Another Set of Eyes

When I got to the barn on Wednesday, Debbie’s daughter, Sam, told me Debbie was sick, but that she would be glad to give me a lesson.  Since a fresh set of eyes can often see things that become “normal” to my usual teacher I was happy to take her up on her offer (after checking to see that giving me a lesson would not put her behind for her other work at the stable.)  As we groomed Bingo, I was able to tell her some problems I had noticed when the little girls groomed Bingo, especially that he would refuse to pick up his feet for them to clean.

Bingo is still shedding gobs of hair so his winter coat is quickly disappearing, and there are still a few months of winter to go.  I have never seem a winter coat like Bingo’s, he has the “guard hairs” and the super fine sub-coat, but he also has these really long, super thin hairs that embed themselves in my BOT saddle pad.  I spend more time cleaning the hair off my pad than I do riding Bingo!  I do not know where in his pedigree he acquired this super fine and super long winter hair.  Debbie thinks he is part Quarter Horse (his croup is high and his hindquarters are broad) and Paso Fino (he gaits like one), but I have never seen a QH or Paso Fino with such a winter coat. 

As I rode Bingo around the ring, I explained to Sam why I ride Forward Seat, that when I learned I have MS I mentally went down the list of all the riding seats I knew about and the Forward Seat won out as the safest.  The first seat I considered was sidesaddle, but riding sidesaddle requires superb balance from the rider to prevent saddle sores, and my MS severely affects my balance.  Then I considered Western for a minute until I remembered that riders fall out of Western saddles as easily as English saddles.  Then Sam told me that her worst fall ever was from a Western saddle and she agreed with me about this.  Saddle seat--well those saddles have even less security than the flattest jumping saddle and anyway I just could not get into what the Saddle Seat riders do to their horses.  As for dressage, my lack of balance and my lack of coordination would drive a trained dressage horse bonkers.  So while I ride I concentrate on improving my Forward Seat, both for my security in the saddle and so that I do not irritate the horses when I am on their backs.

Sam was pleased with my seat while I walked and trotted Bingo around the ring, with just one comment about my heels.  Bingo cooperated, which is always nice when I am riding in front of someone new.  It is good that Sam got to see Bingo when he was cooperating because he can look hopeless when he is resisting, since he is not a beautiful or well-conformed horse he can look horrible when he inverts while gaping his mouth and trailing his hind legs behind him.  In addition, his super thick throatlatch means that I have to be super gentle with his mouth since his conformation is superb for resisting any rein aid he does not like.  It can be much easier for a rider to make a pretty picture on an attractive horse that has good riding conformation.

Toward the end of my lesson, I put Bingo into his super slow walk.  I told Sam that while there was nothing I could do to “fix” his super high croup, I was using the super slow walk to strengthen the “sling” muscles from the inside of his shoulder blades to his sternum.  I hope that this will eventually make it easier for Bingo to elevate his forehand so his withers will be higher in relation to his croup.

On Friday I rode Mia.  It was a colder so I put both butt blankets on her.  Luckily she is not shedding out as much as Bingo is so I am not as worried about her during the rest of winter.  Since I had not worked on my two-point very much during my lesson on Bingo I concentrated on doing the two-point as much as I could.  I am slowly getting stronger; three times I made it half way around the ring at the walk before I had to collapse back in the saddle because my back muscles hurt so much.  Each time I am in two-point I check my position from my head to the soles of my feet.  I keep my face vertical, push out the bottom of my sternum to get my shoulders back, I try to keep my entire seat out of the saddle, I make sure that my knees are relaxed and as far down the flap as they can go, gripping with my calves instead of my knees, and that my heels are down and my ankle cocked all while preventing my feet from slipping back.  I find that when my heels are down AND my ankles are cocked so someone on the ground can see the sole of my boot, it effectively makes my leg longer so that my gripping calves are below the widest part of the horse’s barrel.  This increases my security when the horse makes a sudden unplanned move.  When I keep my feet right under me instead of letting them slip back it takes less effort for me to keep up in my two-point.

I plan to do the two-point mostly at the walk until I can make it the whole way around the ring.  I will be adding short trots in two-point, extending those as I get stronger until I can keep in two-point at the trot the whole way around the ring.  Then, I hope, I will have both the strength and muscle endurance to start handling the two-point at the canter, something that right now I find super exhausting. 

I hope it won’t take me longer than a year to get there.

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran        

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