The Allure Of NOW

September 16, 2010 at 7:14 am  ·  Leave a Comment
Categories: Classical Riding, Lunge Line, The Classical Seat, The Training Scale, Training
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In nearly every facet of our culture, there’s a way to avoid waiting.  There’s always an answer to the question “Can I get it faster?”.  As a society, we don’t like to wait.  But if you want to be a good GREAT rider, and especially one that can improve horses, that very same question should never cross your mind.  It doesn’t matter if you’re breeding and training horses and your livelihood depends on having horses at a certain level, or if you’re a backyard rider with a fun hobby.  Depending on which way you look at it, this is either a blessing or a curse.  The bad part being, well, you have to wait. But the good part is that the waiting is a wonderful journey, and you know when you get somewhere with your horse that you’ve truly earned it through your riding and training.  Even more so with classical riding, with no gadgets or force to account for the progression.  Nope, it’s all you!

It’s necessary at some point to take the horse out of the equation.  Pure and simple, if you want your horse to be better, you have to be better.  The horse knows how to be a horse, but you weren’t born knowing how to ride.  I love this quote:

“The horse knows how to be a horse if we will leave him alone…but the riders don’t know how to ride. What we should be doing is creating riders and that takes care of the horse immediately.” ~ Charles de Kunffy

It illustrates so beautifully that there’s no point in looking for answers outside of yourself.  You have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and take responsibility for your riding.  If your horse isn’t improving or is having problems, it’s you.  (Barring any pain/physical issues going on with the horse.)  Even if you don’t feel like you’re doing anything wrong.  Even if you look in the mirror and you look good.  Even if your instructor massages your ego at every lesson.  If as a team you and your horse are seemingly stuck, guess what?  It’s you!

As classical riders, when things aren’t working, we know that we have to return to the basics.  But what does this mean?  What are the basics?  Obviously you have the training scale, but for some riders it’s difficult to (remember to) put it into practice or really understand why they aren’t able to, for example, keep a steady rhythm.  I like to always come back to the seat, as SO many problems are caused by the rider trying to accomplish something that requires their seat to be more independent than its current state.  It’s easy to forget that all good riding comes from the seat when you’re bopping along feeling like you’re riding pretty darn well.  Meanwhile your horse is mildly annoyed that you’re off balance, gripping, and in general disharmony with the movement.  Sometimes it’s not as plain as day, but it comes through in your inability to improve.

A light bulb should be coming on about now and you should be sprinting for the lunge line.  Yes, you.  As advanced as you are, you need to work at maintaining and improving your seat.  There’s nothing better if you have someone to lunge you.  If your instructor knows anything, he or she should be more than willing to watch you go in endless circles.

I was recently home for 6 weeks in MI, where my Mom and our horses are and where we’re moving back to hopefully by the end of the year.  I was so lucky to be able to ride 2-3 horses a day, 5-6 days a week.  Don’t underestimate the importance of getting on different horses either.  Every chance I got, I got on the end of that lunge line and tried to improve my seat.  Increasing and slowing the gaits.  Transitions with arms out like an airplane.  Transitions with hands on my helmet.  Transitions with arms behind my back.  Vaulting. (Balance is essential to a good seat and it’s FUN!)

And at the end of those 6 weeks, I think I improved.  A little.  It’s daunting to realize how much time and effort you have to put into this sport to get better.  It’s sometimes hard to realize you have to work so hard and wait. But don’t you think it’s worth it? :-)

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By The Seat Of Your Pants

August 17, 2010 at 11:14 am  ·  1 Comment
Categories: Articles, Classical Riding, The Classical Seat
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Communicating By The Seat Of Your Pants
By: Faith Meredith
Director, Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre

Sometimes a super horse appears at the events where our instructors are showing that really catches my eye. He is already such a nice mover or I can see that he has the potential for three good gaits as he progresses. The following year, however, I might not even recognize the same horse much less tag him as a rising star. His flowing gaits have become short and choppy. His soft jaw and relaxed back are now clamped and tight. Instead of moving forward in his training, he has deteriorated. When a setback like this happens, the reason is often that his rider does not have an independent seat.

