Personal Horse Story - The story of Scooter and why I chose "Save a Horse Australia" as a charity

You have probably seen a lot of the fuss at the moment about the sale of horsemeat for human consumption.  This industry is an awful industry, and the cruelty to horses is unbelievable to say the least.  I recently posted a petition on my FB wall against the sale of horsemeat for human consumption, which prompted someone to ask "who would sell their best mate and work mate for meat?"

This is a very logical question, as I am sure no-one who is a horse lover would intentionally sell their horse for human consumption, however, from personal experience I do know it can happen by accident.

It is for this reason that I would like to share with you the story of "Scooter".

Scooter was one of my first horses, those of you who have read a little bit about me may remember my first horse "Caddillac" (yes DD) who was a polo cross horse, and threw me at every opportunity.  Well, when I was living in Wagga and studying Equine Science, one of the jobs I did for work experience for my degree was driving Pacers.

I loved this job, if you have never driven one, try and find a way to have a go one day.  It is one of the biggest adrenalin rushes I have ever experienced.  You are so close to the ground, and right behind the horse watching the power of their hind end, you really get to see how fast and how powerful these amazing creatures are.  I was lucky enough to drive on the actual track a couple of times, including one time with an older horse who actually held the track record, and he really let fly!  (I wasn't supposed to do that, it was an accident)

The trainer I worked for was a good friend of mine's (Whitey if you are out there :) Uncle.  They treated their horses well, and always tried to find a good home for them when they had finished racing.  One day Whitey rang me and told me that "Scooter" was ready to finish up, and did I want him?  Of course I did!

I took on Scooter, I can't remember how old he was, but not very, and of course he had not been broken to saddle.  So, that was my first project.  I had never broken in a horse before, so it was a great opportunity to learn on a horse that was dead quiet, and already used to lots of gear.  It didn't take long at all, and within about a week, I was riding him around the paddock.  He was a really kind natured horse, and soon enough I was taking him on trail rides, up and down steep hills, over small jumps, through creeks and easily traversing anything I put to him.

I had not had him very long when I decided to move to Queensland, maybe three months or so.  Moving to Queensland is not a cheap exercise, and moving two horses just was not financially possible for me.  I had to make the decision to sell one of them, and Scooter being the newest and easiest to sell I decided to sell him.

I put an ad in the paper, and had two or three people come out to see him.  Two people wanted to buy him, one was a young girl who wanted him as her first big horse, and the other was an older gentleman who had been leasing a horse but had to give him back soon.

The girl was lovely, but, as we all know, green horse green rider is not really the best mix.  The old bloke came out for a ride with me, took him up through the forest, up the hills, through the stream, over the logs and showed me that he rode very well, and Scooter was quite happy to do everything asked of him.  During the ride he told me all about the Paint horse he had been leasing, and how the owners wanted to take him back, and how he was devastated because he was his company since his wife had passed away a year earlier.  He even took me to see the Paint, because I wanted to see what condition it was in, if it was well looked after etc, and I wanted to feel confident that he would be a good owner for Scooter.

He also told me that he was on a pension, and wouldn't be able to pay the $500 I was asking, but he could pay him off at $50 a fortnight.  A good home for Scooter was far more important to me than the money, so I agreed to that, on the condition that he would feed and agist both horses for me for about four weeks while I went to Queensland to find somewhere to live, and a place to take Caddillac to.  I was very happy with the arrangement, because it meant I could go with no worry about what to do with Caddy while I was away as well.

So, a week later I left for Queensland, and had a relaxing holiday, as well as finding somewhere for my girl to live.  I found a great pony club that had facilities, as well as stables etc, applied and was accepted that I could bring her up there.  It was about August/ September at this time.

When I came back to Wagga to pack and get organised I went to see Caddy.  She wasn't there, and neither was Scooter.  As you can imagine, I started to panic.  I drove to where the Paint horse had been, and he was not there either.  By this time I was in such a state, I did not know what to do.  A friend of mine offered to take me out the see the local "Horse Dealer/dogger" to see if he knew anything.  It had never occurred to me that these people even existed, naive as I was.

We drove out to the dealers place, and there sitting on the back of a truck smoking a "rollie"  was the old guy I had sold Scooter to.  I was freaking out completely, charged up and demanded to know where the hell Caddillac was?  He told me to settle down, and stop freaking out, and told me where she was.  He said he had moved here because he found somewhere cheaper to keep her.  It did not occur to me to ask if Scooter was there as well, I just assumed.

We drove to the address he had given me, which was a paddock that backed onto a house about 500m away.  I could see Caddy, she was still in her winter rug, even though it was the middle of the day and getting close to 30 degrees.  Again my level of panic started to rise as I looked around the paddock and realised there was no grass at all.  It was all weeds.  As we were walking up to her, a car screeched up beside us, a lady got out and started hurling abuse at me!  How dare I abandon that horse in her paddock!  The horse has been starving and never has it's rug off and she has been throwing her bits of hay!  I could not understand what was happening?

I pulled her rug off, and could not believe what I saw.  Caddillac was now a bag of bones, her coat was dull and matted, with bits missing out of it where the rug had rubbed her raw.  I will dig out the photos and add them in here later.  I also took numerous photos of the ground, to show there was no grass at all.  She was literally starving to death.

It dawned on me to wonder what had happened to Scooter.  We went back to the horse dealers place and confronted the old bloke.  He told me it was none of my business as he owned the horse and could do with him what he liked, he had been making his payments and there was nothing I could do about it.

After doing some research, I found out that the Japanese market for horsemeat was booming at this particular time, and the average horse was being sold for about $1000 for meat, so he had doubled his money.

I went to legal aid, I tried to file a claim against him, stating that he had defrauded me, that there was cruelty to Caddillac, and tried every angle I could think of.  At the end of the day, I had nothing in writing regarding Caddy, and he owned Scooter, so bad luck.  He had no obligation to keep Scooter, nor to disclose to me what he had done with him.  As long as he kept up his payments, there was nothing I could do.

