From: Anne
Hello Jessica. I would first like to say how much I enjoy being on the list. I have a 13 year old TB. He raced for a while and then was used for endurance. His owners then didn't have time for him and he was left without being ridden on a continuous basis for a couple of years. He was used for childrens camps and if someone was short a horse.
I have had him for a couple of years now and we get along great. For the first while I only hacked him on the weekends or when I could get the time. I have more time now and I've been riding 4 days a week since January and done quite a bit of schooling in the arena. One of the other riders has been helping me and we are doing pretty good (considering his prior training and that I haven't ridden since pony club days - a long time ago).
Anyway, I'm having occasional lessons now and my teacher tells me I lean WAY too much. It's like I'm riding a motorcyle. She rode my horse and said he is very heavy and leans way over. She thinks he has perhaps always done that and I've just learned to lean with him. I try and try to catch myself doing it but it is second nature to me now.
She told me that each time I ride do some work without stirrups, a sitting trot in small circles and hopefully over time I'll catch myself leaning and will correct myself.
Is there any other exercises we can do that will help us. I think if we can get this corrected our lives will become easier. Is there maybe some things we can do while we hack since the nice weather is coming and we are looking forward to getting outside again? Any help will be appreciated. Anne
This is really quite a common problem with horses and riders who haven't learned to bend and balance correctly. Don't worry, you CAN learn to stay straight and balanced on your horse, and your horse CAN learn to bend and balance around his turns instead of leaning into them like a motorcycle.
A horse that leans into its turns is a horse that is unbalanced -- instead of bending its body and keeping its weight over all four feet, it will overbalance its body to the inside of the turn. Its body weight -- and yours -- will then be just over its inside legs, with much less weight on the outside legs. If a horse in this position puts a foot wrong, or if the rider shifts her position suddenly, the horse can go down. It's not safe, and it's not comfortable, and it puts a LOT of strain on the horse's inside legs whenever you make a turn.
One thing that will help a lot is for you to learn to evaluate your balance OFF the horse. Yoga is wonderful for this -- so is Tai Chi. For your balance ON the horse, try some of the Centered Riding exercises (Sally Swift's book CENTERED RIDING and her videotapes, CENTERED RIDING I and CENTERED RIDING II, are all available), and take a Centered Riding clinic if you can find one in your area. On your own, practice sitting tall and standing tall and doing "torso twists" -- extend both arms out to the sides, at shoulder height, look straight ahead, and swivel your entire torso to the right, then to the left, etc. Keep your balance and your position while you do this -- keep the arms up and straight, and keep looking straight ahead, so that your head is in line with your torso and the two move together. This is going to help you -- a LOT -- in your riding.
I don't think that working on small circles is a good idea -- I would suggest that you work on large circles, perhaps by riding around the arena and making a large circle when you get to each end. It will be easier for you to make the necessary corrections and changes on a larger circle, because the correct bend will be a more gradual, gentle one. This will be easier on you mentally, and also physically -- and MUCH easier on the horse. Remember that you will be asking him to use his body in a new and different way, and that he may get a little sore at first. So gradual, incremental changes will be easiest for both of you.
By improving YOUR position and balance, you can make a big change in your horse's position and balance. Horses have a lovely way of staying under our weight, whether our weight is in the right place or not. ;-) Take advantage of this when you practice your new balanced position on horseback. Think about the way your horse should be bent on a curve -- his inside shoulder will be a little bit BEHIND his outside shoulder. Then think about the fact that your shoulders should always parallel your horse's shoulders, and you'll know that when you are ready to begin your circle or turn, you will want to bring your own inside shoulder back to match the postion of your horse's shoulder, and to match his balance. Practice the "torso twists" on horseback -- at a standstill at first, then at a walk -- until you are comfortable with the action. Then practice making turns and circles by TURNING your body instead of LEANING to one side. Think about drawing a circle on the ground -- you want your horse to follow the track of that circle exactly, with his inside feet on the INSIDE of the line, and his outside feet on the OUTSIDE, and his balance distributed equally. As you reach the end of the arena, be conscious of your balance in the saddle, and as you ask your horse to bend and turn, keep the pressure on your seatbones and stirrups EVEN, and just swivel your torso slightly so that your eyes look around your circle and your inside shoulder comes back to match your horse's. If you need to, and you feel safe doing it, close your eyes for a moment and focus on where your weight is. You'll learn to notice when you are leaning in, because you'll feel much more weight on your inside seatbone and inside stirrup! And you'll learn to correct your balance by rebalancing your weight.
Another helpful hint is to find something in your arena that is at your eye-level when you are sitting straight and balanced. Then keep your eyes at that same level when you make your turns and circles. If you notice that you are looking straight out at a LOWER level whenever you circle or turn, you're leaning in!
One of the first things you will notice, when you start doing this correctly, is that your circles will be bigger -- when you stop leaning in, and your horse stops moving in to stay under your weight, the circles will stop getting steadily smaller. Then you can practice shifting your weight slightly -- to the outside to make your circles larger, and to the inside to make them smaller. This will show you exactly how much effect even a tiny weight shift has on the horse!
It will take a little time for you and your horse to learn how to do turns correctly, and doing it correctly will feel "wrong" at first because it won't be familiar. But if you keep paying attention to your own position and to your horse's, and if you remember that what you are trying to do, for BOTH of you, is build a new pattern of movement and a new HABIT, you will get there. Be patient with yourself, and with your horse.
Jessica
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