At the moment I am still reeling over the weekends' clinic. Still trying to process some of the things I learned, or maybe that I was told is a better way to put it. There are things I had under control and others only sort of. One of the biggest issues so far is how I hold my reins.
Saturday afternoon when we arrived, one of the clinicians was still there but would be leaving soon. If we wanted to work with him at all, we needed to get harnessed up and down the hill to where he was. There was no time for lunging and it was hook and go. Kat handled it all really well even though he had just come off the trailer.
As we walked away from the trailer I thought of what Gary had asked me back in August. Is that how you hold your reins when you ride? This time I held my reins as if I were ON the horse and not behind him. One of my biggest personal issues with reins, I like them to lay flat. I don't like seeing the reins all twisted between the bit and the riders hands or in driving between the bit, the turrets and the hands. Straight flat reins just make cleaner lines and a neater appearance to me.
Once I had my reins in hand as if I were on the horse, I had to remember to sit up, slide back in the seat, bend my elbows and bring my pony 'back to me' as I seen from the photos from the show. Why was I reaching like that? The funniest thing is, once I positioned and organized myself- my hands were even on the reins. It all fell into place without even thinking about it. At least something felt sorted out and we hadn't even started to really work yet.
3 comments:
Sounds like a great start , I think the reaching can be onconcious, trying to soften or contact and forgetting to flex. Somehow moving from the shoulder more... I know what I am trying to say , but it is not coming out ,let me think on it some more something about the diffference between elastic and spagetti arms
I dunno...I think just 'going' to some of these clinics gets us to start thinking about what we are doing and why. That's half the battle to begin with...makes us receptive to what the 'experts' have to say.
Can't wait to hear about the rest of it.
FV- Maybe not so much elastic & spaghetti, but more like elastic and steel fisted? Steel is reaching to give the release instead of feeling and giving. Hanging on for dear life a bit perhaps? Relax? Breathe? I'm supposed to do these things? While driving...
BEC's- I think you're on to something there. Somehow hearing it from someone else makes it different... One of the things I was told this weekend, pretty much floored me. Considering the source? Yeah, it was super Cool!
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