About That Hardwiring...
I did a Horseblog on Monday about last week's yoga class. It has pictures! And then yesterday I had a lesson, which I want to write down before I forget. So--Neep Time!
I knew I could trust S to give us strategies to deal with that. And apply some fierce butt-kickage in the process.
The theme for lessons this year, so far, has been Connect and Collect. Get the whole body (mine as well as his) into the game and keep it there. For me that means ride from the seat/core/psoas (leg and hand as adjuncts, but the aids are all coming from the seat). For him that means sit down, raise the base of the neck, and no cheating by overkinking the jaw. For the two of us together, that adds up to plugging my seat into his hindquarters and riding through to the rest of him.
We've spent 'way too long especially in trot with him bracing his back and dropping away, and me perching on top and trying to manipulate his neck instead of riding through. Lots of blasting around and arguing about where we go and how we intend to get there. He is Really good at locking all that neck so nobody's comfortable.
We started on the ground. Soften jaw at the connection between jaw and neck. Soften second cervical vertebra. Soften base of neck where it connects to the shoulder. Raise back about where my leg goes. Remind him he has a hind end (i.e. engine). Rock back, connect, forward. (In dressage terms, that's half-halt, collect, transition.) Both sides.
He's got this figured out now. Automatically connects when the key points are touched. May argue a bit or try to cheat, but not very hard any more.
So now it adds up to, stand beside him, "ride" through my sacrum to his. This is a feel thing. Pooka has always mirrored the human from the ground--longeing him is a lot of fun and so is working him in hand because he'll do whatever I do. I don't need verbal commands. I just use rider aids and he picks them up. This is more of same, and for him not particularly subtle. He's that tuned in to what the human is doing.
As usual, once we had that working, we went to ridden work. At the mounting block he stood beautifully square with hocks under him, engaged and ready. He's got that down solid.
Once I was in the saddle, I repeated the ground exercises. Rock back, connect to the hindquarters, raise the forehand. Don't let him cheat by raising the back but keeping the neck and shoulders down. Soften through the throatlatch--he likes to block himself there, too. Get everything in line from poll to tail, lighten and lift. It's coming from the seat but the leg may need to raise the back and the hand may need to encourage flexion in front. Collect the horse until the only option is forward--and that's a collected walk.
Walk in collection, get that going nicely, and start challenging him with lengthening through the collection: can't go flat, fall on forehand, get rushy. Front end up, weight on rear. Hands need to follow more but keep contact. Seat more open but maintaining collection. Six to eight strides, then back to collected walk for three or four, back and forth. Throw in some halts. Halt from collection, into collection. Lengthening is a collected movement.
Then up to trot. Trot from collection, not from lengthening--at this stage, he needs to really sit down and carry. Self-carriage is the new! shiny! THANG! here. No more me trying to carry him. My job is stay in his back, keep that hind end under both of us (and feel as if the inside hind is connected to my seatbone), and don't drop his front end. Must. Stay. UP.
That's a lot of work for two out-of-shape critters. My hip flexors, ow. But my back, not ow. And that is good.
When we're this connected, the elusive and bone-jarring sitting trot becomes the done thing, and quite soft and lovely to ride. It's not very long at a time yet. When we can ride it all around the arena reliably, we'll have our canter at last. Which is a definite incentive.
We're getting a sense of half-steps in here. Heading for the real, deep collection. He likes it. The lengthenings are the challenge for him, but not hard--just not as easy as collection.
Mentally he's in a great place. During the collected parts, he paid no attention to the mares at ringside, and they were flirting as hard as they possibly could. He'd been all archy and rumbly and snorty while I was grooming him, and had a fair amount to say to his ladies (especially Gabriella, who was really messing with his head) in warmup, too. Once we were working in earnest, that went away. Lipizzan Brain came online. He wasn't fussing at having to work, either, or swearing or saying bad words. The more collected he got, the happier he was.
Hardwiring. He's a grownup horse now, as S reminded him. He doesn't need to act like a kid any more. He can carry me, and do his work, and deal with his hormones, too. He's good with that. He likes a challenge.
