Riding with Master Horseman Mike Bridges

Mike riding 16 year old Dusty

Mike Bridges is an internationally renown California-style Vaquero horseman-stockman who has made a living for over 60 years on the back of a horse. His deep understanding of biomechanics in horses as well as humans makes him a clear and precise teacher. He is able to look at a horse’s movement and correct the rider’s position and technique. i first met Mike in 2009 but it is only in his latest UK clinic, Seeking Refinement, in November 2016 that i was able to ride under his instructions.

i refer to individuals like Mike as individuals with a true level of meditation on the subject they teach. True meditative state is very real. It includes sincere enthusiasm which leads to ever-seeking knowledge through many years of experience establishing a solid understanding of what works and what does not.
When i  asked Mike where home is for him when back in the States, is answer was simple. ‘My home is where I park my lorry.’ Mike teaches all over the world but whilst in the States he travels with his 4 horses: An 8 year old, a 4 year old, a 3 year old and a 2 year old. ‘They are all brothers’ said Mike.

The following is a synopsis of what i learnt during this superb clinic with Mike.

A good cow horse
In the introduction section of his book The Art of Making a California-Style Vaquero Bridle Horse, Mike writes:

‘The Vaquero-style bridle horse is one that is ridden in one hand for all work, and controlled without fingers through the reins. His primary job is to handle cattle, which includes herding, driving, cutting and sorting in a gate. In the roping of cattle, he serves as the engine to pull or as the anchor to hold. At all times, he should be a pleasure to ride.

A bridle horse should be very light in the face and throughout the body, being obedient to the slightest of signals from the rider. It takes 5 to 8 years to build what Vaqueros call a ‘straight up bridle horse’. This time is necessary to build the strength throughout the horse’s back and the rest of his body so he is able to work in a collected frame for long periods of time.

It is the training that makes the bridle horse, not the pedigree or type. When you see one is like watching poetry in motion in its movements, with lightning response to the rider’s demands.’

i asked Mike what, in his opinion, makes a good cow horse? A horse which is receptive to the slightest movements, he answered. The rest is good training.

Leg of the rider & its influence on the horse’s vertebra
The lower part of the leg below the rider’s knee influences the 15^th , 16^th, 17^th & 18^th thoracic vertebras whereas the upper part of the rider’s leg influences the 14^th and the forward thoracic vertebras towards the neck of the horse.
The 14^th thoracic vertebra is situated approximately under the middle of the saddle seat.

Weight distribution
Almost always put the weight slightly in the sense of direction you are going. For example, if trotting to the right, the weight should be slightly heavier on the right cheek. There is an exemption for canter departure. In canter departure, we put more weight in the opposite side of the departure. For example for a right canter depart, put a tad more weight on the left cheek.    

The Shoulder-in

The shoulder-in is a lateral movement working on the suppleness and balance of the horse by engaging the hind quarters and loosening the shoulders. The horse travels on 3 tracks where the inside hind leg and outside fore leg are on the same track. The horse has a slight bend in the neck bending around the inside rider’s leg.

In Shoulder-in, my inside leg is asking two things. a) create the bend of my horse about the 14^th vertebrae further & b) to place (in the case of a cow horse) or hold (in classical dressage) the hind quarters on the track. Always aiming at lessening the cue and once the horse travels as asked relax the leg. The outside leg drives the horse forward.
My outside rein acts as the wall. It must be still and strong but it softens once the horse is in place. My inside rein is loose creating the bend by letting the inside shoulder in.
I am sitting straight in the saddle.

In shoulder-in, once the horse is engaged, the front end lightens and so do the reins. Be aware of the balance of the horse and the evenness of the reins.

The Shoulder-out

is the reverse of the shoulder-in.

The Leg-yield ( La session in French)
The leg-yield is a lateral movement in which the horse travels forward and sideways looking in the opposite side of travel. His spine is straight but his pole and jaw are looking away from the direction of travel. The horse’s inside fore crosses in front of the outside fore leg.

On the R rein, the horse yields to my L leg. My R leg and R rein are open allowing the horse to move sideways. My L rein incites a L flexion away from a R travel.


The reason the leg-yield is easier than the half-pass is because it is easier for the horse to find balance whilst traveling in one direction and looking in the opposite direction.

Exercise – Shoulder-out, leg yield, turn around, small circle At the trot, shoulder-out then leg-yield then leg-yield at the walk then turn-around then leg-yield at the trot then leg-yield at the walk then small circle.

The Half-pass (L'appuye in French)

The half-pass is the same as the leg-yield except that the horse is looking in the direction of travel.

On the R rein, my R rein establishes the R flexion.
The half-pass is a more difficult exercise for the horse than the leg-yield.

The Trot

Straight or other ways look for the stillness of the horse's head. The more engage the horse, the stiller the head is. Put feel in each finger but keep the hands still.

Almost Pas De Deux with Clare riding Rebel

Turn & Stop
A reining horse turns & stops but a cow horse never turns & stops. A cow horse turns and go somewhere. A stop only takes place from a walk. Don’t trot and turn. Walk and turn.
How far do we want the horse to look into the turn? We want the horse to look inside the turn but not too much. Whilst turning the horse’s outside fore crosses in front of the inside fore.

As a schooling tip, Mike reminded us to work on our back-up often and regularly. First you want distance and fluid steps and it does not need to be straight. The fluidness of the steps is very important as that develops along with the distance it will be easy to straighten the horse later. Do not try for speed until the horse can back straight with balance. As the back-up improves the balance of your canter will improve and your stops will get better!

Responsiveness
An analogy Mike gave regarding what he is looking in terms of responsiveness from his horses. When the phone rings, says Mike ‘I expect my horse to answer the phone not to listen to the phone ring’.

Exercise 1 – Shoulder-out, Leg yield, trot, canter

At the trot – K to V , Shoulder-out – V x R, Leg yield – R to M, straight trot – L Canter at M

Exercise 2 – Shoulder-out, half-pass, trot, canter

At the trot – K to V , Shoulder-out – V x R, Half-pass – R to M, straight trot – L Canter at M

Exercise 3 – Shoulder-out, Leg-yield or half-pass, Shoulder-in

At the trot – K to V, shoulder-out – V x R, Leg-yield or Half-pass – at R, shoulder-in

Exercise 4 – Mixing Shoulder-in, Bends, Walk & Trot

Walking or trotting on the L rein – B to M, Shoulder-in – At M create a wall with my R rein and R leg and drive the L hind with my inside leg – Just past the corner, I aim to be in the same shoulder-in position as I was before taking the corner – Trot shoulder-in up to the next corner, keeping the shoulder-in positon – Past the corner, I should be in shoulder-in again – H to E, shoulder-in.

Up & down transitions looking for lightness

6 strides of canter – a few strides at the walk – 6 strides of canter – walk and so on. We are looking for smoothness and connection. The horse is collected. This is not a lope. We are looking for lightness in response and lightness in movement. Once these two are achieved, a horse becomes light. Beware that the first canter feels good but the subsequent ones feels heavy as the horse is falling on his shoulders.

Counter-bent circle

On the L hand circle, the horses head bends to the R – Take the outside rein to the horse’s R shoulder so that the horse’s shoulder can move – Drive with the outside leg – The inside leg stays neutral.

Then travel straight, then change hand.

Back Bone Stop
This is a good stop to learn particularly for reining and cow horses. The idea is to teach the horse the stop cue with the help of the cavalleti. Once the horse recognizes the cue, the cavalleti is not necessary anymore. The aim is to have a neat and immediate stop to the cue.

Start by trotting or cantering your horse around going over a cavalleti for about 20 times.

A length away from the pole, I hardened my hands without pulling on the reins, rotate my pelvis as if I am bearing my spine in the ground. If the horse stops, let him rest for 20 second then take him away without crossing the pole. If, however, he does not stop on cue and crosses the pole, turn him around and rush him back to the starting position and repeat the exercise.

Autan's 1st ride in the hackamore
If there is one horseman to ask for guidance, it is Mike. He is the expect of the hackamore. On the 3 last days of the clinic, Autan was in the hackamore. Throughout the clinic, Mike and Marci helped me a lot with my hand and finger positions as well as feeling the horse through the mecate reins. Autan responded very well despite having not ridden in the hackamore for 3 years.

One of the reason Mike’s clinic was such a success for me is because the improvement in my riding was immediate. The feel i got from my pony was instantly lighter and better. i would recommend anyone who seeks improvement and refinement to ride with Mike. 

Marci, Mike, cat & Autan

Power & Care with His Holiness The Dalai Lama

It was in Brussels during the 31^st Mind & Life conference that i went to listen to world experts in the fields of natural science, anthropology, psychology, ethology, ecology, endocrinology, neuro-science, economics and the world’s contemplative traditions talking about POWER & CARE.

The panel of speakers was of the highest order. It was refreshing to listen to well researched speakers as opposed to gobbledygook based on Google search from people who tap into their friend’s emotions as a reliable source of information.

‘’One of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites, polar opposites (…) Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.’’ So said Martin Luther King Jr. in August 1967.

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Professor Frans B.M. De Waal, PH.D. (Prof. of Psychology in Emory University, USA; Director of Living Links Centre at the Yerkes National Primate Research Centre in Emory University, USA; Distinguished Professor, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands; Biologist & Primatologist) who has been studying chimpanzees for many decades started the dialogue talking about chimp politics.

In chimp politics, power emerges through body language in the same way it emerges in humans. From an ethological perspective, there are no differences between the body language of primates and humans.

Prof. De Waal defines empathy as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another being.

In a short film, we see a female chimp bite a baby chimp. The baby screams and cries of pain until the alpha chimp comes to console it. Consolation is an act of empathy. Further studies have shown that in chimps and human alike, the level of empathy is lower in orphans than individuals who have been mother-reared.

From a power & care viewpoint, alpha males are a protector of the weak. They will stop two babies fighting; if not, their mothers will start fighting. Subsequently, alpha males are also the first provider of consolation making them peace-makers-in-chief and consolers-in-chief. The neuroscience in rodents and primates is similar to the neuro-science in humans hence this is also true in humans.

