Falling off the Tracks

The May clinic was super informative (and I felt slightly less stupid this time... only slightly). Here are the notes Miss Sherry took for me; her comments are in bold and my additions are in italics.

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May 2012 - Grimsey

How much weight in seat vs. thighSeat (60), thigh (40).

Heel back

Knee down - right heel really does need to come back
See my previous post for an explaination of "knee down."

Transitions - lift bloody stumps
Okay, if you haven't read my blog on the April Clinic, you're probably going "uh, what?" So, please see the introduction to bloody stumps and then come back and read my explaination. 

So, it's pretty much what it sounds like. For transitions, Sherry asked me to "lift" my bloody stumps, otherwise described as lifting the knee (more of a feeling than an actual movement). For the transition to work, the rider must have a tight tummy (or engaged core). Once the Bloody Stumps are lifted, you are already asking for the upward transition, so if the horse does not respond, calf, and a cluck.

Put your chest over front edge of seatbones - over your lap
This is a comment in response to the fact that Sherry told me I was sitting behind the vertical (if you had drawn a line from my heel to my hip to my ear, my ear would be behind the imaginary line). In response to me leaning backwards, it was creating an arch in my lumbar (probably facilitating my already chronic back pain). Sherry's solution was for me to shift my weight more forward, and in doing so centering my chest over the front of my seatbones (over my lap).

She then asked, "do you feel like you're slouching?"
My response: "Yes."
She then informed me that I was not slouching, but was perfectly vertical (straight) in the saddle. She did comment, though, that I have the tendancy to drop my shoulders which creates the illusion of my slouching or leaning too far forward.

Next time you're told to "sit back," rotate your shoulders open, and rotate forearm.
This was an interesting concept to me, and so I was able to glean a little more factual information in reguards to riding and rider position. The reason Sherry had my rotate my forarm (so that my palm was facing more upward, my thumb pointed out) was because it would open up my shoulders more, and make it easier to actually rotate my shoulders open by pulling my shoulder blades together.

So, what else does rotating the forarm do?

Flat hands (otherwise known as "puppy dog paws" or "piano players hands") cross the bones of the arm over, and take the elbow away from the body (think chicken wings). Turning the thumb over (rotating the forearm) stabilizes the elbow and uncrosses the ulna and radius (long bones in the lower arm) and opens and brings the rider's shoulder back. This softens the forearm.

This is also a method useful when trying to achieve an inside bend (and even turning), but instead of rotating both arms, rotate the inside arm (so that your thumb is pointing the direction you want to go). It positions the rider's upper body in a way to facilitate the bend and softening of the inside of the horse. It makes the "funnel" you are riding into larger, it raises the hand slightly, it closes the elbow to the trunk (body), and it prevents the use of a fist agains the mouth. For the horse, it works on the corners of the mouth instead of the bars to help mobilize the jaw.

Trot - check balance by staying up. Post from middle of thigh (bloody stumps).Goes back to the exercise in which Sherry had me standing at the rise of the trot.

Walk - drop stirrups - feel thighs rotate. Feel one thigh fall against him, then other.This was one of the most difficult concepts for me to master because I have an impairment between the movement of my body and my brain (from a TBI several years ago). It takes an immense amount of focus for me to associate a feeling and time a movement to that feeling.

The idea is to feel the swinging of the ribcage. With my feet out of the stirrups, I could let my thigh relax and fall and feel the way Grimsey's ribcage swings and pushes my thighs in and out. As his inside hind is getting ready to come forward, my inside thigh will fall against his side. This will be important for the Bowties exercise (disribed later).

As the inside thigh falls in, the outside thigh is lifted off.

Bowties - "horsey sit ups"
1) Pattern - inside rein (hitch hike!), inside leg push as it swings (as thigh moves in, that hind leg is starting to come forward).
This one may be a bit hard to explain in words; however, I will do my best to make it as clear as I can. The image below is the pattern for Bowties:
So, as the name suggests, you're going to be creating something of a bow tie with your movements. Start out walking on the rail; as you reach the centre of your arena, begin yielding out until you are about 15 feet off the rail. Open the inside rein, and as you ask your horse to come around, go back to the "Thighs" exercise (feeling the shifting of the thighs in accordance with the horse's hind legs). As the inside leg is getting ready to step forward, press with your inside leg and ask him to step across. Do so until you are facing back the other direction, walk on, and once you reach the centre, begin yielding over. Wash, rinse, repeat.


The goal of the exercise is to engage the horse's tummy muscles.

Turn on forehand (in hand)
This is an exercise Miss Sherry did with me while I was on Grimsey's back. Though I've schooled a turn on the forehand with him before (and he's always been quite proficient, being a fast learner), it wasn't the type of turn on the forehand Sherry had in mind. Our turn on the forehand was more of a pivot, whereas Sherry wanted him to turn as though around an axis; stepping across both in front and behind. 


So, with me mounted up, Sherry took my riding bat from me, hooked a single finger through the bit, and began very lightly tapping his shoulder. The pressure increased based upon any lack of response, and if he got "stuck" and refused to move, she moved the crop to his barrel (again, beginning with light pressure and increasing) as she asked him to move his hindquarters.


Think of it as a big circle around a central point.


This was our big homework assignment from the clinic; I am to do it every day until June 20th (our next meeting), and then we are going to try this under saddle (for the record, I already did, and Grimsey had much less pivot, and much more stepping around in the front end).


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There you have it: The May clinic. There aren't many notes to be had, but some pretty helpful stuff was included in the lesson. The next clinic is June 20, and so I will try to post notes from that clinic as soon as possible (which, knowing me, will be in July).

In other news, I just received a DVD: Classical Dressage: 1, The School of Aids by Philippe Karl. I'm SO excited to watch it, and hopefully I can share anything significant I learn from it. I also have a new book on the way - The Search for Collection by Paul Belasik (and I suggest any book by him, he's wonderful) - which I will hopefully receive within the week.

Cheers!