Freestyle

Freestyle

Back in the saddle…and out of it

Posted on September 23, 2012 by horsegirlonajourney

I have not ridden Rocky in almost a month, so I decided to start back with an easy Sunday morning ride. No learning new patterns or intense physical challenges. Just a horse and his girl puttering around the ranch.

I forgot that Rocky has not been Out since our last ride. He gallops around his pen regularly before meals, and pushes Rociada around when she is being saucy (and she loves it!), but he has not been out in the arena.

I saddled him at liberty, as I have done the past six times or so, and then haltered him to walk around the ranch for our warm up. Also this allowed me to look for new Scary Things before I got into the saddle. We found a full hay net so to blow his mind, I encouraged him to have a snack, and I hung with him for 15 or 20 minutes. He had left his morning hay without protest to be with me, so how fun to find more hay and enjoy it!

But when the time came to ride, he felt odd. Not lame or resistant. He actually had a more forward walk than usual, going down the hill. But something was different.

To focus him, I asked for either a leg yield or a side pass (I can’t remember which is which, but anyway, it was a sideways-and-forward step) as we went along, so we flowed from the left edge of the track to the right and back again as we moved along. He liked that. But I still felt something.

I thought back to the Parelli Performance Summit. Linda Parelli taught a session about warming up. She said that when your horse is calm, connected, and responsive at walk, trot, and canter, he is warmed up — and I caught my breath, because I had only warmed up Rocky by walking around. I asked him aloud, “Are you calm? Connected? Responsive?”

Nope. He was working hard to contain himself lest his exuberance unseat me.

I rode him up to the arena and leapt off so I could play with him and trot and canter from the ground. When I brought out the 22-foot line, he gave me that “you finally heard me, thanks!” look, and off we went with various patterns.

At the canter, he wanted to buck a little but was totally holding himself back and I thought the saddle was feeling restrictive emotionally or mentally, so I stripped it off.

After that he had a great time practicing traveling circles with changes of direction and transitions among all three gaits in both directions. And when he was truly warm, he blew out and all of his muscles were relaxed. And he was — say it with me now — calm, connected, and responsive.

I climbed up bareback just to get the feel of it (he is as Teflon nonstick coated as ever) and we puttered around the arena for a short while before ending the session with a nice roll in the sand and cookies at liberty.

Categories: Freestyle | 1 Comment

Approximately 39 things I’ve learned since I last blogged

Posted on August 3, 2012 by horsegirlonajourney

I’ve learned so much in the past two months and have had no time to blog. I remember approximately 39 of the things off the top of my head and record them here for my future self.

Top 10 Things I Learned or Deepened My Understanding Thereof

Horses find joy in patterns. I have always stopped too soon because I didn’t want Rocky to get bored, but actually, I should accept his feedback when he loses interest and do something to reengage him. I also worried I was overtaxing him physically so would switch directions too soon, instead of getting solid on one side and then evening out by doing the other side in the next session.
In encouraging me to move my body in certain ways, it’s like Erin gave me “permission” to do what my body wants to do, rather than what I’ve taught it to do because of the way I interpreted the riding lessons of my youth. I’d always been taught to ride with contact and poise — but I lacked foundation, so I had no understanding of the substance beneath the form. I also lacked the sheer physical strength and stamina to do it. So I compensated by becoming very locked down — basically riding with a brace all the time. Erin’s demonstration of how big my motions could be resulted in a comprehensive relaxation of body, mind, and spirit.
Relax Rocky (and myself) into the trot, instead of tense us up. Manage our emotions when our blood gets up in the higher gaits as we progress to the next level.
No one wants to play PacMan Level 1 maze their entire life. It’s supposed to get more particular, faster, more challenging — that’s why it’s fun.
Inner thighs can and should be on the horse when in two-point. Somehow I had the idea that my lower legs should be on but my thighs should be loose so that my knees didn’t pinch. No wonder it was so hard! Now I know to hug him with my upper legs, and that I should even be able to swing my legs from the knees down without interrupting my two-point, because I’m using my core, not standing in my stirrups.
I saw how much effort Rocky puts in to learning something new.
Tense and subtle just makes us twitchy. Better to be loose and large (“exaggerate to teach”) and refine as we get better. Relax into refinement.
One of the most powerful influences in my growing horsemanship is the opportunity to watch horses interact with each other throughout the day. Learning how they move entirely by their own choices; how they respond or react, how they play, how they communicate, how they inhabit their bodies.
Rocky can brace by being a wet noodle. Brace doesn’t have to mean stiff.
There is no reason Rocky can’t be as excited about being ridden by me as I am about riding him. Continue reading →