RWYM - 1st Lesson Saturday Morning

(Videos have been uploaded to youtube - hopefully they can be viewed)

I hope you guys are ready for a media tsunami unlike anything I've shared on the blog before. I actually feel a little uneasy about dissecting all this info and still don't really know where to begin. Not to mention the fact that this is really laying it all out there, these videos really highlight the tip of the iceberg in my weaknesses as a rider, admittedly i am an absolute amateur and only hope others might benefit from seeing where I am going wrong and hopefully the tips being given to me might help others.

Apologies to those who don't like watching videos, if it's any consolation the longest clip is 2 minutes and most are under 30second snapshots of the lesson.
EB was awesome at explaining the ideas and concepts to the rider and then recording before, during and after instructions to give the rider something to look back on and check in with to help with the information overload. I will try to nab some screenshots to share, but honestly the videos are so short and packed with info & tidbits. That despite the relative shortness in run time, they are infinitely better at divulging information than anything I could ever hope to write.

I feel a disclaimer should precede the videos ... I had meant to make myself and Kika more presentable (aka pull her mane) but time got away from me as I played hostess. I did manage to braid it for the Sunday sessions, so at least in the later videos she looks slightly more presentable.
I also deliberately left the reins a little long for this first lesson as I knew I would be concentrating a lot on me and my seat in the saddle so didn't take much contact with her - perhaps unfair, but considering the bombardment of info my brain took on in this fist lesson, I honestly wouldn't have been able to concentrate on more.

Youtube Link in case above doesn't work

(16 seconds)

Screenshot of chair seat as mentioned in video above

I'm not quite sure what is the best way to share the mountain of info for this post, as not only is there the information being shared in the videos but there is also the theory I gleaned from watching these videos of this lesson as part of the group theory. I think I'll let those who want to watch the videos and then share the general notes I made during theory at the end of the post and hope it all makes some sort of sense to those reading. Even a week later I am still digesting all the information and as you can tell from this post, I am no closer to being able to share it coherently. This is really a gathering of intel for myself so i can check back in on it all in one place over a couple of posts.

Link (32 seconds)

Link (22 seconds)

The two videos immediately above and the screengrab below, illustrate the bones of what we worked on over the weekend. Between Kika and myself (chicken vs egg we cannot know what came first) when the right hand is the inside rein, Kika bulges out and my core collapses in, making her a right banana (pink chalk drawing below). I lose my right seat bone into the hollow she has created by bulging her ribcage out making my right leg longer on that side despite the stirrups being the same length.

One of the main things we work on in these videos is getting me to sit more on my left seat bone, so much so that I end up feeling like I might fall off the saddle on that side! 

However as you can see from the screengrab above (left) more of the detail on my breeches design can be seen to the right of the saddle, so there is still plenty room for me to sit in the tack once I straighten myself out in the videos to come. 

EB is an advocate for each rider creating their own personal checklist for what they have to get right at the start of the ride (and indeed periodically check in with during the ride) to best help their horse and get the best out of the spin. My checklist is created during this lesson and I will address it better in the later post that will deal with the Saturday's second lesson & videos.

Link (10 seconds)

The video immediately above and those that follow start to delve into helping me correct myself in the tack. It is amazing to me, how much EB can (a) see from the ground and (b) know how to correct with what seem like tiny suggestions, but that have immediate effects. It truly has been a mind blowing experience for me and I am so glad to have these videos to watch over and over again and hope to train myself out of my nasty habits - here's hoping i don't over compensate and go to far the other way!

Link (15 seconds)

Link (2mins 15seconds)

I feel I should probably also address at this stage that I know my hands/shoulders & upper back are atrocious however EB rightly opted to concentrate on my seat area first and work up/down from there as appropriate. She did also recommend I go to a chiropractor to straighten myself out just to be sure I am not throwing us both out of balance and I have every intention of doing so. However after having received all these instructions while I'm "out of whack" I am going to work on them for a few weeks/months to straighten us both out as per these instructions and if/when EB can come back in the autumn I will go to a chiro before her return and hopefully the work we do between now and then will help re-balance my right banana and muscle the right side of her back.

