Ep 16: Find moments to disappear

From the perspective of the judges. And I think we just saw it at the recent Olympic Games. You know, the top, top riders, the very, very best ones, they look like they're doing nothing. And the judges are rewarding that because it is so harmonious and the horses are working in such a beautiful way that you can't not see the beauty.

From performanceriders.com this is the Parbury Podcast. I'm Nat Foxen, and each episode I challenge World equestrian Games top 10 dressage writer Brett Parbury to expl what I call a pabraism. That's a pearl of wisdom I've written down over the years of working together in our performance writers programs. Brett doesn't know what today's pabraism is. Let's get into it. Okay, Brett, are you ready for today's pabrism?

Ready to go.

Today's pabrism is find the moments to disappear.

Oh, that's a good one. I like that one.

Find the moments to disappear. Do you want to take us back to the beginning? What on earth does this mean?

Yeah. So where to start? So, you know, we all know that the horse training is about pressure and release. And as you, as you go in riding and training, the release becomes more important than the pressure. So the pressure prompts the horse to give a response. And then the more the horse understands what you want, what response you want, the hopefully the less of an aid you need to use, and your aids start to become more of a guide rather than an actual physical aid. They become a guide. You can use a lighter aid that becomes a guide. And then when the horse responds in what you want, it's the release of the pressure. So that's the disappearing act. So you're basically trying to ride where you can guide the horse and disappear and then guide the horse and disappear and then just keep showing the horse what you want them to do. And the more you do it, the more you can stay out of their way. And that's that disappearing. So it's the timing of the pressure off or the timing of disappearing and then reappearing when the horse either needs some help or guiding or correcting one or the other and then disappearing again. So it refers to the timing of the pressure release and the frequency that that'll have to happen.

And is the disappearing act something that is coming out at a show or is it something that you're working at and achieving to some extent in training? All the time.

All the time. All the time you're riding. So all the time, whether it's At a show. I mean of course at the show you're trying to sit and look like you're, you know, not giving the horse much of an aid at all. Like you're trying to stay invisible as much as you can. So you are, are trying to perfect it at home. So when you go to the show you can stay in that very quiet, almost just guiding and disappearing discussion with the horse at home. Of course you might have to be more visible with the aids and more obvious, but you are. If you don't train the disappearing at home, you won't get it at the show. So it is all about the pressure off. I mean the. Yes, you'll train horses to do things by keeping pressure on, like a pressure or an aid. When I say pressure, I don't mean extreme pressure. Just an aid is regarded as some form of pressure. You know, keeping an aid on, you'll train them to do something. But it's the, the great riders in the world are the ones that are letting the pressure off in the right moments. So that's where having that underlying training philosophy of the more I train my horse, the less I should have to do the, the system of aids that I have are specific to a certain part of the horse and then also have some scale. So it starts with lighter aid, maybe slightly firmer for the second aid and then the third aid is firmer again. But then instantly as you get a reaction, you remove it and you reward the horse that you have this, this spectrum of aids that the horse understands. And then the pressure off becomes that moment when you disappear and allow the horse to do it for themselves. There's an enormous amount of timing and feel involved in creating that type of, let's call it spectrum of aids and disappearing with the disappearing or the removal of pressure being zero. And then maybe the strongest aid you use being three and then working between 0123-010100-01012. You know, like that sort of discussion you're having with them and making sure that your, the aids that you're using are specific to that part of the horse. So the old classic example of is rider is asking the horse to trot with more expression but at the same time they're pulling on their mouth. Like that's a classic example of clashing two aids together. And the horse never really learns to go into self carriage and the horse just learns to resist against the hand. And then the rider wonders why in 612 months time the horse is so strong or they've trained it to be that way. So, so it's about how can I notice when my horse is in a good spot in the posture, in the frame, and how can I let the pressure off and disappear? And then if the horse then does something like makes a mistake or, you know, pulls forward or something, how do I correct it and disappear again rather than hold, hold, hold, hold, hold. So that's, that's a classic example of the, of the con of the two contrasting ways. Yes, of course you're going to get your horse to do dressage when you're hanging on and holding and holding and holding and holding. But it is better for the horse in the long term if you can have this bit more skill and a little bit more understanding of the pressure has to reduce to a minimum, if not zero, at the right moment. So the horse will want to do it again and again and again and understand what self carriage is and form all the muscles that are involved with that. And you won't get the most out of your horse until you can have your horse doing most of this by them, by themselves, carrying themselves, working by themselves in front of you. And you're just there to keep guiding and reminding.

