Ricky Quinn in Rostrevor

[intouch]

I've just written a clinic report on Irish Horsemanship and hope it's OK to link it here rather than typing it all again!

http://irishnhsociety.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=horsereports&thread=810&page=1

[poi-chick]

Good report, interesting read thanks.

[Teegee]

I've just written a clinic report on Irish Horsemanship and hope it's OK to link it here rather than typing it all again!

http://irishnhsociety.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=horsereports&thread=810&page=1

You can just copy and paste - you don't need to retype!

[Bip]

Thread seems to have gone, link says it does not exist :confused:

[T-P]

Would love to read your report but it wont let me.

[Teegee]

It was there last night.

Intouch - you will have to type it again after all!!

[Knot69]

the thread is gone the last ricky quinn thread got verry messy and was locked so thats probably why i would be intrested in reading it for one

[High_Stepper]

Here's a link to the first thread, I was a participant at this demo and found this to be a great thread - good reading

http://irishnhsociety.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=coursesclinicsanddemos&thread=701&page=1#1856

[intouch]

I am very disappointed that my thread was removed, I thought the site welcomed honest feedback about clinics but obviously not.
I'll do it all again later!

[Teegee]

Intouch I have pm'd you.

[Bobbi C]

Here's a link to the first thread, I was a participant at this demo and found this to be a great thread - good reading

http://irishnhsociety.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=coursesclinicsanddemos&thread=701&page=1#1856

really interesting thread HS :nod:

[intouch]

After the discussion here about Ricky Quinn I thought we had to go and see for ourselves what he had to offer. Went along on Friday night to the demo - at first I was a wee bit unsure of the presentation, he was working with a bargy horse who rushed his doorways and towed his handler out of control. He didn't get a chance to demonstrate bad behaviour, Ricky got his attention pretty quickly and he was a very nicely mannered horse after an hour.

As I say, I thought what he did with that particular horse looked heavy handed, but he explained that he was dealing with potentially life threatening behaviour (horse had almost taken out owner's husband & small child). Although he was sharp with the horse, he never actually hurt him, he used enough force with the halter and line to get what he needed but was quick to release and the horse was quick to understand.

So we decided that we would bring our famous Silver horse to see what Ricky would make of him. Now Silver takes a bit of introducing. He was bought by my older daughter 18 months ago as a project to bring on and sell on, however after all the usual traditional groundwork, he took to bucking people off. so next daughter Jenny took over with more "natural" training, but with the same result.

Laura Dominica did some stirling work with him over the last year, but the horse, lovely to work with in the stable, very sweet natured, had scared everyone off and remained a field ornament.

He is mostly TB with Cruising as his great grandfather - I know, I know. Very sensitive and easily upset, hated a trailing lead rope, doesnt like being touched around the chest/girth area, but never known to kick or deliberately hurt anyone.

The first 30 secs with Ricky weren't pretty, Silver was astonished and pretended he had never moved his shoulders or hindquarters before - we were accused of puss - y footingaround him which was propably justified. However he re-learned it all pretty quickly - I have to say, although the horse's reactions were much stronger than we might have asked for, the horse was never hurt, and Ricky explained the psychology of his reactions, picking up on the snake phobia which he said was "God telling him that he was in danger" Ricky kept up the pressure on teaching him to move his feet, but allowed him to catch his breath while he explained stuff, and tried to get the rest of the group to work on their horses.
After about an hour he put the very expensive and heavy western saddle on without too much bother, did a bit more ground work with lots of things flapping, then got up, still with the rope halter. Silver humped up at first but was kept in small circles till he settled. Then Ricky just encouraged him to go forward, learn about legs on his sides, take his own line around the arena just using the single rope and his hand on the other side of the horse's head to steer, and following another horse's lead to go forward.

I have to apologise to the other members of the group who may feel they were short changed, but they must also have learned a great deal from watching, we were well pleased with the outcome, a lovely horse beginning to get over his fears and frankly, saved from the dog meat industry.

Many thanks to Ricky who seemed to me to be a very genuine guy, to the lovely lady who organised the clinics (Welshgirl) to Deirdre for hosting Rostrevor and to Eva who has promised to come and give us some support with continuing the work.

