Day #19 - “Puzzle-solving Thursday,” September 17

Lead change ladder:  Mind/Flexion/Weight/Feet 

Today we started in the lodge with John talking again about how we need to take what we have learned here home and LEAD BY EXAMPLE.  He said that no matter what people say, our relationship with our horse(s) - that special bond that only natural horsemen have - will be noticed by everyone.  He reminded us not to worry if we don’t have everything perfect here, but used the analogy of a tree - even before the leaves and fruit come, the roots are growing under the ground.

Then, Kathy took us up into the small coverall to play with exercise balls again.  This was fun - we once again reviewed “floppy,” “tense,” and “stacked” on the balls, while our partners stood behind and bounced us. Then, we practiced engaging our core and standing up on the bounce - good if you are centered and strong in your core.  We practiced purposely falling forward and backward when we stood and found it to be very difficult with an engaged core.  Then, we did a cool simulation where we started with a partner - each of us across from each other on a ball bouncing.  Our goal was to telepathically “get together” and stand up on the same bounce.  Once we got it with one partner, we were to play “musical balls” and move to different people.  It was very interesting - especially from a leadership perspective - who made the decision to stand?  How interesting!  It was pointed out that the most difficult partners were those of opposite personality types.

After this, we went back into the lodge and discussed flying lead changes, in preparation for our afternoon riding.  I took a lot of notes here and will simply copy what I have down:

1) transitions

- on HQ - (suspension rein) - walk/canter/walk is best

- counting the strides - 3 to 7 is optimal, as it gets the front end lighter - walk as long as it takes for the horse to get relaxed, then decide on number of canter strides, then back to walk

- suspension rein talks to HQ - shifts weight back

2) swinging the shoulders (freedom and mobility) - swing to rail, then back to center, then back to rail - SIT hind-end down - lightness in shoulders

- close upper inside leg to push shoulders back to rail (not lower leg!)

- weight on HQ, light FQ

- horse is arced to inside

- suspension rein (inside), then send back to rail with inside leg (maintain SAME suspension rein, or they will think about changing leads)

3) create a PATTERN (surprise!) - we talked about the serpentine pattern we would practice this afternoon - canter to center line, drop to walk, switch reins/legs/leads - canter depart around next arc to center line, drop to walk, switch reins/legs/leads - etc. etc.

- if you’re not “feeling it,” go back to fundamentals - get shoulder-swing and haunches-swing better!

4) flying lead change

- “slip-change” is common, where horse kind of “falls” onto correct lead and may not switch behind - if you are here - you are close!  go back to pattern and try to get more elevation first!

- most “natural” is freestyle (what horses do in pasture) - this was basis for Level 2 - type lead-changes

- what we are doing is L-3/4 - more “precision” and engagement from behind - more elevated

- if you are in “slip-change” phase - your weight is probably not back - you are probably still “throwing” yourself forward to try to “throw” your horse onto the other lead

Then, we watched another video of Linda teaching some students flying lead changes (with Remmer - another LBI like HotShot - I took copious notes!)

Linda started getting some impulsion with Remmer by doing “point to point” (walk, trot, and canter) with LONG breaks, then shortened the breaks as Remmer started developing some forward momentum.  She waited for stretch/lengthening strides at the trot and did a lot of swinging the shoulders in preparation - work on ingredients!

- quit on lightness!

- then serpentine - as you get good, make the arcs smaller and smaller - pretty soon you can do it on a straight line

- once your horse “gets it,” he will start offering changes - take them!

- use inside upper leg (not lower leg) to move shoulders over to rail, then lift your hip (same leg) and open to allow back to center

- practice steps in YOUR body - sitting, driving, wherever - get it right before you expect your horse to get it right!

After this, Kathy asked for volunteers to attempt this in the Big Top with their horses.  I volunteered, along with 7 or 8 others, so we tacked up and went up to the Big Top. I found that I need WAY more canter work than I’ve been able to do - which I already knew, being “facility impaired” it is hard for me to do this kind of work at home.  “Edie, engage  your core, lift your suspension rein, slow, slow, sit him down! now, switch reins and hips, lift, lift! wrap your thighs, bellybutton to your spine, truss your ribs, armpits down, triceps engaged, oh, and by the way, pick up your savvy string (this was around his neck) with your reins” - whew!  Talk about having to think of forty-leven things at once!  Still, HotShot put forth great effort and we learned a lot.  I know now that we have to work harder on our DOWNWARD transitions - who would have thought?!

After lunch, we had a choice to work on the “ingredients” (swinging shoulders/haunches, etc.) in Arena Grande, or the serpentine that we worked on this morning in the Big Top.  HotShot and I went back up to the Big Top, just to cement the pattern in MY mind so I wouldn’t forget.  It was much better this afternoon without so many people watching! I didn’t make him work long - walk/canter/walk is tiring for both of us - so I took him up the hill to graze for awhile with Kristen and Nikki and their horses.  Then, we went to the (mucky) pens, cleaned, fed, watered, etc. and off to dinner - another very busy day.

Tomorrow is my last day here - I can’t believe it!  At least they are letting us keep the horses here overnight on Friday, since they don’t have any new students arriving.  Next week is the last week of any classes for this season in Pagosa - the winter courses will be held at the Florida ISC.  I probably won’t get another chance to post now until next week after I get home late Sunday evening.  I’ll sure have a lot of licking and chewing to do for a LOOOOONNNNGGG time to come!

Edie

This entry was posted on 17. September 2009 at 18:57 and is filed under 2009 ISC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.