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Between the Reins 1

rest of the herd. Too

close? He lost his mind

trying to manage the

other horses as only astrong-minded stallion

would be keen to do.

Too far? He lost his

mind trying to manage

himself back to a closer

proximity to the horses.

I was feeling ready to

experiment with geng

along in the more

stressful environmentof being out of sight of

the herd, in the barn.

I dont know what

scared me the most:

Ponys uer disregard

of my physical pres-

ence, or the amount of

rmness I mustered in

order to keep myself

safe. I succeeded inkeeping safe while my

bloodstream coursed

with adrenaline.

Connued on Page 2

Good thing Im open

minded about ghosts

and hearing voices of

people who are nothere in the room

with me because Ive

been haunted.

Haunted by Harry

Whitney. His words

intrude in my daily

life, whether Im

working with horses

or people or simply

out picking berries

by myself.

A few years back, in a

moment of desperaon

that overshadowed my

usual reluctance to

bother someone I hold

in high regard, I put in a

call to Mr. Whitney.

I certainly was desper-

ate. Desperate to dothe right thing to help

the pony I had bought.

Sohearted and ambi-

ous, I had gured I

could help this prey

lile 17 year old recent-

ly gelded dynamo. He had

a history of pushing

around people and hors-

es alike, and ended up in

a rescue. I guess you

could say I rescued the

rescue by taking him.

Pony and I were making

some progress toward

geng along according to

my ideas of geng along,

as long as we were close -

but not too close - to the

H a u n t e d

L a s e l l B a r t l e t t

This newsletter is an all-

volunteer effort designed

to reflect the horseman-ship approach taught by

Harry Whitney. While Harry

will offer his thoughts and

ideas, he does not take

personal responsibility for

the content of student

contributions.

T H E H A R R Y W H I T N E Y I N S P I R E D N E W S L E T T E R

Between the Reins

To subscribe or contribute: BTReditor@gmail.comOctober 2012

To comment

or subscribe: BTReditor@

gmail.com

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Between the Reins 3

quiet shi in my weight and a

suggeson on the rein. Thesefew requests and responses

from my horse are the foun-

daon for everything else

that my horse and I may want

to do in the ring and on the

trail. Sounds simple, but it is

not easy to do. It is much

easier to make our horse do

what we want; instead of

ask and do it together.

Harry also helped me to un-

derstand what my horse

wants from me. My horse

wants clarity and precision in

my requests. My horse is not

interested in my warm fuzzy

thoughts followed by unclear

demands, which is what I

call any part of a ride that

leaves my horse tense withlack of condence.

I know that if I had read the

above paragraphs last year, I

may of glanced at them with

the thought that I already had

that with my horse. Aer all,we could accomplish quite a

bit in the ring and on the trail.

In this past year, I took a good

look at my horse as we did

this or that, and I could see

that my horse was oen look-

ing elsewhere and that there

was a brace in the reins. My

goal in the upcoming months

and years is to be more like

the horseman, Harry Whit-

ney. One must see Harry

with or on a horse to even get

a glimpse of what that could

be.

Debra Hall Moser lives in north-

east Iowa on a farm where her

husband raises corn and Debra

raises old style

Morgans. Please

see her website

at hbarm.comfor

more information

about Debra and

Morgans of H

Bar M.

M i n n e s o t a C l i n i c R e p o r t

D e b r a H a l l M o s e r

P a g e 3O c t o b e r 2 0 1 2

At last years clinic, I made my

horse cross a re obstacle

and I felt quite pleased when

we accomplished our task.

Harry asked me this queson

as I rode o from the obsta-

cle; Debbie, how did your

horse feel as you rode across

the obstacle? To be honest,

I did not know and I was not

even sure why I should know

how my horse felt.

During the 2012 clinic, it real-

ly began to click for me. It

maers how my horse feels

because I want to be the type

of horseman that my horse

wants to be with. I dont

want my horse to be tense,

uncomfortable, and looking

for somewhere else to be,

other than with me. I want

my horse to look and then

travel to the le with a for-

ward thought and moon

when I pick up the le rein. I

want my horse to stop with a

http://hbarm.com/http://hbarm.com/http://hbarm.com/

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Between the Reins 4

A picture is worth a thousand wordsA picture is worth a thousand words

I love the Stephanie Roundy photo of Harry on the last

page of the September newsleer a portrait of ming,

balance and feel a picture is worth a 1000 words.

Thanks for sharing.

Ann Benne, Mount Pleasant, IA

A rare horseman!A rare horseman!

Fiy years of teaching humans and some horses in

the hopes of making things beer for both and I've

been a big fan of Harry's since I audited some of

his clinics here in California.

I just wanted to say that looking at the photo of

Harry in the latest news leer, what strikes me (I

come from a dressage background) is that if you

could somehow measure the curve of that horse's

neck from shoulder to poll, you would nd that it

was exactly equal in each vertebrae. In other

words, no joint in the neck is being "over exed"

because of resistance or sness in another place.

The "cherry" on top of the cake here (for me) , is

the relaxaon in the poll, that allows the swivel of

the mare's head while maintaining an ABSOLUTELY

vercal line down the center of the mare's skull

(face) to the ground. It is, perhaps, dicult to ap-

preciate such technicality, but take it from me, it is

RARE indeed under ANY type of saddle. Congratu-

laons Harry! Best.

Donna Snyder-Smith

Picture InspiraonPicture Inspiraon

At the Bible Study Horsemanship Camp I aended

last month, Harry Whitney gave a quite detailed ex-

planaon of how he handles rope reins.

In this photo, Harry has asked the horse to go le.

You can see the way he has moved his reins to the

le and, it looks to me that he has opened his le lega bit. Noce the right leg, no pressure. In fact, he is

not pung any pressure on the horse at all. He is just

asking. He always asks rst but oen his ask is so sub-

tle, an observer doesn't even see it. In this case the

horse is responding to the ask, but suppose the horse

ignored the request. If I were the rider I would proba-

bly pull back with my le hand and put right leg on

the horse, not Harry, however.

If Harry is working with the reins, he would not wantto apply pressure only with the reins. A common re-

acon is to pull back on the le rein, which inevitably

twists the body to the le. Not only is the twist itself

a big fat cue to the horse as to what is wanted, it will

also, almost automacally, put right leg on the horse.

How is the poor horse supposed factor all this out

and know it was the reins he was supposed to be

paying aenon to?

What Harry would do is leave his le hand in place

and move his right hand out pulling the reins through

his le hand. You will noce he is prepared to do this

and has all the excess slack taken out of the reins and

has the reins looped in his right hand. The boom

line of Harry's advice is to be sparing (light) with your

cues when asking a horse to execute a maneuver .

Page Schroer