Dressage followup

I thought this was so funny and just had to share... in Spain offices will often supply an annual medical checkup for their employees - basic bloodwork, vision, hearing and vitals check along with the doctor's advice for keeping your work environment as healthy and safe as possible, you know, all that having good posture, getting up and stretching once an hour, staying hydrated kind of stuff...

Anyhow today I had mine and the doctor after looking at my spine and posture said the following to me:

• You tend to keep your arms straight to get to the mouse and keyboard - try bending them at a 90º angle and you won't have as much shoulder tension.
• You're also hollowing your back and sticking out your butt too much, standing and sitting this way causes lower back pain.

Sound familiar?  It's almost word-for-word what Daniela told me in my dressage clinic on Sunday... These ladies have me pegged!  Apparently my riding posture and my office posture are similar, which is actually great if you think about it because I'll be able to "practice" a correct riding posture all day long :-)

Dressage!

As you may have seen in earlier posts, I once upon a time took dressage lessons, and it's certainly something I want to incorporate into Starbuck's training once we have a good solid walk-trot-canter-halt going on.  So when the folks at my stable announced that we were going to start having monthly dressage clinics with my friend Virginia's dressage teacher Daniela (yeah, the girl who sold me my saddle), I was really excited.  But I had a little problem - Starbuck and I are still working on walking in a straight line and turning more or less on my cues and the clinic was going to be dedicated to making the perfect circle.

So I asked Marina if I could borrow a grown up horse for the clinic and we decided on Compay, the gelding I used to ride in my lessons before I acquired Starbuck.  I have a real soft spot for this horse although he can certainly be challenging to ride - he was ridden far too hard with double reins and a heavy hand at some point in his training before Marina bought him and he can be extremely nervous about contact with the bit.  He also falls a bit out of balance when he canters which often leads to him swinging his head around and trying to run away.  But he tries really hard, has a sweet disposition and is lovely to ride when he's not freaking out.

We started the clinic sitting indian-style in the arena talking about circles and Daniela gave us a little booklet with some visual aids to get us thinking about straightness, impulsion and "curvature" (not sure if this is a real word- whatever the horse does when he curves his neck slightly to look to the interior of the circle).  Then we were split into groups of four or five where we worked on 20, 15 and 10 meter circles as well as a couple of figures of eight, with Dani coaching us the whole time.

It was much harder than I thought it would be- I'm really out of shape after so many months without riding regularly- and Compay and I had a little bit of a trainwreck when we first tried to canter to the left.  But after seeing the video I don't think I did TOO badly and we had a lovely little canter to the right with even a little collection.  It was funny, Daniela said afterward that she could see the moment about 10 minutes into the class when I changed from "filly-seat" to regular seat.  Anyway here's the video of some of the most instructive moments of the class (it really lasted about 30 minutes but I figure I need to start making these shorter).

And here are Daniela's notes (she was good enough to write them down for us in our little booklet):

• Seat: Be careful, don't stick your butt out or you'll hurt your back.
• Hands: Keep about a 90º angle to your elbows, if you stretch your arms out the contact will be harsh.
• Very good attitude and curvature of your horse.

Clinic Part 2

Sorry guys but I've been pretty fluey for the past few days so aside from trying to edit the more than 200 minutes of video I took at the clinic the other day (still not done!!!) and work on my mystery project I haven't done much else.  Since I haven't finished the video of the last part of the clinic where everyone but me did ridden exercises, this post is going to be kind of wee.

First I'll include the Yoga for Riding video, the subtitles are in Spanish for the benefit of the folks at my stable but I'll include a translation in English below.  The exercises are designed to improve your coordination, flexibility and balance and "train" your body to allow independent movement of one part without influencing the rest.  The idea is to do the exercises for a few minutes before every ride to loosen yourself up and not let  your stiffness or imbalance get in the way of your horse's movement.

