Recently I had the most wonderful opportunity to spend the day watching and learning from one of the great horsemen of this era – John Lyons. It really was a stroke of luck. I was surfing around the web, looking for some horse-related piece of information this past Friday, when I stumbled on the John Lyons site. I love the man, having once had the privilege of watching him work a horse during a demo at the Albany State Fair. I have also read many of his books and articles and watched some of his DVDs. I was excited to see that John Lyons was doing a 3 day clinic in Creswell Oregon, starting that Friday. Knowing that I wasn’t going to be able to make it that day, I called the hosts and found out that I could just show up on Saturday as a spectator for $35.00. So, at 6:45am, my boyfriend, Charlie, and I headed down to Creswell!

Even with the heavy rains most of the drive down, we got there at 9am, the scheduled start time. The spectator crowd was small and personal, the seats comfortable and up-close to the arena and food and coffee were present at very reasonable prices! John was already in the arena with a horse (he got an early start) so we took our seats and focused our attention.

For those of you who have never been to a live John Lyons clinic or demo, the experience and learning opportunity is worth far more than the small spectator fee. John loves his audience and engages with everyone in such a down-home, personal manner you would think you were hanging out watching your best buddy work a horse. His style is relaxed and humorous and he explains what he’s doing and the reasons behind it in easy to understand steps with lots of repetition and examples for those of us who forgot to bring a notebook! John is a very humble man with a great depth of spirituality. He doesn’t profess to know it all, he just tells you what has worked for him. Of course his astute insight into horse behavior, his wealth of horse training experience and his sincere desire to ensure the safety of the rider makes what he does with a horse work very well. And it’s easy enough for even the inexperienced horse handler/rider to achieve success in working with their horse.

For the 9 hours we spent at the clinic we got to see how to control the horses feet, teach him to come to you at a trot while loose, how to work on the stop by disengaging the hips (or moving the tail as John likes to call it), how to have the horse give you his nose, how to work on lowering the head, loosing the shoulders, ride the horse from his tail (don’t forget where your motor is!) and working with undesirable behaviors. John used several different horses for his demonstrations, each with their own quirks and challenges. And the neatest thing is that no matter the horse, no matter the temperament, behavior or undesirable traits, they each ended up far better than when he started with them. The change in the horses he handled was just remarkable to see. And John always followed up with what the horse owner could continue working on to improve the horse.

For me, the greatest benefit came from watching the horse riding participants during the second half of the day. There have been many times when I’ve been a spectator at some horse event where I achingly wished I had brought my own horse along to address certain issues. I was gifted that day at the clinic to observe a horse who was behaving in the same way Hershey often does in a new place with a crowd of new horses and a whole bunch of people watching. This particular mare, a thoroughbred type just like Hershey, was getting nervous and agitated and her feet wouldn’t stop moving. The rider, a young woman who rode very well, kept moving the horse in small circles, trying as best she could to be unobtrusive and not interrupt John as he was talking. The more the rider kept circling the horse and bringing it back against the rail to stand and wait, the more agitated the horse was getting – backing up, fussing, tossing it’s head and jumping forward. Eventually this woman just started walking the horse around the arena which caught the eye of John. What ensued was some questioning by John as to why she was doing this and her response was that her horse didn’t want to stand still.

Now, I could really feel this woman’s pain! Here she is in front of other riders sitting on patiently waiting mounts, in front of a spectator audience of about 25 and while the great John Lyons is addressing everyone. And her horse was making a scene! OMG, the embarrassment! You could see the tension in this lady, the shades of red creeping up her face and her attempt to try to just fade back against the rail with the other horses….been there, done that! That was me!  And unfortunately, as she tried to park her horse once again, the mare had her worst fit, crow-hopping, bucking and attempting to rear (and many kudos to this rider as she had a beautiful seat, great poise and stuck to that mare like glue).

What followed was Johns focused attention on this horse and rider for a bit and some of the best insight in how to deal with this situation that I’ve had yet! John emphasized making it SAFE for you, the rider, even it it meant getting off your horse in the middle of an event and going back over his five basic ground work steps. This was a good reminder for me as I am often a bit embarrassed to get off my horse and work him in the middle of some riding event with ALL these people around! But John’s emphasis on the danger to the rider for not doing this, the way he talked about it in his sincere and humble manner, made me feel that he really cared for us riders and ‘by gosh’, I didn’t want to end up hurt or killed. John also talked about doing that five step ground work exercise before ever going to some ‘horse event’, spending quality time doing it so you probably won’t have to do it again except maybe as a brief review, disengaging the hips, riding from the tail and practicing riding with the one rein on a circle to teach how to ride from the tail and working on that beautiful ‘dance’ of movement that evolves from the control of the horses body gained from the five-step ground work exercises.

By the time he was finished helping this lady and her nervous mare, about 40 minutes, both horse and rider were totally relaxed. The horse was trotting around  a circle with a minimum of rein contact and when the rider stopped the mare, she stood quietly with a long rein. And this mare didn’t even work up a sweat…so you know she wasn’t just exhausted and wanting to stand quietly. She truly had an attitude adjustment that didn’t involve any fight…all it involved was a simple change – a focus on riding the horse from the back end.

The final touch to this wonderful experience was when John expounded on some of his spiritual philosophy. I had to hold back some tears as he spoke of the past being over, how each new day is a new beginning, the horse’s tremendous capacity for forgiveness and  remarkable adaptability, focusing on progress no matter how small, and how some things just aren’t all that important in the big scheme of things (i.e. don’t sweat the small stuff). He spoke with great passion and conviction and it radiated from him to all of us…even the horses felt it for they were constantly brushing their muzzles against him or softly placing their heads up against him.

As Charlie and I left the clinic that evening and made our long drive home, our excitement at having had this incredible experience made for lots of conversation about our horses and future interactions with them. We felt hopeful and encouraged about tackling each of our different horse’s challenges. We were both eager to put our newly acquired knowledge to use in enhancing our own horse-human relationship.

On a final note, I want to emphasize the value of constantly acquiring more horse knowledge by attending clinics. Even if you cannot afford to bring your horse along to participate, the spectator fees are often minimal and the time and effort spent are invaluable. I’m personally a big fan of John Lyons but that doesn’t mean I agree with everything he says or that I wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to attend a Parelli, Brian Nuebert, Clinton Anderson, Debbie Spence, Jane Savoie, etc… clinic. Every clinic offers some insight in how we can better relate to our horses. As horse owners it is our duty to always work on enhancing our relationships with these wonderful creatures ~ for our own safety and for the many years of enjoyment we can have astride their backs.