Clinic report: Martin Black at Top Hill Ranch, August 2010

[glenatron]

After the enormous effect that a month at Martin Black's horsemanship school had on me last year, I was really pleased when I saw that he was coming over to teach in Europe this summer. Although it was quite a distance to travel ( a little over 600 miles each way ) to the venue we decided this would be a good summer break to have, a chance for sleepsy_mouse to meet one of the people who has had the most effect on my development as a horseman and a chance to sit back and watch some other people ride and learn. Martin has started thousands of young horses and his depth of experience in horse training, ranch roping and cow work is literally without equal.

It turns out that a format where the clinician has to be translated is one that makes taking notes a lot easier, so I took a lot of notes, the important parts of which I shall share here...



Day 1
We arrived a little late a Top Hill, the aptly named old American style ranch in the French hills a little north of Lyon. As we arrived, the riders were working on an exercise that illustrated the theme of the day, which is understanding how our presentation affects the horse.

Martin had the riders asking their horses to back up straight by only lifting one rein. Martin explained that this is a matter of putting enough life into your request that the horse can move their feet to follow it. "I know your legs can help you," he said, "I know your other rein can help you - I want you learning to do more with less."

If the horse was bending it indicated too much of a pull- rather than pulling this task required the rider to be bringing life into the horse's feet. Rather than asking with a backward movement, Martin had the riders lifting the rein so that they were asking more upwards. People routinely pull backwards - this is partly a matter of perceived strength, our biceps are strong and we imagine that we are using strength to control the horse, but of course we're not. By lifting it asks the horse in a different way and also changes the rider's way of thinking to get out of the idea of pulling. Horses only learn to pull because we teach them to. We don't have to do that. If we work so that we offer the cue we want and then ask again in a way that the horse wants to follow if they ignore our first cue, they quickly change - it's comfortable for them and it makes sense.

You might have to do more at first so that you can do less later. You should always do enough if you have to make a more effective request that the horse will choose to avoid that in future. Martin describes it as the first request being your cue, the second being a warning and a third, should it be necessary, carrying through on that warning. Martin said "you can deliver a firm message wit a soft heart."

When the horse is preparing to back up, that is enough to deserve release. They are thinking the thing we have asked for and their feet are most likely to follow that idea. The most important thing is that they can understand what you are asking for. You can nag at someone who speaks no french the whole day long, but if you do it in french they're not going to have the slightest idea what you are on about.

The essential part of this exercise is learning to feel how you're affecting the horse.

This was where the session concluded and for the rest of the morning Martin worked with a young horse one of the participants had brought along to get started over the weekend. They had some pretty solid groundwork, so Martin had them put the saddle on, cinched up loosely. Some people starting colts like to cinch the saddle up tight and then let the horse run any bucks out without shifting the saddle. Martin has observed that if it is cinched up loosely ( a breastcollar can help it stay still for this purpose ) then the horse is lead for a few steps and then it is tightened a little and lead on again, that can often mean the horse doesn't feel the need to buck in the first place. The only change he needed to make at this point was that the horse's owner wasn't keeping enough space between her and the pony - for safety you need to be far enough away that the horse can't jump on you if they get scared.

Martin did a little work on leading up and enforcing personal space, keeping the horse leading at a good six feet from him. He talked about the difference between aggressive body language- lifting up his arms and squaring up to the horse and submissive body language. The horse learns almost immediately that these mean the same as they would coming from another horse- once they understand the personal space thing, Martin observed that he then needs to ask to come into their space by using much more passive body language. He commented that this can quite simply be a lifesaver if something unexpected happens while the horse is being worked. The horse would still react to whatever was going on, but it would be more likely to go around him than to try to go over.

He explained how the three priorities he works with are firstly his safety, secondly his horse's safety and thirdly the training goal he is working on that day. As he pointed out, he can't look after the horse if he's injured and there's no point working on a training goal that will compromise either.



When horses are very quiet they can be less dependable when something unexpected comes up- a horse that is alert and aware of the human is going to be better in that situation than one that is really quiet but not paying attention so closely.

They put a bridle on the horse ( not for control as the work is done off the halter, but to get her used to the feeling ) and Martin explained that either you need to have the bit low enough that the horse can get their tongue over and under the bit as they feel like it or tight enough that they can't get their tongue over it in the first place.

