Horses
I had my final riding lesson yesterday with Michelle, my instructor's mentor. Michelle has been visiting from Mexico, where she lives and works with horses, mainly she's doing rehabilitation work right now. She's an amazing instructor and I don't think I've ever met someone with such a good eye. She's amazing at seeing where the rider is holding tension and noticing exactly where they are off balance.
Yesterday the tension was in my hips. I think starting running again is going to change my riding for awhile until my body adapts. She helped me with the most amazing stretch that actually got the outside of my hip, and that's a hard spot to stretch.
Anyways, we were working on Friday, getting her more willing to accept the bit and trust and not just go into a forced tense frame. We're making progess, but it is hard. Friday is sensitive and smart. The smallest mistake on my part and she wants to pop right back into that tense frame. This is something we're going to be working on for a long time, I think.
Michelle had me working on keeping the lightest, floating touch on her mouth. We spent a long time on that and I think I made some good progress on my hands and how good of a feel they have.
We stopped the moment Michelle noticed I was getting tired. Friday tends to break into a trot easily. Especially if she's tense. Or if the rider has any tenseness. I was working hard to the whole lesson to break my habit of gripping with my knees. When Friday broke into a trot twice and each time I grabbed with my knees, Michelle noticed. She told me what I was doing. Let me ride through one more where I only gripped the tiniest amount and she called it good there.
She said that the knee gripping is a muscle memory thing. I'm used to doing it. And fighting it once I'm tired anywhere isn't going to work. It made a lot of sense. And I didn't realize I was even tired until I went to get out of the saddle. Yup, I actually was tired. I was using my muscles differently.
I can understand why Mc. is such a good teacher after working with Michelle. Mc. has learned a lot from her, I can tell. They both have the same very positive, very gentle teaching style. And they both have an amazing eye for balance and tension.
I look forward to taking another lesson with Mc. once Michelle is gone. I think we're going to be working on the new stuff we've learned for a long time.
Yesterday the tension was in my hips. I think starting running again is going to change my riding for awhile until my body adapts. She helped me with the most amazing stretch that actually got the outside of my hip, and that's a hard spot to stretch.
Anyways, we were working on Friday, getting her more willing to accept the bit and trust and not just go into a forced tense frame. We're making progess, but it is hard. Friday is sensitive and smart. The smallest mistake on my part and she wants to pop right back into that tense frame. This is something we're going to be working on for a long time, I think.
Michelle had me working on keeping the lightest, floating touch on her mouth. We spent a long time on that and I think I made some good progress on my hands and how good of a feel they have.
We stopped the moment Michelle noticed I was getting tired. Friday tends to break into a trot easily. Especially if she's tense. Or if the rider has any tenseness. I was working hard to the whole lesson to break my habit of gripping with my knees. When Friday broke into a trot twice and each time I grabbed with my knees, Michelle noticed. She told me what I was doing. Let me ride through one more where I only gripped the tiniest amount and she called it good there.
She said that the knee gripping is a muscle memory thing. I'm used to doing it. And fighting it once I'm tired anywhere isn't going to work. It made a lot of sense. And I didn't realize I was even tired until I went to get out of the saddle. Yup, I actually was tired. I was using my muscles differently.
I can understand why Mc. is such a good teacher after working with Michelle. Mc. has learned a lot from her, I can tell. They both have the same very positive, very gentle teaching style. And they both have an amazing eye for balance and tension.
I look forward to taking another lesson with Mc. once Michelle is gone. I think we're going to be working on the new stuff we've learned for a long time.