Developing a truly independent seat is the ultimate goal for a rider. It is not about looking pretty on the horse. It is about being in the right position with the right control over your own body in order to be able to communicate clearly and logically with the horse. If your horse feels the bit move in his mouth, it should be because you are deliberately asking him for a specific shape or a cadence or a degree of collection, not because you have momentarily lost your balance or have become tense somewhere in your body.

Obviously, if you are bouncing around on the horse’s back or grabbing at his mouth in order to keep your balance, that “noise” is what he is going to listen to. If the way you are sitting or moving on his back creates pain or discomfort for the horse, then any communication is gone. Without an independent seat, it is impossible to properly influence the horse’s mind and body in order to train it for any higher level equestrian sport from dressage to eventing or cutting or reining.

The rider must master six distinct skills as she or he develops an independent seat. These skills have to be mastered in order because each builds on the ones previously mastered to create a solid foundation like the trunk of a tree. In fact, we call it the riding tree. With a firm base, the rider can confidently branch out into any higher level equestrian sport. If the rider tries to branch out without that solid trunk beneath her, however, the branch is eventually going to break or maybe the whole tree will topple.

The six skills to be mastered are, in order:

  • relaxation (both physical and mental)
  • balance
  • following the motion of the horse
  • learning to apply the aids
  • learning to coordinate the aids
  • using the aids to influence the horse

It takes many hours of riding on many different types of horses to develop a truly independent seat. Even students in an intensive riding program like the one here at Meredith Manor who have access to a great variety of horses may spend their first year mastering just the first three stages of the riding tree. Every student progresses through each stage at a different pace depending on his or her own physique, temperament, and previous riding experience. Sometimes a student masters one level very quickly and easily only to find herself on a plateau at the next level for weeks or even months. It doesn’t really matter as long as she strives toward that ultimate goal of an independent seat. Once a student achieves that, he or she can move confidently into any riding discipline on any horse.

One of the big problems in the horse industry is the fact that many amateur riders and even some professionsals do not develop the independent seat that they need to correctly influence a horse. When that happens, their limitations end up limiting the horse.

Now every horse has his limits, both physical and mental. But those limitations should be determined by the horse’s conformation or his athletic ability or his temperament, not by the rider’s inability to stay in balance over the horse or to follow the motion or to coordinate the application and timing and degree of a set of aids.

I have seen even professional trainers trying to ride upper level dressage horses who cannot follow the horse’s motion at an extended trot. The minute that happens, they lose communication with the horse. They cannot communicate with the horse and influence one stride and the next and the next because they cannot follow the motion. Their “trunk” is weak. The same thing would happen with a reining horse rider trying to set their horse up for a spin or a rollback. If the rider is not relaxed, balanced and following the horse’s motion as the horse runs down the arena, he will not be able to coordinate the aids at the end of the slide to communicate with the horse and influence the smooth transition to the next movement he wants the horse to perform.

Having a truly independent seat means mastering all six skills at all three gaits on any kind of horse. As you look along the trunk of the riding tree and evaluate your own progress, you may find that you have some of these skills on every horse but you only have others on some horses at some gaits. Don’t be discouraged. It takes a lot of hours in the saddle, a lot of mental concentration, a lot of small corrections of a lot of mistakes, a lot of feedback from your horses and your instructors to develop an independent seat. But what a high when you achieve it! Just keep riding.

© 2001-2010 Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre. All rights reserved.
Faith Meredith has successfully trained and competed through FEI levels of dressage during her more than 30 years as a horse professional. She currently coaches riders in dressage, reining, and eventing in her capacity as the Director of Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre (147 Saddle Lane, Waverly, WV 26184; 800.679.2603; www.meredithmanor.edu), an ACCET accredited equestrian educational institution.

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