Cowgirl Confidence Camp 2009 (C3 09) Report

 

Cowgirl Confidence Camp 2009 (C3 09) Group Photo
Cowgirl Confidence Camp 2009 (C3 09) Group Photo

Six souls, more courageous on Sunday than they were on Thursday, graduated from the 2009 version of Cowgirl Confidence Camp, or C3-09.  It was a wonderful experience:  I learned (and learned to use!) a number of horsey skills and concepts, and got to know a bunch of smart and kind women, as well.  I guess the best way to describe the experience is to just give a day-by-day description.  C3 goes from Thursday afternoon through Sunday afternoon, so there are 2 “half days” and 2 full days. The “half days” are in quotes because they both were actually 8 hours, and the full days were 14!

Before we start, I need to mention Cindy. The camp is Cindy’s brain child,

Cindy

Cindy

and she ramrodded MaryBeth into having it.  In addition, Cindy did much of the in-the-moment fetching and carrying, decision making, etc, even though she currently has a broken foot and is operating from a golf cart!  Thanks, Cindy!

Hummingbirds were a constant at the barn trough

Hummingbirds were a constant at the barn trough

Day 1 - Nikki and I left Santa Cruz a little later than we planned, but I thought we were supposed to be there at 1 PM.  Ha!  At 12:30 my phone was ringing:  MaryBeth, wanting to know where the heck we were. Fortunately, we were close, so when we got there, we quickly unloaded the horses and headed for the barn where the rest of the clan had gathered. 

The first order of business was the distribution of our C3 workbook. This is a 6 (?) page booklet of questions we had to answer before and after each day’s adventure. The questions were definitely NOT short answer; their purpose is make you do some self-examination about your confidence and skill levels:  however confident you are, can you justify that level?  If you’re fearful, what exactly makes you fearful?  What areas are you confident in?  What do you do when you’re fearful?  What tools do you have to deal with the situations that concern you?  The questions in the workbook are much more focused, but you get the idea.  It was definitely not a throw-away; I know that I’m still thinking about the questions, and they really guided my thinking through the camp activities.

After we got the workbook, we did a couple of team building and communication exercises.  Although I’m not usually a fan of this type of thing, these were pretty pointed.  I won’t describe them in detail, but  I came through the exercises a much humbler person and I’d developed not only a rapport with my fellow campers, but respect for their intelligence and tolerance, as well.

Here's where we gathered for all our meals and "classes"

Here's where we gathered for all our meals and "classes"

We then got released to feed our horses, set up our camps, do our workbook assignments, etc.  Nikki and I just got through with the camper set up when it was time for dinner. 

Meals.  I’ll get this out of the way early. Ester, MaryBeth’s partner was responsible for meals, and they were great. We were fed breakfast, lunch and dinner, all buffet style, all great.

Back to dinner on Day 1:  dinner lasted from about 7:30 to 10:00.  MaryBeth sort of led the discussion initially – relating what we’d talked about and done today to what we were going to do tomorrow. Pretty soon, though, the conversation took on a life of its own:  we all had stories to tell, but we kept circling back to horses and why we were there.  It was great: no one seemed to have a real agenda, we just talked about things that were important to us, and since we shared a passion, it stayed interesting.  This was the pattern for all meals, particularly dinner.  We never left the table before 10: 00 PM.

They're NOT dancing - they are practicing the Shutdown move

They're NOT dancing - Nikki and MaryBeth are practicing the Shutdown move!

Day 2 – I went out early to clean Sunny’s paddock and feed her and ran into Julia (there are captioned pictures of all the participants somewhere in the post). We shared the manure wheelbarrow, then a cup of coffee.  Sheryl and Nikki joined us and just a few minutes later, MaryBeth found us for breakfast – 8:10 AM.  We ate and the day started.   By the way, this was the pattern for the rest of the camp – we all met for coffee, progressed to breakfast, then to horses.
 
Day 1 is dedicated to ground work, so we put our halters on our horses and reported to the arena.  MaryBeth taught us the Shutdown, which is how you (a) stop a horse that’s in a hurry to leave and (b) ultimately, the start of the shutdown will signal to the horse to just calm down, that you’ve taken control.  Nikki, who had her horse, Polo, in training with MaryBeth, says that as soon as she got Polo’s head turned, he’d settle – he had just learned that when he got to there, that’s what he was going to have to do. MaryBeth observed that horses are not real original – if something works for them about three times, it becomes their habit and they see no reason to invent another behavior.
 
We also learned the underlying principle of MaryBeth’s training method – although she doesn’t claim either invention of it, or to be the only one to use it – anyhow, it’s
Pressure -> Response -> Release
 
which seems pretty simple, but really allows you to figure out how to approach problems, when to stop asking, and how to evaluate your own training/riding. The problem that most of us had was/is that we apply pressure, but we don’t release it on time, so our horses don’t get clear signals as to what it is they should do to make us quit annoying them.
 
The other part of the insight is the notion of graduated pressure:  ask as lightly as possible, but don’t remove the pressure until a change is made, and gradually increase the pressure if you’re current level isn’t producing a change. The key here, for me, was to know where I was going to escalate to. Frequently I get in the position of asking for something, and if Sunny doesn’t give it to me, I just ask again the same way.   Now I realize that I need to be able to recognize when she does comply (see or feel the response), and I need to plan how, when, and how much to escalate, which I hope will come through trial and error.  Anyhow. 
 
