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Reflections on Riding

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Reflections on Riding

Category Archives: Equitation

The good, the bad and the educated (hands)

25 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by Katie in Equitation, Language

≈ 2 Comments

Back before back-in-the-day, when I was a mere twig of a girl proud to be wearing jodphurs, I was full of aspirations.  Of course, I wanted to go to the Olympics (what serious young rider doesn’t?).  But there was something else I wanted even more.

I wanted good hands.  Because I knew that I wouldn’t be a good rider until I got them.

Good hands.  In those days, it was a phrase everyone knew and everyone used.  It was a universal truth that good riders had good hands. Riders were complimented on their good hands and criticized for their bad hands.  Educated hands were expected of advanced riders, and admired.

If there were an equine dictionary a la the OED, all those phrases — good hands and bad hands and educated hands — would now be listed as archaic.

This is what I want to do with my hands even though I know pulling is bad

This is what I want to do with my hands even though I know pulling is bad

When I hear about contact issues or a rider needing to improve his contact, and I see a horse being jabbed in the mouth or yanked with an outside rein in a misguided half-halt or being turned into a boat for a rider waterskiing on his mouth, it makes me want to pull my hair out.

But there is a glimmer of light in the corridor of equestrian darkness.  I recently heard that USDF judges are becoming more forthright in their assessment of rider’s hands.  One popular phrase to put in the test remarks now is “rider restricted.”  Okay, that’s a step in the right direction, but it’s almost as oblique as contact.

At this point, if you’ve stuck with me, you’re probably getting tired of hearing me complain.  So let me offer some practical solutions to riders and instructors, which I believe can help fix the problem.

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Rolfing for riders

09 Saturday Nov 2013

Posted by Katie in Equitation, How to Spend Your Money

≈ Leave a comment

For those of us who have passed the half century mark, the word “Rolfing™” conjures up some strange amalgam of hippie happiness and sacrificial torture.

No wonder, because this form of bodywork was christened at Esalen, the legendary consciousness-expanding center in Big Sur.  And in the early years, people who got Rolfed™ talked a lot about how much it hurt.

109px-HorseKickBiochemist Ida Rolf developed the technique of Rolfing™, and named it after herself.  Some say it all started with a horse.  Ida had been kicked by a horse and afterwards suffered symptoms of acute pneumonia.  Her symptoms were relieved not by drugs but by bodywork.  She figured out how to heal herself and others.

The first person I met who had been “Rolfed™” told me it “hurt like hell” but he loved it.  I always suspected that he was more than a little bent, so this didn’t make Rolfing™ any more attractive to me.  I had no need for it, no interest in it and no desire to experience it.  That was back in the 80s.

Fast forward twenty years, when serious back problems started keeping me out of the saddle.  My body didn’t work the way it used to. I was crooked and stiff and slow and every jarring motion sent a small shock wave up my spine.  I got a sheepskin seat saver.  But I had lost my seat.

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Post Olympics

08 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by Katie in Equitation, Horse Care, Training

≈ 6 Comments

It’s post-Olympics and, although I’m out of synch

London, Picadilly Circus 1903

it’s time to post at least a few of my thoughts and impressions about the equestrian events.

I was afraid that I wasn’t going to have time to watch the Olympics at all, but I made the decision to eat into my already abbreviated sleep time to go to nbcolympics.com to catch what I could (rather than blog).  Kudos to NBC for finally giving us a way to see everything and anything we wanted to see on our computers, whenever we wanted to see it.

From the comments following last Wednesday’s post, I know that there are prominent proscratinators among my readers.  If that predilection for procrastination kept you from watching the coverage, you’re in luck.  You can still see it — and see it all — here.  I doubt whether this will be the case forever, so if you want to catch what you missed, you might want to put your proscrastinating on hold temporarily, just this once.

There sure was a lot to watch.  It took me days just to get through the eventing dressage.  And then I watched the rest of it.  I watched almost all of the dressage and almost all the show jumping.  The parts I missed weren’t at the end of the competition but rather throughout the competition, randomly and frequently.

Increasingly frequently as time went on.  Early on, I optimistically expected that disappointing rides would somehow magically improve rather than remain the same or detriorate further.  Realizing that my optimism was unfounded, as rides went on, I made the decision to use my curser to fast-forward.  That saved time, which was important because sleep deprivation is cumulative in its ill effects.

Overall, I think the horses outshined and outclassed most of their human counterparts.

