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• Introducing new

D,N Endorsed Instructors!

• Q & A

• Ancora Imparo: The dangers of expectations

Clinic schedule: CLICK HERE

Upcoming Clinics:

April 3 - June 1110 Week IntensiveFull!

July 19-21 Finding the Sweet SpotSanta Cruz, CAContact: Shelley Candelarioshelleycandelario@yahoo.com

July 22-25 One Spot Open!Upward Spiral (Smaller group format)Santa Cruz, CAContact: Shelley Candelarioshelleycandelario@yahoo.com

August 17-28 3 days Sweet Spot, 3 days Upward Spiral, 3 Days Advancing Private lessonsSomerset, UKContact: Stephanie Gauntemail: stefgaunt@yahoo.co.uk

Sept. 16-17 Spots Open!2 days Focusing on Connection, Sept. 18-21 Spots Open!4 days Upward Spiral (smaller group, more private attention)Lindstrom, MNContact: Sally TaylorPhone: 612.616.2550email: zazz@aol.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.

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go

and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." ~Attributed to Howard Thurman

Karen Rohlf

April 2011

10 Week Intensive in full swing!

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We are in our 3rd week of the 10 week Intensive... It is flying by so fast!So far we have been balancing our days between horses, lecture, simulations, special sessions (on breathing, energy and connection) with guest pre-senter, Marcel, and some nice relaxing time on the Itchetucknee river and springs! This past week we were joined by one of my 6 Day clinic groups. If I tell you more it will just make you too jealous! Stay tuned!

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Breanne began her horse-manship journey with her first pony at the age of 4 and her passion for horses has never ceased.  She began her natural horsemanship journey with the horse she bought at age 12. 

She trained in Western; Reining, Pleasure, Conformation and Barrels and Competitive Trail - doing light competing. Eventually she found Parelli; achieving her level 1 and 2 in 1 year. She was working on her ʻoldʼ level 3 when her horse was diagnosed with a serious illness.  At this time she travelled to B.C. to work on a ranch for 7 months to gain more horsemanship experience.  It was through working for the ranch that Breanne found Dressage Naturally. 

Bre has continued at University to earn her credits towards becoming an Elementary School Teacher.  Her focus is on communication and in addition to University she also studied the course: Crucial Conversa-tions.

In 2007 Breanne moved to Temenos Fields for 1 year to spend more time understanding Karen and her methods. Breanne has since re-turned for 6 months periods of time for the past 2 years to continue her Dressage, Naturally education.  Breanne has trained her current horse to Second Level Dressage in one year and has aspirations of reaching higher levels with quality. She is eager to aid others in their horsemanship and Dressage, Naturally journey. 

New Dressage, Naturally Endorsed Instructors!

I am proud to introduce Shelby Hume and Breanne Peters as the first new clinicians endorsed to teach the Finding The Sweet Spot of Healthy Bio-mechanics 3-Day clinic. The curriculum is set by me in a tried and true format to learn the first and most important steps in finding physical har-mony while preserving and enhancing the mental and emotional harmony. I am so excited to add these two individuals to the Dressage, Naturally Team! More information about them will be up on my website soon.

Shelby and Bre will be available for clinics beginning in August, 2011.

Shelby will be available within the United States and Bre will be available in Canada.

For information about clinics with Bre or Shelby, please contact Sally Taylor at: zazz@aol.com

Shelby has loved horses from her first breath and started her work in 4-H where she rode and competed in a wide variety of events; consid-ering them all opportunities to be a more well rounded horse

person. She was drawn to Dressage but her first experiences with Dressage did not match the picture of the "happy athlete" she was hoping for. 

She pursued a BA degree in Business Administration and strength-ened her teaching skills in the equestrian world and in Tae Kwon Do.  She has spent time in the world of Reining through showing and be-ing a NRHA judge.  Shelby taught at a College Equestrian program and coached Intercollegiate Riding and Judging Teams through out her years of employment there.  She studied and rode in Portugal, fell in love with the Lusitano horse and a version of Dressage that was closer to Shelby's ideal picture (but not quite there yet)! 

Her first Lusitano stallion caused Shelby to pursue Natural Horse-manship because of the challenges he provided to her.  Through this journey Shelby learned about Karen Rohlf.  She has been thrilled to have the opportunity to study with Karen over the past several years and considers Karen to be her "true north". She looks forward to not only bringing her own horses along in the image of Dressage Natu-rally but she also looks forward to sharing her passion for this way with others.

Shelby Hume

Photos: Dawn GarnerPhotos: Dana Rasmussen

Photo: Bob Bain

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The Web ShopStore-wide sale in April!

All Items 10% offSelected Items

have additional discount!

SiMoN the School Master Noodle Kit for learning lateral work

Includes Workbook, DVD and everything you need to turn a pool noodle into a tool for learn-ing lateral work. You may think it’s silly... but

wait until you try it!