The lovely lady who owned the paddock where Caddillac had been dumped, luckily agreed to feed her up for a couple of weeks so she would be strong enough for the truck trip up to QLD.  I am so grateful to her, that she fed and cared for Caddy in those couple of weeks before she was well enough to come up on the truck.

When she arrived at the Pony club, she was a mess.  It still took another couple of weeks before she looked anything like herself, and she never quite fully recovered. I wonder if the stress and anxiety of the situation ever left her completely.

As for Scooter, I can't imagine how he must have felt.  He was such a trusting gentle horse, and it would have been terrifying for him.  One of the classes I took involved dissection of horse legs, which were purchased from the knackery.  I have seen exactly what damage these horses are subjected to when they are taken to the knackery.  Their legs are covered in bruises and cuts, some of them would be lucky to be still walking by the time they are killed.

Please take the advice of the lady who asked the question "who would sell their best mate for meat".  Please make sure you are certain where they are going, and please do your best to ensure they will be loved and looked after.

The "Save a Horse Australia" horse rescue and sanctuary do a great job of placing horses into "forever" homes.  They ensure that if the horse is no longer wanted, or is unable to be kept, that it comes back to them and a new home will be found.  They do an amazing job, please sign the petition, and please support horse rescues all over the country.

Improve your horse riding - shoulders back

How many of you find it easy to keep your shoulders back?  For some people it is easy and natural, they don't have to think about it, but for the majority of us, it is something we have to work on and train our bodies to do.

One of the things that makes us lean forward and round our shoulders is fear.  When we are nervous or scared, often our first response is to lean forward, grip with our knees and grab the neck.  If you watch people riding for the very first time, no matter what age they are, they will spend a lot of time crouched forward, and you need to convince them to relax and sit up straight.

Only a few weeks ago I was giving a lesson to a new student, and the horses in the paddock next door decided to have a big gallop around.  It was a very windy day, and the girl's horse started to put it's tail up, go into a lovely piaff but with his nose in the air and generally pay no attention to the rider whatsoever!  Her first reaction was to lean forward, grab on to his neck, grip with her knees (heels come up), and look scared (it was also her first ride on this particular horse, although she is a fairly experienced rider, she had no knowledge of how this horse would react).

I tried to explain the "emergency stop" fast, but of course, as soon as we are scared, it is very hard to change your bodies automatic reactions, and also to actually listen to instructions.  Your brain goes into "reptilian brain" which is instinctive and reactive, rather than logical.

The problem with this is, that if you try your emergency stop and you are leaning forward, looking down, and your heels are up, YOU WILL FALL OFF!  It is VERY important that you look up, push your heels down and even a little forward and lean back slightly.  Test it! get someone to try and pull you off your horse, try it with your heels up vs down, shoulders slumped vs chest up.

So how do you change your fear response?  Changing an instinctive response is not an easy thing to do. It takes awareness, time, and practice practice practice.  Please read "thoughts on unconscious incompetence" for more information as to how to bring things into your awareness.

Have I gone way off track?  What were we talking about again? that's right! Shoulders back :)  ok, so the reason I brought all that up, is because I want you to start thinking about how that response feels to the horse.  The horse is a prey animal, we are a predator.  Often times this fear reaction happens when the horse is scared too, then we clamp on to his neck and throw our weight forward, do you think this makes the horse feel more or less scared?  I think it is the Parelli people who talk about this in further detail, and it is fascinating to understand further the behavioural principles behind why we ride the way we do, and why certain movements will elicit the correct response from the horse even though they have never been "taught" it.

Refining this response, when your horse starts to get a little bit faster than you want in your trot circle, are you tilting forward?  When your canter starts to be a little bigger than you want, do you lean back or forward?   When you go into a jump that is a little bigger than you are comfortable with, do you wait for the horse to jump? or do you find yourself in front of the movement?  Does your horse stop at jumps regularly?

Even the slightest tilt forward will affect your horses ability to engage the hind end (put more weight on the hind end).  There has been an example given where someone has used four bathroom scales, and a saddle stand to see what affect it has, and has shown that as soon as you round your shoulders, you put a whole lot of extra weight over the front feet.  Armed with this knowledge, we can now use this as an aid as well! lean back a touch when you want to slow down or stop, BEFORE you use the reins.  If you do that every time, pretty soon your horse will be stopping without reins at all!

Round shoulders will also affect the way your elbow and arm moves, and will make it more difficult to have that lovely "elastic elbows" feeling of connection between your horses mouth and your hand.  You will find it harder to find the rhythmical forward and back movement we talked about in the "hands still or moving" article.

Make it your first response to look up, sit back, and lean back a touch!


Exercises to improve your shoulders


Sometimes the easiest way to fix a problem is to exaggerate it first.  REALLY round your shoulders, then bring them back, feel the difference?

The problem with bringing your shoulders back is it can make your shoulders tense and block the nice flow of energy down your arm to the reins.  So, another way to do it, is to think of something else instead.

I often use the thought of bringing my shoulder blades closer together, and lifting my breastbone.  This also has the double benefit of engaging the small muscles that hold your spine, which will give you better posture in the rest of your life as well.

I also use a fantastic visualisation that is amazing.  This one picture in my mind has made a huge difference to me personally, she talks about the Spanish Riding School.  I was in Vienna about 18 

months ago, so this particularly hits home.  If you have seen pictures of these amazing Lipizzaners and their riders, you may remember the gorgeous jackets they wear.  They have a double line of gold buttons down the front. Think of the proud way they hold themselves, and think about those gold buttons, do they point down to the ground as the rider slouches? NO!  Of course not! so, when you are riding, imagine you are riding in the Spanish Riding School to an audience of hundreds of European Royalty, and make sure they can see the gleam on all those golden buttons!