Lesley


Spell check wont let me write puss - y foot!!

[Teegee]

Very interesting report Intouch.

Can you elaborate a little further on "the snake phobia" reaction.

[Roo]

Really enjoyed your report, Intouch

Ricky sounds genuine:)

I personally feel that when working with 500 pounds of horse, you might sometimes have to 'heavy handed' , to get your message across, not all horses have had a kind upbringing and may not have been given the time they needed to learn. Unfortunately, they cant tell us that over a cuppa! Thats why it's good to have people like Ricky to keep their minds working forward and help them over their issues

Wish I had gone now :nod:

[Rips]

It seems unfortunately that INHS forum is turning out to be just as fluffy and bias as any other (NH forum!) its a pity - I would love to hear from more NH people who are less narrowminded.

I wasn't at the clinics but sounds like he was just a bit more blunt with his teaching methods perhaps then people expected.... ever notice how in Parelli demos the owners are always coddled, even the things they do by chance are picked up and glorified with some spiel.

[Knot69]

good to hear a genuine report thank you for taking the time to retype it:clap:

[Roo]

ever notice how in Parelli demos the owners are always coddled, even the things they do by chance are picked up and glorified with some spiel.

I agree, Rips

Good point:nod:

[High_Stepper]

No, i wouldn't say the NH forum is being fluffy, I was at both the demo and a participant on the Saturday Dragonhold.

Heavy handed is not how I'd describe Ricky. Yes he was a very nice individual to talk to. yes he is the man if you have a difficult horse, and INtouch's horse sounds like one.

But Ricky went after, and i mean *went after* some really ploddy horses that were doing feck all and he was rough. He chucked one horse the length of the long side of the arena because although he reined back when asked, it wasn't "energetic enough". The horse i'd say forgot all about the request and just wanted to get the man off the end of the rope attached to his poor head.

As I said on the NH forum, there was no explanation for the force used. No difference between any horse, just slam down hard on all of them.

And we were constantly told "horses in Ireland have no purpose". True, we are not out culling cattle. But take for example a typical riding school/ riding club horse, his job is to be quiet and do a nice job of a mixed variety of skills and help a person learn to ride. They are lower energy horses than you may see at other events (my opinion - i often feel like a fish out of water with such a lively one). But these horses don't need to jump out of their skin when asked to back up. Part of their suitability to their job is their passiveness.

I learned a lot though, and i appreciate his exercises and that you do need to control your horse when he's lively, it's all very well when he's quiet and at home, but you need to be able to do something when they are sparking up.

Incidentally I trailer load exactly as RQ demonstrated, but I didn't learn that method by charging all over the yard creating havoc. Yes the horse can damage you, but the horse could have damaged any of the participants at the show i was in too in that state!

And.. sadly Ricky did not come to me once during the demo. I was left rather willy nilly trying to do what he was describing. I doubt it was because i was doing it brilliantly :D but i might as well have been watching a dvd. Unfortunately again, he was quite busy being oddly dismissive of everyone in the room. I don't know if this was a cultural oddity but it sure was strange. Didn't particuarly bother me, as I said he was a nice guy to chat to individually.

ETA - I feel like I'm not making my point correctly and I don't want to do RQ a disservice.

Ricky quinn is a fantastic horseman for dominant agressive dangerous horses. I don't feel the pressure was warranted on some of those horses. I fail to see what it acheived.

If the clinic had been directed at solving horses with issues it may have been positioned better & would have been a huge success because he is the man for that job.

[intouch]

First time we noticed this was when we were lunging him, early on - when you tried to turn him, he would run backwards in a panic. Then one day with Laura he took a buckle in his eye when she let the rope go on the ground - at that point it really looked as if he was running away from the rope, he had decided it was coming to get him.
The other thing that we didn't connect was that he hated his chest/girth area being touched, and that was what Ricky picked up on.
It is interesting to think of all the other horses over the years that have had similar problems that I had never connected with a simple self-preservation instinct such as fear of snakes. I don't suppose anyone in Ireland thinks to explain about St Pat to their horses!
Lesley

[High_Stepper]

ever notice how in Parelli demos the owners are always coddled, even the things they do by chance are picked up and glorified with some spiel.

yes, it makes my skin crawl.