This has been one of my most effective tools for teaching everything you need to know about

lateral work in a way you won’t find anywhere else.

D,N ReinsThe feel of a rope rein with the look of a dressage rein!The perfect choice for those

of us with a foot in both worlds!

The WebsiteIncludes archives of all newsletters

& articles by Karen

The D,N Classroom1 hour of new instruc-tional video each monthFull searchable archivesAccess to the D,N ForumFirst month Free if

you sign up in April!

Open Clinic SpotsThere is one spot open in the Upward Spiral of Success clinic in Santa Cruz,

CA in July. Contact: shelleycandelario@yahoo.com

Also some spots are now open in the Lindstrom, MN clinic in September.

Contact Sally Taylor at: zazz@aol.com

The NH clinic co-teaching with David Lichman is FULL but we would love to see you there as an auditor!

Q & AStretching or ‘dumping on the forehand’?Karen,

I am working with a 5 year old mare on the ground and in the saddle. On the ground she has yet to "let loose"; how-ever, she rather dramatically stretched into the bit and down today under saddle. I have been primarily rising in the trot, but I was urging her forward and started to sit the trot today when she stretched out. I repeated the process several times to confirm her response.

The question is whether she is "letting loose" or just dumping on the forehand and how do I tell the difference? This stretched out trot felt pretty good, but I am not certain as to what really happened. I have had the same response in other horses, but normally they would also stretch out and down on the lunge line, and I could see more clearly what was happening. This mare has not responded to my clumsy attempts at moving mas-sage. She feels hard in her neck muscles and tends to throw herself into a trot by raising both her head and front feet. She is half Andalusian with a well developed neck so I might be mistaking normal muscling for tension. From listening to your comments in the videos and CD's, my understanding is that those neck muscles should be relatively soft to the touch even when they are being used.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Raymond

Hi Raymond,

Thanks for your email

Re: the stretching... Sometimes it can be difficult to tell if it is a valuable, active stretch, or just putting the head down, leaning, hiding, or falling on the fore-hand... And how much time I spend stretching varies horse to horse. The ones that tend to be on the forehand, I stretch sparingly... enough to get the

benefit of the relaxed back, but not so much they get to practice being on the forehand... Some horses can stretch without feeling like they are dumping on the forehand, or they are very tight in the back and need the stretch more, and so I spend more time there.

I think the thing to see is how it feels when they are stretching: do they feel like they may trip (or do they trip) or do they speed up (as in a ball rolling down a hill), or do they pull/balance their body weight on the reins... do they feel difficult to get back up once they are stretching?

Or:

Do they feel balanced and rhythmic when they stretch? Do they keep the same tempo, (although they may cover more ground with a more open stride), do they come up easily, are they still light even if you can still feel a connection?

So play with it, and trust your instincts, and see if you can go in and out of it pleasantly... and if you think it may not be the best idea for right now, you can po-litely say 'thank you, but not right now!'. It is just as important to be able to get out of the stretch as it is to get into it!

I have a video in my Video Classroom, in the October videos called: ʻStretching Strategiesʼ which you may find helpful.

I hope this helps!

Cheers,

Hi Karen

Not sure how you manage to respond to emails among all your other  activities.  I will check out the October video again.

This weekend I reviewed the first two Dressage Naturally DVD's and read again the "Big Picture" section of your manual.  I just wanted to say  how impressed I was.  The material seems clearer upon each review  standing up very strongly to multiple readings.  That is something  that cannot be said of much training material.

My tentative hypothesis about the mare that I am riding is that she  remains crooked when I lunge her; whereas, I have gradually been able  to improve her alignment under saddle.  When she stretched down and  out under saddle, it

was toward the end of a long session and she felt  straight.  The descriptions of a good stretch you gave in your email  sug-gest to me that she was actually let loose in her stretch.

I don't come from a Parelli background and am not particularly  proficient with the ground work so it is not surprising that I am  having a little difficulty getting the mare aligned on the ground.

Thanks again and I look forward to your next classroom videos.

Raymond

Leg position for teaching turning...Hi Karen,

I came across one issue that I canʼt re-solve and a question that I canʼt seem to find an answer for...

Since you donʼt really know me or my horse, Iʼm going to give you a little back-ground. Iʼve been involved with horses for over 25 years. Iʼve been through the Par-elli levels program and have ridden in many clinics and lessons with top instruc-tors such as David Lichman. Iʼm a confi-dant rider and own 4 horses, mostly Ara-bians. Iʼve been a member of your DN video classroom since last year and own your book and DVDs. This horse is a very green 12 year old Arabian…He has not been ridden at the canter yet. Kid was a late geld stallion that needed a couple of years after his operation to get his ego down to a manageable level.