Good Luck, please let me know how you go with this, and feel free to request what you would like to see next!

Improve your Horse Riding - Balance

Ok! who feels like they need better balance when they are riding?  How do you know?  What are the signs of needing better balance?

Some of the symptoms you might have that indicate an improvement in your balance would help are;

1.  being in front of the movement, 
2. getting left behind the movement, 
3. horse keeps falling in on the circle, 
4. or if your horse is tossing his head a lot when you keep hitting him in the mouth.

These are just a few examples!  When jumping it is even more obvious when you are in front of behind the movement, because you will either "starfish", thump on the horses back when landing, or fall off a lot!

"starfish" is what one of my coaches used to call what I did when I would go over a jump with straight legs, straight body, a mile off the seat, and generally I would end up with no reins on the other side because I was terrified of hurting my horses mouth so I would let go instead . . .  not really the cleverest thing in the world!

I knew it was terrible, but I could not figure out how to stop myself from doing it.  She could yell at me all she wanted, to try and make me stop, but I found that until I trained myself with an alternative movement, it was still my habit whenever I was nervous.  

SO, I am going to address this issue in two parts, first for flatwork/dressage, and second for jumping. 

Flatwork

Improving your balance for flat work is actually not that difficult (yeah right, wait till your legs are jelly). No, seriously, the exercise is simple, but your muscles may take a bit of time to get used to it, so you may have sore legs for the first week!

The best exercise for improving your balance is, on your horse, to simply stand up in your stirrups.  Now I don't mean to stand up in a two point seat, I mean to literally stand up with straight legs in your stirrups.  Make sure to try it at halt first, it is not as easy as it sounds.  Then move your horse to walk, then to trot,  then to canter.  It may take you a few days, or even a week before you are comfortable doing this at trot and canter, but your seat will have improved a mile once you can!

I would also suggest starting out trying it in a round yard on a fairly loose rein.  You don't want to end up using the horses mouth to help you stay up there.  You will find that your weight will drop down into your feet, and lo and behold, that is what it feels like when you have "weight in your heels"!

It might be that you can't do it for long, but that is ok.  Even to start with, go for four strides up, four strides down, five strides up, five strides down.  Again, be very careful that you are not using your reins to balance on.  

Once you are good at that, then start doing some exercises on your horse.  You know the ones you see all the little kids doing?  there is a good reason for that, it really helps you improve your balance out of sight.  

1. Hands out like an aeroplane, 
2. touch both shoulders, 
3. touch one hand to your nose, then the other
4. touch one had to your knee (are you still standing up with straight legs?)
5. Touch one toe then the other (make sure your other leg stays still or you will fall off when you try it at trot and canter)

Once you can lean down at canter and touch one toe, you have AMAZING balance! just ask any Vaulter!

Jumping

OK, your jumping balance is going to be improved a lot by all the previous exercises.  The next step is to help your timing as the horse jumps, so you don't get the "starfish".  I can't tell you how many videos there are of me doing a "starfish" over a jump, and it makes me cringe every time.   I still do it every now and then, if I get particularly nervous, but I have improved out of sight.  

It really took me a very long time to change this habit, but now I know how to change it, hopefully I can make it faster for you to change.  For a start, I knew that it was a fear response.  It always happened when I got scared, my body would stiffen, and I would not flow with the horse.  I couldn't stop myself from being scared sometimes, but I could change how my body reacts.  I used a technique called NLP to give myself a new pattern of behavior.  I wont go into to much detail about this, but I can give you a bit of an idea how to apply some of it to yourself.

First of all I picked a random word, mine was "rabbits", then I practiced squeezing my thumb and forefinger together (thumbs on top) and saying "rabbits", then, folding at the hips at the same time.  It does work to practice this standing on the ground, because when you go over a jump, your position should be such that if the horse was taken away, you should be standing well balanced on the ground anyway.

I will find some pictures of a really good jumping position and post them on here later.

Now when I am going towards a jump that I am particularly nervous about, you might here me counting, 1 2 3 4  5 6 7 8, to keep my rhythm, and then as I go over the jump, you will hear me yell out "rabbits"!  Sometimes I forget, and then you might see me "starfish" but I guarantee, if you see me "starfish" you will hear "rabbits" the next jump!

Also dont forget where your heels should be.  They are extremely important in jumping, if you have done your flatwork exercises you should find it fairly easy to make sure they are down.  Sometimes almost thinking of pushing slightly forward with your heels may help.

Both

Now the other things to remember for BOTH flatwork and jumping, is side to side balance as well.  This is where you want to be aware of the relative distance of various parts of your body to the ground.  eg, is one shoulder closer the ground than the other? is one earring closer than the other? is one foot closer to the ground than the other?

One of my favourite ways to improve side to side balance is making use of your hat brim.  ALWAYS be aware of your hat brim and how it relates to the horizon.  It should always be parallel to the horizon, if one side is lower than the other, you can guarantee that something else in your body, and therefore you horse, is going to be wonky.  When this happens over a jump, your horse will drop a leg, and it is likely he will drop a rail.  When you look to the next jump, make sure your hat brim stays even!

    

Are your hands still or should they move?

How often have you been told "keep your hand still"  "your hands are moving too much!"?  Well, come to a lesson with me, and you are more likely to hear, "move your hands, MORE!"  my students will attest to that.

Even more you will hear "MOVE your ELBOWS, open and close your elbows, MORE! - I want you to open and close your elbows so much it feel silly, exaggerate it so much you think I am going to tell you to stop.  Then you are probably doing it enough!"

Why is this so?  Why am I telling you to move your hands and elbows?

I want you to think about what your hands are attached to.  They are connected to the bit in the horses mouth.  The bit in the mouth moves with the horse's head.  Does the horse's head stay still or move?

