First Neep of the New Year
Jan. 9th, 2009 06:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancinghorseIt feels as if the year is weeks old already, but the holidays only really ended for many of us a few days ago. I was away for nearly a week, there's been Weather with Mud and Cold, and the riding schedule has been interrupted to say the least.
Even so, we managed to get some work done. Pooka's trot is getting more relaxed. His transitions are improving. He can actually move off from mounting with a long, stretched, relaxed neck--he doesn't need to be a llama to stay in balance.
Progress.
I was sleepy and lazy today, but the lesson woke us up. I told S how we'd been playing with canter; his right lead is there but his left, nope; also how we'd been working on relaxation and transitions.
Today, she said, we were doing to work on outside aids, and bend. The former we (thought we) used to work on a great deal. The latter never seemed to come up in lessons, though I've been focusing on it in my own work.
We started with me on the ground. Stand with knees bent, weight lowered into feet (like growing roots into the ground). Go into two-point position. Try opening the pelvis. "Roots" should remain stable. Now try engaging the psoas (S's favorite word--just because it's cool; it's the muscle that crosses the front of the pelvis on either side, and engaging it activates the seatbones). Try both sides. Then one side, then the other (independent aids, whoo-hoo). Now try doing this while bending the torso in the other direction. If you do it right, when you lift/engage the psoas, your body has to curve this way. What it does is open up the seatbone on the engaged side, and create a spiral seat.
Putting me on the horse complicated matters. I had too many legs, and my left-right issues, usually mild, tangled me all up. It took me several minutes to catch on to engage psoas = invite ribcage to expand on that side, and turning upper body in the opposite direction (right psoas/left turn, e.g.) would create a bend in the direction of the body's turn. No leg required unless he needed to be reminded to raise his back.
This at the halt, with him wanting to lean on the right shoulder as usual. When it worked, he came square and his whole body curved (left for right psoas, right for left psoas).
Forward out of halt meant basically adding a forward thought to the mix. Kind of a half-halt, but almost subliminal. Bend was easier in motion (hence starting it in halt--it's harder, so once you get it, he's right there and is encouraged to stay there), and it was much clearer how opening the outside seatbone freed him to bend his body to the inside. No rein was involved, just a consistent contact. No leg unless we screwed up and he needed a reminder to keep his back up. Quality of gait was controlled by, basically, staying out of his way and letting him swing freely through the barrel. With Pooka, that's a Lot of Schwung.
We rode wiggly bits, focusing on me not locking up, trying to push, leaning back, looking down, getting overly tense...
Then S asked if she could sit on Pooka. It wasn't just me, she said. He was trying to cheat, and make it easier for himself, as they do. So she showed him what she wanted, and me that I was being too "reserved," as she put it, with my open/turn thing; at this stage I need to exaggerate it, make it Really clear. He was a little bug-eyed. Stranger in the Cockpit! Alert! Alert! But then he allowed as how he liked this one.
And that is person number four who has ever sat on his back.
Yes, still counting them on one hand.
After that I got back on, the command center was back to normal, and I had a better idea as to what I needed to do. We had some nice voltes and tiny serpentines--and we upped the ante to trot. Same principle as from the halt. Engage, establish bend, re-engage, breathe forward. He was a little WTF?? at first, but once he got it, he really liked it. It was even easier to get the bend in trot than in walk, and he was truly through and smoothly bent from back to front, with completely quiet leg and rein aids, and everything coming from the seatbones and body position. We alternated work in rising and in sitting trot, in shallow serpentines--to the quarter line and back.
From that, S said, we could create left canter later. At some point soon, as I engage/open the outside and he bends to the inside, he'll realize he owns that right hind, his left hind will be ready to catch the impulsion, and boom, canter. For now, we shouldn't worry about it. Take the right lead when he has it there to offer, let him get used to that, and then eventually he'll wrap his mind around the left. The big deal for now is that his trot is easy, relaxed, and matter-of-fact, his neck is unlocking even to the left,* and he has good bend and is starting to discover how easy lateral movements can be. We have carte blanche to mess around with baby half pass, and of course shoulder-in.