[Rips]

Obviously you were at the demo HS, I can't really comment.. I do know there was some very childish and unprofessional behaviour being carried out on behalf of some INHS forum members though... shouting the odds in the carpark, warning people on their way in with horses not to go, but advertising their own clinics/services...

[Tharg]

I don't feel the pressure was warranted on some of those horses. I fail to see what it acheived.


Just out of curiosity, were they horses that needed to be there?

[ell]

Hello folks,

When I heard that someone who trained with Buck Brannaman was coming over I was delighted. I normally don’t recommend trainers to people unless I have actually seen them in person, but I made an exception in this case and prominently advertised Ricky on my website on the front page, sent off an email circular about him and recommended him as worth going to see to friends. I also booked off the whole weekend (should have been in work!) to watch him and learn.

I was also delighted that the clinics were being organised by someone else, as setting up clinics is a lot of work and welsh girl did a brilliant job of organising everything. I would love for more good trainers to come to Ireland and I can just appear on the day and watch! I much prefer spending my time training my horse to organising clinics which are a lot of work.

If you trawl through my website there are lots of trainers mentioned on it. Ricky’s clinic info was also up on my website (and still is) and there is two pages of feedback from lots of people about how they got on, but this thread had to be locked after it started to break forum rules and turned chaotic. Intouch’s post is fine and I’m really pleased Ricky helped out her horse, but as I explained to her I was worried posting it would restart the other thread and it would start getting abusive again. Discussion is very welcome but when it gets into an argument it goes away from learning about horses.

I take ‘Rips’ posts on board but there are two sides to every story so if anyone would like to call me I am always very happy to talk about this, or anything horse related.

Best wishes,
Elaine.

[High_Stepper]

Not flogging a dead donkey here, but I have changed my opinion regarding Ricky Quinn. I think it took a long time for his 'way' to sink in, but i get it now.

I'd struggled to understand why RQ got after the horses so much and although he explained why, the emphasis was lost on me somewhere along the way. I try to keep my horse calm at all times.

Now that's all well and good, but for love nor money some horses won't stay calm all the time. And my definition of a calm horse may differ to yours. I'm not doing a 'my horse is so mad' thing here, but I have not seen a horse with as razorsharp reactions as my own lad, coupled with a flash of desire to dominate. It's fine to do groundwork when your horse is switched off, but what are you going to do from the ground when your horse is switched ON - this is what RQ was all about. They're all lambs when they're switched off, and sometimes they'll just switch themselves on. This is where it's dangerous, and where we need to react equally as fast as the horse. And i think this is RQ's way. He wanted to wake the horses up, have them on their toes and THEN teach us. Have them hopping, and have us hopping with responses as fast. This is the 'timing' element he talked about.

Now it's taken me many weeks to see it and get it. But I do get it now! And in many ways his audience at the Dublin show wasn't right, our horses were quiet and i'd say 80% of the horses are going to be quiet 100% of their lives, they were quiet lads. But not all horses are like that and that's the way they are naturally and I own one of them and that's just the way he is, he's sharp in the absolute true sense of the word. How I would love to have Ricky work on my horse, I'd be ready now to hear what he has to say.

[Little-Miss-Muppet]

First time we noticed this was when we were lunging him, early on - when you tried to turn him, he would run backwards in a panic. Then one day with Laura he took a buckle in his eye when she let the rope go on the ground - at that point it really looked as if he was running away from the rope, he had decided it was coming to get him.
The other thing that we didn't connect was that he hated his chest/girth area being touched, and that was what Ricky picked up on.
It is interesting to think of all the other horses over the years that have had similar problems that I had never connected with a simple self-preservation instinct such as fear of snakes. I don't suppose anyone in Ireland thinks to explain about St Pat to their horses!
Lesley

very interesting. I saw this myself on a young horse I used to ride. We have a hose that runs along the side of the arena fence. It lies on the ground on the higher piece along side the fence off the track. This mare went mental when she saw it and got even worse another day when someone was hosing one part of the arena. It was not the water it was the hose itself. The YO said to me that its snake phobia and it was very true it took ages to get her okay with it

[Welsh Girl]

Wow High_Stepper! Your post is exactly how it was for me the first time I encountered this style of horsemanship, I just don't have such a grasp of the english language that I can express myself so well. I had to go off and think about it too! When I did realise, so many things clicked into place for me. My horse is so happy to be around me now because she knows she can trust me to "be" with her no matter what life throws at us.

