I had a great time at JRFS last week. Went down on Tuesday afternoon and very reluctantly came home on Friday evening.
I wound up riding a lovely quarter horse called Dalton with Vicky, James Roberts fiancée, teaching me. Her riding is immaculate so she was exactly the person I needed to help sort me out. She was basically very supportive saying that I just needed a few tweaks to get things right. At the time I just thought she was being kind.
We worked on my basic position a bit, getting my heels down and toes out a little, loosening my shoulders etc. At the end of day one I felt I had made some progress.
Day 2 and I got to ride two horses. Brennan and Dalton. The snag with Brennan was that the English saddle was too small for me and the stirrup leathers way to short. This was not a part of the lesson, just an opportunity to ride a different horse for a short time. I really struggled to get into canter. Eventually I shifted my weight right back so that I was sitting on the point of the cantle. The next attempt and straight into canter. Whilst this was not an ideal scenario it really brought home to me the importance of the relative position of my weight to the T14 vertebrae. Something James had always spoken off, but to feel the effect first hand was very instructive.
The snag with riding in this saddle was I developed a huge sore on my left calf. No pain no gain I guess.
Day 3 and I had decided to raise the stirrups a little. This really helped and I felt much more in balance and connected to Dalton.
During all this we were also working on riding with collection at walk, trot and canter. To ride a well schooled horse really helped to get the feel.
Obviously I wasn't doing to badly as I then got to ride Dalton out on a quiet hack whilst Josh and Shelagh rode two young colts on their first ride out. All went very uneventfully.
When I got home I was keen to try out my new skills on Filly. I started by raising the stirrups two holes. The difference was amazing. We had a really really nice ride. Very nice balanced canters. Upwards transitions that were coming from my thighs alone. Downward transitions... that's a different story and we need to work on them. Not that she was running off, just maintaining gait and direction. Not a huge problem and one it will be fun to work through with her.
All in all this was a great experience. Vicky was right, there was not much I needed to change to get a huge improvement. It was impressive that she spotted this. Rather than trying to change everything she just spotted the key faults that would release the rest of my body into a better position.
I wound up riding a lovely quarter horse called Dalton with Vicky, James Roberts fiancée, teaching me. Her riding is immaculate so she was exactly the person I needed to help sort me out. She was basically very supportive saying that I just needed a few tweaks to get things right. At the time I just thought she was being kind.
We worked on my basic position a bit, getting my heels down and toes out a little, loosening my shoulders etc. At the end of day one I felt I had made some progress.
Day 2 and I got to ride two horses. Brennan and Dalton. The snag with Brennan was that the English saddle was too small for me and the stirrup leathers way to short. This was not a part of the lesson, just an opportunity to ride a different horse for a short time. I really struggled to get into canter. Eventually I shifted my weight right back so that I was sitting on the point of the cantle. The next attempt and straight into canter. Whilst this was not an ideal scenario it really brought home to me the importance of the relative position of my weight to the T14 vertebrae. Something James had always spoken off, but to feel the effect first hand was very instructive.
The snag with riding in this saddle was I developed a huge sore on my left calf. No pain no gain I guess.
Day 3 and I had decided to raise the stirrups a little. This really helped and I felt much more in balance and connected to Dalton.
During all this we were also working on riding with collection at walk, trot and canter. To ride a well schooled horse really helped to get the feel.
Obviously I wasn't doing to badly as I then got to ride Dalton out on a quiet hack whilst Josh and Shelagh rode two young colts on their first ride out. All went very uneventfully.
When I got home I was keen to try out my new skills on Filly. I started by raising the stirrups two holes. The difference was amazing. We had a really really nice ride. Very nice balanced canters. Upwards transitions that were coming from my thighs alone. Downward transitions... that's a different story and we need to work on them. Not that she was running off, just maintaining gait and direction. Not a huge problem and one it will be fun to work through with her.
All in all this was a great experience. Vicky was right, there was not much I needed to change to get a huge improvement. It was impressive that she spotted this. Rather than trying to change everything she just spotted the key faults that would release the rest of my body into a better position.
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