In another experiment, two alpha males live together. In moments of crisis, we observe that both males resolve conflict quicker when they are mutually dependent on food. So mutual dependency increases prevention of conflict and war. On that very point of the dialogue, Prof De Waal mentioned NATO. After the 2^nd world war, the EU (NATO was created by the EU) was created out of mutual-dependency initially between France and Germany to prevent a 3^rd WW happening. This is a profound basic understanding which the UK has failed to understand. After this explanation, the audience applauded somehow in pity, agreement and disbelief

Body language anyone!

Following from this perspective, His Holiness added: Buddha encouraged people not to take his words for the truth. He invites investigation, scepticism and open mindedness. We have just seen with chimps that love, consolation and empathy bring peace. This has nothing to do with religion. Human beings are weak physically compared to lions and elephants and yet they start wars due to ill-mindedness and lack of empathy.

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Professor EM. Sarah Blaffer HRDY (Prof. emerita, university of California-Davis, USA; Anthropologist) carried on the dialogue from an evolutionary anthropological perspective.

When a baby chimp is born, its mother holds it tight and always close to her for the first 6 months of its life. With human birth however, the scenario is different. A human baby will be handled from birth by an array of different people as well as by the mother. The mid-wife, the father of the child, the siblings, other members of the family and friends will all be given the opportunity to hold and interfere with the baby. This has to do with the trust the mother has for other caretakers. The chimp female has none whilst the woman has some, in some cases a lot. From an evolutionary view point, children who have been subjected to most care by different caretakers by the age of 1 will have an increased likelihood of survival beyond the age of 3. And just as a side note, it takes 13 million calories to raise a child until he/she can produce as much as he/she can take.

Furthermore, having a multitude of caregivers in childhood is correlated with an enhanced capacity to take into account multiple perspectives later on in adulthood. Multiple perspectives increase cognitive development. Over generations these children will be favoured by Darwin’s evolutionary concepts.

In terms of brain sizes, 2 million years ago, the brain of a chimp was 450cc. Later on, the Homo Erectus’s brain grew to 900cc. The Homo Sapiens’s brain of today measures 1,500 cc. From a survival and evolutionary perspective, relying on mothers and women are of upmost importance.

But fathers are also sensitive to childcare. Caring fathers show psychological changes in their behaviours. From an endocrinological perspective, changes in hormone production occur also. In caring fathers, the level of prolactin (hormone best known, usually in women, for producing milk) increases, testosterone level decreases and the level of oxytocin (social bonding hormone, usually associated with sexual reproduction, childbirth & breast feeding) increases.

A change in hormones also occurs when allo-parenting (eg. Grand-parenting).

In this dialogue, Prof. Blaffer, showed that women have immense power in the way we ultimately care from one to another, that major changes in hormone production occur whilst caring for one another, that care is a major contributor to the growth in human brains and last but not least that testosterone can also play a role in the display of greater caring behaviour. Powerful stuff!

Prof. Blaffer lives in California where she and her husband combine

habitat restoration and growing walnuts.

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Prof. Johan Rockstrom (Executive Director, Stockholm Resillience (Resilience) Center; Prof. in Environmental Science, Stockholm University, Sweden) is an internationally recognized scientist on global sustainability issues.

First and foremost, Prof. Rockstrom started his dialogue by saying that His Holiness’s call for power and care has a strong scientific support.

We have wrongly based our assumption that we are a small world living on a big planet. We have entered the age of anthropocene. Anthropocene denotes the current geological age viewed as the period during which human activity has become the dominant influence on the environment and this denotation is built on facts:

-Up to 1990, we saw no major changes to our environment. Since then we see massive changes occurring under our eyes. i won’t enumerate them here because we all know them. But next time you hear someone say that global warming is a fantasy just fall on them like a ton of bricks!

-Exponential rise in killing living organism (vegetation & sentient beings)

            -Great acceleration of species extinction

-We have reached a 3 degree Celcius variation in the ambient temperature. Despite the Climate Change Convention of Paris advocating a 2C variation, scientific studies show that an harmonious stable planet depends on no more than a 1C variation

His Holiness’s message has long been speaking of respect for our environment. One small change in the way each of us go about using natural resources may make a small difference at the end of the day but a difference none the less. But a daily small difference for the rest of our lives would make a huge difference. Moreover, we will teach others by our good action and a snowball effect will touch the 7 billon of us on this planet to practise power and care.

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Professor Dr Alexandra M. Freund (Prof. of Psychology, University of Zurich, Switzerland) spoke from a motivational psychological perspective explaining that humans are equipped with different ‘motives’ that influence our behaviour and interaction with others. It is necessary to apply power to create these motives.

When we think of people of power, we often think of negative power (Hitler) but less often of people of positive power (Gandhi). Let’s look at what happens when we assign power to people.

The dark/negative sides of power are: less attention are paid to others, decreased consideration of other’s perspectives, increase in objectivisation of others and using others as a mean to achieve one’s goal, increased corruption, decreased willingness to help others, decreased trust & increased cynicism and decreased desire for inter-personal harmony.

