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Josh Nichol Clinic - The Pursuit of Softness and Lightness
April 18, 2006
Josh Nichol at the 2006 April clinic at Jenovation Farm near Tofield, Alberta
Photo: albertaequine.com
Tofield, Alberta --- Exclusive to Alberta Equine ...On-Line --- Five pictures included! --- It’s a rainy Sunday in early spring. Equine specialist Angie Jensen is hosting a three-day Josh Nichol clinic at Jenovation Farm, the home of Equine Wise Services Inc., in central Alberta, just forty minutes southeast of Edmonton. A small number of participants and observers are seated in an arena, intent on the horse and young man at the centre of the ring. Nichol has a calm smile on his face as he gently works with Juan Doe, a rescue three-year-old Peruvian. Standing on a mounting block, he is showing the audience how a horse, as he says, “Looks at life”. Nichol is engrossed in doing what he loves to do; helping people understand how horses think, and just as importantly, how people think about horses…and if perhaps they’re ready for a shift in their thinking, because he’s able to show them an effective way of working with horses that’s truly unique.
Nichol has been with horses most of his life, growing up in Colinton, Alberta, just south of Athabasca. He started working with mentor Harry Whitney when he was about sixteen years old, and credits Whitney with “shaping my character.” He adds that he did not intend to do clinics, but popular demand has led to him holding them now for about six years. He works with both western and dressage riders, demonstrating the techniques of softness, lightness and flow.
The theory of softness and lightness is not always easy to grasp. Lightness is clearly desirable, but just because a horse is ‘light’ in its way of going doesn’t mean it has softness that flows through that lightness, and in fact, lightness without softness, Nichol believes, almost always has an underlying resistance lurking somewhere in the animal’s body. Nichol is certain that softness must be present to create a sense of togetherness between horse and person. The horse has to trust that the person working with it is its leader, and then its mind flows towards following what that leader requires. “Softness is so contagious”, says Nichol, “horses are pure in their being. I try to understand how they see life from their perspective, and let others understand, because it makes us feel good, lets us unite with the horse. So we want to be light, but we darn well better be soft!”
Flow, the third element that Nichol teaches, speaks to “Fluidly flowing through the light to find the resistance in a way that shows more resistance if it is there, then soften to that resistance.” As Nichol explains, he works on flow with Angie Jensen and her young mount, Moses. Jensen, an experienced rider, can feel what Nichol is talking about. As Moses walks around the ring, his muscles are not quite relaxed, working against, instead of with, Jensen. “He’s working for you not me!” she exclaims, stopping by Nichol, who has been looking at the pair. He strokes Moses’ neck, feeling his muscles. “He needs more release in here”, he says, “when the shoulders lock, they put up a big wall, and now we’re pushing into the wall we’ve created.”
This kind of resistance is common in most horses. Nichol believes that horses are normally conditioned with traditional training methods to contort their bodies, since their minds are not engaged and focused on the task at hand, but off somewhere else. Often, too many questions are being put to the horse at once, and the resulting confusion in the animal’s brain leads to disengagement. It’s important to ask one question at a time, and ask it consistently until there’s a positive response. The key here is to relax and communicate with your horse. “ Try not caring where he goes, but soften; and not reins and legs together, that’s too many instructions!” Nichol coaches from outside the ring as Jensen and Moses circle, going from a walk to a trot. “Think about walk without touching the reins” he says, and horse and rider slow to a walk almost immediately. “Wonderful”, says Nichol, “He’s really doing his best”. “It’s all about flow”, Jensen says later, “allowing the horse’s mind to be with you, lightness, but softness and flow.”
People routinely attend clinics, seeking ways to try to position their horses by working on the horse’s body and ignoring the fact that their animal has an innate intelligence that’s longing to have a meaningful conversation with them - brain to brain. Nichol knows that starting to really communicate with the horse at a higher level is effective and better still, enjoyable for both horse and human. “I feel better doing this than other techniques, this way has settled inside me, giving me a real experience of how the horse is truly feeling. The other ways don’t give that bond, you can’t really unite with the horse.” Nichol believes you can have a conversation with a horse, to change how it feels about what you’re asking it to do, without using mechanical aids. “It’s all about realizing that horses don’t think like humans…because they’re horses! Yet you can connect with them by understanding them. It’s devastating to a horse to separate it’s mind and body, kind of like being in a jail, you don’t want to force a horse, you want to have a horse in a relaxed frame of mind. Horses are great tellers of the truth –if we can listen to them, we can shape up too!”
