Well, first he started out looking like this --->
Then Gayle went through position fix stuff with me, sort of like what she did with Kate last Saturday. Some of this visualization seems like it's success is personal, so if it doesn't work, sorry!
1) My seat bones need to point straight down. That one had me confused for awhile before I realized that it means I should orient my pelvis straight up and down vertically. I over compensated for my "hunter perch" by sitting too far back and rocking my butt underneath me.
2) My hips need to be open and flat. This I think is essentially does the same thing as getting the thigh flab out of the way. Gayle told me to picture a board across the front of me that I was trying to flatten my entire body against, and had me open my hip-flexor. After having her tell me what that was, it helped. It also burned. Feel the burn!
3) Keep my body upright and stretch my shoulders across, while letting my shoulder blades slide down my back. This one ended up being the hardest for me to keep up, my inside arm kept getting lazy and sliding in (and apparently according to the pictures, I was also dropping my inside shoulder a bunch). We did this before #2 actually, which is why the open hip thing made more sense to me, because I was trying to get the same feeling in both my shoulders and hips.
4) DO NOT SQUEEZE WITH MY LEGS! DO NOT OPEN MY FINGERS AND USE THAT TO BE "NICE" TO THE HORSE. If I open my fingers, then Pro doesn't know where the end of the rein is and he has to worry about when it's going to magically appear.
If I managed to do 1-4 then he pretty much transformed in this ->
We spent probably 15-20 minutes getting me to figure out where I should be, and then spent the rest of the ride at the walk and trot on a circle and letting both Pro and myself play around with the feelings. I spent the entire time trying to memorize the sensations, while Pro spent a good bit of the time alternating between doing an amazing lesson-master impression at the trot and trying to unkink his vertebrae...
He was really happy with himself for knowing what his job was and doing it. Gayle, Kate, and I spent some time discussing what our goal was for him at this point in his re-training and just generally talking about how awesome he is. For now Kate and my goal is to get Pro feeling like this every ride as fast as possible and then leave him alone to figure things out. Once he's 100% solid in this, then we'll be ready to take the next step. She also said that 90% of horses and riders never even get this far. Not bad for the little pony who ran around like a spaz a year ago. :D
One last picture... Gayle described his expression as "just like a man after having really great sex." Proof that Pro enjoyed the lesson too!
Then Gayle went through position fix stuff with me, sort of like what she did with Kate last Saturday. Some of this visualization seems like it's success is personal, so if it doesn't work, sorry!
1) My seat bones need to point straight down. That one had me confused for awhile before I realized that it means I should orient my pelvis straight up and down vertically. I over compensated for my "hunter perch" by sitting too far back and rocking my butt underneath me.
2) My hips need to be open and flat. This I think is essentially does the same thing as getting the thigh flab out of the way. Gayle told me to picture a board across the front of me that I was trying to flatten my entire body against, and had me open my hip-flexor. After having her tell me what that was, it helped. It also burned. Feel the burn!
3) Keep my body upright and stretch my shoulders across, while letting my shoulder blades slide down my back. This one ended up being the hardest for me to keep up, my inside arm kept getting lazy and sliding in (and apparently according to the pictures, I was also dropping my inside shoulder a bunch). We did this before #2 actually, which is why the open hip thing made more sense to me, because I was trying to get the same feeling in both my shoulders and hips.
4) DO NOT SQUEEZE WITH MY LEGS! DO NOT OPEN MY FINGERS AND USE THAT TO BE "NICE" TO THE HORSE. If I open my fingers, then Pro doesn't know where the end of the rein is and he has to worry about when it's going to magically appear.
If I managed to do 1-4 then he pretty much transformed in this ->
We spent probably 15-20 minutes getting me to figure out where I should be, and then spent the rest of the ride at the walk and trot on a circle and letting both Pro and myself play around with the feelings. I spent the entire time trying to memorize the sensations, while Pro spent a good bit of the time alternating between doing an amazing lesson-master impression at the trot and trying to unkink his vertebrae...
He was really happy with himself for knowing what his job was and doing it. Gayle, Kate, and I spent some time discussing what our goal was for him at this point in his re-training and just generally talking about how awesome he is. For now Kate and my goal is to get Pro feeling like this every ride as fast as possible and then leave him alone to figure things out. Once he's 100% solid in this, then we'll be ready to take the next step. She also said that 90% of horses and riders never even get this far. Not bad for the little pony who ran around like a spaz a year ago. :D
One last picture... Gayle described his expression as "just like a man after having really great sex." Proof that Pro enjoyed the lesson too!
3 comments:
Oh you definitely picked the PERFECT pictures to show the transformation. :)
I like how you've made a numerical list (such a good grad student) of the things you need to remember. Put them into a nice little phrase you can repeat to yourself!
He did look wonderfully happy after the lesson. :)
YAY more Pro pictures!! It sounds like the lesson went great! I can't wait to see what the next step is!!!
He looks so happy!
Glad the lesson went so well!
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