Then the reins were tied off and the horse was turned loose, Martin using his flag to ask her to move on and to help her through her transitions. He commented that changes of gait and changes of direction were typically where horses get stuck under saddle, so working them first in this situation until they are a little more free and relaxed through their transitions and direction changes is a good preparation for riding.


When the horse was moving out a little more calmly, Martin put the rope back on her and showed how to ask her to brace ready for mounting. He likes a horse to stand really steady for the rider to get on, almost like you might do if you were helping someone get up off the ground yourself. The other advantage of this is that a lot of problems happen when people are getting off. Most of these are manifestations of the same problems that a horse might have about mounting, so by making sure that is good you avoid a lot of potential problems when you get off.

The horse's owner got on, first balancing over the saddle, then riding normally, rubbing on the horse's neck and hindquarters and shifting her weight around as Martin lead them along. By getting the horse accustomed to the rider moving in the saddle and touching her as they did so, they helped eliminate a lot of potential problems that could arise from a horse not being ready for that later on.

They started the afternoon working with a fairly young thoroughbred stallion who was having trouble being around other horses- rearing and getting very anxious. Martin had the horse's rider take him past Martin's horse to see what would happen when the horse got anxious. When he did go up, Martin suggested that the rider pick up one rein quite sharply ( again, upwards rather than back ) and timing it carefully so that it seemed to the horse he had done it to himself. By expecting a problem or by punishing the horse afterwards, they would make him more afraid of the situation, correcting things as they happen is the only thing that creates a meaningful experience for the horse.



Martin also suggested the rider let the reins go a lot more, which created an immediate change in the horse's way of going and seemed to settle him a lot. The important thing was that for the correction to happen on one rein rather than both, so that the horse didn't feel confined, which could cause further concern.


Little horse comes around intent on Martin's horse off to the right.



Getting a little braver.



Martin works to get him used to another horse moving along with him.



Martin uses the flag as a soothing tool here, making sure the horse isn't afraid of it.

Stallions are naturally sociable and when away from the breeding season or from mares they are rarely more aggressive than mares or geldings. On one ranch Martin had nine stallions and at the end of the breeding seasons the stallions would go out with a hundred geldings and be no harder on each other than the geldings were. This horse was feeling threatened by Martin's horse, so he was trying to make himself look bigger and more impressive, which the rearing was part of. As he passed Martin's horse time and again, he began to settle to the job. Especially when Martin distracted his horse from flattening his ears and grumping at the passing Stallion. Having gained confidence the horse started to experiment with being a bit more assertive to Martin's horse and maybe striking out at him. Martin just used his flag to deter him from this, in the same way that the rider had been using the rein. After a while he was able to relax around Martin's horse and stayed in the arena while the other horses came in for the afternoon session.

The horse also has a tendency to rear in general- this is partly a matter of energy- a horse like a thoroughbred will always have a little more energy than a more steadygoing breed, and also a bit of testosterone. As a stallion he may always be a bit liable to do this kind of thing ( "If you want him to stop it altogether, cut his nuts off!" ) but if it is consistently well managed it will be minimised.

The question came up as to how rearing can be addressed in general, to which Martin's response was that the only real solution is to find the cause and address that- horses rear for a lot of reasons and the best response to it can be totally different depending on that- for example often a horse will rear because they run into the rider's hands and feel confined by it, in which case the solution would be to use the hands less, but a horse might also rear because they have too much energy, in which case you might want to use your hands more to correct it, as is the case in this instance. Rearing is only ever a symptom, not a problem in itself.

Another question was asked about why a horse might sometime spook at something and other times the same thing might not bother them at all. This comes down to conditions, Martin said - perhaps the wind or the light and shadow would mean they perceived the object differently, alternatively the horse could be in a more energetic or flighty mood and something that they normally pass quite happily could prove a trigger to their lowered thresholds. The rider can have a big effect on this too- sometimes a rider who holds the horse's attention better or who rides heavier through their seat might have the horse walk calmly past something whereas a rider who sits lighter in the saddle, perhaps with more weight in the stirrups, could mean the horse is more up and will notice more of their surroundings.

The little stallion was doing well by this point so he stayed on for the group session that followed to see how he would handle that.

At the start of the session one horse was quite anxious about the roping dummy that had been brought in as a saddle stand for the colt starting earlier, so Martin talked the rider through the process of teaching the horse to be brave- letting them rest when they had two eyes and ears on the object, asking them to move when they didn't, allowing them to turn sideways but never right away from the object and never using the rein and the leg at the same time- always one or the other.

The first group exercise was trotting around the outside of the arena with the outside rein long and then, by lifting the inside rein, stopping the horse straight. This was effectively the same exercise as the morning back-up, using the lift of the rein for a downward transition, but this time with more forward energy from the horse.

If the horse's head came around that was an indicator the rider was pulling too much. Martin observed a general tendency to ride with the reins too tight rather than just picking up when the rider wanted a change. Not a matter of how fast you stop, but how smooth and how straight. Then moving on to how smoothly you can continue into backup with the same cue.

Martin pointed out that if the bit ring has moved, the horse can feel it, so that is how subtle your cues can be on the rein. A steady pull is not meaningful- rather than waiting for a horse to respond you need to change your presentation to make things more comprehensible. If you pull consistently the horse will just learn to pull on you.

The next exercise was to think about presentation and to ask for a single step of the hindquarters to the left. Nothing else should move, just one step across. Signs of overdoing the cue would be getting more than one step or the front feet moving. The challenge of this section was to find how little energy it would take to move one foot and nothing more.

An important part of all this work is to be aware of what you do to send the wrong messages as well as what you're doing to send the right message. The consciousness of the effects of your presentation in either direction is really important for making progress in our horsemanship.

The exercise developed into turning the quarters around step by step without picking the right front foot off the floor. This helped to develop a feel for the feet and the horses' balance as riders needed to be aware when the weight was coming off the right forefoot and think about ways of putting it back there. The rider could tip the horse's nose in the direction they wanted them to put their weight and to use their own weight to place it over the shoulders of the horse to guide their balance better.

If it wasn't working it was more important to stop, reset things and start again rather than keeping pushing on and confusing the horse.

You have to know where the feet are all the time. The riders moved on to moving the front feet around the hindquarters - Martin suggested taking a look at where the hindfoot was and using the bumps in the sand around that foot as landmarks to show whether the foot has moved after you stepped around.

The question came up about whether this was a step towards developing a spin and Martin observed that if you can't judge the feet at this speed then you probably won;t be able to develop a good spin either. If you can't do it slowly you won't be able to do it fast.

Martin then went on to show some of the steps he uses in developing a spin. His aim is to keep working in a place where the horse could be correct most of the time. The bend has to be right or the feet can't reach underneath him enough, each step has to be correct - if the horse is consistently getting it's wrong you're stuck consistently having to correct them.

Someone asked whether some horses were not strong enough for these manoeuvres. Martin replied that it's nothing to do with strength. A stronger horse may be able to go faster in the long run, but any horse can perform these moves.

The evening meal was excellent and as we turned in it started to pour with rain and soon lightning was illuminating the tent and the mountains were crashing with thunder. Quite a night to be camping. Happily our tent almost didn't leak at all.

Day 2
The second morning group session began with an exercise in developing softness in the poll by asking the horse to bend at the poll without moving their neck or their feet.



Often a horse will bend their neck and keep the poll straight - you can tell the difference if the line where the bridlepath would go is straight then the horse is bending their neck rather than the poll.

If the horse isn't bending the shoulder will drop in and the hindquarters will fall out on turns. It is natural for a horse to turn starting with the poll.

When asking for this the important thing is how they start- if they turn their head enough so that you can just about see their eye, but they are breaking at the poll, that is great. If they are bending right around to the rider's boot but the poll is straight it's still a brace.

In some cases rather than asking for more with the rein, Martin suggested that the rider use a brush of their leg to ask for the bend. Experimenting with presentation will help find what is the most effective way of getting the result with a particular horse.



If the horse is expecting a pull on the other rein they are unlikely to flex easily- also if there was anything bothering them about the rider or about things on the side you are asking them to flex away from - they are being asked to look away from that side and because this flexion only works with the horse's consent - you can force them to bend their neck but you can't force them to bend at the poll - you need them to be confident before you can get this.

As it was cold and no time to be sitting still for a long time, they moved to a new exercise, moving out and riding circles, but making sure each circle began with the horse yielding their poll. If the horse isn't breaking at the poll they're not really thinking about where they are going.