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Work at the walk – for the rider

05 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by Katie in Equitation, Training

≈ 12 Comments

The walk is sometimes called “the learning gait.”  I agree, although the reason may be that it is usually the easiest place for riders (rather than their horses) to learn.

It’s also the easiest place for riders to ride, which makes it the easiest place for riders to teach their horses, although I think some things (like collection) and some horses, are better taught at the trot.

Be that as it may (or may not), let’s begin by talking about the advantages to working at the walk for riders.

At the walk, riders are usually the most secure and well-balanced, so it’s easiest to have clear and consistent aids.  Recovery of the rider’s position and composure from a misstep or a misunderstanding is often quicker, for the same reason.

It’s easiest to teach something to a horse who is relaxed, and most horses are relaxed at the walk.  It’s also easiest for horses to remain relaxed at the walk, so it’s the easiest place to work through problems, protests or resistance (which are most often no more than a misunderstanding on the part of the horse).

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Long leathers don’t equal long legs

18 Friday May 2012

Posted by Katie in Equitation

≈ 6 Comments

Photo by Oxfordian Kissuth

If you have a classic “rider’s body,” you’re blessed.  Not all of us do.  I’m one of the non-blessed.  From the top of my head to my toes, I measure 5’1″.  Even if I had long legs for my size (which I don’t), I’d still have short legs.

And my legs will remain short no matter how long I make my stirrup leathers.

Because long leathers won’t, in fact, make anyone’s legs any longer.  They may make them look longer (to someone who can’t see much) but they won’t make them longer.  Leathers that are too long will, however, make anyone’s leg less functional, regardless of its length.

Unfortunately, all too many trainer/instructors insist on lengthening stirrups for shorter riders in the misguided belief that longer leathers equal longer legs.  Not only don’t longer leathers give you longer legs, longer leathers don’t make it easier to ride.  Just the opposite.  And that’s why the top riders don’t do it (more on that later).

How do you know how long your stirrups should be?  Well, there’s the classic “just above,” “just at” or “just below” the ankle bone when your leg is hanging next to the iron tangential to your ankle.  That’s not bad for giving you an approximation.  But exactly where you should buckle your leathers is dependent on more than that.

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How to decrease your horse’s energy without pulling

27 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by Katie in Equitation, Training

≈ 8 Comments

My prior post on how to increase your horse’s energy without nagging led to this post, which is the flip side — how to decrease your horse’s energy without pulling.

If the problem is that you’re riding a hot horse, I’d like to direct you to another prior post, which has lots of great advice for riding hot horses.  If that’s not your problem and your horse is simply too strong or not listening, I invite you to read on.

Here’s my advice, for those times when you want to pull but you really don’t want to pull:

1.  Stay centered in the saddle with a vertical torso and a straight line from shoulder to hip to heel.  Are you tipping forward because you don’t want to get left behind…or you’re trying to avoid having a driving seat by making yourself light in the saddle…or you just got dislodged?   If so, you’re telling your horse to go forward.  Most horses instinctively try to align themselves underneath their riders.  If you’ve shifted your center of gravity forward, that’s exactly where your horse will go.

Staying centered is the best way to help your horse stay centered.  It also gives you the maximum stability to be able to use your rein and leg and weight aids independently.  The exception to the rule?  If you can do so without a driving seat or increasing leg pressure, simply shifting the balance of your torso slightly behind the vertical can make your horse slow down (if you’ve trained the Buck Brannaman way, it’s sure to happen).

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How to increase your horse’s energy without nagging

24 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by Katie in Equitation, Training

≈ 7 Comments

A comment on yesterday’s post from one of my regular readers inspired me to inquire whether she had read this post on tempo, which led her to pose a question, which I promised to answer in today’s post.

Her question was: “Any quick suggestions on motivation to “up the tempo” that doesn’t degenerate into nagging?”

Great question, don’t you think?  It’s so easy to fall into the nagging trap…sometimes without knowing it.  Luckily, the cure isn’t complicated.  It isn’t easy, but then, riding is one of those things that we never master, we just keep practicing and practicing, ever trying to improve ourselves while we uphold our own standards of excellence.

In all the suggestions that follow, please note that we’re not talking about collected work, we’re talking about moving freely forward with energy in the horse’s proper tempo for the working trot, the working canter and the free walk.

1.  Insist that your horse respects your leg.  How’s your turn on the forehand?  Your leg yield?  If the answer is “not too good,” chances are that either your horse doesn’t respect your leg aid or your leg aid is less than clear.