*Oh yeah. That. He backslid a bit on the neck thing, with the long break and the cold weather. For that, I am to ride left circles with the reins in my left hand and the whip in my right, and with the butt of the whip, stroke or tap the bulge in his neck to remind him to move it over. Also, as indicated, strong down the groove of his shoulder to encourage him to lengthen and stretch his neck and bend to the left. In trot. While posting. The fact I could do that, S said (and it wasn't very hard), is indicative of stability in the seat. Doesn't matter what the upper body is doing, or the arms. If the seat needs to be where it is, it's there. So that's good. It helps that he has an extremely suspended trot, but when he's balanced, he's not hard to stay with. Just a little, you know, athletic. Lots of air time. Big-movement junkie here. I loves me my fix.
Amazing how very simple the lesson was, and how a very small shift in perception had such large results. I always thought I knew about outside aids, bend, barrel swing, and all that. I was blocking him, trying to shape where I should have been opening and allowing. I wasn't leaving the door wide open--there was a real shape to what we did--but he felt free inside it. He could move where I wanted him to move, and the way he was acting, it felt good.
He had a lot to think about. While we were discussing the lesson afterwards, he looked half asleep--but he was processing. He was also so relaxed he could barely walk in to get his saddle off. He was a big white puddle.
Also, which is interesting, he felt taller. I was looking farther down at S than usual. He even felt higher off the ground. As I said--interesting.
Even so, we managed to get some work done. Pooka's trot is getting more relaxed. His transitions are improving. He can actually move off from mounting with a long, stretched, relaxed neck--he doesn't need to be a llama to stay in balance.
Progress.
I was sleepy and lazy today, but the lesson woke us up. I told S how we'd been playing with canter; his right lead is there but his left, nope; also how we'd been working on relaxation and transitions.
Today, she said, we were doing to work on outside aids, and bend. The former we (thought we) used to work on a great deal. The latter never seemed to come up in lessons, though I've been focusing on it in my own work.
We started with me on the ground. Stand with knees bent, weight lowered into feet (like growing roots into the ground). Go into two-point position. Try opening the pelvis. "Roots" should remain stable. Now try engaging the psoas (S's favorite word--just because it's cool; it's the muscle that crosses the front of the pelvis on either side, and engaging it activates the seatbones). Try both sides. Then one side, then the other (independent aids, whoo-hoo). Now try doing this while bending the torso in the other direction. If you do it right, when you lift/engage the psoas, your body has to curve this way. What it does is open up the seatbone on the engaged side, and create a spiral seat.
Putting me on the horse complicated matters. I had too many legs, and my left-right issues, usually mild, tangled me all up. It took me several minutes to catch on to engage psoas = invite ribcage to expand on that side, and turning upper body in the opposite direction (right psoas/left turn, e.g.) would create a bend in the direction of the body's turn. No leg required unless he needed to be reminded to raise his back.
This at the halt, with him wanting to lean on the right shoulder as usual. When it worked, he came square and his whole body curved (left for right psoas, right for left psoas).
Forward out of halt meant basically adding a forward thought to the mix. Kind of a half-halt, but almost subliminal. Bend was easier in motion (hence starting it in halt--it's harder, so once you get it, he's right there and is encouraged to stay there), and it was much clearer how opening the outside seatbone freed him to bend his body to the inside. No rein was involved, just a consistent contact. No leg unless we screwed up and he needed a reminder to keep his back up. Quality of gait was controlled by, basically, staying out of his way and letting him swing freely through the barrel. With Pooka, that's a Lot of Schwung.
We rode wiggly bits, focusing on me not locking up, trying to push, leaning back, looking down, getting overly tense...
Then S asked if she could sit on Pooka. It wasn't just me, she said. He was trying to cheat, and make it easier for himself, as they do. So she showed him what she wanted, and me that I was being too "reserved," as she put it, with my open/turn thing; at this stage I need to exaggerate it, make it Really clear. He was a little bug-eyed. Stranger in the Cockpit! Alert! Alert! But then he allowed as how he liked this one.
