BTR Draft 1 Spring 2012

8/2/2019 BTR Draft 1 Spring 2012

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Dear Harry-ville,

I have just returned from a

tour of the eastMoscow to

Shanghai to Phenom Penh to

Saigon and back home to DC.

My horse-friends are never

far and in Cambodia they had

a small breed of pony that was used primarily for hauling

goods and people. As I watched one man put his pony into a

small stable at the back of his home I was impressed by the kind

nature of them both. But most impressive, was how the pony

calmly walked into his small paddock appearing no worse for

the wear, in spirit or demeanor, after being unhitched from his

cart. Made me think of a Harry-ism, perhaps our goal should

be to leave them feeling no worse than when we took them out

of the pasture this morning.

Even on another continent, I still have Harrys voice in my head

and his lessons close to my heart.

I leave for Tennessee in a few weeks to enjoy some oppressive

heat, laughter and friends. Maybe learn a few more lessons

about horses, too.

With joy, Sarah OBrien, Editor

L e t t e r f r o m t h e E d i t o re t t e r f r o m t h e E d i t o r

Burning Questions

Q: An instructor told a student that her horse was"disobedient". Would some of you old timers comment onthis if you have time?

-Georgia on my MindDear Georgia,

The concept of disobedience assumes there is fore

knowledge of right and wrong behavior and that a choice

is made to behave badly. Horses don't see things that way

- they don't have the ability to judge between right and

wrong. Horses see the world as a variety of choices that

are either going to work out well- or not so well. If a

horse makes a choice it is because, to the horse, that

choice is the best choice available. It may not seem that

way to the human, but for one reason or other, in the

horses mind, it's the best choice.

Rather than make a value judgment and characterizing a

horse's behavior in a pejorative way, it would be more

productive to ponder what the human could do to help a

horse make the choice the human desires. I think often

horses have no idea what a person is asking. They just do

what they think the person wants them to do, or they do

what they think is best for their own welfare. Today, I

understand characterizing a horse as disobedient doesn't

help me or the horse. If things don't work out the way I

thought they should, I ask myself what I can do to help the

horse understand what I want, and I find ways to help

make it easy for the horse to do what I want.

Moscow in the spring

Answer courtesy of Rita Riddile, a

long-time student of Harry and the

horse.

She and her husband, Andrew, live

on a peaceful farm in St. Leonard,

MD where learning is encouraged

and fostered: littlecovefarm.com


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That Thought Thing by: Tom Moates

This amazing horsemanship journey Im undertaking (althoughsometimes Im pretty sure its undertaking me) leads me to some

quite profound connections in life. One is the interaction I enjoywith readers who have found my writing helpful, or at least enter-taining. Every once in awhile one even learns about Harry and his

clinics through my books or essays.Linda Davenport is one of these folks. Lindas story is

exceptional to me in part because she had the great fortune tobegin her horsemanship journey years ago, and it included sub-stantial exposure to two of the most respected horsemen ever:Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt. She attended clinics with both ofthem (even clinics with the two of them together) and has workeddiligently for a good chunk of her life to get better with horses,putting what she has learned over the years into practice.

Linda corresponded with me after reading my books,AHorses Thought and Between the Reins. A year or two later she went

and rode with Harry. Im grateful she agreed to continue e-mailing me to share some of her thoughts andexperiences both during and then follow-ing her first clinic with Harry. I findher impressions are unique because shealready was well versed from first handexperience in the horsemanship ofTom Dorrance and Ray Hunt and hadbeen actively pursuing getting betterwith her horsesa time span of 25years or more, so a very serious horse-womanyet, she had no previous experi-

ence with Harry.

Linda has agreed to let me share some of the impressionsshe had and e-mailed to me. Other than deleting entire lines ofextraneous exclamation points (!!!!!), the quotes are as she putthem down.

As for Lily and me and the dust clearing, wow, wow,and wow again! Linda exclaimed in the first post-clinic e-mail. What an amazing breakthrough. I have to keep checkingto make sure I'm riding the same horse! I feel like she's feeling,Thank God you now 'get it,' so now I don't have to worry aboutanything anymore. She's just like butter, really. She just exudespeace. I don't know how else to explain it. She feels good in-side! She looks at me different. When she sees me she just getsthis wonderful, soft, mushy look on her face and she stares atme. If I die tomorrow, I will die a very happy person, having ac-complished something I've been chasing all my life! Thank you,Harry Whitney!

Okay, so Linda is a little excited here. But what struckme when I read this e-mail from her is that this very strong posi-tive reaction is coming from a woman who has worked seriouslyfor more than a couple decades at actively improving her horse-

manship. It grabbed my curiosity that in a single clinic she hadsuch a profound breakthrough, especially one she had been chas-ing for many years. I bugged her for more details of just whatwent on to get her this joyful.

And heres a whole letter that gets deeper into it:

Hi Tom,

I NEED to tell you a couple of things that have absolutely amazed me

since attending Harry's clinic in Montana!

I continue to be beyond grateful and completely blown away by what I'm

discovering with my horses since the dawning of "teaching a horse to leave

a thought!

Just briefly, THE SOFTNESS that's there. I've been getting a "soft feel"for, what, at least 25 years. It's NOT THE SAME THING! Getting a

soft feel is "mechanical." The soft feel that

comes through automatically when you have

a horse's thought, well, how can I explain

itit's a thousand times softer! Wow,wow and wow again! It is really unbelieva-

ble how good they feel when they are that

"with you."

