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I spent the weekend thinking about it. It's one of those
problems where you think it's possible to do, but can't quite
work out how your body would do it.
The way I visualised it, was to sort of sit deep at each sit.
Which probably doesn't tell you much. So I asked someone on the
horseman list.
Mary goes to a weekly clinic and is fairly eloquent in her explanations.
Here's what she said:
Mary Sanichas wrote:
> As I understand it, everything comes from the seat. Like you said a
> longer/heavier/draggier Down on the down part of the rising trot to slow a
> trot down, and breathing (when you breathe out you sit deeper). The horse
> learns to listen to your seat. But if it doesn't work in the arena under
> control conditions, it's definitely not going to work during the endurance
> stuff. It really starts way before that, with the horse standing still
> without even thinking of moving when you get on, paying attention to you,
> trusting you and wanting to be with you (All that stuff!). . .
Then she gives an example of teaching the horse to listen to your body:
> In my lesson yesterday, Lisa worked on having me more balanced (an ongoing
> problem, like most people I put more weight in my left buttocks, a symptom
> of which is problems keeping the right leg back). She had me untie the rope
> reins, and use one rein only, with a Huge slack in it, so I can't try to
> correct my balance problems using reins to steer. By leaning to the left I
> was yielding him to the right. He is really learning to listen to the seat
> real well, so now I am getting my right knee broken/rubbed off on the arena
> fence. Until I am balanced it's counterproductive to have me using reins.
> That's more my problem than the speed thing.
>
> The one rein lesson was GREAT. It forced me to confront my problems, to use
> my seat for the tempo, to (try to) use my legs and focus for steering.
> Essentially it's taking away your reins. Stepper was a lot more balanced
> because I wasn't throwing him off balance as much, with Lisa there
> correcting me.
>
> But if you do throw him off and have to rely on the reins to steer or slow
> down, then you get a brace in the neck. Lisa said the neck is like the tail
> on a cat, they need it to balance themselves. If the endurance person wants
> break the cycle of using reins, causing the horse to brace, needing more
> severe bits, etc. it means going back to the drawing board, not many people
> want to do this, and as you pointed out it's not easy to understand without
> a teacher showing you. But the result is a soft horse.
>
> I am sending a copy of your message and my reply to Lisa [her trainer] in
> case she wants to add anything.
Don't know if this helps at all. Like she says, alot of it is going
back to the drawing board and training the horse, perhaps under arena
conditions (perhaps not - theoretically you could do this on the trail...
was it Wendy who talked about exercises she does while trail riding?)
to respond to your body, rather than just you perched on the top and
along for the ride.
(the tricky bit is, I can do some of the sitting deep stuff - that's
what I was trained for - whereas you put me on an endurance horse at
hyper-trot and it gets interesting <grin>)
Hope this is of some help.
-- ************************************************************** Lucy Chaplin Trumbull - elsie@calweb.com Displaced English person in Sacramento, CAhttp://www.calweb.com/~elsie http://www.calweb.com/~trouble **************************************************************
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