Connection, Balance, and Biomechanics

I’ve been thinking about what we’ve been up to over the winter.  Basically, it breaks down into three categories.  Connection, balance, and biomechanics.

The connection piece has been inspired by Warwick Schiller.  I’m not a subscriber, but I follow him on Facebook and I think he is a genius.  He posits that if you have the connection piece in place, the step by step training is so much easier.  So we’ve been doing matching steps during groundwork and also out hand grazing(which has fixed the spooky areas of my property).  I also just go be with the horses with no agenda every now and then.  It’s amazing how often they come over to me within a few minutes.  When situations get tense, as they will, box breathing has become my go to until the horse becomes present/with me/focused and then we ask for the things.  Of course if the horse is getting a little wild I control the feet to control the mind, but I’ve been moving much more towards having the attention present to control the feet.  Also I throw in a splash of clicker and target training days where I set up poles and targets and we work under saddle with “fun” stuff mixed in between for rewards.  See below.  Cruise loves picking up his ball while under saddle.  This has led to a couple of hairy moments when it rolled underneath us!

On balance work we’ve been doing the Balance Through Movement Method groundwork exercises.  There is a ton of overlap with Warwick Schiller’s connection stuff, with the BTMM exercises really coming after you have that connection.  Under saddle I use the three pillars of relationship to contact/loose under neck, horse’s center of gravity under the rider, and spinal integrity/horse weighted to the outside of curves as a checklist.  The idea being that you can train your horse to do whatever, but if those three things are not present, soundness issues will ensue.  Of course we put our own spin on it with lots of snacks!

After a brief foray into some seat corrections with Team Tate Academy I have come back to my standard of Mary Wanless’s Dressage Training TV for rider biomechanics.  It just works.   I’ve finally wrapped my mind around how Mary and the BTMM coexist and compliment each other.  Currently I’m working on have a better bear out, thighs as bumpers, and separating the bones in my legs as position reminders.  Kneeling or popping my hip tendons is helping me lift/suction up Cruise’s back and a touch on the reins is very responsive due to the BTMM.  It’s amazing to me how much overlap there is in correct riding and training.  Just different ways of explaining or different exercises to get to the same finished place.  As I heard the other day, it’s just different outfits and tack, the horse’s body and biomechanics are the same.

How we end our rides.  Tack striped off, a treat, and then some grazing in the field.  Bliss for him, I think, with the green grass.