Post by moosmum on Apr 15, 2011 8:29:15 GMT 1
Was fab ;D Lou came to visit yesterday and meet me and Maggie. She watched me ride around for a bit and then we talked about how my seat legs etc are blocking forward movement through too much tension. Not the nervous sort but just years of rigidly sitting tall heels down and holding myself too stiffly some of which is due to ongoing hip and lower back pain typical of oldies like me who have been riding for so long and probably not in the best way!!
Anyway she got me to completely relax and to feel for the rise and fall of Maggies footfalls through my seat bones which as Mags is like a large swinging boat was quite easy.The difficult bit is to keep the relaxation and the go with the movement because as soon as I took my concentration off what I was doing my old blocking seat returned which slowed everything down. Lou then got me to halt by sqeezing my bottom she used a lovely analogy its like trying to stop a f*** ;D but it works!
Lou was asking Mags to walk on by encouraging her from behind so I could concentrate on going with the movement. The halts which although sound not too hard as its quite tricky changing my ingrained riding style. However Maggie definately started to step out more as the lesson progressed even though she did keep trying to wander to gate or towards Lou for a chat whilst I'm concentrating on not blocking her in fact I had no control over the direction which was very funny but hey ho one thing at a time. Trot was not so successful at the start but after a few goes we did have some success towards the end, Lou recommends only a few strides say 6 or so then back to walk and build up from there or its very easy to go back to the rigid style and the key with this is to be consistent. The idea is to get Maggie's attention on me by being as subtle as possible and going with the movement because what we have been doing is the equivelant of me shouting and her ignoring me , with me nag nag nag with my legs and Maggie's attention anywhere else as her hooves are in her ears!!
It was a great lesson and I cant wait for my next one next wednesday got lots of practise to do inbetween. Thanks Lou x
Anyway she got me to completely relax and to feel for the rise and fall of Maggies footfalls through my seat bones which as Mags is like a large swinging boat was quite easy.The difficult bit is to keep the relaxation and the go with the movement because as soon as I took my concentration off what I was doing my old blocking seat returned which slowed everything down. Lou then got me to halt by sqeezing my bottom she used a lovely analogy its like trying to stop a f*** ;D but it works!
Lou was asking Mags to walk on by encouraging her from behind so I could concentrate on going with the movement. The halts which although sound not too hard as its quite tricky changing my ingrained riding style. However Maggie definately started to step out more as the lesson progressed even though she did keep trying to wander to gate or towards Lou for a chat whilst I'm concentrating on not blocking her in fact I had no control over the direction which was very funny but hey ho one thing at a time. Trot was not so successful at the start but after a few goes we did have some success towards the end, Lou recommends only a few strides say 6 or so then back to walk and build up from there or its very easy to go back to the rigid style and the key with this is to be consistent. The idea is to get Maggie's attention on me by being as subtle as possible and going with the movement because what we have been doing is the equivelant of me shouting and her ignoring me , with me nag nag nag with my legs and Maggie's attention anywhere else as her hooves are in her ears!!
It was a great lesson and I cant wait for my next one next wednesday got lots of practise to do inbetween. Thanks Lou x
After reading your first thread