Link (17 seconds)

EB had me use the mirrors to establish my checklist and check our straightness, seems obvious, but I am always terrible for using the mirrors to look at what the horse is doing rather than what I am doing on top of the horse - I hope to correct this going forward and to pay closer attention to what my body is doing and how it might affect the horse! Above shows me still crooked and below shows a slight improvement - small changes for immediate effect #mindblown

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Link (14 seconds)

Above was our first trot of the day in all its hideousness as my reins are atrociously long and heels nudge and annoy her - honestly these videos highlight to me what saintly creatures I have! I cannot believe how they put up with me.

Link (51 seconds)

Trotting on our slightly better rein above, and below a close up tutorial for what I should be doing in rising trot and where the balance point is. As seen in previous post, it is considerably more forward that I had previously thought. Also eurgh, is that an unflatering rider angle - but very useful video footage for me going forward.

Link (32 seconds)

Below is an interesting video to me, well they are all interesting, but this one really captures a moment of satisfaction/relief from Kika when I get myself into a better rising trot position and rhythm around about the 0:45second mark.

Link (1min 32 seconds)

Watching these videos in particular I think my back is still quite hollow, but hopefully I can correct that now that I can see myself doing it.

Link (1min 6 seconds)

Link (27 seconds)

Screengrab for those anti-videolites. I'm still far from perfect, I almost seem to be grabbing
with my knee and deff still have a hollow back but she looks good even if not quite stepping under herself.

Link (39 seconds)

Above and below is our worst side for some trotting video, I know you must be thinking how could it get worse?! 🤗
The video below also introduces me to leg yielding, I haven never learned/been taught how to do lateral work so I typically tend to stay away from it. Although I have always wanted to learn to do it and am hopeful that with EB's continued help I may finally straighten myself out enough to learn correctly so as to not confuse the horses by asking when I am utterly out of balance.

Link (1min 45 seconds)

Link (48 seconds)

The last two videos are EB valiantly trying to help me straighten my head upon my shoulders - simple you'd think, but not with yours truly's brick like noggin.

Link (9 seconds)

Link (46 seconds)

Now for the notes I was given during the theory portion as we viewed the videos; I will try to list them in bullet points as hopefully they will make sense after viewing the videos - not to mention the fact that this post is verging on novel length already.

• Nose, chin in line with zip of top & mane of horse = central axis
• Left leg my toe turns out
• Ski/Snow plow position to wrap my thighs around horse // don't pinch knees
• Core collapses right - right hip is lower than left - put more weight down left seat bone to balance saddle. Seat bone does not mean down stirrup/leg
• Drive left seat bone down and lift right hip
• 70% weight down left seat bone and have right seat bone closer to her spine
• Left ear down
• Kika stays longer/lingers on right front leg - I have to work slightly against her and place more emphasis on left fore leg lingering
• Sleep lying in my left side = 8 hours of practice 🙃
• Also sit on chairs with left seat bone hanging off the side
• Suggested ball excercise - sit on ball as if on horse, use thigh to pull leg up & forward and ease back down while keeping shoulders slightly forward for balance

Following this theory lesson, there was another riding lesson where I attempted to put all this info into practice. However I'll deal with that in another post - hopefully next Tuesday!
Massive thanks to those who viewed and read this far, apologies for my poor post construction. Hopefully you can still get a feel for the teaching method and can take something away from it. There is plenty more to follow, I just need to find the time to get it all from my phone (notes) & memory stick (videos) into something resembling a post format, even if only for myself to have a collected place to check back in and refresh my memory of what to do when riding by myself.

Happy Easter

PS - I really hope the videos work

RWYM - General

I still have so much to process from the weekend that even three days later I am not sure I can really do justice to everything that was said. Apologies if the posts on this topic are a hodge podge of thoughts/notes, I really just want to get them down somewhere I can refer back to them as needed.

