How wonderful to have a trainer who will whip out a camera so that I can blog about our lesson.
Becky you're right I cannot call this bushwhacking.
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12 comments:
those are great photos!
I've never trained riders, just horses, so take this with a tremendous grain of salt and if it doesn't feel like it suits your situation, then please feel free to ignore it completely and tell me to butt out. :) I know you have struggled a bit with his balance downhill; I notice in these photos that sometimes your shoulders are slightly up and rounded, and I wonder if there might be a connection there. He seems just fine with it on level ground but maybe it's throwing something off for him in a downhill.
Your back seems quite good, but the arms and shoulders just look a bit tense, and your upper chest is a bit caved in; it's a defensive/anxious posture (which to his credit he seems to be basically ignoring "Oh that's just Lytha getting nervous again"). But this makes me think that your seat is not tooooootally grounded, and your centre of gravity could get a bit wishy washy because of it, and this could throw him off in situations where his balance is not quite developed enough, anyway.
Maybe this is just appearing this way because you're riding bareback, but I think that that is when the truth comes out, heh heh.
How cool to have photos of a lesson. I love that forest, that is so perfect to ride in!
You'd better frame that first one. It's ecspecially nice.
Sirje, aha, you caught me "riding the clutch". Can you guess what I mean by that? You're right to call it a defensive thing. OK here it is: I want my reins loose. I want my brakes close. The compromise is to stretch my arms forward (and thus shoulders too) to give the horse the reins but have somewhere to go if things go badly. One of my most respected horse trainer-bloggers does this too, on young horses. She's sitting perfectly straight, but her arms are way more forward than normal, riding the clutch.
Sadly, this is exactly how I drive a Schaltgetrieb (manual transmission car. I learned it 15 years after I learned to drive on automatics - bad school system!). However....I don't buy it that it causes my horse to lose his balance. I often have to duck under branches, tossing myself to the side suddenly, and that is no problem. The times he's almost fallen down have often been from the halt, oddly, when he's reaching around to take a treat, or reaching up to grab a branch to eat, but oops, on a hill, or fighting to get flies off him. I hope I can figure this out.
Very strangely, he's a sure-footed horse. You'd think with his balance issues, he'd be clumsy but he is not. He's a mystery. My osteopatin (DIPO) said, "You have an incredibly crooked horse. But there's nothing wrong with him, nothing impeding his movement, so no worries. Just, CROOKED as heck." *shrug*
Crystal, "forest" is a very generous word - I'm from the PNW: ) It is pretty here, but the Cascades.....
Camryn, really? I'm just thrilled that I am not ashamed of myself in photos anymore. 2 years ago I wouldn't be handing people my camera and saying "Take my pic!" but now I am, because even though I'm middle aged now, I don't hate my body. I attended a class tonight by a doctor about diabetes (type 2) and he said a vegan diet can turn the condition around. What? You can fix diabetes type 2 with carbohydrates? I've experienced the exact opposite, reducing carbs has my blood sugar under control. The class went to 9 pm and I hadn't had a chance to eat dinner, or anything since noon and I was not dying of starvation, as I would be most of my life. I don't know what is true here, but I cannot believe I'm the "one rat study."
Yup, I totally see & get what you mean, but that's not *quite* what I'm referring to. You can ride the clutch (heh) but the "forwardness" in your hands can still come from a lower place, like, your shoulder blades can be down and relaxed but you can still have the flexibility to react quickly if needed, as opposed to coming from an essentially tense high place (high rounded shoulders, caved upper chest). Even lower down, you can have the feeling that all action comes from your hip, sort of an Alexander Technique idea of grounding all movement through active balance but maintaining a state of readiness and fluid energy. Because anyway, everything IS connected to your hip. The tense shoulders are still part of your body, they can't exist in a vacuum and JUST be tense shoulders while everything is correct and relaxed. I mean, I know that we like to think that's possible, but really, it's not. You can't truly separate a tense shoulder from your hip, your hands, your legs, your neck, your toes, your eyes, your forehead, your heels.
In my own personal experience with my own personal body and the particular nutty young horses I was always riding (and when I say nutty - understatement!!), any tense or fragmented place in my body has the potential and tendency to lift me out of my seat, and anything that lifts me out of my seat is always going to be a destabilising factor. The opposite of that is a fluid, balanced, awake state throughout my whole body, where everything relates to the hip and a stable but sort of oozy seat.