First, make sure your aids are clear and consistent.  If that checks out but your horse isn’t listening, I suggest you follow Jane Savoie’s solution (as I do) which you can find in her book Cross-Train Your Horse.  She outlines it briefly here but without mentioning that the whip should be applied in conjunction with the leg aid, to reinforce the leg, which is what she suggests in the book. (Just make sure you don’t catch your horse in the mouth when he responds to the whip!  If he canters on or even gallops, let him!  Forward is the right answer, even if it might be delivered in a way that’s a bit too enthusiastic for your taste.  Don’t worry, the overreaction won’t last.)

2. Ask yourself if your own instability may be blocking the forward movement when you ask for more.  You need a stable torso and excellent balance in order to follow the horse, especially when the tempo changes.  This is also true when you transition from one gait to another (or when you lengthen or extend or gather or collect).

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How to ride a circle

19 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by Katie in Equitation, Training

≈ 4 Comments

There’s a lot to be said for riding in a circle, but like most wonderful things, it’s easy to overdo it.  It’s best to think of your circles like chocolate.  You can enjoy chocolate every day without making yourself sick (or fat).  But only if you don’t gorge yourself on it.

Maybe just a few

It’s tempting to gorge, because it’s chocolate — oh, wait it’s circles were talking about.  Yes, circles.  There are so many wonderful things you can accomplish — or think you’re accomplishing — when you ride a circle.  Your horse is bending.  Your horse is on the outside rein.  Your horse’s inside hind leg is engaging.  Your horse’s rhythm is perfectly regular.

Of course, if that’s so, you don’t need to spend a lot of time on a circle.  If it’s not so and you want to make it so, you need to get off the circle or you’ll end up drilling your horse on that circle.  And we all know how successful that is in training horses.

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How to improve your canter departs

14 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by Katie in Equitation, Training

≈ 9 Comments

As Leo Tolstoy said in Anna Karenina:

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.“

And so it is with canter departs.  All good canter departs are alike.  Each poor canter depart is poor in its own way…or is it?

Of course it’s not, anymore than every unhappy family is unhappy in a new and never-before-encountered way.  There are not an infinite number of problems that result in an unhappy family, nor are unhappy families more complex than happy families.  The lauded line that begins Anna Karenina, despite its popularity, speaks more of Tolstoy’s outsized ego than it does of a universal truth.  The Diaries of Sophia Tolstoy (Leo’s wife) draw the curtains aside.

Similarly, there are not an untold number of reasons why canter departs are poor.  Setting aside the disunited depart, the fundamental struggles for horse and rider are to eliminate the problems that stand in the way of the happy canter depart — strong, springy, upward and balanced.  Which means getting rid of those unhappy problems — the horse is on the forehand, the horse is rushing, the horse is crooked.

If you’re struggling with unhappy canter departs, take heart.  Because, unlike Tolstoy’s marriage, all is not lost.  We’re dealing with a question of balance (the secret to all happy relationships).  A good transition requires good balance.  Physical and mental.   From horse and from rider.

Riders are usually the problem (we all wish that were not the case, but unfortunately, it is).  So if you’re less than enthusiastic about your horse’s canter departs, let’s take a look at what you might be doing that’s preventing you from getting the canter transitions you want.  Here are some common problems:

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How to ride without reins

10 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by Katie in Equitation, Tack

≈ 6 Comments

The best way to develop independent aids is to take some of those aids away and see how you do without them.

That’s what dropping your stirrups is all about…or taking your stirrups off your saddle for a ride…or getting a lunge lesson.  Or riding without reins.

If you ride hunt seat, there’s nothing like letting go of your reins to help you balance correctly, with the weight in your heels and your legs wrapped around your horse.  Putting your arms out to the side or over your head or behind your back over a jump or grid is the best way to build a strong, independent seat over fences — and to build confidence.

Riding without reins is also great for flatwork, whether you ride in a jumping saddle or a dressage saddle.  It’s a worthy exercise to see how still your hands can be at the sitting trot, and whether you can keep your body straight and supple while moving your arms and hands anywhere.  (The key is in the ball and socket joint in your shoulder, but when we ride, we often lock that joint in an attempt to preserve a stable torso).

Whatever you decide to do with your arms when they’re not connected to your reins, whatever are you supposed to do with your reins?  You don’t want them falling down your horse’s neck or drooping down over one side of his shoulder or neck, and you want to make sure your horse can use his neck to bascule over a jump.

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