The bright/positive sides of power are: less stress, increased social resilience after exclusion, increased ability to infer others’ thoughts and feelings, increase in social network, increased subjective well-being, decreased loneliness, fosters authenticity and therefore increases happiness. And finally, power can increase altruism and care for others.

Prof. Freund went on to say that part of our problem is if we see ourselves as powerless and insignificant we will give up on the idea of caring, altruism and compassion.

Nelson Mandela

Mahatma Gandhi

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The dialogue carried on with Professor DR Markus Heinrichs (Dept of Psychology, Laboratory for Biological and Personality Psychology, Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University of Freiburg, Germany) ‘s perspective on the biology of care and social hormones.

The hormones most associated with care and power are oxytocin and testosterone respectively.

The production of oxytocin in babies starts in the baby’s brain. It then passes into the baby’s blood stream allowing milk extraction. Oxytocin increases eye contact, trust, control of stress and social interaction. Further research also suggests that oxytocin fosters altruism only towards in-group members. Hence parents who can produce higher level of oxytocin increase their ability to care for their own children.

Cortisol is the hormone associated with stress. Let’s look at different scenarios triggering the production of cortisol in men and women. The following is hilarious! And in my case, it has brought a new level of understanding to the reasons why i tend to leave my husband at home where i know stress will be part of an event i am going to.

The bar chart below shows what happens to the cortisol's production when men and women enter a room for a test.

Scenario 1 - When alone & under stress, a man produces more cortisol than a woman.

Scenario 2 - Each individual is allowed to bring a person of the opposite sex with them in the room for support. For both they stress less therefore the cortisol is less. The cortisol for the man is still higher than for the woman.

Scenario 3  - Each individual is allowed to bring their spouses!!!!!!!(assuming heterosexual couple) 

The graph above is called the 'touch effect' where the cortisol level is monitored when a woman is under stress.

The red line shows the cortisol distribution when a woman is under stress and she is alone.

The grey line shows the cortisol distribution when the woman is supported by her husband in a verbal manner! Oooops

The blue line shows the cortisol distribution when the woman is supported by her husband. But this time the husband gives a neck massage and he is quiet! 

I laugh then and i am still laughing out loud now!!!!

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Professor DR Tania Singer (Director, Department of Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science, Leipzig, Germany) talked about data based on the concept of plasticity.

Recent findings in neuroscience have suggested that altruism and compassion can be developed through brain plasticity (malleability is another word to explain) and increase pro-social behaviour.

To state the obvious, training practices change the way we think. To live a life without training the grey matter does not increase compassion. Becoming wiser by the pure fact of growing older does not happen. All of us who own horses and who are seriously active in understanding them know that time on an untrained horse gives you just the same green horse just older.

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Prof. Richard C. Schwartz, PH.D. (Developer of the Internal Family Systems Model, Teaching Associate, Department of Psychiatry, Harward (Harvard) Medical School, USA) explains that each of us strive for power, have a tendency to think of ourselves first, to get others to do what we want and to accumulate money and material things to feel proud and safe. We also have a tendency to care for others and to even put their interests ahead of our own urging us to be collaborative, helpful and well liked. Both impulses are valued assets when they are balanced.

From a psychological perspective, power and care can come closer to each other. The person we care for is not totally powerless as they can refuse help. In the same way the alpha member needs to care for others in order to keep his position. Consequently, separating power and care would be artificial.

It is also safe to say that the relationship between those two impulses does not follow a simple distribution.

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In this following session, we heard the perspective of power & care from the spiritual and religious tradition.

Matthieu Ricard, PH.D. (Buddhist monk, photographer, humanitarian and author) spoke about Buddhism.

The essence of Buddhism is the relation between wisdom and compassion. Once those two are solidly established, we can start thinking of power.

Bodhicitta is the attainment of enlightenment to help all sentient beings. Power is used as a tool never for greed, never for revenge or for jealousy but for wisdom and compassion. Non-violence is never seen as a sign of weakness. Non-violence towards other human beings, animals and the environment is a sign of power. This is not to say that we must be passive in front of conflict such as war, genocide, attack etc. Of course we do something! We extinguish the spark earlier as oppose to the inferno later. In Buddhism there are NO EXCUSES for the use of violence to kill. None!

Matthieu Ricard

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Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp (Founder and President, Jacob Soetendrop Institute for Human Values, The Netherlands) spoke with so much poetry it left me and the 2,000 other people, given the ovation of the audience at the end, speechless. Below are just a few of the words Rabbi Awraham delivered:

‘‘Your Holiness, my brother, my long-time friend…we desperately need each other to achieve a common goal…you are so right in pointing in the unity for the harmony…in my life, inter relations between tradition have saved my life…he who saves one human being saves the whole world regardless of religion, colour, race, sexual inclination…we are all temporary residents on this earth …we must be more powerful always driven by care.’’  