I really like what you said there, that you'll still, you can still do dressage, you can still get the job done, but we've got to think about how do we want to get the job done. Do we want to do it in a way that's a bit more pushing and pulling and looks a bit forced and hard work, or, or do we want to subscribe to the philosophy that you have for your own riding and your training in that it looks like the rider's doing nothing. So it's about thinking about how we. How we want to be as riders. Right?

Yeah. And at the end of the day, it's nicer for the horse. The horse, you know, ultimately the. The. One of the jobs of us as horse trainers and riders and coaches and all the things is to how do we produce a willingness in the horse to want to do this over and over and over for. For a long time in their career, you know, and trying to keep them mentally fresh and mentally stimulated and interested in what they're doing? Well, you know, you don't have to be Einstein to know if someone's pushing and pulling and kicking and holding and making the horse's life very uncomfortable, at some point that horse is going to say, I don't want to do this anymore. And of course, then that's when some behavior will start, you know, maybe negative behavior. So of course you can get them to do it that way, but. But you won't produce willingness. And the other thing you won't produce with that is you just won't ever access the full potential of the horse when you're holding them together. You know, when you're holding them together and you're pushing with your seat or your leg on their sides all the. And you're holding the front, you just, they'll never, you'll never realize what the full athletic potential is of that horse. The only way you'll get it is when you've got the horse completely going in a way where the horse is by and large going on their own by themselves. Now, of course, that's not as simple as it sounds because, you know, of course, when we let them go by themselves for too long, they'll just get all stretched out and strung out and the whole thing. But if you're frequently reminding them and leaving them and reminding them and leaving them and then guiding them or correcting them and leaving them and disappearing, you know, reappearing, disappearing, reappearing, disappearing, reappearing, disappearing and staying away out of their way, and then you feel them try to do something that's a bit of an evasion or you want them to reappear, put the aid on and then disappear. And ultimately with that discussion and that timing and that feel, you'll. You'll start. The horse will give you more of their athletic potential.

Just a quick message from us. If any of the ideas discussed today resonate with you and you'd love to dive deeper, head over to performanceriders.com and there's a bunch of free content for you. And there's loads of opportunities as well to work with us by enrolling in one of our training or Mentoring Programs, performancewriters.com so the part reason we're talking about today is find moments to disappear. So, Brett, how is this way of writing rewarded by the judges, if it is at all? Are they sort of taking this kind of thing into account or does it come through perhaps in the harmony side of things?

In the test, it's very difficult to see sometimes from the ground. And unless the judge has a very sharp eye and is very, very experienced, it can be difficult to see the difference. And the other thing too is when you ride like this, you can often make more mistakes because the timing and the tuning is so much more important. So you might have someone who's holding the horse together, doing not a bad job, like not saying that it's bad, but just not Doing not a bad job. They might present a better picture than someone who's trying to get this reappearing, disappearing thing right. Interesting, but, but from the perspective of the judges, and I think we just saw it at the recent Olympic Games, you know, the top, top riders, the very, very best ones, they look like they're doing nothing, and the judges are rewarding that because it is so harmonious and the horses are working in such a beautiful way that you can't not see the beauty. Now, of course, that's at the absolute top level of all riders and horses on the planet. Coming back through the levels and, you know, into sort of more local and domestic competitions, it's difficult. It's difficult for the judges to see it. They might see glimpses. You know, there's potentially going to be a few more mistakes, but ultimately, when you're working to try to get to the very, very top of something, of course you're going to make mistakes. And, But I think the, the beautiful part about dressage as a sport is there will come a time in the progression of the sport, like as you go up through the levels, when that style of riding will reward you. And, you know, if you're working away at it and trying to get it right and, you know, eventually your horse will, will be a reflection of that. And, and, and if you can get to where you can deliver that in the test, that harmonious, easy way of going, the way the horse looks more positive and looks more sprightly and enjoying it, that will flow through to the, to the overall look and not only that, the difficulty for a horse going towards Grand Prix and the Grand Prix movements and exercises, it's very, very hard for a rider to physically hold the horse all the way through a Grand Prix test, to hold, push, make it, push it, hold it together all the way through a Grand Prix. The Grand Prix is designed to reveal the riders who are riding with more timing, more feeling and more response and reactivity from the horse and, and disappearing in the correct moments.

