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dancinghorseFinally, a lesson post-clinic so I could ask questions and get corrections. It's all built on what we've done before, but it takes it up a few levels. There's also some body-sculpting going on--undoing crookedness and improving balance--which adds to the difficulty. But the horses really like it.
Capria was puzzled at first and wouldn't move because I wasn't sitting in the usual way and applying the usual aids. We had to work that out, going through her usual "leave your message at the tone" response, "EEEEK! Run Awaaaaayyyyy!" response, then finally "Oh, all right, I won't die if I do this."
Basically it's about changing the place I sit in the saddle (farther forward), shortening stirrups two holes, flattening my back without constricting hips or abs, using thigh to the max but pretty much taking the lower leg out of play (it's in use but has to be toes IN to keep from blocking the forward from behind--a tight leg is a blocking leg), and learning to lift the toe from the front of the leg rather than from the muscle of the calf. THEN I get to lean back until I feel her moving my seatbones, make note of the abdominal tone at that point, sit up straight and hold without tension, letting hips basically just hang (horse moves them, not me). The effect when done right is dramatic freeing up the horse's stride--when Teacher rides keed, he goes from jiggy and upheaded with dropped back to long, free, and raised in the back, with a good 6-8 inches of overstep in the walk. The whole horse opens up. Capria took a few minutes to believe she could do this--she wanted me to hold and push the way she's used to.
Transitions become fairly pure seat exercises this way. The seat is Very deep and secure, you are in the horse's back and moving in complete harmony with her. For my lot this means much freer and more balanced gaits, much less throwing of shoulder, and no banana bend. Rushiness only happens if I lose the seat. Sit back, feel the seat plug in, maintain tone as I sit upright, carry on.
It takes care of the hands, too: reminds me to keep my elbows bent and my hands up and soft.
The balance thang involves feeling the spine exactly centered between my seatbones, then if the horse bulges or leans, I follow the bulge. Instinct says push against the bulge, but this just sets up a fight. Slide along with the bulge and mold it straight. Capria likes to lean on my right leg. I have to resist the urge to noodge with my lower leg and push her over; I have to put weight in the left seatbone instead. This balances her in that direction, makes her use her right hind, and gets her off my leg and onto her own four feet.
Capria the formerly locked in the back is a freaking slinky. We were woobling all over the place.
Halt to walk was not happening--she didn't believe I was asking for anything. Have to work on my "think walk" powers. Walk to trot was easier but she tended to pop into trot, throw me behind the motion, freak out, and start racing. Had to slide shoulderblades down and tone abdomen to keep her balanced.
For forward, imagine I'm pushing my shoulders against a pressure on the chest.
Collect into halt, "walk into halt," wait for it to happen.
Overall position note: Chainsaw Massacres 1 and 2. 1 is arms and legs sawed off--you should still stay on the horse by balance alone. The setup at the start is to scooch forward almost to the pommel, raise your knees up in front of the saddle, feel the straightening of the back, then lower legs without changing the back. When legs are down, Teacher in Torture mode takes your thigh and rotates it in toward the saddle while lifting your lower leg to a 90-degree angle. (Yes, you feel this in your inner thigh and along the edge of your hip!) She then tells you to relax your calf and raise your toe with the front of your shin. When you have this, you get the stirrup and you get to lower your leg into riding position...with toe in and lower leg open and without changing one tiny iota of your back, seat, or thigh. Once you have this, you get 2, which is the cross-section or "two spines" in which your spine is exactly perpendicular to the horse's spine at all times.
Then you get to ride the moving horse. And keep that balance. And keep the two spines.
For me in addition, I ride in a twist, with the left hip back, collapsed, and locked. So I have to go up in a half-seat, lift my left hip and then keep it there as I go back into position. The subjective effect is that I'm in a twist with my left hip up 'way too high and the right hip nowhere to be found and collapsed besides, basically the sensation of hanging off a cliff by my left seatbone. But in reality I'm perfectly straight. The temptation to "straighten" myself back into crookedness is overpowering. So is the urge to lift my heel and squeeze with my lower leg.
