Jet and I have been toodling, mostly in my tiny indoor. We’ve been doing some easy working gaits days, some collectibility days, some bareback days, and some bit free days. Sometimes combining these elements to see what happens!
In a lot of ways I’ve been digesting the lessons learned this year and continuing to put them into practice. The big ones are that if I want him to be balanced and eventually sit down his haunches, I must sit in balance(not pitched forward!) and sit on my haunches for collectibility work. Also, if I want working gaits that are truly through the back with some swing, I have to get him aligned/straight and then stretch out to the working frame is really easy. The correct alignment creates the ease of stretch to the contact and the stretch to the contact creates the raised and swingy back. I thought theses were the two huge breakthroughs for the year, but I’ve realized one more.
Amazingly, when I sit up in balance and get him aligned so that little bit of stretch to the working frame is easy, I never have any problems with energy. EVER. When I was leaning forward that put him on the forehand and somewhat blocked the energy. Problem solved. Then I figured out the correct stretch really comes from the horse being properly aligned so the stretch I s a rounding of the back/slight stretch to the contact. Problem solved. And all the sudden I never have any problems with energy. Kind of like the hose illustration above. All that time worrying/thinking about energy when actually the problem was the FLOW OF ENERGY. When he was on the forehand or not aligned, the energy could not flow easily from back foot to nose over a raised back. Who knew?
Have you ever had a breakthrough like this where you suddenly realized the defined problem actually came from a different source? Interested to hear your comments!
Interesting! (as always). When Carmen is aligned everything flows so easily. She tends to kink her hose like the left illustration. Her other thing is to drop her hind legs out behind. Both result in a loss of forward.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of the hind legs out behind because that is not one of Jet's go to's, but good point! Also, re-reading this post I realized all of this applies to alignment letting energy flow in the lateral work. Hmmmm...
DeleteOne of the biggest struggles I had was my hands. For whatever reason I thought they had to stay right at & on the withers. Once I opened up my hands and 'let the energy flow thru' it was a completely different feeling from the horse. It took me a while to fix this and make it the new normal. Now my 'sweet spot' is keeping my hands a hip width apart or in line with my hips. That seems to keep the forward energy flowing without a kink or narrowing in the center of the flow.
ReplyDeleteNow imagine going to a show and having the judge tell me I needed to keep my hands at or on the withers. "You're giving the horse too much room to disobey and avoid contact." This was a different discipline and I was giving it a try. Not my 'flavor' so no, we didn't go back.
I could see how that judge's comment would not make me excited to keep on in that discipline. I also hear you about hand(or anything!) alignment messing with the flow of energy.
DeleteThis was with my previous pony Izzy, the one in my avatar. It was an obstacle challenge type event and I thought we would give it a try. Not my flaver as it seemed like a lot of showboating to me. The judge was more of a stock breed show judge- Congress, World, etc. and the way those horses move explains a lot. We placed well enough to get a payback but after shelling out $200 in entries and 'winning' back $36.... I'll pass. We were also the only horse showing in a bosal.
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