Rider alignment
ear > shoulder > hip > heel

I figured I'd start with some general tidbits/takeaways I got from the weekend that don't necessarily apply 100% to me but that I found interesting as an equestrienne in my quest to improve. I also snagged photos of the blackboard section of the theory which can reside in this post and not overwhelm the already media heavy posts to come.

I feel I should first commend the set up of this clinic, there were different options available for how we wanted to participate in the clinic. We opted for individual lessons in the morning, joint theory after lunch and then a group lesson in the evening with 2 participants. All riding sections are filmed for comments in the theory and posterity sake for the riders. My videos will appear in posts later this week/over the weekend.

Elaine was (is) amazing. She has so much knowledge and insight to share and no matter what questions were asked she had answers/thoughts/ideas/exercises to help both rider and horse. Not only could she answer every query, but if we didn't understand the first way she explained she could rephrase it numerous different ways with many different visual and/or key word examples to help us remember going forward.

I found this interesting as dressage saddles with their deep seats
can work against us if we're not careful to keep our seat bones plugged in straight

The theory section was not just watching the videos of the morning rides nor blackboard explanations; it was 100% interactive with each participant taking on the role of the horse - legit on all 4s - and rider to demonstrate the correct and most common incorrect ways of sitting on a horse. This was eye opening to feel from the horse's point of view just how much our balance/seat bones/position in the tack affects their way of going & ability to move. #mindblown

This was not the only interactive aspect to the theory section of the clinic, there was an exercise ball present upon which we could simulate riding a horse without damaging each other 😂

We were all recommended to invest in our own exercise balls and given different exercises to help strengthen our weaknesses. Needless to say I was useless at balancing on my own on the ball without my feet on the ground (the videos will better show part of the reasons why) also hammered home my need to build some semblance of core strength - hello planking in my immediate future. 😅

Now for the actual tidbits & general takeaways I managed to make a note of:

• Horse is down on the forehand when their chest is lower than the mid point on their belly
• Crooked horse - chances are it is weaker on one side, to help it strengthen that side ride only the legs on the weaker side over poles and/or cavaletti
• Horse frame/legs in trot should form an M shape. Outstretched foreleg should be under horse's nose and other foreleg should meet hind under the rider's seat bones and the space between both legs should be equal triangles.

Not perfect but illustrates what I am trying to explain

• The rider's balance point in rising trot is further forward than we think and something I work on in my videos. Rider must almost clear the pommel of the saddle with pubic bone as thighs work in a windscreen wiper action. We should use the front of our thighs and open our hip angle to pull ourselves up not tensing our butt muscles
• Make sure to carry hands up and forward so that we don't hit off them when rising

Still not perfect but better

• We have to carry our arms from the core and hold them as if reading a book
• Elbows should be in front of jacket seems as if holding a book
   to read // shaking someone's hand
• To stop hands drifting loop twine between dee rings on saddle or wrap bits of mane around little fingers and if hands start to get too wide the mane pulls on fingers
• If break at wrists (I do) eat a few magnum ice creams and use sticks inside gloves to help keep wrists up
• If hands face down (puppy paws/pushing a pram) it changes the bit placement in the horse's mouth and can make the bit push down on the horse's tongue
• Reins are for emergency // horses can be slowed & halted from seat by stopping/slowing the movement in our seat bones
• Think toes up vs heels down as forcing heels down pushes foot forward
• The transition up think "up" - sit up, breathe in and confirm with request from legs

• Look for two sausages (above left) either side of horses mane means that the horse is working properly over its back and balanced
• If horse hollows don't drop hands // add leg and give with hands to allow them to move forward. The horse hollows because it looses engine/back end push
• Rider is sitting in the right place in the saddle if there are the same amount of fingers width between rider's body and front/back of the saddle when hand held flat in front & behind rider.
• Rising trot need to come from hip/top of thigh not from the knee. When it comes from the knee it pushed the horse back. When the rider uses hip/thigh to pull ourselves up it brings the horse's hind end forward with us

Downward transitions DONT'S:

• Don't pull reins
• Don't lean back
• Don't pinch knees
• Don't pinch bottom/grab horse with seat
• Don't hold breath
• Don't sit taller as it leads to hollowing, looses seat bone connection and pushes horse forward