1. Rotate shoulders foreward and backward.
2. Rotate the left shoulder forward and the right shoulder backward (then repeat on the other side).
3. Move head slowly up and down, then left and right.
4. Lift your leg and rotate it from the hip: first with your eyes open, then with your eyes closed.  Take note of which side is easier to work on the other one.
5. Balance on one leg: first with your eyes open, then closed.
6. Step forward in slow-motion with your eyes closed.
7. Rotate your hips while keeping the rest of your body absolutely still.
8. Windmills- rotate your torso left and right while swinging your arms.
9. Write the alphabet in the air with one hand and the numbers from 1-10 in the air with the other.
10. Now do the same while rotating your leg from the hip!

I've also made a video with some of the best moments of the roundpen session.  I've tried to include a little of both the horse's usual handler and Henry working with each and every horse in the workshop and there were a lot of fascinating moments, so it's almost 30 minutes long.  But if you're even a little interested I highly recommend watching all of it or even just skipping forward every few minutes since the horses, their reactions, their handlers and Henry's work with them are so incredibly unique.  A few examples are Starbuck who's a spoiled baby green 3 year old, former international show horse Gladys who was then used as a brood mare for several years and only recently brought back to the world of riding, and a few 20-something year old lesson geldings finally getting a chance to find their own personality with a private owner / leasor as well as some feisty younger mares with dominance issues (just a hint-- they're the ones wearing pink).

It was really a great experience since we were able to observe each of the horse's reactions and get some real insight into how the horse communicates its feelings, worries and desires.  It was also a great chance to soak up some of Henry's natural animal magnetism and try to assimilate some of the techniques he uses- mostly just being peaceful and not "expecting" anything while very clearly maintaining a leadership position, allowing the horse to decide when and how to respond to him and taking the time the horse needs instead of keeping a "human" schedule.  

I'll try to finish the video of the "ridden" part of the clinic today or tomorrow and upload it before the week is over :-)

Clinic Part 1

Today Starbuck and I attended our very first clinic!  Held at my stable and given by "horse listener" Henry Sandkhule, the one-day class focused on improving communication between human and horse and was attended by 8 kids and adults.  I of course recorded about 17 hours of video which I'll attempt to fuse into a nice "best of" medley, but I wanted to share a little about our experience here.

We started bright and early with a chat about herd dynamics, then some deep breathing exercises and stretching.  Then we moved outside and worked on our flexibility, balance and coordination-- just imagine 8 people all teetering on one leg while moving the other in circles, writing the alphabet with our right hand and numbers from one to ten with our left in the air!  But it was a great way to recognize just how difficult it is to have truly independent aids and also to loosen ourselves up for the day.

The first horse escaped at the end of the roundpen session and ran all the way back home (she and her owner are from another stable down the road), which pretty much set the stage for what promised to be a crazy but interesting day.  For almost all of us, Henry first observed the handler's interaction with the horse, then stepped in to the roundpen to work with the horse himself and finally worked with both of them either giving some one on one coaching or even giving them a leg up to ride bareback and only using the halter.

But when it was my turn, he just gave me some coaching from afar, asking me to walk alongside Starbuck on a smaller circle instead of staying in the middle of the roundpen and to not use any vocal aids.  Which was really hard!  The idea is to use your energy to transmit your wishes to your horse, then body language if the energy doesn't get your idea across.  Starbuck did pretty well but Henry commented that she was clearly testing me, attempting to get away with less work and that I shouldn't let her get away with so much.  It was definitely what I needed to hear, I'm so afraid of screwing up and traumatizing her that sometimes I'm not the leader she deserves.  

It was a shame that I didn't get to see him working with her, but it was certainly good for my ego to know that our communication was good enough that he didn't feel the need to step in.  This is getting longer than I expected so I'm going to split it up into two parts, but I do want to mention how impressive his connection with each horse was, every single one of them visibly relaxed after just a few minutes with him.  Lots of lip-licking, neck stretching and long sighs... a real pleasure to see, especially with some of the horses which are particularly stressed-out!

More tomorrow...