Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Wow!!!

What a revelation! My seat changed completely tonight, and for the better!

What exactly made the difference? I went in thinking of my "seat" as a sort of two-pronged single part of my anatomy that included both my thighs and acts as a single unit that "slots onto" the horse.

Suddenly, everything was better. I could sit the trot at just about any speed. Most of the bounce was out of my canter (and all of it at times when everything really clicked). But the sitting trot was the biggest thing; it was the best sitting trot of my life! Everything was locked in with minimal effort of interference. And my feel, even at the walk, was amazing. I could follow so much better!!

So what exactly happened?

I had a lesson in North Bay, on Saturday, with the jumping instructor I'd had three or four with back in February. I did a semi-private with my best friend, with whom I rode a ton and took lots of lessons as a teen. At the end of the lesson I was a little disappointed that we didn't do a bit more and felt like I didn't get much out of it other than a pleasant ride in the sunshine.

Well... HA!!

We did this thing called "exercise position" which consisted of dropping the stirrups, bringing the thigh down vertically, and bending the knee so that the lower leg was horizontal to the ground. Then, trying to roll back on your seat into its usual three points of balance while lifting chin and chest and engaging lower abs. WELL. It was an incredible hip opener and something really jogged in my brain. My brain and body took notes. Because, while I didn't change anything immediately that ride... it definitely was percolating in my brain since then, and I was able to take that "Aha!" into this ride with AWESOME results.

I THOUGHT I had been riding with my hips open. I had not. NOW I get it!!

I rode around doing mostly sitting trot tonight, at slow and medium and occasionally a bit faster, and just marvelled at my ability to do it almost effortlessly. I rode most of the evening on as loose a rein as possible, trying to continue to address my rein-reliance-and-tension problems, but I felt really secure and balanced and like I didn't need the reins so much.

I shoudl also mention, I discovered a really interesting exercise that helped immensely and that I will definitely do again. I dropped my stirrups and, at a walk on a loose rein, used just one leg at a time to push her over into a little leg yield off and then back onto the rail. I tried to do as little with my leg as possible. I want to stop tensing and lifting my leg when I apply it. I want to train my body that I can apply it while keeping it mainly relaxed. So I practiced practiced practiced moving her over at the walk with a bit of calf pressure inward and NOTHING ELSE. And I could do it, too! It didn't require tension or a shortening of the leg to be effective. Unsurprisingly, I was able to keep my left leg longer and more relaxed than my right -- it's habitually the one that has more tension and lifts more on me -- but I was starting to get somewhere with it. It also helped me to keep my leg long, relaxed, and further back during applied aids.

So, the recipe for my success(es) tonight:

My seat is a two-pronged unit that includes both thighs
My legs do not exists below the knee unless I apply them
My hands are of no consequence while I develop my seat
My calf presses inward without pressing upward
My calf can be applied without being a source of tension

Friday, September 8, 2017

Well, that needs work

Great lesson last night. I was back on my usual lesson horse. The weather was cool and clear, and both she and I were feeling good! She was the right amount of forward, and carrying herself better and more actively than usual. She wasn't heavy in my hands at all, except after a few downwards transitions, and it was pretty short-lived.

We worked on some trot poles (including some cavaletti on the lowest side -- so a bit higher than just a groundpole) which I had done the previous week with my coach's big gelding, but of course, it was a lot smoother for me, being back on the horse I'm used to. My coach told it was the best pole work I'd ridden, so that was great. I'm getting better at lengthening/enlarging my post to go with her more exaggerated motion over them. She also rounded nicely and lifted her back on my last trip over them. I also made a point of looking up at the fence beyond the poles once we were headed for them. Looking up never being a BAD thing at any point in riding!! Also did some serpentines, which felt good and are generally improving.

Canter work felt pretty good, though I was stiff in my lower back and my knees. This is not unusual for me. I need to put some more time in, getting the feeling back that started clicking for me a few weeks ago, where I was sort of able to "sit up" on top of the roll of the canter, and let me heels drop in rhythm with it to absorb some of the shock and keep my butt in the saddle. We did some circles, including spiraling in and out on one of them, plus a few flying changes across the diagonal -- which were better one way than the other, but that's usual with this mare. They feel much more organized for me lately, even if they don't always happen right away when I push that button.

So... The bad. Well, let's not say bad. We'll say it's good that we've identified what needs to be worked on. Given my canter "yips" lately, I asked my coach, Can we try something? I trotted around the ring on a completely loose rein. Not bad, not bad. She had me go up into canter, and I kind of... fell apart again. Without that fairly firm rein contact, I want to hunch forward, lose my seat, and go into defensive mode. I don't think I actually NEED the reins to balance myself, and I don't feel like I'm actually using them that way when I canter -- but this mare pushes so heavily into the bridle that it's hard to say for sure whether or not I am, normally! It kept happening when I'd try -- even though her canter was quite nice and she had more self carriage than she usually does -- so it was time to get on the longe line.

