Freestyle

Freestyle

Yep, I saw the change: the power of purposeful engagement

Posted on March 14, 2013 by horsegirlonajourney

Last week, we executed a perfect weave pattern, at the sitting jog-trot. We did serpentines at a relaxed posting trot that was as balanced as we’ve been in recent memory. We performed walk-halt-back-trot transitions a few times. We were engaged, connected, responsive, and we caught some of it on video. Proof it happened!

And also great feedback for how I push my feet forward in the stirrups and don’t hug with my thighs and my hands are all over the place and I do all sorts of other bad stuff, such that my next lesson (yesterday) really felt like a riding lesson, in which made a whole bunch of changes and got all kinds of better in just the one session.

But! Before that, this was our best Freestyle riding to date. In fact, it was good enough that I will post 15 seconds of our video, our BEFORE benchmark for 3 months from now. This is where I am on my journey as I start the riding phase of Parelli level 2. [[Note: Some have said they can’t see the embedded video, so here’s the link.]]

What changed? Everything, of course, based on our mini-clinic. (A mini-clinic in purposeful engagement) I kept the phrase “purposeful engagement” in mind and tried to check in with myself periodically. Am I purposeful? Am I engaged? Where is my focus? If I set the example, Rocky can follow my lead.

I put this into practice yesterday after I mounted up. Instead of standing at the mounting block for a few minutes, breathing and deepening and stretching, I spent about 30 seconds doing that and then brought up some excitement and said “C’mon Rocky let’s go let’s go!” and asked for forward. He walked slowly forward, then turned his nose toward the rail and started to head back toward the gate, where our friend Seth stood with a camera. And instead of resisting this turn, I went with it until we were facing Seth, and then asked for a back-up.

Rocky stepped back willingly enough for a stride or two and then stopped, so I asked again, and kept a little pressure on, and backed all the way to the middle of the arena — trying at the same time to keep my left leg on as he wanted to swing his hindquarters to the left. I continued to insist on straightness even if it took us a while to get there, and on backing up steadily if not swiftly, and I felt the click when his attention left Seth and locked on to me.

We halted for a few seconds and then I asked him to trot forward, and I think he was so surprised that he did so without any brace or question at all. We followed the rail for a circuit and then cut across the arena to change directions and follow the rail another 3/4 circuit and then started serpentines…the weave…walk-halt-back-walk and walk-halt-back-trot transitions…and after about ten minutes of this, walked cheerfully up to Seth and halted for quite a long lick-and-chew and a smooth dismount. Somewhere in there we had a nice extended walk and I did my stretching and deepening. Rocky put effort into his responsibilities of maintaining gait and direction and he felt happy and willing.

I was elated and exhausted. Partly from the semi-bronchitis I’d experiencing for the previous three days (that did indeed turn into a week of sickness, bleh), but also from the focus and concentration of 100 percent purposeful engagement. I was using every muscle and continually checking in — asking myself: eyes up? shoulders level? core engaged? legs wrapping? heels elongating? energy and body lifting? lifting to turn, lifting to back, lifting to stop? and hell why not lifting to go forward too? — and coming up with patterns and keeping signals clear and not getting distracted by our audience or the other animals on the ranch.

Those times that I do manage to “engage the natural power of focus” per the Parelli Four Responsibilities of the Human, I rediscover just how much attention and engagement that takes.

Probably the only other place in my life where I manage that is when becoming completely absorbed in a book, where I no longer hear environmental noises or have any awareness of my own life separate from the life I’m living in the book. But that is almost entirely mental and emotional; the physical part is merely in laughing, crying, startling, heart pounding, and other small motions. Reading does not take the physical fitness as horsemanship does, nor is one generally managing one’s body through time-and-space, so there are fewer factors to keep within the sphere of focus. (I considered other activities — eating, sex, swimming in the ocean — and I still think the closest analogy for me is reading.)

Yet the more I stumble into the sweet spot by accident, whether it’s two strides of perfect harmony while riding or one arena length of total, absolute focus, the more I know what it feels like and the more able I am to seek it, and then even to find it.

Categories: Freestyle | Tags: horseback riding, parelli natural horsemanship, penn valley | Leave a comment

Things we do together — a workout report

Posted on February 22, 2013 by horsegirlonajourney

You can’t fix everything at once, so today I focused on SQUIRREL!

We warmed up with circle game on the 22-foot line, playing with four poles and with traveling circles with relaxation. Rocky offered a canter and I let him know I was pleased. He’s cantering with his head and neck relaxed these days, with his nose still a bit to the outside but his whole body in more of a rounded position.

We have a nice new girth that has elastic on both sides; plus, it’s a little bit longer than the old girth, to fit Rocky’s new physique. He’s finally keeping weight on and looking more like a 6 or 7 on the vet’s body condition scale instead of a 3 or 4, and he is moving so much more comfortably and fluidly than he ever has. (We also borrow Erin’s CSI saddle pad, although I’m going to get one for us, soon.)

Our mounting is going great. He is lining up at the block with me on either side, and squaring himself up when I rock the saddle gently. He’s no longer trying to walk off as soon as I’m on, and I am taking more time to breathe and relax and get in tune before asking for the walk.

We are still struggling with staying on the rail. Either my foot is hitting the panels at the rim or we’re veering three lanes hubward. It happens in both directions about equally, so I don’t think it’s a problem with me having too much weight on one side. I wanted to play with point-to-point to work on straightness, but Rocky didn’t.

I experimented and said “Okay, where do you want to go?” and played passenger. Turns out that he wanted to play stand-at-the-gate-or-make-small-circles-near-the-gate. He wandered around for a while within 22 feet of the gate and then stopped with his head over it, twice.

So I thought what the heck, and we practiced opening and shutting the gate together, which he has started helping me with, side-stepping toward it so I can unlatch it, backing up to help me shut it, and the like. I wasn’t as confident with my one rein outside the arena, but I thought “let’s see what happens” and put my rein on the arena side and we walked around it four or five times. He wanted to get interested in things happening lower down the ranch but kept forward willingly enough when I half-halted to return his focus to our circuits, and when I asked him to get near the gate again to go back in, he didn’t argue. Much.

We practiced our hindquarter yields. Next time, I will chant “lift creates light,” as I realized I was pushing with my leg instead of merely squeezing and then upping my phases by spanking the air (or the butt, if it came to that!). A horse can feel a fly walk on his hair so I doubt I need to be pressing my leg so hard into his ribs when he’s bracing. It just encourages him to brace more.

It’s hard for me to steer and post at the same time, but I’m confident as a passenger now, so I kept enough rein to check with a half-halt as needed and otherwise let him kind of go wherever he wanted, just to help me build my strength. Can’t have balance or harmony or grace or even much leadership during the trot until I have strength. However, thanks to my new Lynx Zoom sports bra — the best sports bra I’ve ever had, the first one that actually supports my giant bazoombas without discomfort, the first one that actually controls the bounce (which the Enell tries to do but doesn’t) — my body was working in harmony with itself for the first time since … ever. I even jogged up to the barn in the thing and felt no digging of straps or flopping of boobs or squashing of — anyway. Huge difference.

All in all, a good session. Definitely a practice and not a performance, and a novice practice at that. I feel like I’ve recently been putting in the workouts and training that will lead to a successful Freestyle Level 2 audition later this year. More importantly, I’m enjoying the workouts and training. Things that in the Olden Days would have felt like they’d “gone wrong” now just feel like Things We Do Together.