To get this exercise working you need to soften your hand only when the horse is soft in the poll. It can be useful to use the scenery a little, though - if the horse is yielding their poll because they are heading towards the gate or because they are looking at another horse, they are still doing the right thing and it's a good opportunity to release the cue and let them know they're doing it right.

This is a good warm-up exercise because if you have the horse soft through their poll they can soften back through their loin and then the work you do afterwards will be more correct and have more value. Martin used this approach when starting racehorses and they learned to be very quiet under saddle even when they were crazily energetic when they went out in the field.


We missed the start of the colt starting session because we hadn't realised everyone had decamped to the indoor arena but we got to watch most of it from the upstairs area, which meant we couldn't hear a word that was said but we were able to watch as the horse had her first independent ride and also as Martin used her to demonstrate how he would teach a horse to tie up and various aspects of saddle preparation.



Helping the baby horse to move out.

In the afternoon the focus was on getting the horse doubled. This is the basic emergency brake that Martin uses to teach horses to stop. It involves taking one rein very short- with a hand literally up by the horse's ear, then offering a soft feel for a step and taking then releasing the rein briskly ( but without releasing altogether so it is a graduated increase in pressure ) until the horse stops, which should require no more than a couple of bumps if it is performed firmly enough.


This rather beautiful dun horse was part of the inspiration for this exercise...



... as he was tending ...



... to depart.

Most of the riders found it difficult to get this right, either not taking the rein firmly enough, not releasing fast enough, taking up the outside rein as well or not picking up a soft feel before taking the rein so that it surprised the horse and made them anxious.

If the rider didn't take the rein firmly enough, or left it too long, the outcome was that the horse thought they were asking for a circle. Likewise if the rider pulled for too long, the horse would just learn to pull back. "I don't know any way for a horse to learn to pull," Martin said, "other than we teach them to."


Martin demonstrates what the rein should feel like when he is doubling a horse.

When people were taking two reins, that could make the horse feel constrained and concerned - they have to be able to move their hind feet out to take the drive away from the front feet and that is a turning motion.

Martin will test this at each gait before he moves up- if the horse isn't good at walk, he won't try at trot until they've really got the idea at walk and so on. He recommends never going faster than the speed your brakes can stop you from. "If I don't have this working, then I'm just a passenger."

When people weren't picking up a soft feel a stride or two ahead of putting on the stop, the horses would get a little anxious and consistently their heads would come up when this happened. Martin's horse never picked their head up when he demonstrated the technique, coming round with his head at the same level it was the rest of the time.


Trotting on by.

A lot of horses were tending to slow down when asked but not stop. Martin stressed the importance of this as a stop- the horse might expect a downward transition but if they aren't stopping after asked once, ask again firmly even if they are just trickling forward a couple of steps. Stop means stop. This is a problem Martin sees with a lot of english riders- they stop their horse but they aren't actually stopped, they're just not moving forward, the horse is still jigging about and moving their feet. The horse will quickly learn that the soft feel means that it's time to stop and respond to that instead of waiting for the stronger cue- they always work to eliminate excessive pressure as far as they can.


At the end of the session.



The view from the other side of the ranch.
Day 3



Antoine rides past the ranch building- such a great setup they have there.
They began the day working with the young filly who has just been started over the last couple of days. Her owner was planning to ride her in the bosal so Martin fitted it now. He commented that it takes longer for a horse to get used to a bit than to a bosal so if she's planning to ride with that for now then it's an easy deal for everyone. The main reason to use it is because it's what the rider wants though- "you could ride iin a bit or a bosal or nothing and it doesn't really matter. The horse doesn't care much."

After a little work in the round pen, Martin took the young mare out into the corral to work her there because he felt it was time for her to learn to move out a little more. As he moved her from the horse he was riding ( a little red roan mare, belonging to Antoine who translated and organised the clinic, who I first met when I learned with Martin in Texas ) kept taking off flat out rather than staying at the pace Martin had asked her for. This gave him an opportunity to demonstrate exactly the work that everyone was working on the previous afternoon, getting her doubled every time she tried to speed up beyond what he was asking her for. After doing this a few times she got more interested in listening to his rhythm than trying to keep up with the other horse. As I've often seen when Martin is working horses, he was able to combine this with keeping the young mare moving around the arena. As she got more attentive to Martin, the roan mare's head started coming down and she clearly relaxed through her body.