And that is person number four who has ever sat on his back.
Yes, still counting them on one hand.
After that I got back on, the command center was back to normal, and I had a better idea as to what I needed to do. We had some nice voltes and tiny serpentines--and we upped the ante to trot. Same principle as from the halt. Engage, establish bend, re-engage, breathe forward. He was a little WTF?? at first, but once he got it, he really liked it. It was even easier to get the bend in trot than in walk, and he was truly through and smoothly bent from back to front, with completely quiet leg and rein aids, and everything coming from the seatbones and body position. We alternated work in rising and in sitting trot, in shallow serpentines--to the quarter line and back.
From that, S said, we could create left canter later. At some point soon, as I engage/open the outside and he bends to the inside, he'll realize he owns that right hind, his left hind will be ready to catch the impulsion, and boom, canter. For now, we shouldn't worry about it. Take the right lead when he has it there to offer, let him get used to that, and then eventually he'll wrap his mind around the left. The big deal for now is that his trot is easy, relaxed, and matter-of-fact, his neck is unlocking even to the left,* and he has good bend and is starting to discover how easy lateral movements can be. We have carte blanche to mess around with baby half pass, and of course shoulder-in.
*Oh yeah. That. He backslid a bit on the neck thing, with the long break and the cold weather. For that, I am to ride left circles with the reins in my left hand and the whip in my right, and with the butt of the whip, stroke or tap the bulge in his neck to remind him to move it over. Also, as indicated, strong down the groove of his shoulder to encourage him to lengthen and stretch his neck and bend to the left. In trot. While posting. The fact I could do that, S said (and it wasn't very hard), is indicative of stability in the seat. Doesn't matter what the upper body is doing, or the arms. If the seat needs to be where it is, it's there. So that's good. It helps that he has an extremely suspended trot, but when he's balanced, he's not hard to stay with. Just a little, you know, athletic. Lots of air time. Big-movement junkie here. I loves me my fix.
Amazing how very simple the lesson was, and how a very small shift in perception had such large results. I always thought I knew about outside aids, bend, barrel swing, and all that. I was blocking him, trying to shape where I should have been opening and allowing. I wasn't leaving the door wide open--there was a real shape to what we did--but he felt free inside it. He could move where I wanted him to move, and the way he was acting, it felt good.
He had a lot to think about. While we were discussing the lesson afterwards, he looked half asleep--but he was processing. He was also so relaxed he could barely walk in to get his saddle off. He was a big white puddle.
Also, which is interesting, he felt taller. I was looking farther down at S than usual. He even felt higher off the ground. As I said--interesting.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 02:26 am (UTC)I know what you are talking about, and you write it So Well. And neither the explaining of it, or the doing of it, is easy, BELIEVE ME I know this. So Kudos on both points.
On a related/unrelated note, did I ever tell you about PC finding and releasing the Big Ass Block in Shaughn's llama neck?
twas amazing ;).
no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 04:29 am (UTC)All the wrong teaching did give me approximations. That helps. They had the right words. Just not quite the right concepts. Pooka tells me when I have it right. And this, he loves.
Amazing is the word.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 06:58 pm (UTC)I just found you, though I've been on LJ for a while. It's so great to hear about your Big White Children and Little Furry Children again.
We adopted a polydactyl (snowshoe lynxpoint part-Siamese) this fall, after having to put down our Siamese-looking Manx whom we'd had for almost 16 years. And I remembered meeting my first polydactyl at your place all those years ago.
Best wishes on a wonderful 2009. I don't know what you went through during 2008, but I'm glad from what you've said that it's no longer 2008 and things are blooming miraculously. What a great omen of hope for you.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 11:00 pm (UTC)I'm sorry about your older kitty, but the young one sounds lovely. Trouble 2.0 isn't a poly, but she's definitely a tortie. Big dose of the Weird in that cat.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-11 04:35 am (UTC)