So you mentioned, of course, some of the very, very top writers who have been in front of us all in the Olympics recently. For those of us who are going back and looking at the replays and being inspired by watching those tests again, can you point us to one or two writers who you think really encapsulate this pabism of finding moments to disappear?

Oh, look, you could nearly go through. What I was particularly impressed about with this Olympic Games was the standard of riding across the board. I thought that this was probably the best Riding I've seen when you look at a pool of riders, 60 plus riders in the field, the riding across the board I thought was very good. You know, of course you're going to have some mistakes and all the bits, but across the board I thought the riding was very good. Some riders had great rides and some had some mistakes and, and horses not handling the atmosphere. But overall the riding was, I thought, really, really good. Of course there's the usual candidates, you know, Jessica, Catherine, duo and I don't, I particularly don't want to leave anyone out here, but just to name a couple. And Carl of course, he, he presents that picture all the time.

I mean Jessica would, is a, is a wonderful example, isn't she? Because she just, she really does encapsulate that sort of feeling of doing very little.

That's right.

I mean the training is that good.

I mean Patrick Kittle again, fabulous. Like there's so many of them that are writing that way. Isabelle of course, how can I leave her out? But you know there's, they're, they're all writing so beautifully and trying to achieve this.

Yeah.

Not saying they're getting it right all the time because it's, it's difficult like to go in the test at Olympic Games and try to produce something where you're looking completely still and you know, it's difficult. So. But the majority of them are doing a very, very good job and that's what we're going to aim for. And I tell you what does stand out is when you don't see it. So if you do watch the, the class over and you're watching someone working, working, working, holding, holding, holding. That stands out. So it's almost like the riding that we're talking about here where you're letting the horse go by themselves. You're there to guide them and there to show them things. But fundamentally the horse is doing it off either zero aid or a one. Like the mild version of an aid versus a rider who you might see having to go who's holding the horse or pushing the horse together and using up that number one aid on all pop on like in reins and legs and, and thing and then having to go to number two or three to get the res to get the horse to respond is definitely, that definitely stands out at that level.

Yeah, great point. So if we go to the sort of other end of the spectrum and just look at a really practical day to day level of how we're riding in the arena, training at home, can we just go through some green Flags and red flags in terms of are we heading in the right direction? Because as you say it, it can be a bit tricky. We can't only rely on competition results because that's not necessarily a guide that we're heading in the direction that we want to head in, because it doesn't, you know, it's not a. Just a smooth sailing trajectory the whole way. What, what are some of the green flags that. Yes, we're heading along the right path of finding these moments to disappear in our training.

