How to develop an electric bum?!

[little_critter]

Well, that’s not quite my question but it’s along those lines.
I am a low energy rider, essentially I have the opposite of an electric bum!
Unfortunately my horse is also a low energy guy, so i struggle to motivate / inspire him.
Does anyone have any hints and tips on how to get myself into a more perky, inspirational, up beat mindset when I ride?

 

[splashgirl45]

Play something like Tina Turner when you ride and sing to it and think about dancing ..have a few jumps scattered about and pop over them every so often .. keep your horse doing lots of transitions from trot to canter and back again

 

[tda]

Yep, transitions and lots of them , walk to canter, halt to trot and back again, every few strides
I am also a freezer bum ?

 

[Barton Bounty]

Im a fizzy bum, literally anything is a livewire ?

 

[Burnttoast]

Legs off and very relaxed to avoid blocking, and cultivate a keen sense of forwardness in yourself - I'm very laid back and had to generate that energy in myself quite consciously.

 

[little_critter]

Legs off and very relaxed to avoid blocking, and cultivate a keen sense of forwardness in yourself - I'm very laid back and had to generate that energy in myself quite consciously.

I’m already working hard on the legs off and not blocking. It’s specifically generating my own internal “fizz” I need tips on.
Yes we’ve worked on transitions, they happen but are laboured. I need to raise my own energy (because while we do transitions I’m doing them in a low energy mindset)

 

[Flowerofthefen]

My trainer has commented on this in my lessons. I ride very safe , therefore horse is 'meh'. He has told me I need to have more oomph. My horse is very lazy, makes me work hard, and I easily give in when I'm tired! We have been using a schooling whip a lot which has been a game changer. Nothing drastic, just well timed taps. For instance our canter to trot transition would die. After a few taps with the whip the transition has totally transformed to a really powerful trot after the transition. His canter is gorgeous but again safe. A few taps and our canter is now fabulous!! Unfortunately I only ride like this in lessons, left to my own devices I revert back to lazy. I've really got to try harder!

 

[Wishfilly]

I used to have this a bit in my early 20s- don't think it was a good thing necessarily! In my case, I was riding a lot at the time (working with horses) and just had very strong legs. If the horse wasn't responding, I generally upped the leg aids pretty quickly until it did- not as in pony club kicking, just giving the horse a real proper squeeze that didn't back off until they responded- if needed, I'd back up with a tap from a whip but generally I didn't. Definitely lots of really snappy transitions- trot to halt to trot, or even rein back to trot if they were good at it. And containing the energy with a contact, too.

I found generally if I rode pretty forward for the first few minutes when I was on a horse, then generally they'd be pretty responsive to my leg for the rest of the ride. Whereas if you start off softly, you then have to work harder later on!

 

[LadyGascoyne]

I find there is a huge difference in forwardness if I am picking myself up properly from my core, rather than being collapsed.

If my core is engaged and my chest is open and lifted, then the horse really picks up under me.

 

[little_critter]

Thanks for the answers everyone but I’m looking for mindset suggestions rather that ridden exercises / ways of riding.
It’s more of a rider psychology question, how do I stop being so Eeyore and become more Tigger?

 

[tallyho!]

The fact you recognise your mindset needs to change is the first step I guess... like you say yourself now you just need to think like Tigger wherever you go.

Love the music suggestion!

Maybe go and "do" something Tiggerish... do you go out and join any fun rides or try out some hunter trials? Do you have a group you go out with that like a naughty hack (ones where you go fast at any given opportunity!) find out what gives you the whizzies.

 

[LadyGascoyne]

What is your energy like in other aspects of your life?

I suspect mindset will be only one element and it might not be sufficient to change mindset alone.

I would imagine there is something about the horse picking up on your energy levels, heart and respiration rates, and hormonal factors like testosterone/ estrogen, and adrenaline and cortisol levels.

And then I think there is something about how you respond to the horses response.

I am naturally quite a high energy person, with a tendency to be a bit highly strung. I am careful that when I am sitting on a horse, I am riding forward and opening up rather than trying to bring the horse back too much. If I try to shut it down too much, the energy has nowhere to go and I tend to get quite a lot of bouncing around and napping. I think I am inherently communicating a level of buzz to the horse, and then trying to contain that when the horse returns the energy - giving that energy nowhere to go. So I focus on riding open and forward, picking up my chest and core and channeling the energy forward. If I want the horse to come down, then I have to focus really hard on my breathing and heart rate, and consciously calm myself. If that makes any sense at all!

So using that logic, if you aren’t getting the electricity in the horse, I’d probably approach it as ‘is it my own energy levels?’ or ‘is it the way I am channeling that to the horse?’.

If you don’t have naturally high energy levels, then I’d look at existing diet, exercise and medications/ hormonal therapies, and make changes there if possible.

If you have the energy but it’s not transmitting to the horse then I’d think about how you are channeling it, and where it is going between you and the horse. And then I think mindset does come into play but it is coupled with physical actions to adjust your communication to the horse.

I sound mad, don’t I?