So there's a learning curve. But when it's right, the horse is beautifully balanced and very happy. And my seat is dead-solid secure.
This is what we need for Camilla and Pooka--that level of straightness. We think it may be what Camilla needs in order to go forward under saddle. We'll find out on Wednesday when Teacher comes back.
Tired now. Brain hurts. Left hip is a little outspoken as well--it's been locked like this for a long, long time. Capria was happy but tired after her session; it's hard work for the horse to go straight, too, especially if she's been crooked for years.
Which is why I had to ride Pandora in the clinic--Teacher said we needed the physical and mental issues to be exaggerated so they would be clearer. The result is a Much straighter, softer, freer Pandora and Much bigger, freer gaits. (Wheeee!) Capria is still figuring it out, but Teacher noted that when I was straight, her right hind stopped having problems. Not surprising if I've been blocking it all this time with my twisty position,
Must have coma now.
Capria was puzzled at first and wouldn't move because I wasn't sitting in the usual way and applying the usual aids. We had to work that out, going through her usual "leave your message at the tone" response, "EEEEK! Run Awaaaaayyyyy!" response, then finally "Oh, all right, I won't die if I do this."
Basically it's about changing the place I sit in the saddle (farther forward), shortening stirrups two holes, flattening my back without constricting hips or abs, using thigh to the max but pretty much taking the lower leg out of play (it's in use but has to be toes IN to keep from blocking the forward from behind--a tight leg is a blocking leg), and learning to lift the toe from the front of the leg rather than from the muscle of the calf. THEN I get to lean back until I feel her moving my seatbones, make note of the abdominal tone at that point, sit up straight and hold without tension, letting hips basically just hang (horse moves them, not me). The effect when done right is dramatic freeing up the horse's stride--when Teacher rides keed, he goes from jiggy and upheaded with dropped back to long, free, and raised in the back, with a good 6-8 inches of overstep in the walk. The whole horse opens up. Capria took a few minutes to believe she could do this--she wanted me to hold and push the way she's used to.
Transitions become fairly pure seat exercises this way. The seat is Very deep and secure, you are in the horse's back and moving in complete harmony with her. For my lot this means much freer and more balanced gaits, much less throwing of shoulder, and no banana bend. Rushiness only happens if I lose the seat. Sit back, feel the seat plug in, maintain tone as I sit upright, carry on.
It takes care of the hands, too: reminds me to keep my elbows bent and my hands up and soft.
The balance thang involves feeling the spine exactly centered between my seatbones, then if the horse bulges or leans, I follow the bulge. Instinct says push against the bulge, but this just sets up a fight. Slide along with the bulge and mold it straight. Capria likes to lean on my right leg. I have to resist the urge to noodge with my lower leg and push her over; I have to put weight in the left seatbone instead. This balances her in that direction, makes her use her right hind, and gets her off my leg and onto her own four feet.
Capria the formerly locked in the back is a freaking slinky. We were woobling all over the place.
Halt to walk was not happening--she didn't believe I was asking for anything. Have to work on my "think walk" powers. Walk to trot was easier but she tended to pop into trot, throw me behind the motion, freak out, and start racing. Had to slide shoulderblades down and tone abdomen to keep her balanced.
For forward, imagine I'm pushing my shoulders against a pressure on the chest.
Collect into halt, "walk into halt," wait for it to happen.
Overall position note: Chainsaw Massacres 1 and 2. 1 is arms and legs sawed off--you should still stay on the horse by balance alone. The setup at the start is to scooch forward almost to the pommel, raise your knees up in front of the saddle, feel the straightening of the back, then lower legs without changing the back. When legs are down, Teacher in Torture mode takes your thigh and rotates it in toward the saddle while lifting your lower leg to a 90-degree angle. (Yes, you feel this in your inner thigh and along the edge of your hip!) She then tells you to relax your calf and raise your toe with the front of your shin. When you have this, you get the stirrup and you get to lower your leg into riding position...with toe in and lower leg open and without changing one tiny iota of your back, seat, or thigh. Once you have this, you get 2, which is the cross-section or "two spines" in which your spine is exactly perpendicular to the horse's spine at all times.