Martin manages the roan mare.



Working more harmoniously.

Martin worked on helping the young horse to turn by backing up the rider's cues on the rein with his flag and to help her move out a little more, before setting back to make sure the rider was able to get the horse going without him. At first the filly's feet were really stuck and Martin recommended rewarding her with lots of petting for every step she took and give her plenty of time to evaluate her experience- if she got in trouble for not moving and then didn't get out of trouble for moving or didn't get out of trouble fast enough, then she would get confused very fast. "Get her feet moving and pet her, get her to walk fast and pet her, get her to trot and pet her." After a little while she was able to take a few steps and a few more. To help her move out Martin suggested using the gate as she would be inclined to trot to there anyway so it would be a good way to associate the cue with the outcome.



Martin helps the filly move out.

Martin took a little time to talk about his thoughts on developing this work- when a horse is confident in what they are doing you can add more, if the horse is losing confience you need to find something else to do. If they get mentally tired or confused you need to back off and change things to make more of a good experience for them. Maybe put them up, maybe work on something else and find a better experience that way. It is easier to cut your losses and go in search of a better experience tomorrow than to get into a fight with them. The more time you spend fighting the better the hosre gets at fighting. So cut your losses and try again tomorrow or later or whenever.

At this point the morning group came in and Martin suggested the baby horse could stay around and get used to all the activity going around, which she handled admirably. He asked whether any of the riders had questions to ask.

One asked about engaging the horse's hindquarters and getting them to work more collected - I found Martin's view on this quite interesting- he said that when he rides horses they collect when he needs them to turn with a cow, jump a ditch or any similar thing. "A horse can and will collect," he observed, "when they have something to do. I don't know why people want the horse collecting the whole time. It's like saying 'ready...set...' and then doing nothing." A working horse will stretch out to work forwards and collect to stop and turn, but asking them to be collected the whole time is really hard on the horse, it tends to make them heavy and bored.

It's easy enough to achieve- you just ask the hindfeet to stride bigger. If you don't have a clear enough idea of where the feet are the whole time you probably aren't ready for this work. The trick is to reward the slightest lift of the saddle as the horse begins to collect - often people ignore that and the horse gets discouraged.

They moved onto an exercise in backing up, using the hindquarters to do it.

The starting point is to check which foot leaves the ground first in backup. There is likely to be a slight difference and you want it to be the hind feet. The horse can be like a chain when they back up- if they are backing up from the front it can be like pushing a chain- slower and awkward to keep straight. When they are backing up from behind it is more like pulling a chain- smoother and more naturally straighter.

The way to build this up is to begin by getting weight off the hindfeet, so you use your leg or rein to move the hind end and then just as one of the hindfeet is about to leave the ground, ask it to move backwards instead of sideways. In this case, as with many of the exercises Martin was teaching, the important thing is not how far you go but how you get started. When it is working, you have a clear sensation of the hindquarters moving side to side and then when the backup begins it's like someone has hooked the back of your belt and pulled you backwards.

The whole of this deal is to simply set up your cue for back, use the reins to block forward and keep the hind end moving until the horse decides to try stepping back.

One of the other riders asked about their horse feeling ready to run off the whole time. Martin observed that the rider tends to use a lot of contact with the horse. He suggested she work on giving them a lot more rein and then just correcting when they started to go too quickly with one rein. If the rider offered too much contact the horse could just listen to the rein rather than the rider's body. Martin kept asking why the rider felt this would happen - his approach is always to find the root cause of any perceived problem and address that, rather than trying to fix symptoms. In this cas the rider found it hard to go with the horse when he went quicker and so she would tighten up and the horse would tighten up in response. They actually made a really clear change when she gave up the rein a whole lot and stopped pulling on him the whole time - Martin said that in this case they really had to work at her speed until she felt safe. The minute she gets worried and tightens up on the horse it's going to worry them and probably result in them hurrying more.


Riding with more contact on the rein- not what you would think about as a heavy contact but this horse was quick to drop behind the bit.



With the rein softer but the horse being corrected when they got ahead of the rider the picture changes.

