Half the Time, Twice the Effort...

The young 'uns are all on their summer holidays for the next couple of weeks, so I was asked to change my Wednesday lesson slot.

I opted to go private.  I thought I might as well take the opportunity to try and improve my horse-riding without a bunch of jump- and gallop-happy teenybopping horse-riders cluttering up the place.  Sorry - I don't mean to sound so negative.  The kids are a great bunch, but they're not exactly Dedicated Disciples of the Muse named Dressage (if there isn't one, there should be!  I'm sure Xenephon would approve!)

I wanted to get lunged (yes, it's as bad as it sounds) but none of the school horses do lunging.  Molly in particular goes into orbit at the first flick of a lunge-whip.  To the uninitiated, I apologise for how weird this must sound.  Horse-people everywhere will understand...

Anyway, lunge-line or no lunge-line, we concentrated on position, balance and outline.  Stirrups were shed from the onset.  It was all a series of subtle changes - shoulders slightly further forward and following the direction of travel of the horse.  A masterclass on contact and half-halts.  End result - I achieved more in half an hour than I have in the past year. 

Boy, it's hard.  Just a tiny deviation from perfect balance and the horse goes all over the place.  But when you get it right, wow!  The transformation is amazing.

Molly found it difficult, too.  For her, it was an exercise in evasion.  Moving above the bit, overbending, falling outwards on the circle.  Every flaw in the horse stems from a deficiency in the rider, who must compensate, and shut the door, which means the wily horse tries something else.  At the end, she started to throw in the occasional hissy fit in her efforts to avoid the hard work.

Do I blame her for this?  Absolutely not.  You're asking a horse that does the equine equivalent of bumbling down the shops every day to do something akin to gymnastics.  It's as hard for her as it is for me.  She did well and at the end, she was rather tired.  Next week, I might take the camera to see if the end result looks as good as it feels...

To the Muse of Dressage - I salute you!  And I salute Xenephon, too, who invented dressage in the first place...

Half the Time, Twice the Effort...

The young 'uns are all on their summer holidays for the next couple of weeks, so I was asked to change my Wednesday lesson slot.

I opted to go private.  I thought I might as well take the opportunity to try and improve my horse-riding without a bunch of jump- and gallop-happy teenybopping horse-riders cluttering up the place.  Sorry - I don't mean to sound so negative.  The kids are a great bunch, but they're not exactly Dedicated Disciples of the Muse named Dressage (if there isn't one, there should be!  I'm sure Xenephon would approve!)

I wanted to get lunged (yes, it's as bad as it sounds) but none of the school horses do lunging.  Molly in particular goes into orbit at the first flick of a lunge-whip.  To the uninitiated, I apologise for how weird this must sound.  Horse-people everywhere will understand...

Anyway, lunge-line or no lunge-line, we concentrated on position, balance and outline.  Stirrups were shed from the onset.  It was all a series of subtle changes - shoulders slightly further forward and following the direction of travel of the horse.  A masterclass on contact and half-halts.  End result - I achieved more in half an hour than I have in the past year. 

Boy, it's hard.  Just a tiny deviation from perfect balance and the horse goes all over the place.  But when you get it right, wow!  The transformation is amazing.

Molly found it difficult, too.  For her, it was an exercise in evasion.  Moving above the bit, overbending, falling outwards on the circle.  Every flaw in the horse stems from a deficiency in the rider, who must compensate, and shut the door, which means the wily horse tries something else.  At the end, she started to throw in the occasional hissy fit in her efforts to avoid the hard work.

Do I blame her for this?  Absolutely not.  You're asking a horse that does the equine equivalent of bumbling down the shops every day to do something akin to gymnastics.  It's as hard for her as it is for me.  She did well and at the end, she was rather tired.  Next week, I might take the camera to see if the end result looks as good as it feels...

To the Muse of Dressage - I salute you!  And I salute Xenephon, too, who invented dressage in the first place...