I just got back from challenging myself and

Lily to riding in a place waaaaay out of

"our" comfort zone. It's a trail that runs alonga river that is thick forest with lots of underbrush. In addition, that par-

ticular area is known as "Fruitvale" because of the wild apple, pear and

nectarine trees that grow there. There are an inordinate number of bears

that frequent that area, as evidenced by the frequent bear sightings and

bear dung every 20 feet or so alongside the trail. So, I can imagine that

with the horse's sense of self-preservation, sense of smell for wild creatures,

etc., it is a place they would most certainly be on "high alert." Of course,

Lily's thought would go here or there along the trail, but I was right there

with her and could bring that thought back immediately. It was amazing

how soft she would immediately get and how calm she would become when

her thought would come back to me . . . like butter. She never got tight

once through her body. A first, a real first!

My only regret, why didn't I get this a long time ago!

God Bless!

Linda Davenport

...Continued page 4

The soft feel that comes through

automatically when you have a

horse's thought, well, how can I

explain itit's a thousand

times softer!


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Then Linda shared an example with a very different kind ofhorse she has.

I have also been working with Lily's full sister (Sunshine, age8), She wrote. They are night and day in many respects, butthe most amazing thing with Sunshine isand I did talk toHarry about thisshe's a very confident horse, a very boldhorse, and mentally a verystrong horse, with definitethoughts of her own. In otherwords, an issue I've always hadwith her is, if you don't keepyour focus with her, she'll takeover in a nano-second! If youask for one step, before you feelher foot leave the ground,

you've got three steps. Do youknow what I mean?

I have to really tonedown my thoughts and aids forher, or you get toomuch. Anyway, I've discoveredwith Sunshine that her head isFULL OF THOUGHTSNONSTOP, and, generallyspeaking, her thoughts arewaaaaay ahead. If her feet can't get up

with her thoughts, then she getscrooked, again in a nano-second. This is especially evidentwhen I ask for the canter/lope. If you confine her at the lope,she bunches up and gets terribly crooked because her thoughtsare waaay ahead; yet, if you ask her for the lope and don'tconfine her, she's straight as an arrow and soft.

Playing with her thoughts has just had amazingresults! In fact, I just got back from a 1-1/2 hour ride withSunshine, and, for the first time ever (just as a simpleexample), she did not dive-bomb for a bite of food along theway. She's so darn quick, that it was always hard to catch her

before she did that, but now she's more focused on where Iam. I purposefully rode in the tallest grass I could find alongthe way, and kept asking for her thoughts. Just amazing!

Like I said, THIS IS JUST IMMENSE, this thoughtthing!

This thought thing, seems to be what connected thedots of horsemanship for Linda. It was the missing linkbetween the many pieces she had worked with to build abetter relationship with horsesthose parts certainly wouldbe things like picking up a soft feel, knowing right where all

your horses feet are when riding, and timing releases justright. All those kinds of things are certainly aspects of gettingbetter with horses, but I really believe that if you get a horsesthought with you, then you get all those things and everything

else besides. The particulars can be a by-product of a horsethat is truly with you. Get the horses thought with you andbe able to direct that, andyouve got the whole horseright at your fingertips.

It is Harrys uniquepersonal understanding of thisand his willingness to try andimpart it to others, that gets tothe very core of bettering therelationship and

communications betweenhorses and humans.

It is so interesting tome, having been skirtingaround the outside precipice ofthis thought thing for quite awhile now, Linda said, andnow actually falling over theedge and seeing it with my owntwo eyes and, consequently,

feeling it with my whole being. Ahhh,

the layers of the proverbial onion!

Ahh, those layers indeed!

T h o u g h t T h i n g , c o n t d .h o u g h t T h i n g , c o n t d .

This is a picture of this formerly-fractioushorse calmly dragging one of my fellowparticipants on a sled as if she haddone that every day of her life! Linda

This is an excerpt from Toms new book Further

Down the Trail (page one).

Tom Moates and his wife,Carol, live in Floyd, VA

with an assortment of horses

and solar power to ensure

there is never a dull mo-

ment.

www.Tommoates.com


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H a p p e n i n g s i n H a r r ya p p e n i n g s i n H a r r ya p p e n i n g s i n H a r r y - v i l l ei l l ei l l e

WWW.HARRY WHITNEY.COM

CLINIC SCHEDULE:July 28 - 31, 2012 4 day clinic.

Auditors welcome.

Hosted by: Suzy FitzSimmons in Eagle

Lake, MN

Contact: [email protected] for

available openings and directions.

Special guest, author Tom Moates, will be attending

the MN clinics this year!

FITZFARM HOSTS HARRY!

August 4 7, 2012For more informaon: www.montanahorsecenter.com

MT HORSE CENTER


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betweenthereins.blogspot.com

facebook.com/between the reins

[email protected]

Between the

Reins

Dates of the week-long camps:

MAY 21

MAY 28

JUNE 11

JUNE 18

First three weeks are full and we are filling the

week of June 18th (and beyond, if needed).

Additional info: mendinfencesfarm.com

Have a Harry related event you would

like featured? Please send an email

with the details and photos, if available,

to: [email protected]

HARRY WHITNEY will be back, of course.

As always, we are so pleased to be involved in

these intensive week-long camps. If you are

looking for lots of one-on-one hands on

assistance with plenty of time for questions and

discussion, this is a wonderful experience.

This year, Harry will also do a DEMO before

the actual clinics start. Though we have a

strong crew of serious and dedicated students,

we are hoping that some of the more local

folks will take this opportunity to see what allour enthusiasm is about.

DEMO Saturday, May 19th from

8:45 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. Harry will work

with one young horse and one riding horse.

$15 fee includes demo and discussion period.

U p c o m i n g E v e n t s i n T e n n e s s e e

The Harry Whitney

inspired

Newsletter...

Betweenthereins.blogspot.com

Harry Whitney

Mailing address

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BTR Draft 1 Spring 2012