One of the most important parts! I forgot to include in the "brief history of Kelly", was one single riding lesson I had when I first got the new horse ("Radish" was his name by the way).
I was lucky enough to have been taken under the wing of a wonderful man who taught me how to "feel" horses muscles (more about him later). He had a friend coming over from Germany who was going to backpack around Australia, and make a bit of spending money giving some riding lessons, unfortunately I cannot for the life of me remember his name right now, but hers, was April.
I only had one lesson with her, but this was the moment. You know how you have those pivotal moments in life? Well, she pulled my legs around, all the way behind me, made me put my feet up behind the saddle and walk like that, do lots of ankle circles, knee circles, shook my legs till we heard a massive CRACK, and my hip popped. She stood back, nodded, and said "that's better, that's where your leg should be". I had not realised it, but I had always ridden with one hip higher than the other, and turned out differently, so much, that my left side was completely different to my right, and I never even knew!
All of a sudden my leg moved where I wanted it to, it actually went "on" and "off" instead of up and down, and my hips followed the movement of the horse. I had never felt anything like it! I was flabbergasted! how could I have never felt this before? So off I went, she sent me off to do some trot and canter work, which I felt was a million light years better than anything I had ever experienced before.
Then she pulls me up again, she is looking very frustrated! I start to get worried, what am I doing now? her english was not that great, and maybe I wasn't listening so well, so enamoured was I with what I was doing. Finally she spits out "sit up and look pretty on your horse! you don't want to look like the hunchback! sit like you are a princess!"
Yet another jewel of information that I savoured and try to remind my self of everytime I ride. I truly had no idea how much I leant forward, how round my shoulders were, how saggy my breastbone. Although people had told me before "sit up, sit up, sit up" it was the picture of riding like a princess versus riding like a hunchback that worked for me.
This lesson is when I had the realisation that I desperately needed to develop an independent seat and better posture to improve my riding. This is what inspired me to ride with no stirrups everyday, bareback regularly, and spend time in the round yard with no reins. This is when I knew, that if I could make my body move right, my horse would be able to go right. This was the transition from "unconscious incompetent" to "consciously incompetent", an essential part of any path of learning.
I was unable to have anymore lessons with April as she went on her travels, but I did find some books in the library that I still refer to today. The imagery in "Centered Riding" by Sally Swift is amazing. I kept it by my bed for weeks, reading a small part each night, then again in the morning before I went to ride. I then took one part of my body and worked on it over and over till it improved.
Which leads me to where I am now, passionate about improving my body awareness, and passionate about helping others develop it too.
No comments:
Post a Comment