Neeeeeeep!
Mar. 26th, 2006 01:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancinghorseBeen a lot of that going around lately--with Teacher coming twice a week and forcing me to keep nose to grindstone. Or something like that.
Today started off weird and growly. I overslept, then forgot the lesson was starting 15 minutes earlier than usual, and oversleeping included a dream I don't remember that must not have been a good one because it left me in a strange, black, irritable mood. Luckily both Capria and Teacher were feeling cheerful. Weather not as hot as yesterday when it hit 86 in the house--more overcast, cooler breeze--and it was in fact lovely riding weather at that time of morning.
As I'd hoped, lessons went a long way toward improving my mood. We focused on basics, and I mean tiny details. And they worked. Capria got that happy-little-song look on her ears, and when I did it right, she was Poifect.
Judy Capria Lesson 3-26-06
-Loose soft-heavy (read dead weight) elbows
-elbows are shock absorbers too
-elbow angles open and cloes with posting and sitting in order to minimize hand movement
-Fill your hands with helium [especially the wayward left hand]
-keep hands light and free
-imagine hands and forearms as extensions of the reins which hook onto backs of elbows (hands are rein hooks)
-hands want to lift up and forward all the time but the elbows won't let them
[in reality I tend to lock elbows and lower hands and trap horse, which is what this is meant to cure, so if I think of my hands as having helium balloons attached and floating up, I put them in correct position]
-Use ears as viewfinders pointing out direction of travel
[really funny in practice because I could see Teacher's eyes exactly framed in Capria's little oleander-leaf-shaped ears, and Capria was lowering and raising her head to illustrate different modes of response--with an air of great amusement]
-If the "viewfinders" come up and push back at you then deep horizontal posting [in trot]--lighten weight when horse lowers viewfinders
-Imagine ears as viewfinders only--not the focus--just like on a camera--you're not taking a picture of the viewfinder but the scenery on the other side of the viewfinder
[this makes me perfectly straight which makes the horse perfectly straight which means less chance she'll go off balance and start rushing and throwing her shoulder and all of that]
-Kee exterior part of trunk solid and maintain its shape--it cannot bulge outward or become too flaccid or else your weight/seat aids will be ineffective
-remember leaky hose
-When horse: rushes, sucks back, drops back, lifts head above bit--
*solidify front of trunk with lifted chest and toned abs
*press whole of spine straight forward towards the ears
*shoulder blades down and pressed forward
*keep hands lifted--elbows loose, lifted hands
*imagine the energy of the horse on the forehand slides down the forearm back to the haunches enabling the "sit-down" effect
-locked downward hands slides energy more onto forehand, creates rushing
(and a cool little graphic showing relation between me straight on horse and me looking off to the side and making horse crooked) Feel--look for this in all rides
We had a good discussion, too, about how I learn, referring to the comments in the last neep post about styles of learning. I actually do learn kinesthetically and intuitively (and I write that way, too). The problem for me as a student is that I have a poor interface between the body and the intellect, so words telling me how to correct myself can be really hit or miss. I have a lot of trouble (believe it or not considering what I do for a living) putting words on what I do, or translating words to doing it better. I can shut off the words easily but turning them back on can be a challenge.
Once we had done this, it was Camilla's turn. Her jaw spasm was gone and she was all in favor of work. We messed with her for a bit, asking her to soften her neck and jaw and relax into the bit (with soft eye), then I did the in-hand thang. Discovered quickly that she was focused on my pocket (which had treats in it) and was falling in toward me and having to trot to keep from going splat. Solution was to keep her head and neck as straight as possible with outside rein, turn with outside rein, have the feeling of stepping away from her with each stride and lightly pushing her shoulder out of my space if she dropped it toward me. We did eventually get it together and she was very good, "on the bit" as they say with me walking alongside. She's taller than Pook: no comfy arm over her withers; I have to keep the reins on the side I'm on and still keep that outside rein. And remember to soften when she does. And not lock.
Then came the ride, which was our first real ride, as in, I got on, we walked around, she only headed for Teacher occasionally, we kept her moving forward with seat and occasional very light leg. She was very funny, because she was clearly sighting toward objects in the arena, heading toward them, then getting stuck once she passed them. She was using them as guides to balance.
We had real steering. The wayward left hand kept wanting to pull, so we had to remember the helium hand; and keep most of the steering in the seat (essentially between the thighs). It always amazes me with horses who are totally untrained that seat aids are so completely intuitive for them. It's all about balance and guidance. It's the cues of rein-pull and leg-bump that are alien to them.
