Learning How To Follow A Feel

One of the things I like best about studying Parelli Natural Horsemanship™ is the emphasis on continuous learning. I’ve always loved horses but I never thought I could learn how to be my own horse trainer. My first horse, Max, had been professionally trained and if I could even approximate the correct aid, he would immediately respond. But Sonny hadn’t had much training when I bought him four years ago and the only thing he did really well (besides eating or course!) was to go forward in a more or less straight line. Sometimes I’m not sure which one of us is learning more but last week, I gained some real insight about the concept of “following a feel”.
I’d like to tell you that I had this insight all on my own but the truth of the matter is that I had a great deal of help from my friend Jane Bartsch. Jane has been studying Parelli™ for quite a while now and she has been a real source of encouragement to me since I began studying a couple of years ago. In fact, it was watching what Jane could do with her mare that gave me hope studying Parelli™ could help me build a better relationship with Sonny.
Recently Jane finished a twelve week extern program at the Parelli Center in Florida and I have been the beneficiary of a couple of free lessons since she returned. Two weeks ago she introduced Sonny and I to the task of driving from zone 5. Using my new 45’ line, Jane fashioned two long reins and showed me how to use them. Soon I was positioned in zone 5 and with a little encouragement, Sonny was walking hesitantly forward. He kept checking behind him and he wasn’t steering very well but he was going forward.
“OK, now ask him to stop.” Jane called to me.
I stopped dead in my tracks, clamping down on the lines in my hands. This jerked at Sonny and he turned sideways in confusion.
“He’s not sure what you want when you pull at him like that,” Jane said. “Just stop yourself and close your hands slowly on the lines. Let him follow the feel.”
I asked Sonny to go forward again and when I stopped this time, instead of clamping down on the reins, I closed my fingers more slowly, increasing the pressure but letting the lines slip through my hands, sighing loudly as I did. Sonny took a step or two after I stopped and then he stopped and lowered his head, following the weight of the lines. So that’s what it means to get Sonny to follow a feel I though to myself. I get it.
Turns out that I hadn’t really understood the concept as well as I thought I had. Last week, while working on getting Sonny to change direction at a trot, I found myself stuck again. Sonny was trotting smartly along in a circle but when he passed my shoulder and I started to back up he would turn to face me and then stop dead, bracing against the line. Jane was sitting on the fence watching. After a couple of tries that ended up with Sonny and I engaged in a tug of war, I looked up at her in frustration and shrugged. “What am I doing wrong?”
“You’re pulling on him too hard,” Jane said. “Close your hands more slowly as you back up and wait until he is looking at you before you redirect him. You’re not giving him a chance to follow the feel.”
I brought Sonny into me and then backed him up and sent him out again on the circle. After he’d trotted a couple of laps, I started to back up, letting the line run slowly through my hands. Sonny continued to trot but his head came around and he looked at me. I looked in the new direction, led with the line in my hand and raised the carrot stick in my other hand. With only a slight hesitation that resulted in a single walking step, Sonny changed directions and was off again at a trot.
“You have to remember,” Jane said, “that Sonny can feel subtle changes in the 45’ line because of its lighter weight. You want him to follow that feel but you have to give him a chance to react to it.’
This is my new insight. I had thought following a feel had more to do with what Sonny was feeing at his end of the line, but Jane helped me see that it also has to do with what I am feeling at my end of the line. When I clamp down on the line, it’s like I am yelling at Sonny but when I close my hands slowly it more like I am whispering to him. The softer the feel I have of the line, the more able Sonny is to respond positively without bracing. Following a feel is as much about leading as it is about following. When Sonny is following the feel of the line, I am following the feel of Sonny.
I’m glad that Jane went through the Parelli™ extern program. I’ve learned a lot watching DVDs and going to the occasional clinic but I know I am going to learn a lot faster now that I have a Parelli™ professional in my own backyard and I’m sure Sonny is going to appreciate it. I can see that he is already happier now that we are both “learning how to follow a feel”.