I had an exhausting trip to my lesson at North Fork last weekend, but at least I bought twelve new horse books, eleven of which I had never seen or read (I just could not resist buying C. W. Anderson's "Heads Up, Heels Down".)  I found two books on riding written in the 1930's; a reprint of a 1859 book; the best behavior book I've read ("Horses Behavin' Badly" by Dr. Jim and Lynda McCall); and some new overstocked and used dressage books (I REALLY recommend "The Competitive Edge III" by Max Gahwyler!)  I love used bookstores!  I had some trouble during the trip with my balance and getting my legs to walk, but then, in my mind, I would hear my regular teacher Debbie telling me to get my head up, my shoulders back, I would "be" on a horse's back, and right away I could walk again.  Thanks Debbie, I heard you my whole trip!

So when we got to North Fork Sunday morning I was not at the top of my form.  We got there early, during Karen's regular Sunday morning group lesson.  When that lesson ended Karen told me to stay up by the indoor riding ring and she had one of her students groom, tack up, and bring my horse, a chestnut mare named Socks, up to the indoor ring.  It is so nice when people help me save my energy so I can ride!  I got up on Socks, Karen adjusted my stirrups, told me their were two other people in the lesson, and I started my ride.  Now I go up to North Fork to be schooled in the Forward Seat using the Forward System of Control.  Karen first focused on my hands, they were moving up and down at the walk too much instead of just forward and back, she told me to keep my fingers closed, and she also said that they were pumping forwards and back too much and that I was dropping contact after my hand aids.  I then practiced on my hands when she gave instructions for doing basic hunter exercises (passing, transitions within and between gaits, turns, halts, etc.) then I was busy following those orders while also trying to keep good contact with my hands and keep my forward position.  Challenging.  These are the same problems with my hands that she pointed out my last two lessons with her.  These problems have not improved in three years.  Sigh, will I ever be able to get better?

Socks cooperated with me.  When I asked for full Forward Seat contact she willingly reached forward and gave me good steady contact as long as I kept it myself.  This gave me a chance to recalibrate at what strength contact a good Forward Seat horse gives to its rider.  Definitely ounces, several ounces of contact, around three times the strength that I had been using on the Arabs with finnicky mouths.  I worked on letting Socks determine the movement of my hands, she set the contact strength, and she moved my hands rather than me moving my hands myself.  Karen kept yelling at me not to drop contact with my hand after a hand aid.  As I gave the control of my hands over to my horse I improved.

My gallop position (2-point) was also wrong.  Karen had me move my seat bones back so that they were over the deepest part of the saddle when in the air.  She had me just lifting my seat off the saddle as a result of leaning my torso forward.  I have been getting too far up off the saddle and thereby straightening my knee/thigh/torso angles too much resulting in my seatbones being over the seat in front of the deepest part of the saddle.  My legs seem to want to straighten when they need to stay bent.  I guess I just have to build more muscles because this takes more energy for me.  On the plus side I felt completely in balance front to back when I followed Karen's instructions.  This is something I definitely have to work on if I ever want to gallop fast or hop over a low jump again, something I haven't been able to do for decades.

I was doing some things right, at least.  My hands were completely steady at both the posting and sitting trot, and my legs were steady and stayed in their proper positions.  I kept my head up properly and did not slouch with my shoulders.  Whew, I had improve somewhat during the past three years!  This is the first lesson at North Fork that I wore spurs, my new Spursuaders.  Karen said I could ride in them until Socks got too irritated, well Socks did not get irritated with them so I kept them on my whole ride.  This really helped me keep my lower leg steady since the spurs make my heels aware of where they are.  I can always count on the horse telling me if the spur is not where it should be!  This gives me confidence, if my lower legs are steady enough to please both a Forward Seat instructor and a Forward Seat horse then I know that when my horse gives me several ounces of contact that I am not leaning on the reins to keep my seat.  In the FS the 'firmness' of the rider's seat is based on the lower leg.  The bad news about my legs was that I am still moving my shoulders when I do a leg aid AND I post higher whenever I use a leg aid.  I HAVE to seperate my torso from my legs just like I have to seperate my hands from the movement of the rest of my body.

