horseback riding | Horsegirl on a Journey

Posts Tagged With: horseback riding

Helmet head is one of my favorite hair styles

Posted on August 26, 2013 by horsegirlonajourney

The Bay Area Equestrian Network highlighted one of their most popular articles today, The Top 10 Reasons Why It’s Cool to Wear a Helmet. The reasons listed in the article are sound, but it puzzles me that anyone would ever have to defend their helmet, or that anyone would feel too embarrassed to wear a helmet due to others not — or that one would reluctantly wear a helmet because others do.

I can’t remember anyone ever ribbing me about wearing a helmet, even on a dude string trail ride in the mountains. Maybe this is because I didn’t grow up in the world of rodeos or ranching? I can absolutely see that a wide-brimmed hat is necessary for ranch work, for all kinds of reasons: prevent sun headaches and migraines, shield one’s eyes, protect one’s skin, fan one’s face, support one’s body language for driving cattle and horses, cool one’s entire body by wetting and wearing, provide a makeshift water bucket, and so on. So maybe the kids growing up in that world make fun of the kids taking English lessons and helmets are one of the visible differences to tease about. (I’m sure it works both ways, with English riders scoffing at Western riders just as much, simply because some people who fear differences lash out at the Other in order to quell their own internal fear temporarily.)

I’ve seen criticism directed at Pat and Linda Parelli for not wearing helmets, or for not pushing helmets on their students, as if their choice not to wear helmets somehow forces other people not to wear helmets. When asked, Pat and Linda have both said that helmets are personal choice. I like that Pat and Linda do not attempt to become regulatory agencies or fashion consultants or safety inspectors or preachers. They trust us to figure out how to wear a helmet, or not, without running to a Parelli for direction or approval.

In Linda’s studies with biomechanics expert Colleen Kelley, Linda has been wearing a beautiful helmet. I suspect — but have no evidence to prove one way or the other — that this is one of those “If you’re going to be in my class, you’re going to wear a helmet” choices on Colleen’s part, and “I want to learn from this instructor so I shall wear a helmet” choices on Linda’s. And then both women promptly stopped thinking about the helmet and focused on the important thing: horsemanship.

I’m surprised that helmets are not mandatory at equestrian competitions, not so much because I want helmets to be compulsory for everyone just because I choose to wear one (most of the time), but because of the event insurance business. I certainly don’t want insurance underwriters in charge of equestrian businesses! I’m just surprised that they aren’t, yet. Remember Heinlein’s wisdom? The answer to any question starting, “Why don’t they-” is almost always, “Money.”

I rode a motorcycle for 15 years before selling it to buy a horse, so maybe I’m just more accustomed to the feel and necessity of helmets. California made helmets mandatory only a year or two before I bought my first bike, but I’d have worn one anyway. (Bare-headed bikers in Hawai’i and Colorado always look naked to me even when they are in full leathers!)

I wear a helmet about 97% of the time when I’m riding horses, in private and in public. The other 3% of times are when I spontaneously slither onto a bare back when I wasn’t intending to ride but the energy just feels right and the invitation is there, and it is easy enough to slither off again if the energy changes.

If you get teased about your helmet, I suggest grinning back and saluting and saying “thanks for noticing!” And then return your focus to your horse and get on with your day.

Categories: Reflections | Tags: horseback riding, parelli natural horsemanship, penn valley | 1 Comment

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.