In this case with the in-hand work, Camilla has a quite clear sense of what the reins are for and how she should carry the bit, so once my seat gets into the act to balance and move her forward, she automatically accepts the auxiliary aid of the rein. She accepts it as an aid, an assist to maintaining her balance under me, and finds it comfortable and familiar.
All of which is absolutely mind-blowing in light of who this horse is. She moves forward easily and without objection, accepts my aids willingly, and asks for more after we're done. Camilla, whose role model is the Hell Bitch. Astonishing.
She really is turning into a nice riding horse. And it doesn't hurt that I've had so much intensive work in seat and aids, as she above all needs me to be exactly balanced in the middle. (Riding her is quite a bit like riding an exercise ball with Galaxy-class warp engines--even more than her brother Pooka.)
Pooka sat out the day's session; I was too pooped and we were out of time. I'll do some work with him on my own, and there's always the next lesson.
Today started off weird and growly. I overslept, then forgot the lesson was starting 15 minutes earlier than usual, and oversleeping included a dream I don't remember that must not have been a good one because it left me in a strange, black, irritable mood. Luckily both Capria and Teacher were feeling cheerful. Weather not as hot as yesterday when it hit 86 in the house--more overcast, cooler breeze--and it was in fact lovely riding weather at that time of morning.
As I'd hoped, lessons went a long way toward improving my mood. We focused on basics, and I mean tiny details. And they worked. Capria got that happy-little-song look on her ears, and when I did it right, she was Poifect.
Judy Capria Lesson 3-26-06
-Loose soft-heavy (read dead weight) elbows
-elbows are shock absorbers too
-elbow angles open and cloes with posting and sitting in order to minimize hand movement
-Fill your hands with helium [especially the wayward left hand]
-keep hands light and free
-imagine hands and forearms as extensions of the reins which hook onto backs of elbows (hands are rein hooks)
-hands want to lift up and forward all the time but the elbows won't let them
[in reality I tend to lock elbows and lower hands and trap horse, which is what this is meant to cure, so if I think of my hands as having helium balloons attached and floating up, I put them in correct position]
-Use ears as viewfinders pointing out direction of travel
[really funny in practice because I could see Teacher's eyes exactly framed in Capria's little oleander-leaf-shaped ears, and Capria was lowering and raising her head to illustrate different modes of response--with an air of great amusement]
-If the "viewfinders" come up and push back at you then deep horizontal posting [in trot]--lighten weight when horse lowers viewfinders
-Imagine ears as viewfinders only--not the focus--just like on a camera--you're not taking a picture of the viewfinder but the scenery on the other side of the viewfinder
[this makes me perfectly straight which makes the horse perfectly straight which means less chance she'll go off balance and start rushing and throwing her shoulder and all of that]
-Kee exterior part of trunk solid and maintain its shape--it cannot bulge outward or become too flaccid or else your weight/seat aids will be ineffective
-remember leaky hose
-When horse: rushes, sucks back, drops back, lifts head above bit--
*solidify front of trunk with lifted chest and toned abs
*press whole of spine straight forward towards the ears
*shoulder blades down and pressed forward
*keep hands lifted--elbows loose, lifted hands
*imagine the energy of the horse on the forehand slides down the forearm back to the haunches enabling the "sit-down" effect
-locked downward hands slides energy more onto forehand, creates rushing
(and a cool little graphic showing relation between me straight on horse and me looking off to the side and making horse crooked) Feel--look for this in all rides
We had a good discussion, too, about how I learn, referring to the comments in the last neep post about styles of learning. I actually do learn kinesthetically and intuitively (and I write that way, too). The problem for me as a student is that I have a poor interface between the body and the intellect, so words telling me how to correct myself can be really hit or miss. I have a lot of trouble (believe it or not considering what I do for a living) putting words on what I do, or translating words to doing it better. I can shut off the words easily but turning them back on can be a challenge.
Once we had done this, it was Camilla's turn. Her jaw spasm was gone and she was all in favor of work. We messed with her for a bit, asking her to soften her neck and jaw and relax into the bit (with soft eye), then I did the in-hand thang. Discovered quickly that she was focused on my pocket (which had treats in it) and was falling in toward me and having to trot to keep from going splat. Solution was to keep her head and neck as straight as possible with outside rein, turn with outside rein, have the feeling of stepping away from her with each stride and lightly pushing her shoulder out of my space if she dropped it toward me. We did eventually get it together and she was very good, "on the bit" as they say with me walking alongside. She's taller than Pook: no comfy arm over her withers; I have to keep the reins on the side I'm on and still keep that outside rein. And remember to soften when she does. And not lock.