Rabbi Awraham Soetendrop

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It was the turn of equally humbled and impressive Brother Thierry-Marie Coureau, O.P. (Dean of the Theologicum – Falculty (Faculty) of Theology and Religious Studies, Institut Catholique de Paris, France; A former Engineer and financial officer, he joined the Dominican Order in 1990. He presented his thesis on the study of the three Bhanavakrama of Kamalashila in 2004. Before teaching at the current institute he spent one year travelling in Buddhist regions to learn Buddhism) to talk about power & care.

Very pragmatically he said that we do not need any new ideas for the world because we have them all already. We need to implement them. When, as a Father, we gain authority, people give us power. Caring is listening to others. Today, the world needs listening not to be spoken to. Some people need to be listened to. We also decide to love and not to wait for reciprocity because once you love there is nothing else. It is done!

Brother Thierry-Marie Coureau

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In this next session of the conference, we heard from Economists, advisers to governments, Monetary Fund Developers in third world countries, artists & another Novel Peace Prize winner in addition to His Holiness.

Prof. Dennis Snower, PH.D. (President, Kiel Institude for The World Economy, Germany; Prof. of Economics, Uni of Kiel in Germany) started his presentation on Economics, power & care.

In the 13^th century, the study of economics started as a pursuit for happiness.

Prof. Snower took a radical turn in his economist motivations and his views are not yet part of mainstream economic models.

The standard or mainstream vision which still dominates is called homo-economicus. It is a self-serving model where people make hard wired choices. Although since 1990 1 billion people worldwide have escaped from extreme poverty, new economic problems have emerged. Inequalities are increasing in industrialized countries and the problem of of wealth gap is worsening. It is coming to light that failures have been driven by indifference and more often than not economists do not tell us enough about how to deal with anger, fear and animosity. Those negative feelings do arm the economic equilibrium. It is only relatively recently, and prompted by the financial crisis of the past years, that alternative models have started to be taken seriously.

He called this new model ‘caring economics’. It involves notions of sustainability, cooperation, care and varied human motivational systems. The motivations of this model are varied and interconnected. The three motivations are care, self-interest and power.

People’s motivations will influence how they contribute to the common pot. Experimenting with people’s feelings before an act of financial donation will determine how much people will donate. A variety of capacities such as care, reason and synergy will make us more cooperative. Feeling good about oneself will prompt more generosity.  Conflicts will be brought upon us by competition due to scarce resources and gains from status and by animosity-driven status such as exceptionalism, dualism, victimhood and dehumanization.

Prof. Snower concluded by saying that nationalism is a real threat to the economy. It gave us 2 world wars.

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Theo Sowa (CEO, African Woman’s Development Fund, Ghana) gave her view based on many decades working with women and children in war-stricken countries. She gave pragmatic examples and was eye opening to say the least.

Ms Sowa emphasised the fact that somehow there is a distorted message in the world as far as the direction of investment is concerned. Often the power of women is directed to the feminine top drawer of power although the power is right here down on the ground. Woman’s labour is highly discounted primarily in the care sector. Ms Sowa talked about the fight against AIDS in African countries which has been largely kept under control by these women going about prevention silently, in their everyday lives. When it comes to AIDS we often hear about the huge amount of funds being deployed to find cures and new medicines (which are not available to poor countries as they are too expensive anyway) not so much about the care these women deploy to educate, prevent etc.

Ms Sowa talked about the importance of women in order to get things done. And i believe her, for sure!

She concluded her dialogue with some staggering figures. They conducted research looking at how much money do third world women and men need per year in order to be more productive. A woman would need an increase of $10 per year and for the same role a man would need $110 per year!

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Then came the turn of Jody Williams. To be totally honest i was a little taken aback by her familiarity towards His Holiness at first (during and after still). She seemed a little bothered by the heat as well and whilst waiting for her turn to speak, she took off her shoes, did not bother to drink her water from the glass, went straight for the bottle. Anyway, she looked totally unhinged but hey! Who i am to say. Ms Williams is a Novel Peace Prize winner, the founder and director of Peace Jam, an organisation present in 39 countries working with young people, as well as being a peace laureate for land mines campaign.

Ms Williams said that listening means hearing what people have to say and do something about it. For all to make change we have to recognise that we have power. ‘We have more than human right’, she said, ‘we have human responsibility’. And she also said that unlike The Dalai Lama, she does hate some people!

IN 2004, Jody Williams was named by Forbes Magazine as

one of the 100 most powerful women in the world. 

His Holiness added that with Buddhism, reason is a driving factor. The media has also a responsibility to take in the way they report current affairs. Writers are people after all and they should be concerned by being truthful. Vile stories sell newspapers is not an excuse for skipping on responsibilities towards others.

His Holiness spoke about the education system being too concerned about external values and not enough about inner values such as love and compassion and at the service of communities and the world. Education must be more principled.

To all about women, His Holiness gave the following message. In order to promote women, women need more confidence because as we know it there is a lot of potential in women. Tell your friends he said.

