No, I’m not talking about my getting “lost” at the Team Jumper Challenge…
Riding reminds me a lot of skiing and golf. It can be humbling, the learning constant and the quest to improve never ending and remaining active. The horse adds yet another layer just as terrain and weather changes in skiing and golf keeping it interesting and challenging. It is a sport of nuances and intentions. One can be “loud” and abrasive with the aids or quiet and calm while communicating. Every little thing really seems to impact the way the horse moves. I’m in the transitional phase. Finally, I’m learning or achieving some minute success with fleeting moments of finesse. Hooray! I could compare it to a toddler learning to walk with clumsiness and much unnecessary movement to a gymnast with very refined grace. (Personally, I’m at the tumbling and almost cartwheel stage).
My newest, or one of the many newest, but fun challenges lately, is experimenting with the results of how I direct my energy. Sue Berrill, my trainer, started talking to me about moving one hip this way and posting that way and I started seeing changes in how Sean moves. I find that really exciting…that it works, or at least most of the time. To confuse one even more, it is all relative as to how your horse is built and how your horse moves. Sean is built very uphill with a high set neck and can often be mistaken for a giraffe or a llama. He has a big trot and would very happily trot and canter upwards going nowhere, not to be confused with being on the forehand. We can manage both of those very nicely, thank you. Little did I know that I could influence that in a positive or a negative way. For example, if I direct my energy on a more vertical plane and my horse already is trotting upward instead of forward…well, you get the picture.
One day, Sue suggested in a lesson that I work on a more horizontal plane; in other words, when Sean was walking, that I concentrate on really moving one particular seat bone with a more forward and flatter emphasis. Boy, what a difference. In the posting trot, I should post more horizontally as well, to balance Sean’s uphill movement, thereby minimizing the giraffe/llama effect.
When I scribed for a judge during a dressage show recently, the comment that he repeatedly made was, “Inside seat bone and shoulder down and back”. Hmmm….I played with that as well. I like to think of those comments and instructions as ways of directing my energy. It certainly affects Sean’s energy and his way of going and keeps me more grounded.
It is so valuable to glean what you can from every learning opportunity, whether at a clinic, auditing, scribing, observing, reading, etc. I take these bits of info and experiment with them. Often, trainers say much of the same things in different ways. I like to see how my experimental practice affects my horse’s way of going and then check in with Sue to see if I am indeed on the right track. I love the “light bulb” moments Of course. I’m at that hit or miss point; sometimes I can get the feel and sometimes I can’t. Those are the times I can relate to the toddler more but when it works…I’m on the balance beam performing a double twist flying dismount. Well, okay, you get the picture…or not!