THE ISSUE I NEED HELP WITH…Kidʼs balance is a 4 on your scale of 10, his energy an 8/9, and his relaxation a 3. So, we are focusing on relaxation right now. Iʼm getting great results with your moving massage technique at the walk both on the ground and under saddle. I have not been successful at the trot yet. His trot is too fast for me to help him with on the ground and Iʼm not having luck slowing his trot down without him break-ing gate. Iʼm riding him with a Parelli hal-ter and loose or casual rein contact but the results are the same as on the ground (nil). He has been running around with an

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upside down neck since he was a foal so this was not a rider created problem. Iʼm looking for ways to be more effective at helping him find relaxation at the trot.

MY QUESTION…In the Parelli program when we want to make a turn we say “eyes, belly-button, seat, leg”. Those are the phases of exag-geration used to teach a horse to make a turn and then it is refined as you pro-gress. In an aerial view, this would put your inside let slightly back and your out-side leg slightly forward. It is my under-standing from classical dressage that the leg position is different. The inside leg remains at the girth for the horse to bend around and the outside leg is placed slightly behind the girth in case it is needed to remind the HQ to stay on the arc. In an aerial view this is the opposite leg position from the way I learned it from Parelli program. I understand I need to use my seat and core to initiate the turn; however, Iʼm confused about what to do with my legs. So, my question is this…what is the best way to teach my horse to 1) make a turn and 2) stay on a circle/arc given that I want to do ʻnaturalʼ dressage with this horse?

Thanks so much for listening,

Sarah

Hi Sarah,Thanks for your clearly written question!

It can be confusing... a couple things to note:

1. If general turning and impulsion is an issue, then I put that in the 'foundational issue' category and that takes priority over more refined things such as bend.

2. You don't necessarily have to move your inside leg back to turn in the 'Parelli way'

3. There are a couple ways to do a foun-dational kind of turn: turn the HQ or FQ. In the end, a true bend around a turn re-quires a little of the inside hind leg step-ping out to midline, and a little of the out-side shoulder stepping in to midline. 

So yes, in the end, the proper position for your legs in a bend is with your inside leg straight down (at the girth) and the out-side leg slightly back... but in foundational steering reinforcement, I want my legs to be free to reinforce what I may need... for example, if I get the feeling they have trouble turning due to deficient HQ yield-ing, I may want my inside leg to be able to come back for a moment to talk to the HQ... If I feel the issue is with the front end, shoulders, I want to be able to bring my outside leg forward for a moment to clarify the shoulders turning.

You could also decide not to use your leg to reinforce either issue and go from seat to stick... The seat is the ʻrealʼ aid. The sooner you bring clarity to your conversa-tion, the less chance there is of contortion in you and your horse!

I hope this helps!

My Best, Karen

How high should the neck be in collection?Hi Karen, First off, wanted to say you are a very creative person!!  And a lovely rider!!  I have a question that i cant seem to find an answer for.  How do you know where your horses poll should be during collec-tion?  I know it is different for each horse, the breed, the conformation etc... But I cant find any dialogue on how to answer this question?  My trainer showed me where my own horses should be but I noticed that a trainer in my barn always seems to have the neck arched too high no matter what horse she rides and it makes the throat-latch look squished.  A friend of mine who has a Lippy kept bring-ing my horses poll up too high (these are dressage riders)  (I have a Paint who has no withers and is pretty flat necked)  and I couldnʼt explain why "my" horses poll should be where I keep it.  Can you an-swer that? 

Thanks so much!!!  Deb

Hi Deb

What an important question, and not an easy one to answer with words!

As you said, every horse has a different conformation and sometimes it can be tricky to see the real neck (such as if they have an over-developed crest, etc).

Here are some things to keep in mind:• In collection the poll should be the

highest point, rather than the 3rd or 4th vertebrae or such.

• The nose should be on or preferably in front of the vertical.

• The neck should be reaching forward out of the withers (top line in a state of ʻstretchablenessʼ)

• The horse should be in self carriage (meaning among other things that the speed and posture is not held by the reins, they should be able to be mo-mentarily released with no change in balance or posture)

• The neck should not be higher than the general ʻuphillnessʼ of the horse. (This is referred to as ʻrelative elevationʼ)

Gerd Heuschmann has a book called: Tug of War (That can be found on the Dressage Naturally More Resources page) That really addresses the bio-mechanical considerations of this.

It sounds like your instincts are right on target. The neck should not looked jacked up or ʻsquishedʼ in the throat latch. The neck needs to look like it reaches for-ward and up out of the withers. The highness of the neck should be a reflec-tion of the collection of the body of the horse.

