Recently I've had a couple of riding lessons from Sue Edwards. That might not sound much of a revelation but they have been from a dressage instructor and I ride western style. But then good horsemanship is good horsemanship and done correctly there is not that much difference between the two styles. After all vaquero came partly from Spanish classic dressage.
I've had lessons before and have been asked to adopt various torture positions and stress my body into strange shapes. I've never really understood the reason for these odd positions as they a) hurt and b) prevent me from relaxing and becoming a part of the horse. So I was relieved when this top class instructor (up to Grand Prix dressage and an elite coach) told me this was all wrong. The first lesson was actaully about getting me to relax more.... and more!
She asked me to picture having to ride comfortably on a 50 mile hack. How would I sit. How would I relax and move with my horse. Was there any stress in any muscle, if so relax it. This didn't mean sitting like a sack of potatoes as I had to become one with the horses movements, but it did mean no muscular tension. None of that old "heels down, toes in chin up, chest out" nonsense. Just relax. And as I relaxed so did Filly. She stretched out her walk more and more and eventually sighed.
It's not all been about relaxation however. We have also been working on improving Fillys' responses to various cues. Particularly the ones to move her forequarters over and her ribs out. Sue does not teach moving the hind quarters around as she says that in dressage this can make the horse all "squirrelly" and difficult to keep straight. For what I want out of Filly, which isn't dressage, this is one area where I will differ from Sue and require good hind quarter yields.
Other than that there has been a lot I have gotten out of the lessons and the relaxation idea has certainly given me a much deeper seat. In fact I think I may have to let the stirrups down a hole or two.
One highlight was on the last ride. I was not having a good ride for whatever reason. We were working on getting Filly to move out on the circle with pressure from the inside leg, but I could not get the slightly odd position (to my mind) that Sue was asking for so it wasn't happening. Finally Sue asked if she could have a ride on Filly and see what the problem was. I was more than willing to let this top class rider ride her.
Sue actually rode her for around 1/2 hour in the end and eventually got some nice yields achieved. She rode at walk, trot and canter. I was a little worried that at some point she was going to stop, get off and pronounce her lame. However she never mentioned lameness. But I still wanted to know what she thought in case she was just being polite so I asked her straight out. "Do you feel any lameness as she's recovering from navicular syndrome". Sue replied that she could feel nothing wrong at all and that in fact once we had gotten her a bit straighter she had a very nice canter.
To say this made my day would have been an understatement. I now had the opinion of someone who would be very very sensitive to the action of a horse tell me Filly was ok.
I immediately texted Nic Barker and Ben (my vet) with the news and had a glass of something strong to celebrate. After all we have been through with folks telling me I was doing it all wrong, to the point of threatening me with the RSPCA, I finally had vindication that my faith in Nic was right and we had achieved our goal. Not that there aren't still issues to be sorted but I finally believe we are over the worst of it.
I've had lessons before and have been asked to adopt various torture positions and stress my body into strange shapes. I've never really understood the reason for these odd positions as they a) hurt and b) prevent me from relaxing and becoming a part of the horse. So I was relieved when this top class instructor (up to Grand Prix dressage and an elite coach) told me this was all wrong. The first lesson was actaully about getting me to relax more.... and more!
She asked me to picture having to ride comfortably on a 50 mile hack. How would I sit. How would I relax and move with my horse. Was there any stress in any muscle, if so relax it. This didn't mean sitting like a sack of potatoes as I had to become one with the horses movements, but it did mean no muscular tension. None of that old "heels down, toes in chin up, chest out" nonsense. Just relax. And as I relaxed so did Filly. She stretched out her walk more and more and eventually sighed.
It's not all been about relaxation however. We have also been working on improving Fillys' responses to various cues. Particularly the ones to move her forequarters over and her ribs out. Sue does not teach moving the hind quarters around as she says that in dressage this can make the horse all "squirrelly" and difficult to keep straight. For what I want out of Filly, which isn't dressage, this is one area where I will differ from Sue and require good hind quarter yields.
Other than that there has been a lot I have gotten out of the lessons and the relaxation idea has certainly given me a much deeper seat. In fact I think I may have to let the stirrups down a hole or two.
One highlight was on the last ride. I was not having a good ride for whatever reason. We were working on getting Filly to move out on the circle with pressure from the inside leg, but I could not get the slightly odd position (to my mind) that Sue was asking for so it wasn't happening. Finally Sue asked if she could have a ride on Filly and see what the problem was. I was more than willing to let this top class rider ride her.
Sue actually rode her for around 1/2 hour in the end and eventually got some nice yields achieved. She rode at walk, trot and canter. I was a little worried that at some point she was going to stop, get off and pronounce her lame. However she never mentioned lameness. But I still wanted to know what she thought in case she was just being polite so I asked her straight out. "Do you feel any lameness as she's recovering from navicular syndrome". Sue replied that she could feel nothing wrong at all and that in fact once we had gotten her a bit straighter she had a very nice canter.
To say this made my day would have been an understatement. I now had the opinion of someone who would be very very sensitive to the action of a horse tell me Filly was ok.
I immediately texted Nic Barker and Ben (my vet) with the news and had a glass of something strong to celebrate. After all we have been through with folks telling me I was doing it all wrong, to the point of threatening me with the RSPCA, I finally had vindication that my faith in Nic was right and we had achieved our goal. Not that there aren't still issues to be sorted but I finally believe we are over the worst of it.
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