FubsyMog
Well-Known Member
(Also in C&T) Ok, so I know most of you in here are WAAY above my level, but had to tell someone apart from non-horsey OH about my lesson at the weekend!
Bit of background: learned to ride as a child, long gap, then took it about again about 6 months ago. I am just riding at a RS at present, usually a weekly group lesson but treated myself to a private at the weekend. My usual mount is a 17hh ex-hunter.
I wanted to particularly work on achieving correct bend on the giant grey as he has a tendency to want to look to the outside of any movement, exacerbated by my annoying habit of having my shoulders (and therefore seat) incorrectly positioned - I tend to always have my right shoulder ahead of the left, which is, of course, something of a problem on the right rein So, cue lots of spiraling in and out of circles and serpentines as my instructor worked with me to help improve this. She asked me to ride circles with my body turned enough so that I could just about see the horse's tail - I think this was a kind of breakthrough point for me as I could feel how much influence simply turning my body could have on the horse. Having a point to focus on (the top of his tail) helped me maintain the position which I had found very difficult- would start of ok and then the second half of the circle would be, er, decidedly non-circular as my position had gone up the left again
Focussing on my upper body also had the convenient knock-on effect of really improving my rein aids - the correct position just seemed to come naturally when the body was right and there was no more crossing the inside rein over his neck when trying to push him out. We actually got some really nice work in the lesson, with giant grey starting to work nicely from behind and taking up the bridle. My instructor said it is quite rare for him to do this - he will allow people to force his head into an 'outline' but it is difficult (him being a RS horse often ridden by complete beginners) to work him correctly like this and that I should be very proud
So, all in all, a super lesson where things are starting to make sense! Something I need to really focus on now is my habit of tightening my knee at times, causing my leg to draw up and mucking up my ability to apply accurate aids. Does any body have any tips or exercises I can do to help train my knee that it does not need to be superglued to the saddle at all times?
Homemade bramble jam for getting this far!
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Bit of background: learned to ride as a child, long gap, then took it about again about 6 months ago. I am just riding at a RS at present, usually a weekly group lesson but treated myself to a private at the weekend. My usual mount is a 17hh ex-hunter.
I wanted to particularly work on achieving correct bend on the giant grey as he has a tendency to want to look to the outside of any movement, exacerbated by my annoying habit of having my shoulders (and therefore seat) incorrectly positioned - I tend to always have my right shoulder ahead of the left, which is, of course, something of a problem on the right rein So, cue lots of spiraling in and out of circles and serpentines as my instructor worked with me to help improve this. She asked me to ride circles with my body turned enough so that I could just about see the horse's tail - I think this was a kind of breakthrough point for me as I could feel how much influence simply turning my body could have on the horse. Having a point to focus on (the top of his tail) helped me maintain the position which I had found very difficult- would start of ok and then the second half of the circle would be, er, decidedly non-circular as my position had gone up the left again
Focussing on my upper body also had the convenient knock-on effect of really improving my rein aids - the correct position just seemed to come naturally when the body was right and there was no more crossing the inside rein over his neck when trying to push him out. We actually got some really nice work in the lesson, with giant grey starting to work nicely from behind and taking up the bridle. My instructor said it is quite rare for him to do this - he will allow people to force his head into an 'outline' but it is difficult (him being a RS horse often ridden by complete beginners) to work him correctly like this and that I should be very proud
So, all in all, a super lesson where things are starting to make sense! Something I need to really focus on now is my habit of tightening my knee at times, causing my leg to draw up and mucking up my ability to apply accurate aids. Does any body have any tips or exercises I can do to help train my knee that it does not need to be superglued to the saddle at all times?
Homemade bramble jam for getting this far!
FubsyMog is online now Report Post Reply With Quote
well done.