Then you get to ride the moving horse. And keep that balance. And keep the two spines.
For me in addition, I ride in a twist, with the left hip back, collapsed, and locked. So I have to go up in a half-seat, lift my left hip and then keep it there as I go back into position. The subjective effect is that I'm in a twist with my left hip up 'way too high and the right hip nowhere to be found and collapsed besides, basically the sensation of hanging off a cliff by my left seatbone. But in reality I'm perfectly straight. The temptation to "straighten" myself back into crookedness is overpowering. So is the urge to lift my heel and squeeze with my lower leg.
So there's a learning curve. But when it's right, the horse is beautifully balanced and very happy. And my seat is dead-solid secure.
This is what we need for Camilla and Pooka--that level of straightness. We think it may be what Camilla needs in order to go forward under saddle. We'll find out on Wednesday when Teacher comes back.
Tired now. Brain hurts. Left hip is a little outspoken as well--it's been locked like this for a long, long time. Capria was happy but tired after her session; it's hard work for the horse to go straight, too, especially if she's been crooked for years.
Which is why I had to ride Pandora in the clinic--Teacher said we needed the physical and mental issues to be exaggerated so they would be clearer. The result is a Much straighter, softer, freer Pandora and Much bigger, freer gaits. (Wheeee!) Capria is still figuring it out, but Teacher noted that when I was straight, her right hind stopped having problems. Not surprising if I've been blocking it all this time with my twisty position,
Must have coma now.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-29 02:32 pm (UTC)Also, I just read Rite of Conquest in the bath (it took a while -- I had to keep turning on the hot water and it turned from a quite dark Blackberry-bath-ballistic-induced purple to pale lavender) and loved it, so thank you! I'm going to have to go out and find others now. Yes indeed.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-29 03:27 pm (UTC)Either you are a very fast reader or you were a prune when you finished it. ;>
no subject
Date: 2006-01-29 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-30 03:04 pm (UTC):D.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-29 03:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-29 03:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-29 04:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-29 05:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 07:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-30 09:55 am (UTC)You talk about your riding the same way my trainer talks about riding, and it's fascinating. All those interconnected parts, and yet there's a line at which my trainer gets frustrated and tells me to just do it, stop thinking, stop riding with my head.
Problems with going straight - that reminds me of a story my trainer told me once while I was cooling down. She once watched a clinic with a very respected old school German rider, and he was asked what the hardest thing for him to do is. He got on his horse, rode in a perfectly straight line from one end of the arena to the other, dismounted, and said, "That."
no subject
Date: 2006-01-30 03:11 pm (UTC)in the inimitable words of my coach, D, in an email last week: "remember no mind, more gain."
no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 07:07 pm (UTC)I love that story. It was told to me as having been either Nuno or Von Neindorff. Whoever it was--he was right.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-30 10:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-30 03:09 pm (UTC)oh God. Yes. I did a lesson in Calgary with my dear sweet mentor. I was riding someone else's walker (a dear sweet boy and oh MY his poor back end - I NEVER would have ridden if D let me see him move first, but she knew that, and knew that I could help Ceci open up and free up the hip and therefore help the hock). And we were working on shoulder in (*MEEP*) and after I was done, D said that her friend kept telling her (but she has a collapsed left hip and shoulder - to which D said, yes, I know! All in good time ;). I collapse it so often, and it is so. locked. so often. But my physio/osteopath really helps it, too.
Must have coma now.
I can just imagine. I have coma just THINKING about all of this ;).
a keeper to study later
Date: 2006-01-31 12:17 am (UTC)Re: a keeper to study later
Date: 2006-02-02 07:09 pm (UTC)It really should work for the long rides--for the horse. It can be tough for the rider to adapt to. Teacher was whimpering today because her shins are so sore from all the new muscles.
Next time you're here, if Teacher is around, grab a lesson on one of the Ladies. It will help you get ready for La Twix.