I learned manual late, too. And I used to get horrible neck aches in the beginning. WHY? Because you can't drive a car with your neck but there I was, shoulders higher and higher at each intersection on an incline. I eventually adopted a kind of shoot from the hip cowboy posture which kept my arm loose but ready for action. Not saying I am Mario Andretti or anything, but I can drive all day long like this and be prepared for any quick actions. Same with riding, same with singing, same with anything.
Such a beautiful stand of trees to ride in. Are there a lot of deer browsing to keep the understory so barren or is there another reason?
Sirje, now I'm starting to feel really bad about my equitation: ( I used to win equitation classes on Baasha, if you can believe it. But regarding my shoulders/neck/jaw, I went to a osteopatin(?) and she said, "OMG you are so tense, do you have headaches?" I said, "No but I wear a schiene in my mouth every night!" My shoulders are like a body builder's. All the stress I produce, goes right there. *lol* What can I do about it? I can ride with company, as much as possible, in full conversational mode for maximum potential for relaxation.
It's not easy for me to post photos of myself, and especially pictures of me on a horse. I respect bloggers who can do this, and hesitate to trust any blogger who does not.
Liz, you're a biologist, you tell me *lol*: ) No, seriously, I have no freaking idea. It's like living on another planet here, compared to the denseness of the PNW. There are areas of undergrowth, mostly hazelnut, holly, elderberry, and beech bushes. Also, my old friend the blackberry. And stinging nettles. *sigh* But then you ride under pines or oaks and there is nothing at all. The worst part is - if you have to pee, everyone sees you.: )
Noooooo!! Don't feel bad about your equitation!!! It's clear you know what you are doing. I just noticed a little bit of tension that is easy to fix. I'm really sorry if I made you feel low about yourself, that was not my intention and I apologise. I promise on the life of my dog that I saw the photos and thought "oh wow looks really good. Oh but I wonder what her shoulder is doing there. Hm, maybe it's just the photo." NOT a big thing. Ugh, sometimes online discussions are just not possible, it's so easy to think you're expressing yourself feather-light when actually it's more like a frying pan coming out of nowhere.
I think you are doing everything right, the osteopath, the riding, the breathing... my poorly expressed 2 cents have more to do with the realm of Alexander Technique than where an osteopath or breathing can go. Making all movements, even the arm/hand/shoulder/shoulder blade/neck/head out from the hip and integrating the shoulder rather than allowing it the opportunity to have it's own universe of tension. Crap, I wish I lived close by, I could just show you what I mean. It's a small thing.
Sirje, tell me what kind of dog you own, then: ) And your nationality cuz you seem too circumspect to be German. Too nice. But what you pointed out is valuable, and that my new trainer had not mentioned it is relevant. I confronted her when she never criticized my equitation in Wuppertal, and she said, "If I see you making your horse uncomfortable, I will tell you. I won't pick on your position, outside of how it affects your horse's happiness." (She is a hippy.)
So. Come visit us, the world is klein. You will experience Mag's WTH face when a stranger gets on him, it's funny. I'd like to meet you.
:)))
I have actually been thinking about you the last few days because the residency in Essen didn't work out due to timing this year. Aside from the usual madness, we are about to (MAYBE???) get two little bitty foster kids. But I tell you this: if the kids don't come, then I will come visit you before I go to Denmark in the fall. Not sure you can get me to sit on Mag though because I have not ridden much in the last 20 years and I don't want to screw him up!
I am Estonian but raised in NYC, been here 12 years already! The dog is 100% German. Her papa was a Dobermann, mother a mix of especially German Pinscher and German Shepard Dog, and who knows what else. Whatever was around that day. Sie ist zugelaufen. :) She was tied to a rest stop as a puppy, freed herself and wandered around starving and dirty until she found me, and then refused to leave my side. I'm so lucky.
I see the shoulder thing Sirje sees. It reminds me a bit of my (much more exaggerated and much more horrible) posture while riding the Toad--Dory calls it the "pillbug position". I think I got that bad because he was so random, and I was always ready to hit the ground and roll. It's taken 10 years of riding the Dragon to open up my shoulders again. And, um, fixing my hips helped also.
What I like about the photos is Mag's listening ears. He's trying to figure things out, to integrate the uneven ground beneath his feet with the things you tell him. Goooooood boy.
I also think that his unsteadiness going downhill is partly a strength thing, and he will definitely improve with practice!
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