August 2007 • VOLUME 24 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

Ross Harper-Lewis

Her path led her to Portugal where, as she states: "I was privileged to be accepted as a civilian student on the Officer Instructor course of The Portuguese Cavalry School in Mafra and through this experience to meet Mestre Nuno Oliveira who invited me to study with him. I studied with Mestre Nuno for five years and learned a great deal about finesse and new concepts of collection and lightness. It was here also that I gained a sense of freedom in training."
From Ride From the Heart by Jenny Rolfe

Ross is a rider, trainer and breeder, but more than any of these, she is a kind and welcoming person who graciously shares of herself and her passion for the horses.

Last month in Ross in Conversation Part 1 we talked about everything from bits, competition and the importance of the legs. Last month's article is free to all registered users. Join us as we continue the conversation....

[Ross]: Yes, certainly not doing it with any kind of constraint or force. Sometimes we would just work for 10 to 15 minutes, but during that short period the horse has been able to give of something that he hasn’t been able to do before. So you say, “Hey, this is great. We’ve communicated.” Fine. Put him away. He doesn’t need to do more. He’s done his job for today. You might take the horse out and do something else quietly with him later on or not. I think many times, we go on too long. People get to a point ( and I’ve done it myself in the past - horrible mistake), where they’ve been trying to get something and suddenly it’s there. You think, “Oh, better to do it again to confirm it,” and you completely blow it. You set it up and it’s happened and it’s great. Stop. You go away with a good feeling and the horse goes back to its stable feeling good; then when you bring your horse out the next day, psychologically the horse is ready to work with you.

[N]: I think not only that, I think if you can get the horse to engage in conversation, they’ll offer you different things. And so when you put it away in the stable and go, “Good boy, good boy, good boy”, he’ll go, “What’s the last thing that we did that she wanted?” And when you did something else, then that mustn’t have been right. Well, what about this then? And you’ll have to restart all over again. You never gave that final “Yes, that is what we’ve been asking for”.

[Ross]: The worst thing you can do is, having got what you’ve been aiming at, going on beyond it. Another mistake frequently made: you get into a problem and think, “I have to solve this right now, “ so you keep trying and it begins to get worse – stop! Don’t belabour the problem. Go back to something easy or something that the horse really understands, and you do it and tell him that he’s a good boy and put him away. And bring him out tomorrow and work through simple exercises, get him relaxed and then see if you can go on to whatever it was that you were trying to do, and the horse will feel cooperative. This way, you have time to reflect on why you had a problem and what can be done to overcome the difficulty, rather than try, try again - usually doing the same mistake in the same place until you have created a total blockage on the horse in which he anticipates the difficulty to the point where he just panics.

If you try to force through something that the horse is not ready or able to do or you asked in the wrong kind of way and you’ve got it upset, if you go on and on and on, the horse is going to go away feeling incredibly uncomfortable and incredibly depressed and you’ll probably put it away feeling frustrated and depressed as well. That means you start off on a bad note the next day. The horse is going to come out feeling very unsure and nervous, “Oh my god! What’s going to happen today? “Of course the horse doesn’t have those words but they express in our language what he is most probably feeling!! The rider having been frustrated is quite probably thinking, “I’ll get him. We’ll do it today or else!” And that’s a terrible way to start a lesson with a horse.

[N]: With all the riders that come to you, Ross, is there one particular thing that you see yourself running into all the time with them?

[Ross]: The thing is that they come from such varied horse backgrounds. I think one of the biggest things probably is that students always want to go a little bit further and I have to say to them, "No, today you were right, today you got the right feel. Stop. Save it." And they seem to think they ought to go on because they’ve just begun to feel it, now I need to feel it again. And you say “No. You absolutely don’t. You need to let that feeling sink in and become a part of you - don’t risk losing it , there is no guarantee that the “repeat” will work out right now." Take time in the learning process - often doing less, correctly, means achieving more in a shorter time.

[N]: I find that there seems to be a big resistance to the concept that a good lesson can be just 5 or 10 minutes if that’s what your horse needs that day.

[Ross]: People say to me sometimes, “How much do you charge for an hour?” And, “Is your lesson one hour?” And I say, “No, a lesson is a lesson.” And they say, “Well, what does that mean?” “That means we work until I think we’ve got whatever we’re aiming at. And that could be as short as 10 or 15 minutes or as long as an hour and a half. It depends on where we’re going and how we’re getting on with the horse.” And I say I will always try and finish on a good note. And that’s the bottom line. If you can end on a good note with everybody feeling something positive, then you’ve got something to work on. It doesn’t always work out like that. There are times you feel like tearing your hair out, rolling in the mud, but that’s a different story - generally to do with students who’ve never been given the concept that riding is a feeling art and it’s about co-ordination with an equal partner – the horse!!

[N]: But I think it’s good for people to know no matter how long you’ve been working with horses or with riders, there are days when you just want to tear your hair out.

[Ross]: There are days when it just isn’t going to happen. I have, at least, now learnt that there are days when for some reason you are frustrated or depressed or got loads of things that you’ve got to do….and you just sort of think, “No, this is not a good moment. Let’s go and do something very simple.” And that’s it. I'd rather take a horse out for 5 or 10 minutes and just do a very quiet suppling exercise, or loose school and say, “That’s fine for today, in you go,” than to try and get into something when I know that mentally and emotionally I’m not ready to cope with anything complicated, so why should I put that on my horse? If the horse throws a wobbly on me…..I haven’t got what’s required…..Do you know what I mean? I guess it comes down to Know yourself. “

[N]: Yes, I also find that, I don’t know if you find this as well, especially when you’re working with retraining a horse, it flitters in and out and it doesn’t necessarily stay right away.

[Ross]: Progress is not a straight line.

[N]: No, and that’s another thing I don’t think people realize. You’re going to have a lot of bad days.

[Ross]: I tell all my students, “Look, you’re going to work really hard and you’re going to think you’re not getting anywhere. And one day, you’re going discover that you’re actually on a different level.” And then it’ll level out for a while. And then when it gets complicated and difficult, it’s because I’m working you up for the next level. But you’ll have the feeling that you’ve actually gone down. So maybe you even will, to some extent, but it will come up so that when you eventually establish it, it’ll be another step further up the ladder. But how long that takes, you can’t say.”

[N]: It is very individualistic.

[Ross]: And sometimes people have been working on something for ages and you think, “Oh my god, we’ll never get anywhere.” And suddenly, one day, it’s all there. And you don’t know why. The same thing frequently happens with horses.

[N]: Exactly. Definitely.

Having worked with Oliveira, what is the one big thing that you took away with you [in] riding and training? Is there one single big thing that you took away with you? Is there one thing in particular?

[Ross]: I think it would be his constant capacity to feel through his body. It was unbelievable how he was with the horse. And I think that impressed me enormously.

And I think the single thing about him that most made me wonder

SUBSCRIBE to HORSES For LIFE™ Online Magazine for full access to the exclusive and educational monthly articles in every Issue. Register and then USE the "Subscribe"button in the left hand menu. Your subscription includes access to A FULL PAST YEAR OF ISSUES! Over 200 Articles!!! For the Instructor, For the Rider, For the Horse. Horses For LIFE - For You! OR Enjoy the free articles in every issue available for Registered Members! Registration is FREE! Look for the asterisk * that denotes Free Articles!