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Olafur Eliason (Critically worldwide acclaimed German artist) spoke about being together without having to agree on everything. Art as a way to communicate and empower helping people to feel connected. If you have never heard of Eliason, google him. He is very impressive indeed. This is a link where he is dialoguing at the Power & Care. https://vimeo.com/182514185

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Dr Scilla Elworthy (Founder, Oxford Research Group, UK; Founder, Peace Direct, UK; Cofounder, Rising Women, Rising World, USA; Councillor, World Fture Council) developed effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics, work which included a series of dialogues between Chinese, Russian and western nuclear scientists and military, for which she has been three times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She has been adviser to Peter Gabriel, Archibishop Desmond Tutu and Sir Richard Brandon in setting up ‘The Elders’.

Dr Elworthy is involved in writing a business plan for peace. A business plan for war would cost $13 trillion. A business plan for peace would only cost $1.3 trillion.

She is also involved in practical things such as building one peace house per country in each country as done by Nelson Mandela when he came out of jail. The cost per house is $2m.

She wrap up her dialogue by saying that people need to make it impossible for politicians not to act.

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Last but not least was the turn of the brilliant Frederic Laloux ( Adviser in new organizational systems, Belgium) to talk about new models for organizations and horizontal structures as alternatives to classical hierarchical power-dominated structures. His research in the field of emerging organizational models, published in his book ‘Reinventing Organizations’ has been described as ground-breaking by some of the most respected scholars in the field of human development and management.

People are increasingly disillusioned with places they work in. Professionals leave their work because the places they work in are hurting their souls. This is true in the sectors of education, health care, industry, retail, IT, energy and media.

There has been a shift from classical hierarchical power-driven systems to self-organizing systems. Frederic talked about 12 current large companies which have adopted a self-organizing system. They are extremely successful in terms of profit, productivity and staff retention.

He gave, in a lot of details, the example of a company from The Netherlands specialising in home care. In the 80’s this company which delivered homecare was very concerned about economies of scale and started quantifying procedures. Everything was monitored. It would take 3 minutes for a nurse to take blood, 30 mins for a nurse to bath a patient, and so on. For those nurses no reaching targets, more training was applied. It became so dehumanised that patients were suffering and the nurses ended leaving because of the stress. 4 years ago, the company had 4 nurses working. It now has 14,000 nurses and a tiny headquarter of 25 persons. The new self-organizing system which is in place has turned around the company into a very efficient and caring company.

Frederic Laloux has made a documentary on self-organizing systems. Fascinating stuff for all.

Frederic Laloux is a former Partner with McKinsey & Co.
Speaks 5 languages fluently.

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Prof. Sir Paul Collier (Prof. of Economics and Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, Universty of Oxford, UK), Prof. DR Tania Singer ( Director, Department of Social Neuro-science Max Planck Institude for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany), Pauline Tangiora, J.P, Q.S.O., Q.S.M. (Maori elder from the Rongomaiwahine Tribe, New Zealand, justice of the Peace) and Alaa Murabit, M.D. (Founder, the Voice of Libyan Women, Lybia; Adviser, UN Security Council; Resolution 1325 Global Study; Advisor UN Women Global Civil, Society Advisory Group) also dialogued on the subject of power and care.

This Mind & Life conference was very interesting and so refreshing. It also gave some understanding particularly in this point in time where so much is getting on around the world. i would encourage anyone going to one of them one day. In the meantime look on Vimeo or YouTube for extracts of the dialogue. Some are available in their entirety and free of charge. No excuses not to be more powerful & caring.

Riding with Master Horseman Craig Johnson

Craig Johnson has earned his spot among the elite group of horse professionals that can claim the title of $1Million Dollar Champion rider. It means that as a competitor, he has won at least $1Million in prize money. Amongst other few of his career highlights are twice NRHA Reining Futurity Champion, NRHA Derby Champion, NRHA Super Stakes Champion, 15 time World Champion in Reining, Working Cow Horse and Ranch Pleasure, Ranch Riding Champion & Cowboy Dressage Champion.

On the last week-end of May 2016, Craig gave a clinic 10 miles from where i live in Cambridgeshire. It was my first Ranch Riding clinic and my first meeting with the exceptional horseman that he is.

Ranch Riding is a competitive discipline designed to demonstrate horsemanship as if we are working on a ranch. Ranch Riding is similar in concept to Working Equitation (the Portuguese equivalent), Parcours of Maniability (the French equivalent) & Doma Vaquera (The Spanish equivalent). It is a non-timed discipline involving slow & extended walks, slow & extended trots, lope, extended lope, spins, stops, serpentines, simple & flying lead changes, various obstacles including gate opening, cavalettis etc.

The idea of Ranch Riding is to be ready for the unpredictable.
To be ready for anything is Craig’s definition of impulsion.

Within the context of Ranch Riding, here is what i learnt: 


In Ranch Riding there are 5 gaits as such: The active walk, the slow trot, the extended trot, the lope (unframed canter) and the extended canter. The walk and the extended trot are the paces most important in Ranch Riding.