Then the other riders left the ring and Karen started to focus just on me, a little private lesson withing the lesson.  Socks and I backed up, did several turns and circles, and then tried a turn on the forehand.  This is where I started irritating Socks.  My hand aids were WAY too strong and Socks was backing up all awry instead of turning around her inside fore leg.  Karen had us stop, had me keep the same amount of contact as at the walk and trot, then signal with my inside rein then with my inside leg, rein first so that the horse knew that the leg aid was not a signal to move forward.  The next turn on the forehand went better, but Socks was still irritated by my hand aid being too strong and then loosing contact.  Karen took hold of the rein several inches up from the bit and tried to show me how to give a hand aid and release it while still keeping contact.  I swear, my hand could not tell the difference in pressure, my MS in action.  I tried a few more times, Karen showed me again, then looked at me and said "you can't feel the difference, can you".  So, in desperation, the next time I THOUGHT my hand aid and release while keeping contact and finally both Karen and Socks were somewhat pleased with my performance, resulting in a much better step.  Then Karen told me to be sure to STOP between steps and let Socks rebalance herself, but I had trouble in stopping my leg from giving the aid!  This is something I definitely have to work on, stopping giving aids.  It was as if my leg had a mind of its own, wanting to repeat the movement even when I was telling it not to.  Another gift of my MS, sometimes it is harder to stop moving than it is to move correctly.  Compulsive repetition, another thing to look out for.

Then Karen had me work on circles some more.  I have this problem with circles, they tend to get smaller and smaller meaning I have to use my inside legs a lot more.  Karen had me focus on the quarter points of the circle, straighten my head until the horse reached the quarter point , then focus on the next quarter point and repeat through the circle.  My circles improved a good bit.  Previously I had turned my head and kept it turned, and the horse just spiraled inwards.  Another good habit I have to develop!

Karen gets after me about all my faults because she knows I want to be the best rider I can be.  My once a year lessons at North Fork are what I do instead of going to clinics.  Since she only sees me once a year she has to point out everything I am doing that is preventing me from riding at an advanced level in the Forward Seat system.  After every lesson she tells me I am a very good rider, and this year I think I finally 'heard' what she was saying, yes, I am a very good rider (I usually do not irritate my horse) but I have a long, long, long way to go before I will be an advanced level Forward Seat rider with a good Forward Seat and controlling the horse by good Forward Controls.  My rewards if I ever get to this high level will be that I will be able to do Forward Schooling much more effectively, getting the horses I ride to perform even better with less work on my part and to get myself and the horses I ride so we dance together as we calmly proceed through life using low, energy efficient gaits.  Not collection, in many ways it is easier to get results using proper collection, but keeping the horse voluntarily extended out to the bit, instantly obedient to his rider's thoughts.  True harmony.  Plus my seat will be MUCH more secure, enabling me to go on trail rides one day?  I live in hope.

I don't know if I will ever get there.  My last few rides since this lesson have been very tiring, when I keep my head, shoulders, back, seat, legs and hands right it takes my full attention, and by a quarter of the way around the ring I start getting really tired.  Luckily for me two of the horses I ride regularly, Cider and Mick, know proper contact and will give it to me.  This means that my hands are not using as much of my limited energy as before.  I am getting new sore muscles in my legs by not straightening my legs as much posting and in the gallop position (2-point.)  Very, very tiring, but if I ever want to be a GOOD Forward Seat rider I will have to resign myself to being exhausted after riding (instead of just tired) until I get it all together.  If I ever get it all together.  It upsets me that I could not feel the difference between regular contact, the correct strength rein aid, and the release which Karen tried to show me since this is the key to truly refined riding.  Just thinking my hand aids and release is a new thing for me, but it is the only way I could figure out how to make Socks and Karen happy with my hand aids.

Until my body gets adjusted to this more exhausting method of riding I will be blogging on Mondays instead of Sundays.  Yesterday I was just too tired after my ride to write.

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran