Here is another old journal
entry from playing with Fin on Lead by the Leg:
First off, here is a little
theory about why lead by the leg can be important. As Pat says horses are
naturally claustrophobic and panicaholics. Secondly, their legs are their main
mechanisms of both Flight, AND if they have to Fight. As such they are
generally extremely protective of them. In essence the base of all horsemanship
is teaching the horse that we can control their feet, movement, speed, etc. In
natural horsemanship, we try and do this with as much partnership as possible,
in normal horsemanship... well, I'd rather not go into it, but we have all seen
horses FORCED to submit their feet to the will of predators. Because of this,
lead by the leg exercises are both extremely important, and also extremely
delicate. So make sure before you begin you have true reverence for what you
are asking of your horse... you are asking him to give over both his fighting
and flighting mechanisms. Not only this, in natural horsemanship we are also
asking that the horse do this willingly as a partner :)
This exercise is explained
in much of the Parelli material, so Im not going to go into depth about the
"hows" because their are plenty of ways to find that out. If you do
have questions don't hesitate to ask, and I will try my best to answer your
questions.
Lead by the leg is
essentially a porcupine game. We ask horses to respond in what way we ask by
using a rope around one of their legs. But obviously, we break this down into
as many steps as we can, to make sure the horse feels like a confident learner,
and there is no fear or breaking of will involved. The best way to begin is
making sure you have a solid friendly game with ropes around all 4 of your
horses legs, often times you will notice that even in this step your horse has
slight opposition. As I mentioned before, be aware of, and have reverence for,
how much we are actually asking of horses in this exercise, build slowly, and
don't be afraid to go back a step if you find resistance. Remember as we
develop a partnership with a horse, often times we see brace and opposition
appear in one step of a system, and ACTUALLY the challenge is the step before.
After your friendly game is
solid, make sure you can just softly ask your horse to pick up his foot.
Remember the skeleton, mind, flexion, weight, feet. See if you can get SO good
that you release before your horse actually moves... that you release when he
thinks about moving ;) As Pat would say “Cause him to think about it, then
allow him to do it.” This way, everything you ask of your horse happens in a release!
Remember your phases of porcupine on the rope, and that driving game can be
used to back up porcupine game if your horse is being left-brain and
non-responsive.
The other important thing
to remember is to not release on a brace... but the ideal would be to make the
steps SO small that your horse's answer is always "yes," that they
don't even really think about bracing.
This exercise can be progressed,
as with most things in Parelli, as far as your imagination can take you. Can
you play all 7 games from a lead around one front foot, around one hind foot?
How softly can your horse respond to that porcupine game? Remember all our
porcupine games are related... how soft is your horse on the bridle? Your legs
to go forward? Your seat to stop, and back? Lateral movement? Leading? Tying?
We ask SO much of our horses on an every day basis in terms of their porcupine
game, so take some time to develop it as one of your horses’ strongest skills!
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