An active walk is achieved by extending the stride of the fore legs. As opposed to the trot and canter which is driven by the hind legs. When the front foot leaves the ground, extend the walk by pushing it further forward. The extended walk is active and the horse’s head does not swing side to side.
At the walk, the horse's bely swings right when the left hip goes up & swings left when the right hip goes up. For the walk to be more active push the swing back in the other direction when the belly reaches its peak. Don't kick just push back. Thinking of a swing attached on a branch of a tree, for the swing to go higher and faster someone will push the swing with pressure when the swing reaches an optimum point.

If the horse breaks gait when adding pressure, redirect by disengaging the horse. When the swinging takes place put focus on the horse's front feet. The acceleration comes from the front feet reaching further not from the horse walking small steps faster. The horse is in-hand with light contact. If is too collected the thrust will go up as opposed to lengthwise.

At a slow trot, the horse can be slightly off the vertical (never behind), on a loose rein with very little contact. Let your legs loose and you will notice that your legs circle. For those riding in a saddle with a saddle horn, one way to extend the trot is by pushing on the horn with one hand and with the other lifting the reins slightly. As we lean forward, the reins sag. The lifting of the hand as we lean forward retains the same light contact at the extended trot as we had at the slow trot. Horses tend to break gait at the change of direction. If so disengage and circle until he is back at the desired gait, don't pull on the reins.

At the extended lope, the horse’s head is slightly raised. The lope vs the canter: The lope is an unframed canter vs the canter is a framed lope. In the lope, the rider uses his legs to indicate which lead we want NOT to initiate the lope. Initiate the lope/canter with the seat and maybe the voice. I personally put a slight more weight in my seat in the sense of the lead. The leg is to prepare the horse to take the lead.  To me this makes complete sense as it prepares the horse to be in the proper position to do the transition resulting in the correct lead every time. Secondly, it prevents the horse taking a lead every time he feels my outside leg is talking to the outside hind and the inside leg at or just in front of the girth. Sometime my legs are placed there for a different conversation eg: arc on the circle at the trot. When I asked Craig how to readdress this with my own horse, Craig suggests body place myself as to ask for the lead but as my horse is about to take the lead switch to another movement e.g: a slow walk, a slow trot. The idea is to use the legs to indicate which lead I choose, the cue to the lead is done by the sit & rein position and possibly for others the voice. Great tip!

If the horse has difficulty to take a certain lead, use shoulder-out to help the horse to be in a better position.

Craig’s deep knowledge of the sport and respect for the horse

make him a very progressive-thinking horseman indeed.

There is no punishment for missing something, it is only searching.

'Right thing easy, wrong thing difficult' is an interesting concept says Craig, 'until the right thing is difficult.' 'Try something which is harder to do instead of dumbing it down' is Craig's answer.

His open-mindedness is equally refreshing. Craig shared with us some wisdom he acquired whilst sharing a demonstration with fellow Master horseman George Morris who is a trainer of horses and riders in the hunt and jump discipline. They argued on the position of the horse’s head. One demonstrated it should be up whilst the other demonstrated it should be down. As it happens they both concluded, the head should be where the money is. Craig added that often he has found wallets and dollar notes on the grounds hence his tendency to keep the head down. He closed this rather amusing anecdote by saying that within reason, the carriage of the horse’s head needs to serve the discipline. In Ranch Riding, he wants the horse to look where he puts his feet which makes complete sense to me.

'I hate being lucky, I'd rather be ready instead.' Craig Johnson

In my own work with my horses i incorporate a good session of warming up. It literally physically warms us up and mentally it prepares to more adequately see where we are at for the coming session. Craig’s talk about warm up was very interesting and here is what he said and what he got me to do:

Warm up gets the horse off your leg,

get off your hands & it establishes collection.

Craig defines collection as when the horse is ready to go whenever you want to go, physically as well as mentally.

Firstly we must use our hands correctly. Hands need to be still like a post. A post is the best tool to teach pressure and release and this is the horse’s job to find the release. Note that the equivalent with working from the ground would be to use the circus pole. The circus pole is still and solid.

Secondly, we want the horse to be ‘mental neutral’. This is the best position for the horse to be in without it the horse will anticipate and look for other things to do. Here we are a mere passenger and we tune in with the horse.

Thirdly, we check the horse is now following my lead. We guide him and steer him in a way that there is no resistance at all 3 gaits including variations within each one. Sometimes at the extended gait, the horse might drop their neck but is still be above level (meaning above the withers). It means the horse is in ‘mental neutral’ looking where he is placing his feet. This position is desirable.

Fourthly, check the manual versus the automatic gear. In manual, the horse responds to my hands whilst in automatic he responds to my seat. Here we want to be able to switch from one to another. On a ranch you will need to sometimes ride your horse with your seat whilst your hands are busy roping, opening a gate, etc.

During warm up, Craig checks what he calls ‘duck on the water’.

‘Duck on the water’ refers to the smoothness of the horse above level (here the level is the water line) whilst the legs are active at steering, transitioning etc. We are looking for smoothness in transition up and down.

