Centered Riding
I've worked with this instructor before -- Lita Hughes in
Maryland, fyi -- and had liked her, plus I thought it would be real good
for me while I'm still learning how to ride now after the back surgery.
Overall impression, very good. Everyone left with improvements and
something to keep working on, and Lita was very patient and explaining
and explaining and helping everyone. We had 5 riders total, so we split
into two groups for our mounted exercises. That helped me 'cause I
really like to watch how someone does something, and we got to hear her
comments to the first group. She put Stirling and his other crazy TB
buddy, Ghost, in the second group. After groundwork on the 4 basics
(eyes, breathing, building blocks and centering), the riders got on and
walked for a while, coming back in to tell her what they found hardest.
That's where she had us focus (centering and building blocks for me --
I'm STILL tending to perch up with clenched butt pushing me onto my
crotch, which was really a bummer to learn) during our ride.
She then had walkers lead the horses while the riders worked on stopping
their mounts with their breathing only - no stirrups for this first part
btw. I had a hard time with this one, but when I raised my arm on the in
breath and held it there I found it much easier. She then had the riders
close their eyes and call out what direction they were travelling in,
while minding how their body felt. All of us found that we were one or
two strides to tell turns, and we rocked or got pushed back away from
the turn. She then had us go again, this time with the walkers calling
out direction and when they would stop to see if we couldn't get more
centered and move more in line. It helped.
Ghost and Stirling also go to work on some turning exercises, using the
body by pointing our arm in the direction of the turn, not our reins. We
sucked, but Ghost was good. Later on, I did this exercise again without
pointing, but with my arm overhead and using my legs and head to turn --
worked muuuch better, and Stirling even dropped his head and went all
round from behind in response to my much deeper, non-perched seat. I
find when I raise that one arm, it forces me to sit back on my seat
bones and feel more through my gluteous maximus (ie butt and down my
back thighs). Hmmm...these dressage people may be onto something with
this seat business. The real change was in the canter for me -- with
that arm up, my departs remained very through and Stirling stayed round,
and I sat the canter better than ever. Yup, I'm gonna be spending a
whole LOTTA time riding with an arm stuck in the air now.
For working on jumping, she really focused on keeping the geometry of
our position (triangles) correct and keeping the building blocks in line
and the body centered. We also worked on eyes -- up and looking beyond,
'natch. When we finally jumped, it was only 18" at a trot, but with a
placing pole before and after, and the second set of jumps an 18" spread
(two whole rails!), I admitted to getting antsy. I refused to go first,
but after watching everyone else, and trusting Stirling to go over, I
trotted in. Lita really called out helpful comments, and got me in
better balance -- so much so that even though Stirling drifted horribly,
I really didn't notice the whole "jump" thing. By the end (a whopping 6
times over -- even in the watered sand ring, the ground was too hard to
push too much), I was able to keep him straight and didn't even move
when he decided it would be cool to take the placing pole on the back as
a bounce. It felt solid enough that I could have taken two or three
bounces like that -- VERY good for my confidence. Yup, after riding
around with my arm in the air I wanna JUMP!
Stirling had a couple of goofball moments, unfortunately. He spooked
with me, and then spooked bigger with Lita when she got on the help him
with balancing through turns. And when we tried to mount from the off
side he flipped -- odd, 'cause I can get off on that side. My only real
complaint about the clinic was that when she got on a couple of the
horses she did not put on a helmet -- I really don't approve of that in
an instructor, esp. one who's teaching a kids' clinic.
All in all, though, a very successful day for me. I still suck, but I'm
getting some good advice for how to handle it, and I faced down some
fears. Now I just have to see how sore I am later!
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Email: iceryder@cableone.net