 

[little_critter]

No, you don’t sound mad (to me!).
In general I’m a low energy, unflappable type. I don’t do outward shows of emotion, I dont have highs and lows I’m very beige!
Physical energy wise is feel ok, I’m not physically tired and hormonally sometimes I get a bit of PMT but I recognise that (shorter temper) and a few starflower oil capsules helps with that.
So I think I need to propagate more joyous mental energy and transmit that to my horse.
I think we are in a bit of a vicious cycle at the moment, riding not going well (horse not responding), so I take training back a step to try something easier, which is also less interesting / fun / challenging, so energy levels drop further, so I take training back another step, so the energy levels drop further etc etc
When things are going ok and we are achieving stuff the work is more interesting and I have better energy, but right now I don’t feel we are capable of just going straight back to ‘how we were’ because we’ve been at this lower energy state for several months now.
I want to do some jumping again, but with the lack of go we have I think we would really struggle.

 

[Skib]

Lazy and cautious may be one and the same? I had an electric bum. This was not convenient as I regularly got run away with on hacks. Staff called it my John Wayne act.
An experienced RI on another Forum suggested the cause. I had learned to allow the horse forward and to ride in general by relaxing and deep breathing.
I had had my children by so called Natural Childbirth, using breathing techniques and no pain releif so I was expert at relaxing a part of my body.
When I started to ride, I did the same. This meant that my legs when relaxed would flop against the side of the horse at every step of canter. And the horse interpreted this as a leg aid to continue or even to go faster.

After many year of RS lessons in which horses always cantered for me at the first time of asking, even though they had rersolutely refused to canter in the preceding lesson, I came to believe that horses know when a rider likes to canter and they canter willingly just to oblige.

Just a word of warning. If cantering in the school, do hold onto the outside rein, to prevent the cutting of corners. Cantering the long side and trotting the short side is a good half way step.

I think a lot depends on the way in which one has been taught canter. I was having a rotten time as a beginner when my RI remarked that another rider learning canter was bumping up and down like a sack of coal. She needed to breathe and relax. I let it happen and my body picked up the rhythm. But I was never at this school asked to ride with collection or an outline.

I dont think it is lack of mental energy - it is alnost always some physical restraint that prevents the horse going freely forward. In a large school (20x60) after watchng the Olympics in London, I sometimes told the RS horse they could go down the long side as fast as they wanted. But I am also careful not to canter if I am not feeling particularly well. I tell my escorts that canter is not compulsory.

 

[sbloom]

I think it's key to have fun, find how to be in a play state, reduce agendas, and then make sure that helps you keep any handbrakes off. However, the horse's balance and way of going is often the main hindrance to them truly being forwards, we just don't drill down to the level of detail needed. And I'm sure you've checked saddle etc, that nothing obvious is holding either/both of you back...

 

[splashgirl45]

If you want to jump and don’t feel confident, play with poles on the floor , put them in quite difficult places so you have to really think how you are going to get your horse to trot over them, that might get your own reactions a bit quicker. I still think a bit of lively music might help you mentally to liven up. I had the opposite to you, any lazy horses with other people were fine with me so I didn’t have to work hard to get them going. OR. can you get a friend to ride with you and set up bending poles or similar and race..that would get your reactions quicker but not sure about your mind

 

[little_critter]

I think it's key to have fun, find how to be in a play state, reduce agendas, and then make sure that helps you keep any handbrakes off. However, the horse's balance and way of going is often the main hindrance to them truly being forwards, we just don't drill down to the level of detail needed. And I'm sure you've checked saddle etc, that nothing obvious is holding either/both of you back...

Yes, saddle checked recently and has no issues. Also working on straightness and can really feel the improvement in that. Just need to up the energy now....

 

[j1ffy]

I might be wrong, but it sounds to me that the issue is motivation when things aren't going so well. You mention that you can ride with more energy when you're progressing but lose energy at other times.

I would focus on your mindset when times are tough, essentially your mental resilience. There will always be difficult times with horses and progression often results in periods that feel pretty bad - whether the work is a bit brittle, there's resistance from the horse (either due to increasing effort or not understanding the question) or because you're learning at the same time as teaching the horse.

As a rider, I also have pretty low energy and have had a series of horses before Chilli who were fairly unmotivated! Setting goals was important and also being disciplined - I know you feel that this is a mindset issue, but you do need to very consistently train your horse to respond to the forward aids. Even on hacks make sure the response is immediate and address it if not. With one of mine, it is important to set the boundaries as soon as I get on - if he doesn't move away from the mounting block from a small leg aid, he gets a pony club kick with loose reins to get the 'go' (obviously not if we're on concrete!).

So in your position, I wouldn't think about increasing your energy (I think this is hard to do for those of us who are naturally laid-back) but instead on discipline and goals.

 

[Hallo2012]

come hacking with me

i seem to make everything and everyone upside down loopy lol

 

[Wishfilly]

I'm not convinced it is a mindset thing- I don't think it's just the horse responding to your energy. That said, like I say, in the past, my mindset was to ride very forwards at the start of any ride (not fast, just ensuring the horse was off my leg), and I would sometimes actively do exercises I thought would almost wind the horse up if I wanted that sort of energy from it (e.g. if jumping etc)- even horses that could be quite dull with others.

It's not how I ride at all now, and not what I want my riding to be like! I don't think my "energy" has changed that much, just my tactics!

 

[Palindrome]

counter intuitive but if you shorten your reins they will usually speed up.