If the neck goes too high, then many things start to go wrong:• The nuchal ligament goes slack which

means that the long back muscles must now tighten in order to carry the rider, which restricts movement

• The shoulders get pushed down rather than lift up

• The horse often will feel more tight, be-come bracey and often cause riders to think they need to do even more with their hands

Of course, it is also so important that the horse stretches, and in that moment the poll will be low, but still the important things is that it is actively stretching. This active stretch is what needs to be hap-pening all through the horseʼs work, and especially during collection. It is, unfortu-

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nately, way too easy to ride the neck in contraction, but as soon as we do we kill the healthy biome-chanics. It is, unfortunately, too easy to create a shorter stepping, ʻhigher in frontʼ horse by holding back and tightening the neck, but this has nothing to do with collec-tion, which is about creating greater flexion in the hind joints so the horse carries more weight behind.

One thing you can do is to look at the over all proportion of the horse hen being ridden. The rider should appear to be in the middle. If the back of the horse is longer than the front, then things are heading in the wrong di-rection. In working gaits it should seem fairly equal and in collection it should ap-pear that there is more horse out in front. Of course, individualʼs conformation can change this picture away from ideal, but it is interesting to observe a horse and see if it feels like it is being ridden from back to front, allowing the movement, or is it being ridden from front to back, restricting the movement.

A horse ridden with a too-high and too-short neck will also be less free in his movement, and may also start to lose the purity of the gait (especially at the walk)

Not all of the short high neck issues are man-made; some horses by nature carry their necks high (many Friesians, for example) but they need to be trained to reach with their necks in order to carry us on their backs in a healthy way. Of course the real answer to that is to have

them in balance over their legs and to always ride in a way that invites them into our hands and does not show them how to contract. (A challenge for sure!)

I hope this helps, and here are some images of horses at various stages and natural abilities all with rather lovely necks!

Cheers,Karen

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Photo: Coco

Photos top and to right: Dawn Garner

Photo: Dawn Garner

Photo: Claire Spelling

Illustration by Karen Rohlf from the book: Dressage, Naturally

“Ancora Imparo” is what Michelangelo said upon completing the Sistine Chapel. It means: “I am still learning.”

Dana made a wonderful salad for dinner. It had different lettuce from our garden, cheese, cranber-ries, whole grapes, pecans that he had roasted with maple syrup so they were yummy and sweet, as well as grapes, carrots and broccoli. It was dressed with my favorite special balsamic salad dressing from a local restaurant that had just started bottling and selling it because so many people requested it. I'm telling you, this was a beautiful salad!

After enjoying the colorful sight of it, and thanking Dana for making it, I settled back on the couch to eat it while watching a movie.

I loved the texture of the salad, and especially en-joyed the bursts of juicy sweetness that happened when I got a bite with a grape in it. It seemed to change the flavor of everything in the most amazing way.

Somewhere near the bottom of the salad and a few minutes into an equally satisfying movie, I took a fork-full of goodness and put it in my mouth. I felt the smooth round orb and eagerly bit into it, expecting the burst of grapey sweetness... But instead of the crisp breaking of the skin, there was more of a ʻsquishʼ as well as a disturbing texture, slightly slimy

with some particles in it. The taste was somewhat more acidy.

I sat up, made a sound something related to: “Uch!” and stared down at my bowl in the dimmed light. Dana was a little startled and I am sure a little con-cerned as that was not my usual reaction to his cooking!

Then I saw, near the bottom of the bowl, hiding beneath some large leaves of lettuce, there was another small orb. It was red. It was a cherry to-mato.

I love cherry tomatoes.

I put this tomato in my mouth and bit it. It was a really nice, sweet tomato, perfectly ripe. The flavor was exactly the same as was still in my mouth from the bite that made me say ʻUchʼ.

I was sad for a moment, thinking that I missed en-joying and appreciating this wonderful little tomato simply because i was expecting something else.

I wondered how many other times I am missing something simply because I have something else in my mind. Not even something better, or worse, just something else.

I wondered how many things I miss with my horses because I am expecting to see something particular.

How many times do I not see what IS because I am expecting to see what WAS or usually is?

The truth is, our brains get upset when our expecta-tions are not met. Then judgement is only one small step away. I judged that tomato as if it was a grape. And I got upset when it didnʼt live up to my impossible-to-meet expectation.

I slid back into the couch, placed the bowl once again on top of a pillow on my lap, and tuned back into the movie. Long ago I realized that I enjoy mov-ies much better if I donʼt hear anything about them before I go... So I have no preconceived ideas or expectations.

So I pledged to be open to the mystery of my salad and to taste each flavor equally and fully... Well, maybe thatʼs not entirely true. I sent a just a little more appreciation to the remaining tomatoes just to balance things out. ;-)

“We only know what we see, and we only see what is already in the mind”

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Ancora Imparo

“I don’t have expectations. Expectations in your life just lead to giant disappointments.”

— Michael LandonPhoto: Dana Rasmussen