Lesson 18 - 8/26/06 - Sitting Trot

Bob asked me what I wanted to work on today, and I said I wanted to work on dressage and all the messy things that need to be fixed before I can really do well at jumping. So we went out and I started making my warm up circles, and we started talking about hands, arms, shoulders, and hips, and how they are all interconnected. It resulted in a lesson that had the most improvement, easiest, and left me totally in pain and hardly able to walk. Bob is a genius.
We started at the walk, and Bob helped me stop holding my hips so tight and letting Mercury do the moving. Once I finally got it, it felt all weird and rolling. A HUGE amount of movement compared to what I had been doing.
Next I started sitting the trot (something that thankfully I have been working on a few months, because I've spent my entire riding life (15 years) not able to do it at all until Bob told me how a few lessons back). What Bob wanted was for my belly button to go up and down, not forward and back, and for my hips to absorb all the bumping. He says that you can't really ride a horse until you can sit because you can't really train until you can keep your butt planted in the saddle (my words).
It felt pretty good, and then Bob asked if I felt secure on Mercury, and I said yes, and then he took my dressage whip and put it behind my elbows behind my back. And it was like a miracle. Suddenly I had this deep, secure, planted seat that felt so smooth and soft. It was amazing. I sat and sat and sat, and then we flipped my stirrups to work on lengthening my legs, and then I started rotating my shoulders (look to the left, look to the right, but with shoulders, not just head), to separate my upper body from my hips. It was incredible. I could ride around, looking around, and my hips and legs just did everything.
What it felt like was a spring in my tailbone, that compressed and released on the steps. I could also really feel Mercury's legs, and as we went on, he started to relax and lengthen his stride a little (though he was going really slow, baby steps Bob says). It also felt a little like leaning back, but Bob says it was straight up and down.
So what Bob says is that in order to have steady hands, your hips have to be absorbing the motion. It is like the egg in the spoon race in 4-H. And I could see how nice my hands were when my hips were doing everything.
My toes tend to point out (especially the left one), which opens my knee, but when I try to make them go straight, I overcorrect. Bob says to work on this twice a week, to retrain my muscle memory into this new position.
It felt great, except for all my hip muscles started to hurt and it took a few minutes for them to loosen up after I got off. I was feeling really positive and happy with all the progress we've made, and then I made the mistake of going out to Caber Farms to watch part of the recognized show. They were doing training level cross country when I got there, and the jumps were HUGE and all the riders, who all looked about 14 (then I found out it was Junior Training), had the most secure legs and wonderful jumping position. Except the one girl who fell off. I think they called it an "involuntary dismount". I was mortified at how I'm jostling around trying to master the sitting trot at 30 at a jog, and these kids were zipping around jumping these things almost as tall as them. It was a big, fat slice of humble pie.
A long time ago Alice had told me she thought I could go Preliminary if I worked hard and got a good horse, but now I don't know. I just feel like such a bag of noodles all the time.
When I ride now, I try to focus on the 4 "H"'s: head, hands, hips, heels. I run that through my head with the "1-2-3-4" to shortcut my analyzing brain and just feel what I'm doing.
The one other thing Bob said was that he thinks he is a good trainer (and I totally agree; he is the best I have ever had), and he can take someone to the top and then keep them there. I have read that it is extremely hard to stay in the top, and I can believe it because it looked like there were 250 horses at this show. The Beginner Novice scores were in the low 30's. I think you have to have a certain amount of talent, but you also have to work really, really hard (and maybe I am not working hard enough), and then you have to get a good horse with a good heart and a nice, solid body. Bob might be able to ride anything, but I'm going to need someone to help my handicap a little. Mercury is fabulous, but I don't think his legs will ever do training.
The one other thing I asked about was Mercury running around with his head up like a giraffe on the lunge line. Bob had two suggestions: 1) Let him start without the side reins attached. Then put them on and tighten them up. Don't do too much too fast or show off. 2) If I've been working him hard, don't be too heavy with my hands. He could just be protecting his mouth afraid I'm going to yank on him. Bob thinks its the first, but he knows I think it's the 2nd.