Walk - allow your reins to go fairly loose (safely) and just let your horse walk out naturally.  Make sure it is a fairly forward active walk.  Think about how his feet are hitting the ground.  See if you can count the beats.  1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4.  Count it out loud, sing a song, row row row your boat, keep in time with his feet.  

Now look at his mane, notice how it is flopping as his head goes up and down?  Which foot is hitting the ground when his head goes up?  

Each time his front feet hits the ground, his head comes up and back.  So what is happening to the bit?  So what should your hands be doing?  Your hands should be moving back and forward in time with his head, this may take some practice, some people can just do it, some people it takes a bit of work.  Please make sure you persist with it, and please make sure it is coming from your elbows, not your shoulders.  Keep your chest up and elbows by your sides.

The easiest way to learn how to let your hands move with his mouth, is to start on a long rein, hardly touching his mouth.  Look up, chest up, relax, allow your hips to follow his movement, and allow your hands to move back and forward.  As you get the rhythm, slowly start to shorten your reins.  If you lose it, lengthen them out and start again.  

There is a time when you want to stop moving your hands, so experiment with it, get the nice forward rhythm, hands moving, steady contact, then make your movement smaller.  What happens?  What is this called?  No I am not going to tell you! go get on your horse and try it! then come and tell me :)

Trot  At trot, what does the horse's head do?  Does it move or stay still?  That's right, it stays still! so what should your hands do? Thats right, stay still!  The reason this is difficult, is that most of the time, we are in rising trot, so we are going up and down, not staying still.  

So the hard thing at trot is to keep our hands still while we go up and down.  Again, think about making your hands stay with his mouth, rather than moving with your body.  

This is not the easiest thing to get the hang of, but there are a few exercises you can do to help make it easier.  

1. Practice off the horse - get a dressage whip, hold it so the handle is touching the ground, you hold the tail, then rise up and down, keeping the handle on the ground and not letting the whip bend and flex.  You need to change the muscle memory, so if you are serious about developing great hands, do this exercise three times a day for five minutes, for two weeks.  Then you wont have to think about it, you will just do it naturally.
2. The next level of the same exercise is to take the whip, and get on a trampoline.  Keep it going at 150 bpm.  This is one of the best exercises I ever learnt from Colleen Kelly.
3. When you are riding -  touch your little fingers down and touch the horse's wither.  Be careful to keep your thumbs on top, your chest up, and don't tilt forward.  Now try and keep your fingers touching lightly as you rise up and down.  You cannot do it without opening and closing your elbows.  Once you have got it, lift your hands to normal position, and keep the elbow movement happening.  I will often have students do half a circle fingers down, half fingers up, half down, half up, till they can keep their elbows going without thinking about it too much.

Canter At Canter, your hands will move the same as in walk.  Think about how your horse's head moves, he has a big head nod at canter right?  So if I restrict it by keeping my hands still, what happens to his canter?

Again, you can use a similar tactic to what you did in walk.  Please make sure you are safe to canter, and please make sure if you are going to try this, you are in an enclosed area.  I started out in a round yard, on a long rein going into canter.  Sitting up straight, eyes up, chest up, and allow my hands to move in time with his head.  Then, just like at walk, slowly shorten your reins keeping your arms pumping back and forward.  

When you can confidently canter in the arena, your hands pumping back and forward, you can start using this to lengthen and shorten the stride.  That is for another day though, but I hope this helps you with the dilemma of "should my hands be still or moving?" question.

Gold Coast Horse fan - biomechanics assessment

Hello Gold Coast Horse fan and thank you for your submission.

The first thing I noticed about this picture is that your heels are definitely the lowest point! This is very important if you wish to compete in Dressage, as one of the rules (article 418) states exactly that, so well done there :)  I would just like to see your toes turned in a little more.

This is a lovely horse, and you can see by the foam in the mouth that this horse has been relatively relaxed earlier, but is showing resistance and tension in this moment captured by the camera (one of the downfalls of assessing a photo, you only get to see one small moment in time).

The main reason for the tension that I can see, is due to the angle between your elbow and the horses mouth.  See how it creates a broken line?  Your hand is pulled down and back towards your thigh, as if you are trying to get the horse to flex to the inside, and the horse is resisting.  Your hand has also rolled over, with your thumb the inside, rather than being the highest point.  This is very important, because it also states in the rules that "the thumbs must be the highest point of the hand".  

When you are trotting, your thumbs must be the highest point, and this allows your elbows to open and close in such a way that your hands stay still (different for walk and canter).  The horses head does not bob in trot, so your hands should not move relative to his mouth either.  There has to be a LOT of movement in your elbow to allow this to happen.  To get the feeling of just how much, try putting your little fingers down to touch the saddle for a circle or two, and try and keep them touching with the same pressure the whole time (thumbs still highest).  This will help you to bring into your consciousness how much your elbows need to open and close, remember the first step of learning? "Conscious incompetence", you have to become aware of what you are doing wrong! It feels awful, but you will then feel your horse relax his back and reach for the bit.  Then, you will learn to recognise the feeling, and start to look for it.  

See how your left hand is more forward, with the thumb the highest?  if your right hand matched it, we would be looking at a completely different picture.  If you want to ask the horse to flex to the inside, close your fingers rather than bringing your hand back.  Always use the lightest aid first, so the horse learns to respond to lighter and lighter aids.  Close you fingers, and as soon as he gives, relax your fingers.  Make certain you do not tense your elbow and shoulder! If he doesn't give straight away, just keep your fingers closed till he does! he will :)  and it will feel a lot nicer for him.  

Another part of this is ensuring that you are asking for the horse to come through from behind rather than pulling his head down, which i will be doing another article on soon.  

Thanks again for the chance to look at your picture, and I hope that helps.  I know it is a hard thing to get the hang of, but you will see a massive difference if you focus on ; Thumbs up, elbows bending, ask with fingers not arms.

Good Luck! Please feel free to ask any other questions you like as well :)

Kelly Tombs

www.postureseatbalance.com.au

Classy Minx - Biomechanics assessment

Hello Kathy, 

thank you for the opportunity to see you and your lovely horse in action.

Please feel free to write back and let me know what you think as well.  I am doing my exam this week, and most of it focuses on analysis of photo's, so i am trying to get a bit of practice in :)

Your horse is gorgeous by the way! I have never done any hacking, mostly because I don't know that I would have any idea about how to present a horse so beautifully.  It must take you hours!

You are a very nice rider, I really like the way you carry your hands.  They are nice and still most of the time, and particularly in the canter you move your elbows nicely.  

I can't quite tell from the grainyness of the video, but perhaps check that your thumbs are the highest point at all times? some of the work when you are going away from the camera, I can see specifically your right elbow coming away from your body, which usually means you hand has rolled over with your thumb to the inside. In  the Maryborough video in particular, the horses paces are actually a lot better than the Brisbane one, and she seems to have a better connection through the bridle.  In the canter in the Maryborough video, have a look at her nose as you come towards the camera, see how it swings left to right?  This is possibly another sign that you hand has rolled over with the thumb to the inside (outside hand I think).  Try and keep your hands very even, and be aware of her ears.  One of the exercises Collen has taught me is to imagine that my thumbs are torches, and they should both be pointing towards the bit, and the ears should be level at all times.  If you concentrate on keeping your thumbs highest, and level, and pointing to the bit, watch the ears, make sure they are level, I think you will improve the consistency of the contact, particularly if you continue to open and close your elbows all the time.  This is something you already do well.

The first thing I noticed when I looked at the photo's (apart from your horses amazing coat), then watched for it on the video, was that your stirrups are quite long!  Give it a try a bit shorter and see how you feel.  When you are sitting on your horse, get someone to help you, take a deep breath, look up, and breath out.  Get someone to then adjust your stirrups so that they are sitting just below your ankle nobble.  It looks to me that it might be one or two holes higher than what you are riding in now?  It will probably feel terrible to start with, but give it a couple of rides before you decide if you like it or not :) The other part of that is that your iron should be sitting on all five balls of you feet.  Can you see in the photo how they are angled quite a lot, with the outside of the iron a lot more forward than the inside?  move the outside of it back under the ball of your little toe, again, it will feel funny for a little while, but persist for a few days and see what you think.  

The reason I think this is very important for you, is that I think you will have a much steadier position and will find it a lot easier to get the horse to come under you, and therefore a steadier contact.  If you go to www.colleenkelly.net (she is who I am studying with) and have a look at her article on stirrup length, she has some photo's on there of the top riders.  You can see that they all have the same angle at the knee (120 degrees) which is actually more bent than a lot of us were taught to ride.  I was the same as you, I always thought I was trying to lengthen my stirrup and my leg, but in fact, you will ride much better with a little bit of angle in your knee.

One more thing to work on, is the one we are all guilty of, which is looking down!  I don't know if you read the other analysis I did for Shane? but same thing there :)  we always want to look down to see if the horse's head is in the right place, even though we dont really need to.  Focus on the brim of your hat, and make sure it is level with the horizon at all times, make sure the bottom of you ears are lower than the tip of you nose.  It is just a bad habit, like looking at the keyboard when you type, you don't really need to, you just do.  

The other things I look for are that your shoulders and hips are even, that one toe doesn't stick out more than the other, and a few other things like that. All of which you do really well, you hold your upper body nice and erect, it could possibly come back a little bit further, but I think if you work on that leg length, your upper body will come back the slight bit anyway.   You can also think of bringing your should blades together a little bit, which will also bring your elbows back a little, and will help your hands stay with the thumb on top.  

Don't try to do everything at once, just pick one thing, work on it for a few days, then pick another. 

It is really only small changes anyway, because you are already a really lovely rider.

Good Luck, and please let me know how you go?

Shane Rice riding Lyon Lodge Harmony - Biomechanics Assesment

Thank you to Shane Rice for being brave enough to let me post this and his assessment.  If you would like to have an assessment done for you please send a photo or short video, if you don't want it to be posted that is ok!

Assessment

You are a lovely rider, nice and soft, which allows the horse to move forward nice and freely. You look great, still and the horse looks comfortable. What awesome halts! they are just fantastic!

I could only find a couple of improvements you could make in a short analysis like this, but I hope you get something out of it. 

In the most of the trot work, try and open and close your elbows more. Looking at the trot work at the beginning, you can see the gap between your hands and the wither getting bigger and smaller each stride. This is because your hands are going up and down, only slightly, but will be fixed by opening and closing the elbow joint. Watching the trot work in the last section, you can see that some of the time you do this, and your hands are much stiller. Watch carefully, and you can see that each time your elbows open and close for a few strides, the horse also relaxes into the bridle more, and lengthens the back more for a couple of strides each time. If you can develop more consistency with this, the horse will start to build more elevation as well as the back swings more and allows more relaxation. Thumbs on top, and elbows a bit closer to the sides will make it easier too.

The major thing that we are all guilty of is looking down!! you are looking at the horses head the whole time, and this will be putting more weight onto the forehand. I know it is a hard thing to stop yourself doing, but the benefits are MASSIVE! one of the easiest ways to stop doing it is to get yourself a pair of old sunnies, and put tape over the bottom so you cant look down. Sounds strange, but Colleen swears by it! If you are not game to do that, then just use your awareness to be watching the brim of your hat more than the horses head. try to see if the brim of your hat stays level with the horizon all the time, especially around corners. This will have many other benefits as well as reducing the amount of looking down you do, including more balanced corners, and a straighter horse.

Third thing to work on, keeping your body on the vertical. Now I can't decide if this is something, or are you just sitting forward and light because this is a young horse? Most of your trot work and especially your canter work you are tilted slightly forward. Again, this will put more weight on the forehand. One of the things i get my students to do is to overcorrect and think of bringing the upper body slightly behind the vertical, just for a while, and you will find it easier to find the middle. If you have mirrors this is easy, or get someone to film or watch you and tell you when you are vertical. 

Last and finally, I will give you an exercise to do for at least some time everyday. Ride standing in your stirrups. I don't mean in a two point seat, but actually standing. If you can get your walk trot canter, then your transitions while standing, your seat and lower leg control will improve out of sight. This will improve the one other thing I see here, which is that your lower leg is a little unsteady. Watch the video, and focus on your heel throughout. The heel should always be the lowest point, not just to look pretty and because the rules say so, but also because that is how you get your weight down and have a solid seat. Each time your heel comes up, I could tip you off with my little finger :) 

Practicing the standing in your stirrups, you will have an "ah hah" moment, when all of a sudden you get the feeling of it, and then you will know it forever. Combine this with bringing the body slightly further back, and your hips will start to flow more with the horse, the horse will start to move more through the back under you, and then you can begin asking for shorten and lengthen while keeping the horse in balance, relaxed, and forward, and the power will start to come through.

All in all you are a very nice rider to watch, the horse is lovely, and I would like to see some more of what you do. Do you jump as well? you have a lovely feel for the horse :)

Hope that helps! if you have more questions please ask. Thanks for being brave enough to submit this publicly, and let me know if you are happy for these comments to be posted as well. I am only just starting out as a business, and I am just finishing my biomechanics course so I really appreciate the opportunity to show people what I do.


Shane has replied and told me that this horse is not his, he only got on it for the first time this particular day, and yes she is very green, and very forward moving which explains the forward light seat.  Thank you again Shane for sharing this with us :)

Thoughts about unconscious incompetence

I once read there were four levels of learning, which have always fascinated me.  I don’t know if you would necessarily call them levels of learning or levels of consciousness through which learning occurs, or perhaps even through which mastery occurs. 

The four levels to which I refer are

• Unconscious incompetence
• Conscious incompetence
• Conscious competence
• Unconscious competence.

The first state, being the one at which most of us spend most of our time in,  simply meandering along, not really realising we could be doing whatever it is in a better or more efficient or more effective manner.  When we choose to try and learn something, we often go in thinking we already know a fair bit, then realise hang on, there might be a lot more to this than we thought. 

I suppose this theory also goes to support the thought that “the more you know, the more you know you don’t know”.     It is often this stage where we feel useless and gangly and like we don’t really have a clue and can’t make our mind or mouth or body do quite what it is we were striving for. 

I have spent a lot of time being consciously incompetent in my riding.  I remember when I was a kid, I used to save up all my money to go on riding camps, and I thought I was damn good! Well, I was comparing myself to the other kids who had only been on one or two of these camps; I used to ride at least once every school holidays, so thought I had a great head start on them. How little did I know.

It was when I was about 20 and I decided that this was my passion, and I really ought to be trying to have a career in my passion, that I first became conscious of just how incompetent I was. 

I had to make a video of myself riding to send off to the university that I wanted to study equine studies at.  So off I went to have a lesson, and have someone video how great I was.  Well, that was rather discomforting.  Watching myself ride (dare I call it ride) or bounce along on the poor riding school pony, I quickly became aware that I should probably apply for the science degree rather than the one that you actually have to know how to ride for.  It took me years to get over that blow to my ego! I still to this day, feel gangly and uncomfortable riding, as if I don’t really know what I am doing, but when I watch myself, I actually don’t look that bad anymore.

Anyway, I digress. 

It is these stages that you must choose to pass through to get to that wonderful state of unconsciously competent.  It is only once you are aware that there is something to learn, that you will allow yourself to learn it.  Then you must pass through the ugly part of changing the habit. 

It is a lot easier to just keep on doing the same thing every day, rather than try and change a bad habit to something that you know may be better, but you feel “it wouldn’t work for me”, or “yeah but I just don’t do it like that”.  This is where practice and practice, and even more practice are invaluable.  I may want to change what my reaction is, or how my body moves, how I hold my hands, how I straighten my elbows around a turn, or stop my leg from doing the nag, nag, nags. I know what I am doing wrong, but when the situation comes up and I am trying to remember three things at once, I will naturally revert to the easiest, most habitual response that my body knows. 

To counter this, try exaggerating it, making the problem worse, it brings it further into your awareness, and helps you become more conscious of the incompetence.  The idea is, that you are trying to change your muscle memory, to actually affect the nerve pathways that control your muscles, this is a hard thing to change if you are not consistent.  So, exaggerating the problem can help you become more aware, more conscious, then,  consistency is the key.  Make sure you change what you are doing, and do it the right way.  If you repeat the correct movement over and over and over, then your body finds it easier and more natural to do.  Have you ever seen the way a young child is taught to swim?  The first thing in their swimming lessons every time is to sit on the steps and kick kick kick kick.  This is not because sitting on the steps is going to teach them how to float or hold their breath, but it is building nerve pathways that make their muscles remember the correct way to kick for the rest of their life.  If you have spent years moving incorrectly, it takes longer to make the new movement habitual, but it will happen.

You can also make a conscious effort to go more slowly.  This will give you more time to think about where  your body is going, how your hands, arms, shoulders are moving.  As you try out the new way of moving for the first time,  of course it will not feel right to you, and it will feel funny.  Don’t worry though, this is just your old habits trying not to let you give up on them.  You need to fight through that, and do it for at least 7 days! If it still feels funny then re-evaluate.  What I found though, was that it will became more and more comfortable.  Voila! You have now found Consciously Competent.  It will then take a while for it to become an unconscious thing, where it is just how you do it, how you move naturally, without any thought process. 

Once that happens, it is time to find the next thing to improve on.  I work on one or two changes a week, and have massively improved my riding.  I didn’t magically become great at it over night, it takes hard work, and feeling uncomfortable, and still doing the wrong thing many times.  But that’s ok, it’s all part of the learning process.  The first step is to become aware of it, conscious of the incompetence, so you can change it.

These steps can be applied to anything you want to improve at any scale.  What ever it is that I want to get better at, the first thing I ask myself, what part of it am I unconsciously incompetent at?

For lessons regarding any of these principles please go to www.postureseatbalance.com.au and either email or feel free to call me.

My course notes from the "evening lecture" dvd.

These are the notes I have taken while studying rider biomechanics, which I thought I would share with you.  While I have gone through and completed some editing, please be aware they are just notes that I have jotted down as I am studying, and are not intended to be a complete transcript of everything the lesson covers. I highly recommend, for further information either booking a lesson with me, or to order your own dvd's go to www.colleenkelly.net I hope you can gain something from them!  

Outcome - By the end of this course you will know the following

·      Posture and how it affects balance, balance can mean left and right, forward and back, up and down.

·      Dressage terms you might find on your test; On the forehand vs engaged,  eg is the surfboard nose down/ nose up, it is not a miracle! Lost balance / out of balance/ Timing. Left behind the movement/ in front of the movement – in jumping this is vital!

·      Loads levers and forces Eg carrying a bale of hay; do you carry it out in front of you? Or in close?

Science goes by rule and these rules are the same no matter where you go

·      Dressage also goes by rules, you can find the FEI rules here www.horsesport.org

 Dressage is made up of gymnastic exercises that can help in any sport, eg reining/ racing/ jumping. 

One of Colleen’s sayings “eventing is dressage on caffeine, western is dressage on valium, endurance is dressage on advil”

Dressage riders, we know what goes wrong both for the horse and the rider, because it is written on our score sheets all the time!

For the horse

1.     Irregular

2.     Not enough impulsion (it should be powerful, not slouching along like you have had five gin and tonics, but more like the guards at Buckingham palace)

3.     Not on the bit

4.     On the forehand - more weight on the front feet

5.     Not straight – ears level, does his nose dribble over one knee or in between?

6.     Falling in

7.     Flexion and bend- most people have too much flexion and not enough bend

8.     Tail swishing – this is a FAULT! And is easy to fix!

Health of the horse.

Health- do you know how to check the digital pulse? Do you do it regularly so you would recognise a change? – According to Jennifer Stewart Monash University,  50% horses have laminitis (osteoporosis) –2000 horses were studied, 49% had laminitis, Professor Pinjaa of the University of Queensland, found that it is caused by acidity in the stomach.  Colleen Kelly never feeds grain for this reason.  She also recommends chaffing your hay, which will not only aid digestion, meaning you will get more caloric value out of  your feed, but you will also have a much lower chance of colic.  Colic is often caused by balls of undigested hay caught in the gut. (my own recent experience - I have a very old pony “Misty” who recently had her teeth done.  She was given to us at a very old age, for my four year old son to be led around on.  The dentist said I was lucky she had not died of colic because her teeth had never been done in her entire life.  He said that the most likely reason I had never had any colic with her was the fact that I have never fed her hay, and,  I should make sure I never feed her hay or she will get colic as she cannot chew it up)

Make sure you understand the rules! Take the time to read them. Did you know if you fall off after the last salute, you cannot be penalised, just make sure you are mounted as you leave the arena!

For the rider

1.     Looking down

2.     Legs

3.     Hands

4.     Slouching

5.     Butt not in the saddle

6.     Heels up

7.     Upper body

8.     One stirrup lower

9.     Rein contact

10. Equipment and “other”

Hands will affect number 1-7 for the horse. 50% of the mark is freedom and regularity! Therefore your hands must be correct, they should be moving, not static, in walk and canter! If your hands are static in walk and canter, your horse will not be able to move freely and you will certainly affect their ability to maintain regularity (rhythm).

Straight trains – hands – first carriage – seat – second carriage – feet – third carriage

Legs are responsible for 1 through 8 of the horse! “aids must be invisible” he should be self impulsive, you should not be pushing along every stride. 

Legs can be responsible for on the bit “from a lively hock action . . .”

Fei rules state “inside leg MUST be forward”, it can be as forward as you like, you could not be marked down even if  your leg was more forward than the shoulder line.  Relates to not enough bend.

Falling in - more weight in inside stirrup.

Tail swish - jab, jab, jab, … learn to keep your legs still.

“Heel must be lowest point” – cant be when you are kicking!

Looking down -  1- 8  “body must be verticle”.  If you look down, your shoulders do not have the same freedom of movement, and, your horse is unable to bend and flex with the same freedom.   Looking up vs looking down (just your eyes alone) makes an 11kg difference on the front feet! Colleen has experimented with this exercise on a set of bathroom scales.   Sitting on a saddle stand with each foot on a bathroom scale, you can measure the difference in weight.  A great idea is to get a pair of half painted glasses.  It will stop you looking down, and will stop head tilt round corners! It actually creates an horizon for you to look at and control your ears level/ hat level etc. Try and be aware, as you go around a corner, if the peak of your hat stays level with the horizon?  A lot of people will tilt their heads as they turn, have a look at some photos of riders, and see if you can see the difference!  Then try it for your self, go on a circle, ride around with you inside ear closer to your shoulder, then outside, then middle.  Can you feel the difference?

Slouching – puts the horse on the forehand, will make it more difficult for him to turn, harder to get on the bit, also if there is wither pressure then tail will swish – check your saddle fit. Lift your breastbone, bring your shoulder blades together and keep your nose above your earrings.

Butt in the saddle – Is your belt level to ground?  If your butt is not in the saddle, your weight is more forward. 

The horses fitness will affect performance.  You should be able to feel ribs but not see them.

Heels up will affect 1 – 8

Upper body probably the most important for creating regular paces, at NO TIME should one seat bone be heavier than the other.

A weight aid, is seatbones level, but one foot heavier, eg sit and squash a marshmellow but keeping the seatbone the same.  It is not leaning in or out.  If you can develop this skill, your horse will find it a lot easier to be balanced and maintain rhythm around a corner, through change of rein etc.

One stirrup lower – will cause 1-8

What is the number one thing the judge looks for? REGULARITY!

How do you know if a horse is tracking up in canter?

Freedom to show natural paces . think of a clydie on concrete, 2 beat trot, 3 beat canter. (four-time music though, moment of suspension is another beat)

Regularity -  walk 92 – 95 bpm

-       canter 95 – 100

-       trot 150 – 155

Tempo speed rythm regularity bpm cadence

Paces -  speed / regularity -  your ability to stay in time to the music

PISR -  what a PISR!

Paces (regularity and freedom) – impulsion (music) – submission (hand position) Rider.

The ten commandments (article 418)

1.    Remember that all the movements should be obtained with invisible aids- use bells! If it rings, it cant be invisible!

2.     Without apparent effort of the rider – kicking and pulling is not “without apparent effort”, in showjumping remember you’re not jumping the fence, the horse is J (one of my personal major issues, trying to launch my horse over the fence)

3.     The rider should be well balanced, elastic, sitting DEEP IN THE CENTRE OF THE SADDLE, smoothly joining the rhythm of the horse with his loins and hips supple- think of the clock, your pelvis is a clock face, front is twelve, back is six, left is nine, right is three.  Don’t sit on your pubic bone! Women always end up on the 12 when nervous or something goes wrong! You can see deep in the centre of the saddle, is the humans tailbone and the horses tailbone in a straight line?

4.     Thighs and legs steady and well stretched downwards.  (120 degrees)  if your knee is over the front of the saddle pad, will lose one mark.  Look at the photos of the top five riders in the world, and you will see they all have the same angle at the knee.  A lot of the time people have their stirrups too long, and leg too straight! To get correct stirrup length,

-       Take feet out of stirrups,

-       Let legs hang as long as possible

-       Look up

-       Stirrups should be just underneath the ankle nobble

5.     The heels must be the lowest point, heels down keeps you on! Look at a photo of a saddle bronc rider! Look at Andrew Hoy over a jump, his heels are always the lowest point.  Why don’t you turn your toes out? Because you will fall off!

Make sure you watch the heel when you are turning, making sure the heel is still lowest point, (inside) and hat brim is still level! Should your legs be "Shoulder hip heel" or "inside leg on girth"?

Remember the outside rein “allows the bend”, if your comment is  “not enough bend” remember the outside rein is MEANT TO GIVE.  Try to use the image of lengthening the outside, rather than shortening the inside as you go around a corner.

Dressage is about making the outside line going from ear to hip 4 foot, stretch to 4 foot two, not making the inside ear to hip line go from four foot to three foot eight!

6.    The upper part of the body should be free and erect on the vertical. 

DON’T HIDE YOUR BELLY BUTTON!  Looking down puts the horse on the forehand. Ride with your nose above your ear.

Leaning sideways - your horses browband is  likely to be identical to your helmet! Is your helmet straight? Do you have one ear higher than the other? Look at photos of classical riders, see the hat brim is vertical even on a canter pirouette. Test this with, which earring is closer to the ground?

Leaning back- you will shorten the stride, and will not result in poll high, but third or fourth vertebrae high.

When you are standing with your arms by your sides your fingernails should point out, not forward.  How do you stand? If you had torches under your arms, would the beams cross over in front? Would one be higher than the other?

Inside rein to belly button can tip a horse over, “disengaging”, and too much flexion.  If you are trying to do a one rein stop, the right way is to put your hand behind your thigh.  Put a sticker on the hip joint, and bring your hand to it.  Four point safety stop, first -hand must be behind the thigh, two -look up, three - feet forward, four – half halt with outside rein. It must on AND off,  or the horse will rear! It will stop a horse! Please don't forget the "look up" part either!

How do you know if your spine is correct?  The front of your bra (or imaginary bra for the boys) should be about an inch higher in front than in back, make sure your belt is level front to back, and your nose is higher than your earrings.  Imagine you were carrying someone on your shoulders, you have to have a neutral spine, not a flat spine. 

Which shoulder is higher? When you look around, do your earrings stay level? 

Imagine you have a white bow on your bra, lift that!  Imagine you had gold buttons on your jacket like the Spanish riding school, can you see them all?  Are they equal distances apart all the way down?

How can you test rule number 6? Look at the clothes! Buttons, collars, sleeves, bottom of shirt, belt, are they even left and right? Front to back?

7.     The hands should be carried steady, low and close together.  Again, look at the best riders, and see the straight line from elbow all the way to the horses mouth. 

8.     The thumbs must be the highest point of the hand.  If not, you will be putting more weight on the forehand, and constricting the horse’s ability to use his front legs.

9.     The elbows should be close to the body, enabling the rider to follow the movements of the horse smoothly and freely (move your hand!).  The line between the shoulder and elbow should be vertical, however, the elbow should open and close in walk and canter, allowing the hand to move back and forwards with his head nod.

10.  There should always be the impression of harmonious co-operation between horse and rider. (is the horse happy?)

What are the best exercises I can do to improve my riding? 

Learn to stand with your feet forward.  Stand in your stirrups (straight not bent knee) then raise one leg, lower it, raise other leg, lower it, raise both legs.  It is easier than you think, IF your stirrups are straight,  if your heel is the lowest point and your leg is underneath you correctly. 

Get a small trampoline and a dressage whip, hold it so the tip touches the trampoline and you hold the top, then rise up and down to 155 BPM and keep the whip steadily touching on the trampoline.

If you feel you would benefit from a lesson based on these principles please contact me via my website www.postureseatbalance.com.au If you would like to take the course, go to www.colleenkelly.net

FEI LEVEL Dressage Tests