Unfortunately... I don't have a lot of comfort riding on the longe. I think it's great theoretically, and I'd do a LOT of it with students if I were teaching, I think, but I haven't done much myself. Something about going around that small circle, totally giving up rein control, is figuratively and literally dizzying to me, and I feel like I have MORE tension instead of less, at least until I can start to ease into it. I relaxed well enough into the trot work once we'd done a bit, but I couldn't do any canter at all without at least one hand gripping the saddle. Again, I don't think I NEEDED to hang on, but my body panics without that rein connection and tenses up and shuts down. I was sort of almost maybe starting to get it one way? But mannnn.

When I had those jumping lessons in North Bay back in the spring, I had no trouble cantering around on a very light contact, so this is something new and I think it's been set off by a few things this summer. I think my weird ride on the big gelding has made it more acute and now I'm overthinking things. Whatever the case, and however much it's either mental or phsyical (though I think it's about 90% mental) I want to work on fixing it.

My current plan to address this:

-No-stirrups trot work to increase the security of my seat at a gait I'm comfortable in.
-Getting the canter WITH contact, and working on softening my back and hips, and dropping my heels in rhythm with it to keep my seat connection
-Letting my reins out once I'm already in a good canter, for however long I can sustain it and stay relaxed. I'll start with the centre portion of the long side and build from there.
-Stretching and core work at home (ughhhh) which I really, really need to do anyhow.

I'm having a lesson tomorrow morning with my best friend and one of the people with whom I've ridden the longest! It's with the coach who had me on a loose, soft rein in the winter, so it'll be interesting to see what happens there. Will I be able to keep it together? I think so! And if not, I won't beat myself up. Again, I'm going to see it as a positive to have discovered this new hole in my riding before it gets any more entrenched! I'm riding for the enjoyment of the process -- finding and fixing this kind of thing is hard and a little bit scary, but it's what it's all about.

Friday, September 1, 2017

The yips

I've had a few rides since the last post, though my August has been light on them as work has been crazy, and my usual horse is being leased elsewhere for the month.

This week and last week, I rode my coach's new horse. And for some reason, I was a big ball of nerves and practically forgot how to ride. I have no idea what happened there.

It had been two weeks since I'd ridden, and my last ride had been on the out-of-shape western horse, on whom I just did a bit of walk and a bunch of slow jog. So not particularly challenging or engaging.

Cut to me trying this other horse, who is taller than I'm used to at 16.2 (although my usual lesson horse is 16, so...) and sort of lanky and Muppet-y, and for whatever reason...

Everything felt off. True, I did start with my stirrups too long by two holes at least, but even that doesn't usually make me nervous and ineffective. I was convinced that the saddle didn't fit me and was rolling me forward onto my pubic bone and keeping me from tucking my seat under me... but based on this week's ride, the problem was likely lower back tension. I also felt like I couldn't position my legs correctly, and my stirrups were bouncing around on my feet (probably mainly because they were too long) and I was certainly tensed and waiting for the horse to do something reactive, even though he gave NO signs of it other than being a bit looky at the start of the ride (which was understandable as it was his first ride in that ring!).

Where things especially fell apart was at the canter. I think a big problem with it was that I'm used to my usual lesson horse's canter, and she actually goes BETTER if you take up shorter reins and firmer contact. That's... not how most horses work, unfortunately, and especially not this one. Even though his canter is lovely and floaty and smooth, I was confusing him by taking up firmer contact which... told him to stop cantering. And he'd drop out of it into the sproingy-est trot which nearly unseated me, and in my scramble to right myself he kept popping into and out of canter in confusion. Which just unseated me more. Closest I've come to falling off in one of my lessons!! Ha! It was a bit ridiculous.

After that, I tried more canter on a loose rein and grabbed mane with one hand and gave up on steering, just focusing on "forward" instead. This went a lot better, although my anxiety at going "fast" while not really holding the reins in a useful way was certainly a factor. He does have a SMOOTH canter though. Like glass! Really really lovely, but because he's big and has a long stride and this very fluid movement, he felt like he was going too fast for me, even though he definitely wasn't. PTSD left over from my bolting-related falls? Likely. Guhhh.

This week, we did some trot pole work (over which he was kind of lazy and trippy, oops) we took another stab at canter. And even though everything felt MUCH better and back to normal for all my walk and trot work, I actually managed to canter him even LESS. My first attempt at a canter transition was actually pretty calm and went all right... buuuut I took up more contact and raised my hands out of habit, and he fell out of it, which jarred me, and after that I was a mess again. I actually gave up on it pretty quickly compared to last week. At one point I tried just anchoring the inside rein with one hand and also holding the front of the saddle, while using the outside rein to potentially control speed, but grabbing like that just makes me more tense and unstable, soooo... nahhhh.

So, this week: better ride over all, but still had myself psyched out about the canter. My coach told me I'll probably be fine by ride 3 on him, and I suspect she's right. I'm also having a lesson up in North Bay in about a week and a half, so it'll be interesting to see how I do on a different horse at that time. I don't normally have THIS much trouble adjusting to a new horse. I have no idea why I'm finding it SO oddly difficult this time, but there it is. It'll be fascinating to see if I have a problem in that other lesson. I sincerely hope that having ride-ruining nerves on a new horse isn't going to become a "thing" when it never has been before. I'll try not to overthink it (something I'm an expert at) or else it actually WILL become a thing!