First Ride

So, last we left off, I was fired up with my new found concepts of how to have more rider "tone" so the pony goes with more "tone" and stuffing and his energy doesn't leak out.  Basically, instead of looking like a pleasant hunter doing dressage, he starts to look like a "dressage" horse by carrying himself more and engaging more behind.  I am supposed to achieve this by having more "tone" myself and not allowing any "leaks" in my own body.  I practiced my new position reminders(bear out, lats engaged, make little pads under each seat bone, weight the back of the triangle) out of the saddle multiple times throughout the next 24 hours and then saddled up.

What followed was AMAZING, a slightly bouncy pony, easy transitions because the pony was more engaged, and quite frankly the best, most uphill canter I have ever had on this guy.  The ride was so much better than anything I have ever gotten with Jet that my first fear was ever being able to recreate my biomechanics on a consistent basis.  The nice thing about the Mary Wanless techniques though, is you have an empirical basis for your riding, i.e. you are working your way through different muscle groups and "feels" to get the effect in the horse you want.  So, if you aren't getting the horse to "shape" the way you want, you look to your own body position, muscle groups, alignment, and etc. for the solution first, because the horse is the "mirror" of the rider.

Anyway, to me, the true test is whether can you get the same effect fairly consistently in your day to day training.  That means you know what you have changed to get what you gotten.  Video to compare soon!