Then came the ride, which was our first real ride, as in, I got on, we walked around, she only headed for Teacher occasionally, we kept her moving forward with seat and occasional very light leg. She was very funny, because she was clearly sighting toward objects in the arena, heading toward them, then getting stuck once she passed them. She was using them as guides to balance.
We had real steering. The wayward left hand kept wanting to pull, so we had to remember the helium hand; and keep most of the steering in the seat (essentially between the thighs). It always amazes me with horses who are totally untrained that seat aids are so completely intuitive for them. It's all about balance and guidance. It's the cues of rein-pull and leg-bump that are alien to them.
In this case with the in-hand work, Camilla has a quite clear sense of what the reins are for and how she should carry the bit, so once my seat gets into the act to balance and move her forward, she automatically accepts the auxiliary aid of the rein. She accepts it as an aid, an assist to maintaining her balance under me, and finds it comfortable and familiar.
All of which is absolutely mind-blowing in light of who this horse is. She moves forward easily and without objection, accepts my aids willingly, and asks for more after we're done. Camilla, whose role model is the Hell Bitch. Astonishing.
She really is turning into a nice riding horse. And it doesn't hurt that I've had so much intensive work in seat and aids, as she above all needs me to be exactly balanced in the middle. (Riding her is quite a bit like riding an exercise ball with Galaxy-class warp engines--even more than her brother Pooka.)
Pooka sat out the day's session; I was too pooped and we were out of time. I'll do some work with him on my own, and there's always the next lesson.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-03-26 01:59 pm (UTC)I also noted the seat intuition, alien leg and rein thing with His Fatness last year. I had the reins in my hands, but I couldn't use them. Not that I didn't occasionally try when he startled me, but they didn't work. Seat worked great. I'd been riding a ginormous draft cross who needed reeeally strong leg and rein prior to getting on Pluto. Quite the contrast.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 12:06 pm (UTC)Great.
(JJ is only 2 now, but I am planning ahead. She won't be backed before she is 3.5, and possibly later, depending on her. But that is still Not. Enough. Time. to get my body behaving as it should!).
no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 12:11 pm (UTC)Find a sensitive horse to practice on. A big yacht of a horse who doesn't care what you're doing up there won't really help you develop your seat, IMHO.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 12:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-26 04:11 pm (UTC)The hand thing makes SENSE. (And I think I just figured out why I keep ending up with uneven reins. I'd been chalking it up to my habit of wanting the reins in one hand and uneven so I can hold them off to the side and still have my other hand free.)
It's so cool to read these. I have so many bad habits that I'm unlearning that it's sort of like learning a new language. I'm terrible at translating words into movement (I remember taking an entire season of my dad yelling "CHOKE UP ON THE BAT!" in softball at me to finally figure out that he meant my hands were too low on it) Your instructor sounds like she must be worth her weight in gold. I hope I can find someone that I can learn as much from!
no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 12:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-26 05:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-26 11:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 09:50 am (UTC)My poor aikido dojo has become inundated with "huh, so that is like riding/handling horses in this way!" analogies :D. I couldn't believe how, afte rmy first aikido practice, my muscles hurt EXACTLY as though I'd been for a ride after a period of not riding - all the same muscles hurt!
no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 01:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 01:44 pm (UTC)Have you read Rashid's book yet?
And what tradition of aikido did you practice. I'm just a wee babe (Gokyu test just passed two weeks ago) who is practicing Aikikai style.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 01:57 pm (UTC)I haven't read Rashid's book.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 02:03 pm (UTC)And I never thought I would test, but my Sensei said it was time, and I was glad I did. Our tradition is affiliated with Kawahara Sensei. Who, rumour has it, may be in town to teach tonight - Yay!
Rashid's book is worth reading - he is Yoshinkian, so there are some differences, but his style is easy to read and he doesn't preach - just describes his experiences and realizations.
And since I am full of the annoying questions today, why did you prefer aikikai to tomiki?
no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 02:08 pm (UTC)Aikikai was more fluid, more about the motion, more about the practice and the effect it had on you as a person and as an aikidoka. Tomiki was more about results. That I broke my foot in tomiki probably didn't help my impression of it.
YAY CAMILLA!!
Date: 2006-03-26 11:44 pm (UTC)