The afternoon session began with some trailer loading for the little bay stallion. He was quite happy to get onto the ramp but then would jam up and end up flinging himself around. The process of changing his mind was much the same thing I have seen done various times by various different people but Martin was faster, maybe a little firmer, and his timing is truly superb. He showed the horse that going places other than the trailer was less comfortable than going in the trailer and that there was no benefit to rearing or flinging himself around, if he wanted to find comfort, he needed to go into the trailer. After a couple of minutes the horse was walking up and into the trailer with no more than the slightest cue from Martin, who stood at the side of the ramp. He was also backing out quite comfortably and going back in willingly. It was a big change, quickly achieved.


Thinking loading may be a bad idea.



Thinking being in a trailer is a good idea.

When Martin was moving around to the front of the trailer, the horse kept backing out and he observed that this was because the rope was catching on the trailer door enough that the bay interpreted it as a cue to back up. Sometimes we really need to sensitise ourselves to the horse, or we could end up misinterpreting that kind of thing.

A question came up about how to help a horse who is a bad traveller. As often happens with Martin his immediate response was "why does the horse travel badly?" To find the solution you have to know the cause of the problem.

At the start of the group session the question came up about whether it was a too soon to be backing up the baby horse. Martin asked why it could be and the owner said that a lot of people say that you shouldn't teach a horse to back up in the first year of riding because they will use it as an evasion or they will lose their ability to go forward.

Martin's response was that any time someone tells you you should always do something or never do something you really have to ask why. He never had any riding lesson, he always learned by having a job to do on horseback. He had some really good examples around him, but he mostly learned by doing. That has given him an attitude that when somebody tells you what you can or can't do horseback, that is second hand opinion. The only one who can tell you whether the horse you are riding can do something on that day in that place in that breath is the horse, so ask them. This horse ( an absolute sweetheart ) was absolutely able to back up very easily.


The audience was extremely attentive throughout.

The afternoon's exercise revolved around using weight and leg aids for steering. When Martin is riding a colt he'll typically use his weight and his leg for steering. The weight is important because there is so much more surface on the horse's back that you can be much more subtle with your weight than with your leg or rein and still be clearly felt by the horse, so there is a lot of opportunity for helping the horse by using that.

The aim from the start was to ride circles just by using their weight on the outside of the turn and their inside leg, changing the bend and direction by changing weight and leg. If the horse didn't follow that change the rider could pick up the rein but the whole point of the exercise was to leave the rein alone as much as possible - the other point where it might be needed is to avoid the horse responding to the inside leg by moving off forward. Likewise the outside leg could be used to help the horse to turn here, but the idea is to avoid it. The goal is to have the horse turn so that they pull you into the turn, the whole horse moving along the same curve.


Martin uses his flag to show how he's moving his shoulders...

Martin set out a line of cones around the outside of the arena and then had each rider go round the arena taking a circle to the left around the first cone, then along and around the to the right on the second and so on. Trying to only use the leg and weight to change direction. On this, everyone had trouble with looking at the cone they were going around rather than looking where they wanted to go.


Attentive dog is attentive.

Thinking about this I'll just mention that when someone knocked a cone over, Martin rode over and got his horse to put her foot on the base and right it as easily as one might pick it up if one was standing on the ground.


Martin shows how he starts to develop a spin.

At the end of the session, a couple more questions came up about riding young horses out. First up was how long to leave it before riding out. Martin's view is that he will ride a horse from more or less their second saddling. Really this is a question of the rider's confidence as much as the horse's. If you keep things slow you don't need a huge amount of control and, as he said, "if you can ride 'em as fast as they can run it doesn't matter how much control you have."

In terms of time riding, that comes down to the condition of the horse- on a horse who isn't too fit they may not be able to take more than a few minutes, on an older fitter horse they could take take hours of work pretty much straight away. It usually takes a while for a horse to get conditioned to the saddle and they're particularly susceptible to cinch sores at first. After five or six rides this is normally fine. Often it's most mentally beneficial to take a little less time and keep the horse in a positive mental state.

When Martin rides out he often rides out alone, but again this is a call from the rider's point of view- it can be easier to ride out with other horses, but if you do ride out alone they will learn to look to their rider a lot quicker and it can make better progress.

And that was about the end of the clinic. I really enjoyed spectating- the work they were doing was relatively simple in principle but tricky in practice and it was inspiring to see Martin ride and teach again. Also everyone was really friendly, even when their English was as poor as my French ( and quite a few people there had excellent English ) and it was a great pleasure to meet some really awesome people and be in such a beautiful setting. Also the food was tremendous.