We did a two day clinic with Pippa Callanan this weekend and it went so well. Pippa is calm, concise, and so knowledgeable in all the French Classical riding techniques and practical applications. It was a delight and privilege to clinic with her and also to audit one full morning.
Key takeaways from the clinic:
*the posture you are doing the exercise in matters just as much as the exercise
*I need to be much more conscious of my posture and use it to sit tall before using the hand
*I tend to ride with my shoulder blades curled around to the front-instead draw my shoulder blades towards each other and then down towards my tailbone, lean back, THEN bring my energy up
*Cruise needs to switch to a single jointed bit-possibly a Fulmer
*Cruise needs more mouth exercises to loosen his jaw, hyoid, and TMJ
*Cruise benefits from doing some Pillar 2 from BTMM before the in hand work -it gets his front legs vertical and thoracic sling engaged so we do the in hand in better posture
*all the lateral work needs to be done in the taller posture-are you sensing a theme?
*all downward transitions in a taller posture not in neck extension
*use walk halt rein backs in a taller posture to get his haunches to bend a bit
*when he gets balled up/stuck go to a very forward trot in neck extension to free him up then bring him taller and back to work
*everything starts with picking up the reins correctly(buckle in one hand, running the other hand to set the length), then correcting my shoulder blades and sitting back a bit, then raising my energy to walk off
There are many more details but these were the things that really stand out. Cruise was quite well behaved with horses screaming and some commotion. Distracted sometimes, but I was able to bring him back to me. Such a good boy! I'm planning on taking him to LM's for the week for the next 3 day Pippa clinic in July. Until then we have tons of homework and lessons with LM to fill in the gaps. So much fun!
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