Downward transition DO

• Do breathe out but don't let go of muscle tone
• Woah/Moo (like a cow) as is goes down to pelvic floor
• Do stay plugged in with seat bones but don't grind into horse's back
• Do close thigh a little from outside in to make sure legs don't bounce around
• Do stay vertical with a neutral spine
• Do stop movement in seat bones

Left to right balance points for:
jumper, hunt seat, dressage, everyday
and bottom is race jockey

Half Halt

•  Is a feel/energy change
• If horse needs a bit more instruction (aka doesn't heed energy change) - close little finger on outside rein
• If horse still doesn't respond close little fingers on both reins
• Don't pull reins back to hips
• Don't pull & kick (sometimes an instruction given to riders)

Canter work

• Best time to ask for canter transition from walk is when inside foreleg is moving forward thereby freeing inside shoulder to lift up as outside hind pushes off the ground and up into canter
• In an arena setting max canter work on a circle is 2 turns/circles as horse cannot balance for longer // dressage tests never ask for more than two consecutive canter circles in a test without changing rein or going straight between. Even GP only max ask for 2 pirouettes consecutively

I know this is a lot of info in one post and the wording may not make sense to those who haven't followed a similar course before, but hopefully you can still take something from these tidbits and won't be too turned off ahead of the verbal vomit/media heavy posts that will follow as we delve into my actual riding lessons!

Monday Meet Ups

While I have every intention of sharing multiple posts about the Ride With Your Mind clinic from the weekend. Hopefully sometime this week as we rode 4 times and had theory inbetween so there is a lot of info to digest and breakdown - I hope to whittle it down into readable chunks.
So for today I'm going to share the fun photos I nabbed from @equigeo's visit today. I feel privileged to have been able to help her add another country to her impressive list of places she's ridden. Check out her awesome blog if you don't already follow it, She has made it her goal to capitalise on her job involving a lot of travel to ride in every new country she visits and/or neighbouring countries if she as already ridden in one. Such a fab idea and has deffo inspired me to start riding on my travels...whenever I get around to international adventuring again lolz

Her visit was perfectly timed as a stroll in the woods was just what we all needed after the weekend clinic'ing.  We were truly blessed with the weather too - it really was glorious. I can only hope she enjoyed it as much as I did.

Between the ears shot of the "grand canyon" as I call it

Don't worry I haven't forgotten my Equitana post, I just didn't get around to it last week and then we had the clinic at the weekend so I'm hoping to write about that while it is all still fresh in my mind and after I get the copiess of the videos...hello media overload 😈

Mule Monday

I'll hopefully have a more detailed post tomorrow about my weekends adventures at the mahoosive equine trade expo I attended in Germany on Saturday. Until then here are some pics of adorable Mules that were there 😍

The next one may remind you of someone 🙈

Three friends from the yard that were there (one with me  the other two we ran into) said the same thing without prompting! I was a little put out as you'll see from the next picture the body isn't exactly a flattering comparison - But they did each specify that it was purely the head and to a lesser extent the colouring that prompted their perceived similarities.

The mules were there to participate in displays with the army. I'm not exactly sure what the performances entailed as I sadly didn't get to see them. I was too busy patrolling the stands for new and exciting things and/or talking myself out of the big purchase I wound up making.

She's way cuter

Truth Time

Full disclosure I have so far failed to meet the few goals I set myself in my last post in the first three months of the year. Fear not however i am hopeful of rectifying that fairly sharpish.
I started following that post with great intentions of getting Kika going again under tack after her mini-hiatus since some time in November (shame on me for not blogging and therefore losing track), we lunged a couple of days in a row with and without lunging aids to get her brain back to working mode. She passed with flying colours not giving a flying flute about going back to work so you'd think I'd have hopped back up following those successes. However due to my aforementioned woeful blogging I can now not remember why I didn't hop up on her after that...whatever my reasons I'm sure they were pitiful. So the darling dear returned to daily turnout and little else to stimulate her beautiful brain.
I hopped up on Nancy a handful of times after PL rode during the week and played with her a little bit and actually rode her for a full 30-40minutes one evening PL couldn't come - I had to regain my own sealegs before braving the Kika.