Fifthly, we want to be able to move different parts of the horse right and left independently of the other parts. This will help with lead changes. On a small tight circle (i) the horse is nicely bent around my inside leg (beware not to over bend; i would use my outside rein, my inside leg and my outside leg to catch the drive from my inside leg & would use a very silent if no inside rein at all) (ii) Shoulder-in using my inside leg to push the hind-quarters out off the circle (iii) the horse’s head is counter bent, shoulder-in using my outside leg (the hind quarter is on the circle) (iv) counter bent, shoulder-in using my outside leg and hind-quarters out off the circle using my inside leg (WOW! I’ll have to ride that one again – Bear with me!!). This last move is Renvers on the circle. 

A few more words of wisdom from Craig. Whether your horse is in a snaffle or a bridle, just ride the same way. And always ride him ‘as if’ he were a ‘pretty broke horse’. He has never seen a cow in his life, ride him as if he has. The rider’s mental attitude is progressive and positive and the horse will feed on that.  

The spin is 80% mental and 20% refinement. For this manoeuvre, the rider needs to teach herself to count and to be aware where the spin starts and ends. The outside leg means ‘spin’ whilst the inside leg means ‘stop spinning’. The aim is to spin the horse on the inside hind leg. The inside hind foot is the pivot foot.

First of all start with riding a tight circle. As the circle goes smaller, the turn around happens and eventually the spin at high speed can be established. With the spin gets one side solid before going to the other side. They are two parts to the spin: the start and the spin. If the start is perfect, the spin will also be perfect. A bad start will give a bad spin. To reward a great spin, get off your horse.

For the 80% part of the manoeuvre we do not care so much where the weight of the horse is. On a tight circle we use the outside leg to move the forehand. The outside leg is used as a push around and so is the outside rein. This is not a pull around exercise. This is a push (stick) around exercise where the horse moves towards the release (carrot). A little speed is an ally in this manoeuvre.  Use your outside leg if you need to maintain the spin. If the horse spins don’t use your leg. Once the horse starts to understand that the outside leg means spin, you enter the 20% part which is the refinement part.

For the 20% part, the horse will carry on spinning with the outside leg off and will only stop when the inside leg is on. To enhance the spin and the speed, we want to stay on the spot. The horse needs to be soft and his head at the vertical. The inside front foot moves at 4 o’clock, 8 o’clock & 12 o’clock. The horse rocks back a little shifting his weight backwards. If you see the inside front foot it means it is at the wrong place. The outside front crosses lightly over the inside front foot. The neck and body are straight (remember we do not use the inside leg or the inside rein). The horse is moving with his feet not his nose. In Ranch Riding, the inside hind foot stays in the geographical area whereas in the pirouette, in classical dressage, all four feet are on the move. Be prepare to maintain your spin or it will fall apart in speed, shape or both.

The turn is called ‘offence’ if the horse spins on the inside leg. If he spins on the outside leg it is called a ‘defence’ turn. The defence turn is used to work cows.

The stop in Ranch Riding is never asked after an extended lope. The stop is holding the front end asking the back end to go to the front. This is not a pulling exercise. On an average day working on a range, there is a need to switch from manual to automatic stop. There are 5 types of stops the horse should know:
(i) Use both reins to stop and drive the hind quarters to the hands. This is not a pull! The hands are the wall and we drive the back end to the wall.
(ii) Drop the hands to stop. i drop my hands on to the withers to stop. If the horse does not, resort to (i).
(iii) Use the seat, feet and hand stop.
(iv) Back bone seat stop. i seat as if my spine is going straight down to the ground.
(v) 'Woa' stop. Obviously here we use the voice cue to stop.

Once the warm up is done, we can start driving the horse into collection. At this stage the horse is ready to go wherever we want mentally and physically.

At the trot, side-pass (horse looking in the same direction of the trajectory) and leg-yield (horse looking in the opposite direction of the trajectory).

Canter some circle and weave in and out of the circle using the seat only. Don’t change direction, don’t change speed, don’t change the flexion and don’t change lead. The weave is what creates the straight line. The horse will go towards release which is the straight line.

In a competition scenario, Ranch Riding's manoeuvers are assessed by riding a pattern. During this clinic, Craig coaches each rider to the following pattern. Anyone can do this pattern at home to check their accuracy and progress.
(i) Open a rope gate. Don't be fancy, be accurate and imagine there are cows on the other side so use the horse's body to block the gate when opening the gate. Once the gate is closed...
(ii) Actively walk on a straight line away from the gate for 15 meters. Here we are testing the active walk. Then...
(iii) Transition up to a slow trot on a straight line  then half circle to the right...
(iv) Transition up to the extended trot on a straight line for 30 meters...
(v) Transition down to a walk turning right. Before the next corner...
(vi) Transition up to the lope. then at a specific point..
(vii) Transition down to a walk between two pole. Walk to X. Then...
(viii) Transition up to the lope on the left lead, half a circle then...
(ix) Transition down to a trot, over the two poles on a straight line, turn left, then...
(x) Extended trot, passing a pole to my right...
(xi) Back bone stop
(xii) back up
(xiii) Side-pass over the pole
(xiv) Stop

Do it all again, one rein riding as smooth and as accurate as possible...great fun!

...And a few last words of wisdom from Craig ...‘ride your horse like you are selling it’!...

...No Sorry Craig! He is not for sale