dancinghorse | The Good, the Bad, and the "If I Do This I'll DIIIIIIIE!!!!"

It's down to a lesson a month at Camp Lipizzan, but we're making our time count. Boy howdy. This week's entry is distinctly a Work In Progress, but I find it fascinating.

tcastleb was here to take pictures (and have her own lesson on her new lease horse, Carrma); she snapped some interesting angles.

Plus there are other photos, for bonus and for fun.

The point of this lesson was to continue to open up Pooka's movement and unblock his body. His last major blockage is the main one, the poll/atlas, where he concentrates any tension he's carrying. It's also asymmetrical, though much less so than it used to be. S observed that we're remodeling bone (and the tissues around it), and that takes time. He has to reshape it and he also has to learn how to use it in a different way, overcoming a lifetime of habit.

We started on the ground with S doing the spirals with Pook while I took care of lesson horses, then she started "breathing into the sacrum." Asking him to softly rock his body back, then forward, in time with her own movement (feet stable, upper body stable, hips and pelvis doing the moving). The point for both of us was to feel his sacrum, and make him more aware that he had one.

When S was satisfied with that, we went to ridden work. Halt (eyes closed if it helped), then walk. MUST BE STRAIGHT. "You're the Queen of Straightness today," S said. No weebling all over the place. What does he tend to do when you ask for forward and straight and he doesn't wanna? Flings something, usually sideways. Paws, backs up, veers, tries to go lateral. Persist. Ask that he be straight. Keep that sacrum in the equation. (Which resulted in more collection, more freedom up front.)

In trot we added another element: sports massage on the fly. Asking him to release in the poll and atlas and flex and start to come through. This is the last frontier of Pooka-blockage, and it is persistent. I had to ride a forward, rhythmic trot while doing four things at once: engage sacrum, keep back up, keep shoulders from wandering, and ask him to flex in the jaw/atlas/poll. This meant riding the horse with my seat while my hands, indepently, used reins and even butt of whip to encourage him to flex that difficult portion of his anatomy.

It wasn't all that hard to stay with him. Mostly it was a lot of balls to keep in the air, and I had to remember not to pull his head around. Guide and point and encourage, but not manhandle.

Not perfect, lots to work on, needs lots of practice, but looky!

Trying to fall down on left shoulder, locking left side of poll, but hey, big trot!

I can't do it! I can't! I'll die! (But hey, I have a back end! Watch me rock back! AAACK!)

Easier on the right side, need to come together more and bend more, but oh yes, the boy can move. Note that he's not a pony any more. He's extruded an extra hand or so of height from the Other Side.

We'll be practicing this until he frees his poll, reaches over the topline, and comes together for real. Then we'll be cooking with warp thrusters.

Bonus:

Sunset at DHF--herd by

tcastleb, riders by friend R (moi on ze keed with short tail, K on Pandora and her daughter M on Capria in fly mask):