Weather has been fab so the girls have been "naked" all week

Last Friday I decided to lunge her again and see where we were, bear in mind I lunged her in just her headcollar as I was aiming to ease her back into lunging before reintroducing the pessoa and/or tack. She started out a bit bug eyed as she listened to other horses walking outside the arena but then settled delightfully without once putting a paw out of place. We only lunged for 20 or 25 minutes as I didn't want to push her too hard after she had been out of "work" for so long. Saturday didn't quite go to plan for me, i didn't wind up riding either of them and it was Sunday evening before I decided to sod it. I tacked Kika up and brought the lunge line and whip to the arena with me and figured if things got hairy or we wound each other up I'd pop off and lunge her.

I needn't have worried, homegirl is a trooper and despite my terrible track record of keeping her working the last few years she didn't hold it against me and went straight back to work with w/t/c, changes of rein and mucho transitions as I played with the buttons to see what we both remembered - answer all the good stuff. Another boarder was lunging in one half of the arena so we worked mostly on a circle which can sometimes annoy K but I somehow miraculously managed to keep things different enough that neither of us got bored (long may that last).

Monday she had another day off and Tuesday I rode her in the large arena at the same time as PL rode Nancy. This time we stuck to w/t work with more of a focus on my part on consistency, transitions and tempo. Again K rose to my challenge without putting a toe out of line. I almost fear saying it, but I honestly think with her 13th birthday approaching in May we may be in the best place we've ever been in our almost decade long partnership. Yesterday the three of us went for a stroll in the woods, I rode Nancy and Kika came along on a lead for our first forray into the forest this year.

We've a busy few weeks coming up, PL & I are heading overnight to the absolutely awesome Equitana (the mahoosive equine trade fair that takes place in Germany every 2 years - LINKS to my previous posts 2015-1, 2015-II, 2013-I, 2013-II, 2013-III) for the last weekend in March. Then the following weekend we've organised a Ride With Your Mind clinic at the yard (my first time ever doing anything like this) with Elaine Butler a practitioner of the Mary Wanless technique who PL has ridden with a number of times. I am super stoked about this and hope she can help me straighten myself out once and for all!

New Year Resolutions

This will hopefully be a word starved / photo dump post from me as I lay out the few resolutions I have made thus far for 2017.

Poneh ♡

Trying to KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) to allow myself a hopefully higher chance of success.

Kika's Giraffe impression

No. 1 

Leave work between 5.30-6pm

No excuses, almost everything can always wait till tomorrow 😇

No. 2

Ride my horses!!!

This should be straight forward, yet as is obvious from the lack of blog content last year - I failed pretty miserably at this immeasurably enjoyable task. To my own detriment no less!

Towards the latter half of 2016 I was lucky if I chambered aboard Kika once every 2 weeks as for Nancy hardly ever 😓

Thankfully she has her part-leasee that comes three times a week without fail. So it's really only me that is failing Kika & I really do miss riding more regularly. Hopefully sticking to resolution No. 1 will have a positive affect on resolution No. 2 *fingers-crossed*

No. 3

Read more

This is a personal goal which Goodreads thankfully reminded me of. For the last number of years I've wanted to set myself a # of books "to-read" goal. I've kept it low to start with at 25 books - I will scale up if I manage to set aside more reading time in the coming 12months than I have in the last few years. 

Nancy is a Sneaky McSneakerson

No. 4

Blog more

I really miss interacting with you guys! Hopefully the last two goals will help give me more content to share as I hopefully (a) ride more and (b) actually review the equine themed books I've read over the last few years and kept meaning to review 🤓

Kika playing coy & Nancy all up in Ya grill

Best Wishes

Frosty & frozen today

Happy New year from Luxembourg - may 2017 be a fab fun filled year for all & here's hoping I can be a better blogger going forward.

Love always,
Myself, Kika and Nancy