Back on the learning train

[breakfast]

I had my first riding lesson with Sally Ede today ( first riding lesson with anyone in a long time ) and it was really great. She's got a really positive way about her and helped me make some very helpful changes to my position to get me a lot more vertical and to help me support myself in a way that allowed Iris to lift her back more easily and really changed the quality of her trot.

I liked the way that she spent some time stood beside us on the mounting block, just adjusting my position so I could get the feel of it- very helpful. She's also aiming to improve my position and carriage on the horse without changing the approach we already had, just fixing up the gaps.

It was very interesting and I got a lot out of it. Plenty of homework to explore over the next few weeks I think.

Definitely not, however, the kind of lesson one can fit into a lunchtime...

[el]

Brilliant stuff. Any quick tips on what you changed?

[breakfast]

Basically I need to keep my seatbones pointing down, and I was tending to lean my shoulders back a little and slouch so my ear-hip-heel line was alright, but my shoulders were behind it and I was a tiny bit sat on my pockets. I need to focus on having my back and front the same length, which means putting a bit more tone in my core muscles and then also using that to resist the acceleration when we move forward so that I don't get pushed back by it. When Sally positioned me upright I felt like I had my face between Iris' ears, but once we were arranged she could move more easily.

There was a bit of work on feeling how my seatbones were moving and then using that to influence how Iris was going, which was interesting too, getting a feel for how they moved and then changing that to help direct her to move out or slow down.

Then it was a lot about carrying more weight on my thighs and having them connected to Iris' back more so that I can use them ( Sally's mental image was "like the suckers on an octopus arm" ) to ask her to lift her back and to bring a bit more upward from her to match the downward forces from me, which I'm already managing alright. This is also tied in with keeping my feet really light in the stirrups, which I found harder after Sally shortened them a whole lot, but doing that allowed me to have a rising trot where Iris was able to stop rolling along in a jog and start elevating and striding forwards like a dressage horse, so that was nice.

[el]

[kas]

I'm back... having locked myself out of my own forum... duh!
Breakfast, how did rein contact come into the equation? Were you able to maintain what you had at Steve's clinics?

[breakfast]

I wasn't using more than I had been at the clinics - did most of it one handed. Sally said her aim was to help me make what I do more effective rather than persuade me to do something different. Most of what I want to do is to ride better from my body, something she is well equipped to help with.

[breakfast]

I think she does have a view on contact and an approach that she favours, but we have plenty of other ground to cover before we need to think about that too hard.