Straightness!!!

So have you ever thought you knew something only to realize later how clueless you were?  I have taken many lessons from fabulous trainers who would tell me how important straightness is.  Every day we would work on my position being straight and my horse being straight.  I have a tendency to sit heavier in my left seat bone and over bend my horse’s neck to the left.  During this period of time I was fortunate enough to have mirrors in the arena so I could see what I was doing.  You would think the constant reminder from my frustrated trainer and the visual of my mistakes would fix this issue.  Well you would be wrong.

Recently I’ve discovered how horses can sometime teach better than any instructor.  Currently there are two mares I’m riding.  Both are super nice and very different to ride.  Belle is without a doubt one of the most articulate teachers I’ve had.  If I stop swinging in my seat or sit too heavy she stops going forward.  If I don’t ride straight, balanced and symmetric she will quickly become crooked and lose the contact with the right rein.  Saltira on the other hand tends to be much more polite.  She is so kind that she’s always good but when I apply what Belle is teaching my I’m amazed at how great Saltira can feel.

Today was a particularly interesting day and as I sit here to reflex I’m realizing how many times I’ve been told what I’m now finally feeling.  It’s like a light bulb going on.  So this is what is meant by straightness!!  How lightness and collection are impossible without first achieving straightness in my horse.  Likewise straightness in my horse is impossible if I as a rider do not start by being straight.

In a lesson with Ali Brock  I had the absolute pleasure and honor of watching her school my big chestnut, Bo.  She very quickly pointed out how Bo could not properly turn.  Bo struggled with maintaining a true connection.  Particularly when traveling to the left he couldn’t maintain the contact with the right rein, turn his shoulders left and bend around the left leg.  In other words at a very basic level my horse could not travel in straightness.  Standing on the rail watching Ali ride Bo was one of the most amazing things.  During that ride I watched Bo go from a nice horse that was going around just blah to WOW!  As Ali was able to get Bo to make a true connection it was like he grew a foot in front and just got fancier and fancier!  All I could think was “Is that really my horse?”

Unfortunately I didn’t know enough and was not skilled enough to replicate this at home.  I’ll be honest it’s frustrating to see how great your horse can perform but then have no ability to achieve it.  I mean lets face it Ali is an Olympian and I’m just continuing to struggle with the basics.   However this did show me what was possible and with continued instruction and now that visual in my mind I would plug away day in and day out at the very basics.  During that time I feel like my riding took a huge leap forward.  I finally was starting to FEEL what I had been told so many times in the past.  Before I could fix my horse I needed to fix myself.

Currently I’m fortunate to ride at a beautiful facility close to my home.  Unfortunately it is also over two hours away from my trainer.  This leaves me working without eyes on the ground most of the time.  To help myself I started bringing out my video camera and leaving it on the wall while I rode.  It wasn’t perfect  but is was enough for me to see if the feel and visual were at all similar.  No doubt see is believing.  There was no arguing I wasn’t sitting straight and my horse also wasn’t straight.  Even if I didn’t go home and watch the entire ride, just being able to see snippets of it was enough to tell me what I needed to know. I needed to stop over bending my horses neck left as a futile attempt to “supple” my horse, I was collapsing my right hip and about one thousand other things that needed to be fixed.

Today I rode Belle first.  She was her usual blunt self.  If I didn’t ask correctly she wouldn’t give me the right answer.  Currently my biggest problem is “throwing away” my right rein and letting my left leg slip back to far.   When I can maintain the connection to the right rein the feeling is AMAZING!  Belle gives me the feeling that she can do anything if I keep her straight and maintain the connection to my stupid right hand.  The minute I drop the connection on the right she becomes stiff in her back and hangs on my left hand.  The feed back is immediate.

After Belle I rode Saltira.  We’ve been practicing our canter-walk-canter transitions.  To the right today the feeling was amazing.  Traveling left I struggled with not throwing away the right rein and riding to it with my left leg.  It seems like such an easy concept, give the left rein and maintain the connection with the right rein.  Um NOT! Or at least not for me.  If anyone was around to hear me at all during my ride I’m guessing they thought I had lost my mind.  As we were cantering left and practicing our transitions I kept saying out loud “do not give up the right rein!”  It was my mantra today.  You know what happened?  I had the BEST canter-walk-canter transitions on Saltira that I have ever had.  She felt straight!  Because she was straight she could sit and maintain the forward activity.  The feeling was amazing.  This is why I go out every day and practice the boring stuff like straightness.

How I wish I could have figured this out years ago.  I’ve had so many really great trainers try to teach me how to achieve straightness in my horse.  These trainers were very eloquent in the explanations.  Mentally the understanding was there.  Unfortunately I learn best by seeing and feeling.  Watching Ali ride Bo opened a door for me.  The next huge step forward was getting the opportunity to ride Belle.  Can’t help but mentally beat myself up for not figuring this out sooner with prior horses .  I think how much better we could have been!  Well that’s enough self pity.  Now I can be that much better for my current and future horses.  I love this journey!