I have been having a little trouble with my canter seat. It has been improving but not to the level I would like or Ritchie demands. Now I could spend hours cantering around on Bonitao incorrectly or get some instruction to fix it.
So back to basics. It seemed to me that what I needed was a very forgiving, very stable and very very patient mount. Not knowing any horses with the required properties we decided I should go and ride Merlin. Now Merlin is not like a normal horse, he doesn't eat drink or poo. He is made of plastic, metal and has a few motors but no heart or brain (save for a computer). He is stabled at Shardeloes Equestrian Center near Amersham and come with a very very good instructor called Sharon.
The theme for todays lesson to work on my basic seating position and then see how that translated into riding at canter. Merlin can move with walk, trot and canter gaits. Sharon spent a long time just looking over my natural seating position and found I sat very slightly to the left. Having corrected that we then moved onto unlocking my body, which has always been a little stiff. I would never have guessed that the key to this was my head position. My eyes were pointing in about the right direction but there are many combinations of shoulder and neck flexions that can get them there. For me I needed to feel as though my head was in collection, just like a collected horse would appear. As soon as I did this my shoulders unlocked and so did my back. Suddenly I was in a much more balanced pose. I would not say more comfortable as I am not used to the position yet, but definitely in a more controlled position. It would have taken hours of riding to find this spot, but in a nice warm room, with a full length mirror it was easy. I am not even beginning to suggest I now have the perfect riding position, but a major obstacle in achieving that goal has been removed.
From Shardeloes we returned to our yard at Shana and brought out our real horse Bonitao. Under the watchful eyes of Kath I attempted to put the lesson to use. Without Kath this would definitely have failed, but after 20 minutes of riding I really started to feel in a better place, and so did Bonitao. The cantering was much improved and I had a few moments where I could really feel what it should feel like all the time. I can't wait to practise some more on both Merlin and Bonitao.
In case anyone is interested here is the link to their website. Just click on mechanical horse. http://www.shardeloesfarm.com/home.htm
So back to basics. It seemed to me that what I needed was a very forgiving, very stable and very very patient mount. Not knowing any horses with the required properties we decided I should go and ride Merlin. Now Merlin is not like a normal horse, he doesn't eat drink or poo. He is made of plastic, metal and has a few motors but no heart or brain (save for a computer). He is stabled at Shardeloes Equestrian Center near Amersham and come with a very very good instructor called Sharon.
The theme for todays lesson to work on my basic seating position and then see how that translated into riding at canter. Merlin can move with walk, trot and canter gaits. Sharon spent a long time just looking over my natural seating position and found I sat very slightly to the left. Having corrected that we then moved onto unlocking my body, which has always been a little stiff. I would never have guessed that the key to this was my head position. My eyes were pointing in about the right direction but there are many combinations of shoulder and neck flexions that can get them there. For me I needed to feel as though my head was in collection, just like a collected horse would appear. As soon as I did this my shoulders unlocked and so did my back. Suddenly I was in a much more balanced pose. I would not say more comfortable as I am not used to the position yet, but definitely in a more controlled position. It would have taken hours of riding to find this spot, but in a nice warm room, with a full length mirror it was easy. I am not even beginning to suggest I now have the perfect riding position, but a major obstacle in achieving that goal has been removed.
From Shardeloes we returned to our yard at Shana and brought out our real horse Bonitao. Under the watchful eyes of Kath I attempted to put the lesson to use. Without Kath this would definitely have failed, but after 20 minutes of riding I really started to feel in a better place, and so did Bonitao. The cantering was much improved and I had a few moments where I could really feel what it should feel like all the time. I can't wait to practise some more on both Merlin and Bonitao.
In case anyone is interested here is the link to their website. Just click on mechanical horse. http://www.shardeloesfarm.com/home.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment