One of the key aspects to improving our riding is understanding body control… or, to be more specific, in isolating our body parts. Trained dancers and gymnasts are quick to pick up on this, even if they’re beginning riders, because their bodies are literally used to following instructions. Knowing that the beauty of the whole lies in the details, they’ve learned to move ‘just one little thing and keep it there’.
If you’re new to lessons, or are just restarting for the fall and winter, here are a few tips to make your learning less frustrating and maybe, help get more bang for your buck.
First and foremost, make sure you feel safe with your teacher and that you can hear.
These two things are so simple, yet so often overlooked. We don’t learn when we are worried and we can’t learn as well when we miss key words and phrases. Or perhaps we can, despite these? Our learning will just take more time, money and resolve….
If you’re feeling frustrated with a lack of understanding, it is okay to stop and ask the coach if he or she can explain it differently. You are not dumb! Don’t panic.
Many of us struggle in confusion over the simple commands of ‘left’ and ‘right’.
If you suspect this might be you – and I am one – in a quiet moment, just simply let your coach know. He or she might have to come up with a different way to describe left and right, by using the words ‘inside’ or ‘outside’, or even putting a piece of green tape on the left rein and red tape on the right. If you are panicking, feeling like you’re holding the rest of the class back, it is very hard to learn. It is also next to impossible to foster ‘feel’ when our cave man brain takes over.
A typical lesson might consist of a warm up, a review and a cool down… but the meaty part will usually be a new exercise or concept. Learning something new is either facilitated or hindered by how much our lesson horse knows and likes his job. This is why so much can be achieved when we pair ourselves, as students, with an equine schoolmaster. We can do and learn and feel, without struggling with a less-than-obliging horse.
A beginning rider on either a green or reluctant horse is the hardest learning and teaching combo there is.
If I trust my horse and can hear my teacher, I am free to focus on myself.
I have made this simpler by dividing my body into quadrants. Top and bottom, left and right. My head is the cherry on top! The trick is in learning to separate these quadrants, so that they may run independently of one another… so that they will do what they’re told.
I will have to teach my mind to exert a control over each part of my body… and then, teach my body to obey my mind. This sounds so simple and yet, it is the one thing most new riding students – particularly adults – struggle with.
By learning how to think of my body in pieces, rather than a whole, it allows me to approach new skills in stages, rather than in one overwhelming chunk.
Let me explain. Most riders (no matter their experience) who are new to lessons will actually have to relearn how they use their hands and legs independently. That old trick of patting our tummy and rubbing our head is a good one! This means that we can actually teach ourselves – while off the horse – to be able to use the inside rein along with the outside leg… or keep a soft feel on the reins while vigorously using our legs… or keeping our legs still, despite all the action. The permutations are endless – all the while keeping ourselves centred, in balance, upon the horse.
If we were learning how to ride motorbikes, we could stop here. But we’re not, because all these quite mechanical movements now need to be refined with ‘feeling’. All of those infinite degrees of holding and giving, or pressure and release. ‘Feel’ allows us to ride with dignity and empathy on these large, sentient beings… and not as obnoxious and demanding lumps of cargo.
This is where asking a friend to video our lesson (the juicy bits, anyway) is such a benefit.
Riding in a space with good mirrors is also a huge help. We can see if the changes we thought were so major, were enough. Muscle memory has a funny way of playing tricks on us. One fraction of an inch of change suddenly feels like a quarter-mile! It helps to see if we’re getting forward as much as our teacher might want, or how much we need to actually adjust our bodies. Just as importantly, we can actually see what effect our methods have upon the horses we are riding and learning on. Are we being effective with our four quadrants or are we merely annoying our horses? The latter happens more often than we’d care to think.
Isolating body parts is a term that simply put, means ‘what one thing do I need to change and how am I going to do it?’ So often, that one thing that has us struggling in the saddle comes clear as day… if we can stop, dismount and walk ‘n’ talk our way through it, without the horse.
‘This hand up a little to see the inside eye… this leg back a little just to hold… head up so I can see… now this leg to ask for some energy…’ By breaking it down, vocalizing, manually moving each body part, we can understand. Our teacher can see where we’ve got it and where we maybe don’t.
Isolating our body parts, I have found, is key in learning – and teaching others – to ride.
Please share any stumbling blocks you’ve felt while riding, things that just seemed to get in the way of your learning. We’ll see if we can explore some solutions in an upcoming blog post. Happy trails, Lee.