I knew I could trust S to give us strategies to deal with that. And apply some fierce butt-kickage in the process.
The theme for lessons this year, so far, has been Connect and Collect. Get the whole body (mine as well as his) into the game and keep it there. For me that means ride from the seat/core/psoas (leg and hand as adjuncts, but the aids are all coming from the seat). For him that means sit down, raise the base of the neck, and no cheating by overkinking the jaw. For the two of us together, that adds up to plugging my seat into his hindquarters and riding through to the rest of him.
We've spent 'way too long especially in trot with him bracing his back and dropping away, and me perching on top and trying to manipulate his neck instead of riding through. Lots of blasting around and arguing about where we go and how we intend to get there. He is Really good at locking all that neck so nobody's comfortable.
We started on the ground. Soften jaw at the connection between jaw and neck. Soften second cervical vertebra. Soften base of neck where it connects to the shoulder. Raise back about where my leg goes. Remind him he has a hind end (i.e. engine). Rock back, connect, forward. (In dressage terms, that's half-halt, collect, transition.) Both sides.
He's got this figured out now. Automatically connects when the key points are touched. May argue a bit or try to cheat, but not very hard any more.
So now it adds up to, stand beside him, "ride" through my sacrum to his. This is a feel thing. Pooka has always mirrored the human from the ground--longeing him is a lot of fun and so is working him in hand because he'll do whatever I do. I don't need verbal commands. I just use rider aids and he picks them up. This is more of same, and for him not particularly subtle. He's that tuned in to what the human is doing.
As usual, once we had that working, we went to ridden work. At the mounting block he stood beautifully square with hocks under him, engaged and ready. He's got that down solid.
Once I was in the saddle, I repeated the ground exercises. Rock back, connect to the hindquarters, raise the forehand. Don't let him cheat by raising the back but keeping the neck and shoulders down. Soften through the throatlatch--he likes to block himself there, too. Get everything in line from poll to tail, lighten and lift. It's coming from the seat but the leg may need to raise the back and the hand may need to encourage flexion in front. Collect the horse until the only option is forward--and that's a collected walk.
Walk in collection, get that going nicely, and start challenging him with lengthening through the collection: can't go flat, fall on forehand, get rushy. Front end up, weight on rear. Hands need to follow more but keep contact. Seat more open but maintaining collection. Six to eight strides, then back to collected walk for three or four, back and forth. Throw in some halts. Halt from collection, into collection. Lengthening is a collected movement.
Then up to trot. Trot from collection, not from lengthening--at this stage, he needs to really sit down and carry. Self-carriage is the new! shiny! THANG! here. No more me trying to carry him. My job is stay in his back, keep that hind end under both of us (and feel as if the inside hind is connected to my seatbone), and don't drop his front end. Must. Stay. UP.
That's a lot of work for two out-of-shape critters. My hip flexors, ow. But my back, not ow. And that is good.
When we're this connected, the elusive and bone-jarring sitting trot becomes the done thing, and quite soft and lovely to ride. It's not very long at a time yet. When we can ride it all around the arena reliably, we'll have our canter at last. Which is a definite incentive.
We're getting a sense of half-steps in here. Heading for the real, deep collection. He likes it. The lengthenings are the challenge for him, but not hard--just not as easy as collection.
Mentally he's in a great place. During the collected parts, he paid no attention to the mares at ringside, and they were flirting as hard as they possibly could. He'd been all archy and rumbly and snorty while I was grooming him, and had a fair amount to say to his ladies (especially Gabriella, who was really messing with his head) in warmup, too. Once we were working in earnest, that went away. Lipizzan Brain came online. He wasn't fussing at having to work, either, or swearing or saying bad words. The more collected he got, the happier he was.
Hardwiring. He's a grownup horse now, as S reminded him. He doesn't need to act like a kid any more. He can carry me, and do his work, and deal with his hormones, too. He's good with that. He likes a challenge.
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