The funny thing is too that she is never "switched off" but we do have that quiet way of being with each other too. I love to sit in the corner of her stable while she eats her tea or when she's snoozing. She used to give me dirty looks as if she didn't like it so I would leave. Now she's happy to let me sit there, and when she's done eating she comes over and rubs me with her top lip!!

The way I see it horses are naturally high spirited and energetic, but over centuries of selective breeding and training we humans have sought to make them quieter and more "manageable". When I worked in racing and showjumping it was always said that the better horses took more skill to handle, now I think I understand that bit too!

[jackdagr8]

Not flogging a dead donkey here, but I have changed my opinion regarding Ricky Quinn. I think it took a long time for his 'way' to sink in, but i get it now.

I'd struggled to understand why RQ got after the horses so much and although he explained why, the emphasis was lost on me somewhere along the way. I try to keep my horse calm at all times.

Now that's all well and good, but for love nor money some horses won't stay calm all the time. And my definition of a calm horse may differ to yours. I'm not doing a 'my horse is so mad' thing here, but I have not seen a horse with as razorsharp reactions as my own lad, coupled with a flash of desire to dominate. It's fine to do groundwork when your horse is switched off, but what are you going to do from the ground when your horse is switched ON - this is what RQ was all about. They're all lambs when they're switched off, and sometimes they'll just switch themselves on. This is where it's dangerous, and where we need to react equally as fast as the horse. And i think this is RQ's way. He wanted to wake the horses up, have them on their toes and THEN teach us. Have them hopping, and have us hopping with responses as fast. This is the 'timing' element he talked about.

Now it's taken me many weeks to see it and get it. But I do get it now! And in many ways his audience at the Dublin show wasn't right, our horses were quiet and i'd say 80% of the horses are going to be quiet 100% of their lives, they were quiet lads. But not all horses are like that and that's the way they are naturally and I own one of them and that's just the way he is, he's sharp in the absolute true sense of the word. How I would love to have Ricky work on my horse, I'd be ready now to hear what he has to say.
i was there on that sat, and i agree with everything you say
:nod:

[Honky tonk]

I'm a fan of Buck Brannaman, i like the Vaquero Style of horsemanship.
I knew that Ricky Quinn had worked along side him a while,
when I heard Ricky was coming to Ireland i was delight to get the opportunity
to see him work. I was at the Ricky Quinn clinics,Co Wicklow dragonhold & Ballinasloe Co Galway. His style of horsemanship is a inspiration, i learnt so uch ! Watch Ricky handling horses, with out a carrott stick & fixing such common problems, like loading horses.
Ricky Quinn is a straight talking man, who tells it like it is, which some people may take to be arrogance. He made sure that by the end of the day that everyones issues had been addressed. I ride western style & have being using natural horsemanship & have been putting into practice what I learnt from Ricky & am getting good results with my horses.

:thankyou::newhere:

[EK2008]

:welcome2: Honky Tonk :wave2::wave2::wave2:

Yes i have "heard " some of the stories floating around about his clinics
Its a pity that some people were trying to bad mouth him

Glad that you enjoyed it and no doubt took away some wonderful information.

You obviously can add a lot to this section with your knowledge :)

[Welsh Girl]

:welcome2: To the forum Honky Tonk great to find another Vaquero :dance:

:thankyou: for your input, much appreciated, You obviously understood Ricky ;) and took a lot from the clinics. Keep in touch. I too look forward to your further input on this forum. :)

[Honky tonk]

Hi guy :nod:

Thanks for the welcome:thankyou:

YES ! There was stories floating around about his clinics :rant:

& some very childish behaviour be carried to:sniggers:

I accept that not everyone will have the same experience/opinion of
this event, everyone experience things differently.