Instead of doing my usual weekly riding lesson on Sunday, I decided to take it tonight. While it was somewhat cold, riding tends to warm me up and I was dressed plenty warm for the occassion.
We did more work on transitions with special emphasis on halting and not having the horse wiggle around after you have come to a complete stop- the key is to know when to relax your body and not "ride" the horse- it's a key moment and you have to have an intuitive feel for when to "shut off". It's kind of tricky and I've been getting mixed the results. It seems that the one key thing is to completely go slack with the reins and not put pressure on the horse. Transitions play an important role in that they allow the rider to alter the horse's speed in an orderly, calm manner while at the same time maintaining the horse's balance. Sure, you can stop by pulling hard on the reins (most of the time) but horse will probably NOT like it and it will certainly throw off his balance thus making him useless for any serious riding activity.
The key is less hands, more pelvis and breath control. In fact, the hands should be completely quiet and if you have to use them, their motion should be subtle and very low key.
We also worked on collection at the trot- a VERY slow trot. It was difficult getting Max to trot and a very slow pace- I'd either let him drop into a walk or speed up the trot. This is something I'm going to have to work on more although I did begin to get an idea of what must be done and what to look and feel for.
With the weather looking clear for the next several days, I have a feeling that I will have a lot of time to practice these new moves.
We did more work on transitions with special emphasis on halting and not having the horse wiggle around after you have come to a complete stop- the key is to know when to relax your body and not "ride" the horse- it's a key moment and you have to have an intuitive feel for when to "shut off". It's kind of tricky and I've been getting mixed the results. It seems that the one key thing is to completely go slack with the reins and not put pressure on the horse. Transitions play an important role in that they allow the rider to alter the horse's speed in an orderly, calm manner while at the same time maintaining the horse's balance. Sure, you can stop by pulling hard on the reins (most of the time) but horse will probably NOT like it and it will certainly throw off his balance thus making him useless for any serious riding activity.
The key is less hands, more pelvis and breath control. In fact, the hands should be completely quiet and if you have to use them, their motion should be subtle and very low key.
We also worked on collection at the trot- a VERY slow trot. It was difficult getting Max to trot and a very slow pace- I'd either let him drop into a walk or speed up the trot. This is something I'm going to have to work on more although I did begin to get an idea of what must be done and what to look and feel for.
With the weather looking clear for the next several days, I have a feeling that I will have a lot of time to practice these new moves.
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