Twenty-something with the wisdom of an 80-year-old, the message Nichol brings to his clinics seems to really resonate with those who attend. “His methods let you understand the horse, that’s what I’m finding”, says Bruce Woodman, who is here with his horse Blake. “He puts a meaning behind everything else I’ve been taught – I’ve always known there was a connection beyond the physical and Josh explains that connection.” Woodman has been working with Blake, guided by Nichol, over the past three days, and has noticed marked changes; “Josh has changed the whole thought I had of how to work with a horse. He established a brain conversation with Blake, and I’ve been learning how to continue this. Blake can do amazing things mechanically, but [now] he’s relaxed, and the biggest change in the last three days is his focus – his brain is working with me.” It is clear that Woodman has learned something special working with Nichol; his enthusiasm is palpable. Participant Suzanne Harkin is equally as enthusiastic. “I didn’t know what to expect”, she says with a smile, “but now I understand it’s about getting in touch with the horse’s brain, connecting with the horse.”
Back in the arena, Nichol continues his work with Juan Doe. The atmosphere is intimate, and calm. The audience tosses questions to Nichol as he pets and makes soft clicking sounds to the horse. He’s seeking to clear a mental struggle that Juan Doe is having walking to the mounting block and stopping. It’s obvious that patience is a key ingredient in this approach. Nichol, leading Juan Doe with a loosely held halter rope, has circled
around and stopped at the block at least a dozen times, and they’re still not done. Each time they come to the block, Nichol steps up and, grasping a small fishing rod with a ragged flag on its end, waits to see if the animal will position itself where he’d like it to be. This time, Juan Doe stops short of the mount, and tries to hide behind Nichol’s shoulder. “He loves to think that ducking his head behind me will work” Nichol laughs, and the crowd laughs too as Nichol gently wiggles the flag over the horse’s hindquarters. “You’re just not forcing him to go there, but when he’s pushing into my space, it’s a leadership issue. Here I’m ready to help him with his problems, change how he feels about what he’s doing.” Juan Doe tosses his head, but stays quiet…then steps up exactly where Nichol wanted him to go. “Wonderful” he says as he stroke the horse. “Now he’s softening to me, and he’s really doing his best.”
Juan Doe is ready for owner Nancy Himsl to take over from Nichol. Himsl has owned three and a half year old Juan Doe for about six months, when she bought him from a slaughterhouse. “He chose me”, she says, “he came right up to me in the slaughterhouse yard, and even though I was looking at another Peruvian, I knew I had to take him.” Back in the ring, Nichol reminds Hensl “Don’t forget leadership, the horse should be your shadow – if you watch your shadow, it does exactly what you expect!” Hensl walks around with Juan Doe while Nichol watches. He has removed himself from the ring so that Juan Doe will concentrate on Hensl. “The process has to flow – flow is everything”, he says as Hensl works with her horse. “The flow is one big process?” she enquires. “Yes! The whole job is to find flow – you’re getting it!”
It’s understandable that this level of instruction is intense, which is why Nichol needs to keep his clinics to six or seven so that there’s plenty of time for individual instruction. The concepts may seem hard to grasp in theory, but seeing Nichol work with both horse and rider over his three or four day long clinics makes them simple and elegant, truly ‘horse sense’.
(This clinic at Jenovation Farm is early in his season; he’ll be busy in western Canada holding them until the end of October – and his clinics are so popular extra room is allowed for observers to attend. At Jenovation Farm, for example, there are about fifteen people eager to learn from Nichol, yet only six horses and owners are hands-on participants in the clinic.)
To contact Josh Nichol, go to www.joshnichol.com
For more interesting reading on this clinic, connect to Sylvia's blog.
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