Freestyle

Freestyle

The first necessity of progress

Posted on September 2, 2013 by horsegirlonajourney

One of the refrains that used to confuse me in lessons, before Parelli, was being told “That was perfect! Let’s go do something else.”

There I would be, panting but ecstatic, having finally achieved a good 20-meter circle or a small jump or a walk-canter transition, and instead of celebrating this masterpiece by doing it one or five or twenty-seven more times, my instructor would cheerfully come up with some other impossible task. And five minutes later, there I would be, fumbling and incompetent all over again, unable to bask in the glory of the previous accomplishment.

Now I understand that we were letting the horse know that he had performed his task beautifully. Once he put his will and effort and grace into the pattern, there was no need to ask him (or worse, to make him) do it again and again and again and again until it was no fun at all.

I understand even more now why not to ask your horse to repeat his performance. While your motivation is likely something like Wow! That was amazing! I loved that! Let’s do it again!, for your horse, asking again is like saying the first time wasn’t good enough. That he put his best hoof forward and you weren’t satisfied.

On Friday, riding Rocky around the arena in the bareback pad, everything felt right, and I asked for a canter. I’ve never cantered bareback and have only cantered once — on a lesson horse, not on Rocky — in the past four years. Yet I’ve been feeling caged and discontent recently and needed to try something new, something unexpected. I didn’t even ask my witnesses to get out a camera to document the occasion. I just shifted my weight a little, asked for Rocky’s attention with my outside rein, and kissed.

He was soft and smooth and willing and engaged his hindquarters and we cantered the short side of the arena and then came down to a trot with me laughing and saying gooooood booooy in that low voice Rocky responds so well to. We stopped and received much congratulations and petting and love.

And I knew that the one thing I could do that would ruin everything for Rocky (and thus for me) was to ask for it again right away. I let him feel my delight and love, and made no further demands for the rest of our ride.

I spent the rest of the afternoon euphoric and telling everyone within earshot, but it wasn’t until bedtime that I remembered what I wrote on my About page when I first launched this blog.

This blog is my personal journal of a lifelong love of horses and my commitment to pursuing excellence in horsemanship every day. My goal is to have the best relationship it’s possible to have with my horse — and then improve that into the realm of impossibility. I also want to be able to canter bareback. ~ Horsegirl

Categories: Freestyle | Tags: horseback riding, parelli natural horsemanship, penn valley | 3 Comments

Learning to float with the movement of the horse

Posted on August 15, 2013 by horsegirlonajourney

I have in the past year learned to see the physical stuff with horses, the issues with balance and coordination and fitness and general wellness that lifelong horse professionals probably can’t believe isn’t obvious to all of us. But now that I can see it, now that I can evaluate my horses’ soundness and comfort on any given day, I have become fascinated by horse anatomy and how it all fits together.

The Horses Inside Out DVD has been a wonderful resource. So has Zen and Horseback Riding.

Riding Art offers some of the most effective illustrations I’ve seen for showing how horses balance, with and without riders.

In order for a horse to carry itself gracefully and most efficiently, it must be permitted to carry itself in a posture that allows for balance to improve. The rider must tactfully help the horse find the posture where the haunches are best able to help lift and carry the mass of the rider and the forehand. ~ Tonja Dausend, Riding Art

In Parelli, we learn about doing in our bodies what we want our horses to do in theirs. We engage our core, round our lower back, ride from our seat instead of our stirrups or our reins.

We practice “passenger lessons,” where we ask the horse to go forward and then we mirror their movements in our bodies without attempting to steer or lead them. If we don’t feel safe doing this, we find an instructor or a friend to play with our horse on-line with us as passengers. When you ride passenger without tension in your body, looking left when the horse looks left, bending your ribcage right when the horse bends right, you find that when you do in your body what your horse is doing in his, there is harmony between you. It is easier for the horse to carry you and easier for you to be carried.

When you ride a horse, balance comes, not from freezing your legs to the saddle, but from learning to float with the movement of the horse as you ride. Each step is a dance, the rider’s dance as well as the dance of the horse. ~ Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, “Shambala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior”

What has been cool for me is that I’ve always done pretty well with balance exercises, even after I lost fitness and found extra weight. My weekly session with Gabriel’s Yoga Therapy includes some intense balance practice, including several balance-related asanas and interesting walking-on-my-toes-with-my-eyes-shut-and-arms-extended-in-front-of-me exercises. Now that I am not tense with fear or vibrating with anxiety every time I mount a horse, I’m having more success in translating my good balance from ground to riding.

I have been hopping on River bareback when it’s time to go back to her pen, focusing on the gate, and thinking strongly of cookies. She has been willing and relaxed about this. Most recently, I rode her from further away from her pen than I had before, putting her in the creek bed so I could slither on from the bank. We rested in the (dry) creek for a while and I looked where she looked. I felt totally balanced and secure.

Looking at her ears instead of where she’s looking put some unnecessary tension into my body, and my left foreleg is in front when to mirror her my right foreleg should be forward. (I believe I was organizing the hackamore’s lead rope so that it didn’t fall under her feet, but still!)

We then climbed right up the side to graze on the lawn for a bit before heading back. The photos don’t show the steepness of the bank, but you can see from my body position (and if you look closely at the angle of her stifle and hocks) how deep and steep it was — maybe about a four-foot step, at that place. I’m holding on gently with my thighs and have a firm grip on her mane, but my lower legs are just touching her, not squeezing or digging my heels in. I visualized stepping my hind legs under me to push me up the slope.

Once we were level again, I sat up slowly and smoothly rather than jerk my torso upright. This is part of my focus on fluidity, realizing that I never have to hurry, that intensity doesn’t mean speed. Taking the time to get fluid first and then add in the speed later. And I looked where River was looking.