MaryBeth showing Harley Bottle Gulch

MaryBeth showing Harley Bottle Gulch

After we got exposed to these notions, we worked on them in the arena by leading, backing, and stopping our horses, and, in my case, having my horse stand still. We also worked on getting their heads down. 

Just when we thought we had the idea, we had to switch horses: we all worked with all the other horses. It was emotionally challenging to go from my skinny, almost 14 hand Arab filly to a stout 16-2 hand eventing horse – but we did, and I think we were all pleasantly surprized. Each horse needed different amounts of pressure, but they all responded and they all behaved.

When we sort of had the idea there, we went to the Obstacle Course.  The Obstacle Course consists of a pedestal, a couple of mattresses, a pile of plastic bottles (about 50 -60 of them), a huge tarp, and a car wash.  Oh yeah, and a pond about 2 feet deep and 15-20 ft across, with weeds, frogs, a duck and a goose.

MaryBeth got us started by taking Harley, Julia’s gelding, through the bottles.  After that, MaryBeth and her two assistants just watched and intervened as required or when requested while we all took our horses through the obstacles.  Most of the horses did really well, so we proceeded to The Gauntlet.
 
Val and Lori meet the Emus

Val and Lori meet the Emus

 
The Gauntlet is MaryBeth’s driveway, from the road to the barn. The first challenge is to walk along the pasture – there are three young horses in it who are really curious, so they come thundering up as horses approach and follow them down the road. After the pasture, there is a pen with 4 (rescue) emus in it. If the horses should make it by those, on the other side of the drive, there are goats, a sheep and a llama. Enough to challenge almost anybody!  The photo is from Day 3, when we rode, but I wanted to show the emus.  After that, we got some more time to work on our own.  Julie was sitting at the edge of the pond with Harley, just getting him used to the idea of it, when he suddenly walked in – and rolled!  Did I mention that it was warm?  After that, we went to dinner and talked until 10 again.
 
Harley Dropping to Roll in the Pond

Harley Dropping to Roll in the Pond

Day 3 – We ride.  During breakfast, MaryBeth put us into two groups and had one group saddle up and head for the arena.  The first group worked for about an hour, then the second group came in.  We learned to use the Shutdown from the saddle, we worked on lateral and vertical flexion, and head down.  Through it all, the principle was pressure->response->release, so we were working to get the result we wanted with the least amount of pressure.  
 
Julia and Harley doing their Western Pleasure Jog

Julia and Harley doing their Western Pleasure Jog

I (and I suspect other people) found that although I was pretty bad at recognizing tries when I was on the ground, I was truly LOUSY at it from the saddle. Probably the biggest learning experience of the weekend was when I realized that I NEVER relaxed in the saddle in the arena – so how could Sunny?  As soon as I consciously relaxed my body, she relaxed, too.  Funny how that works.  The place I discovered this was when we were trying to get several different walking speeds and a jog trot, constantly varying the speed by applying pressure with our energy, then butts, and finally legs.  It was magical – by the end, I could inhale and Sunny would speed up.

 
After both groups had worked in the arena, we got turned loose to do the obstacle course mounted.  Whoo Hoo!
Red and Sheryl Ride through the Car Wash

Red and Sheryl Ride through the Car Wash

 
Jeanie and Dakota Cross the Pond

Jeanie and Dakota Cross the Pond

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As you can see, people were definitely getting more confident!  Sunny and I made it over all the obstacles but the car wash.  Maybe next time.
 
Red, with Sheryl, Crosses Over

Red, with Sheryl, Crosses Over

Day 4 - Last day!   MaryBeth started us off at 8:00, just like every day, mounted, all of us in the arena at once  – clearly, MaryBeth thought we had developed some skills!  The focus on this day was moving one foot at a time, so we did turns and yields.  As usual, Red and Sheryl were the champs.  Note the crossed legs on Red in the picture below!  The rest of us straggled along.  After we’d worked through that, we moved on to other games:  one where we made a corner out of cavaletti rails and we had to sidepass our horse inside it and around the corner.   Finally, we did The Limbo, in which MaryBeth created a really narrow path with two cavalettis, and we asked our horses to walk us through them.  If a horse stepped out, the pair was eliminated.  After each round, the path was made narrower.  This was great fun, and the biggest horses were able to put those huge hooves right in the middle – witness Polo!  

MaryBeth and Sunny in the Car Wash

MaryBeth and Sunny in the Car Wash

After the arena games, we were let loose for an hour or so of free-form fooling around.  During that time, MaryBeth took some time with my mare, Sunny to work in the car wash.  After we put our horses away, we met for our final lunch where we got our diplomas and a very nice cloth grocery bag.

Polo and Nikki Win the Limbo Contest

Polo and Nikki Win the Limbo Contest

Val and Lori in the Car Wash

Val and Lori in the Car Wash

We finally tore ourselves away about 4:00 – and we were the first to leave. Nikki and I talked about C3 all the way home, and I think we agreed that it was a real game-changer for us both; we felt like we had a foundation that we could work from. 
All in all, it was the most intense horse-related training I’ve ever gotten. It was interesting in that this was clearly about the people, NOT the horses. And it was also a great bargain: we got MaryBeth’s attention for all daylight hours from the time we got there until we left, and well into the night on those nights we stayed over.   I want to do it again. Soon.