worked through the in-hand exercises and within minutes she was relaxed. Plus, mounting was a breeze! When I got in the saddle, I did the exact same exercises with a release to relaxation. She was much calmer and less reactive on the woodsy side of the outdoor arena.

So what do these two miracles have to do with Ecole de Légèreté training methodologies. As Rick said, “Natural horsemanship is kind of like preschool. It meets the horse where the horse is at.” For Makana, Rick taught me how to meet her need for safety and trust me to direct her there and for Lady, he taught me how to establish a two-way communication through a light, even, steady contact. Now each horse is in a better place to continue our Ecole de Légèreté (in gait).

For more information about auditing the Ecole de Légèreté (School of Lightness) clinic coming to Somerset, WI and taught by Master Ecole de Légèreté Clinician Bertrand Ravoux, visit www.legerete-usa.com.