Having definitions around what you like, what you want. So, for example, you know, in our performance riders program, we have a concept called pace control. And the underlying rules or definitions around pace control is two things. One, is my horse in front of my leg and is my horse in my rhythm? So is my horse in front of my leg and. And in my rhythm? So then it's about having the definition about what is in front of my leg mean. Well, in front of my leg means when I stop riding, my horse keeps going, right? So that's, that's just, that's just a definition. Well, the quickest way to work out if the horse is in front of your leg is to stop riding. So when you're riding your horse and you're trotting along, just stop helping. Like, just sit there and relax and let your leg hang and, and the horse will tell you the rest. And if the horse screeches to a hold, that horse is telling you two things. One, you've been helping the horse to move all the time, you know, un, unbeknowingly, maybe. And two, your horse thinks that when you stop riding, it's an aid to tell it to stop. So you have to reverse that communication. So where we use the pressure and release concept is when the horse stops, put the pressure on and when the horse goes, let the pressure off. And teach the horse that when you're going, the pressure will come off. If you stop or slow down, there's going to be an aid on to say go. And when the horse goes, there's going to be a pressure off. And the horse won't take long to realize that every time it stops or slows down, the pressure comes on. And every time it gets, gets sort of past a point and is going by itself that you disappear and reward it. The horse doesn't take long to figure out where's the best place to be. And that's a classic example of concept of pace control has definitions. The definitions are what I just said, and I need to live by those definitions. I need to actually implement this, and that's the difference. And then, of course, I'll use the trot pace again, just as an example. The next definition of when your horse is in front of your leg and in your rhythm, the next definition is, can I adjust this? And what are the dressage tests going to ask me? So the dressage tests are going to ask you, can you do medium trot? Can you do collected trot? Can you do working trot? Can you do extended trot? Can you do passage? Can you do piafe? So they're all versions of trot. So start training that. Start training those versions of trot. And it sounds like you can sit here and make it sound easy. It's not easy, it's difficult. But unless you put some definitions and have some proper, actual, you know, defined things that you need to live by and principles that you're going to ride to, you, you can't. You'll never get there because you're really defining it to yourself and defining it to your horse. And if you can't define it to yourself, how are you going to define to your horse? So. So it is about thinking about this stuff off the horse, setting up the clarity in your own mind, and then just going through the process and then keeping in the back of your mind, what's going to train my horse, it's going to be pressure and release. That's what's going to train the horse is certain aid that means a certain response that I'm going to train my horse to respond. And then it's going to be the clarity of my pressure, release conversations where the release is the reward and the. And. And this is what I want my horse to understand. When it gets to this point, the pressure comes off every single time the same. And therefore, I will start this clear conversation with them or clear understanding of exactly what it is that I'm after.

You've reminded me of that thing that I'm sure all of us writers do at times, especially if we're not really thinking about it in that when we're working on something that, you know, we think is hard work, like maybe we're starting some work on Piaf, say, and we're working, working, aids, aids, aids, aids. Working, working. And then we go, okay, walk long rein, big pat, pressures off. And it's a little bit opposite, isn't it?

But that's right.

We're not finding that moment to disappear in the work that we want.

Yeah, that's a classic example. Like, and I'll admit I'VE made that mistake. I've made that mistake for years because I thought that's what you did. But, you know, the whole thing of, you know, starting PR steps or starting the horse in PR and just helping them, helping them, helping them. And then when you decide, oh, that felt pretty good, stopping, riding, letting the horse stop and then letting the rain go, letting them go long and patting them for it, that that whole sequence translated to a horse's brain is, okay, only do what I can physically push you to do. Then when I stop and take pressure off, you're allowed to stop. And by the way, you're allowed to get long and I'm gonna pat you for it.

Yeah.

And. And, you know, in. Especially when it comes to piaffe, because the piaffe is the opposite. It is round, short body, short posture. Like, the horse comes shorter, it engages its back in and gets and becomes active. So we've just rewarded the horse for the complete opposite. Long, lazy and slow. Big pat, short, round, active. I'm going to keep pressure on and keep. And keep annoying you. So how does that translate into a horse's brain? Of course you're going to want to stop all the time. And of course then the rider's going to go, oh, my horse gets so lazy in pr, it's like, well, why wouldn't you? I would, too, if that was the communication I was getting.

Yeah. Yeah. Wow. It's such a good topic. And, you know, I love that also, you touched on the idea of a sequence of AIDS or shades of aids, which I might touch on in a future Pabrism episode, because that's a really good one as well. Fantastic topic. Some great training advice in there. So thank you very much, Brett. Good.

No trouble.