^_^ he listened....finally

Another ride. Another day. And it was great. Well,good at least if not great. If ya'll been following my posts(I Know Jackie has) then you know the horse I so madly adore(he's just so cute and handsome), has been being a devil to me. Some of these issues, I know, is me. When Cody starts to act out(tossing his head;snorting;pawing the ground;shifting;etc) I get... nervous.... nervous that I'll lose control completely and that once I do lose control, I'll never get it back again, and he'll never listen or respect me. Because of all this, I tend to close up. I shrink into my lovely box and hide, allowing him to walk over me. Luckily,my wonderful trainer Julie has been helping me to crawl out and become more assertive in how I ask and tell him to do things for me. Today, her one(of many) critiques was energy. I am a very laid back;go with the flow;soft;quiet person. To be loud and expressive and animated just isn't me. In order to do that, I must drag myself out of my box of hiding and force myself to go there. It's painful at times.

Today I discovered I can do an emergency dismount and live. We'll see if I'm alive when I try it at a trot and canter. Heaven forbid I gallop. I haven't braved a gallop yet, I'm working up(mentally, of course, I have yet to ask) to braving it. I have gone faster than a canter on him. He'd done so good, I let him go. I leaned forward, gave all the rein, kicked and said "go". I knew he'd go, I just didn't think he'd GO like he did. I pretty much let him guide me as I had no idea how to sit, hold the reins and steer at the same time. I allowed him a lap around the arena before halting and getting off. It was pretty much me trusting he wouldn't take advantage of my foolish ignorance and giving us both a safe ride. Speaking of trust..... I also did a passenger trot. This is significant, as I rely too much on my lovely reins. Not only could I not touch the reins, I couldn't steer either, it was me, a passenger, on Cody, while trotting wherever he chose. This is significant since the thought of not holding the reins, while trotting, and not steering,makes my skin crawl. I feel insecure without that control. But, for twenty(felt like 60)minutes,we had to trust one another and it went well. Now, we need to do it at a canter. Boy, will our trust be tested then. Going at a canter without holding anything and off of a circle freaks me out to no end.

But, I finally got to lunge Julie's mare, Rosa. If you've read anything I've written,ya'll know I love Rose. She did really well, but I'm not about to grab her on my own just yet. She's still too much horse to handle, I'm sure if I got her on my own, half of me would be excited(cause she's so awesome) and the other half would be terrified(she's big, strong and energetic) of what might occur.

That's my day. It went well. I'm making progress, slower than what I'd like, but I'm progressing which is all that matters.

Have a happy ride~

Comment

You need to be a member of Barnmice Equestrian Social Community to add comments!

Join Barnmice Equestrian Social Community

Comment by Jackie Cochran on January 18, 2015 at 8:05pm: Oh, I forgot, you are riding Western. Just sit back, you want your spine to be sort of vertical to the ground while your pelvis is doing its ice-cream scoop and leading hip motion. Try also to keep your face vertical. Peripheral vision is a great thing, you can still see obstacles without having to look down and focusing on them, this is called "soft eyes." Actually I consider it the HORSE'S job to look for dangers on the ground. They usually do it quite well if given enough freedom of their heads.

If you have ever done any belly dancing this will be easy. Maybe you can do some belly dancing exercises at home, nothing major, just getting used to relaxing your hip joint and letting your pelvis swing. Hula-hoops may help you too if you don't want to try belly dancing, it is just the belly dancing teaches more subtle control of your pelvis. Once you can sit the canter it is fine to stop the belly dancing.

Comment by Jackie Cochran on January 18, 2015 at 7:55pm: Cantering while seated in the saddle.

Pretend that your pelvis is an ice-cream scoop. Your seat bones are the leading edge of the scoop. As the horse's back is going down, do your pelvis like you are scooping ice-cream with it. Then relax and let your back straighten, make sure your shoulders are back and repeat every stride. Once you get it you will never (or rarely) have to hold onto the horn again.

I first rode on trail for 4 years, I think I got two "lessons" that only taught me to post and very crude rein aids. I pulled leather every time I cantered for those four years and still fell off five times. When I got to restart riding I swore that I would learn to sit the canter so I would no longer pull on the saddle (English saddle, no horn, so I held onto the pommel.) It took me a few months, finally my body "got" what the riding teachers were saying, and this is what it feels like.

Good luck. Practice, patience, persistence, apply your muscles as needed and then relax them, or else you can end up with sore cramping muscles. Breathe, breathe, breathe while you are doing this. One day it will become habit and you won't even think about it any more, saving the horn for the sudden swerve at the gallop.

Second hint. As you canter one of your hips will "lead" the other hip, repeating each stride. THIS IS THE SIDE OF THE HORSE'S LEADING LEG for the canter. To be on the correct lead of the canter, your INSIDE hip should be the one going forward. This is in addition to the ice-cream scoop motion. Once you get this feel you will never have to look down to see which lead the horse is cantering, on a curve it is usually best to be on the inside lead--both canter and gallop.

I have found that as the horse gallops faster the "ice-cream" scoop motion gets faster but the motion of the horse's back usually gets smoother and easier to ride. Usually the horse's back moves a lot more at the slower canter. The leading inside hip is the same at the gallop as at the canter.

Happy riding!

Comment by Paula Stevens on January 18, 2015 at 6:48pm: Thank you Jackie. Unfortunately, I have NO ring to ride in, instead a rectangular arena, so, no circles for me. Kicking hard is a must if I want Cody to ever go faster, lol. He's very stubborn though, and it takes a lot of me to get him going. My balance is still an issue. I'll be cantering some more to help me stay seated without bouncing. I've tried cantering without holding the reins, instead I held the saddle horse, it went well;but when I let go of the horse, I came unbalanced almost immediately. It happens everytime I try to canter without holding anything, which is horribly frustrating.

Comment by Jackie Cochran on January 17, 2015 at 7:28pm: I am glad to hear of your progress Paula.

Riding rings are great. The horse runs away in an eternal circle, going nowhere fast. Gives the rider plenty of time to reestablish control safely.

You might want to think of lightening your leg aids when asking for more speed. Some horses are trained to go all out when thumped HARD by the rider's heels. Others go faster and faster the harder the rider pulls the reins. Learning how to adjust the strength of the aids to the particular horse is a sign of becoming a good rider.

Just keep on riding and listening to your teacher. One day you will look back at all of this and you will be SO GLAD that you finally learned how to balance everything and no longer have to deal with this particular type of excitement.

There is no shame in using the saddle horn to stay on or feel more secure (so long as your reins are not too tight!) I still grab the mane on occassions that I stop feeling secure.

Keep on riding!