Or so it felt today... :-)
Today was our usual Sunday lesson and today we focused on getting more centered in our seat and working solely with the curb bit.
One issue I've always had with my set is that thanks to an injury to the right shoulder when I was in the Army, my right side is lower than my left, especially if I'm tired and not thinking about it. This in turn tends to result in my right shoulder collapsing and my right pelvis dropping, this putting more weight on the right side of the saddle.
We worked on a number of exercises that basically designed to stretch and open my body to the left while also elevating my right pelvis. These exercises mostly consisted of turning, bending and stretching to the left, either so my right rand touches the horse's back or the left rear corner of the saddle pad. While bending I also have to elevate my right shoulder and this tends to elevate the pelvis. It feels like muscles are being pulled in a line from my right scapula all the way down to the right rear thigh muscles. And it definitely was sore making these muscles stretch.
Also, while doing these excersises I was riding in large circles to the left, first at the walk and then progressing to the canter. It's kind of disconerting riding at a center while bent and reacing to the rear for the bottom left corner of the saddle blanket...ouch! I'll have to work on these a lot on my own... :-)
After some of these, it seemed to have an effect on Max in that I ddin't need to make as much effort to stop or move Max around- I was using my seat to drive him with a minimum of rein work. It was exhausting but it's something I need to strive to make more a part of my seat- i.e., make it "automatice" rather than my having to think about it. This is going to take some work and it's probably good for my shoulder in the long run also.
I suppose this was as much therapeutic riding as anything elese. :-)
One issue I've always had with my set is that thanks to an injury to the right shoulder when I was in the Army, my right side is lower than my left, especially if I'm tired and not thinking about it. This in turn tends to result in my right shoulder collapsing and my right pelvis dropping, this putting more weight on the right side of the saddle.
We worked on a number of exercises that basically designed to stretch and open my body to the left while also elevating my right pelvis. These exercises mostly consisted of turning, bending and stretching to the left, either so my right rand touches the horse's back or the left rear corner of the saddle pad. While bending I also have to elevate my right shoulder and this tends to elevate the pelvis. It feels like muscles are being pulled in a line from my right scapula all the way down to the right rear thigh muscles. And it definitely was sore making these muscles stretch.
Also, while doing these excersises I was riding in large circles to the left, first at the walk and then progressing to the canter. It's kind of disconerting riding at a center while bent and reacing to the rear for the bottom left corner of the saddle blanket...ouch! I'll have to work on these a lot on my own... :-)
After some of these, it seemed to have an effect on Max in that I ddin't need to make as much effort to stop or move Max around- I was using my seat to drive him with a minimum of rein work. It was exhausting but it's something I need to strive to make more a part of my seat- i.e., make it "automatice" rather than my having to think about it. This is going to take some work and it's probably good for my shoulder in the long run also.
I suppose this was as much therapeutic riding as anything elese. :-)
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