Hello, and welcome to this edition of 14 hands, where we discuss such popular issues as twerking and other controversial dance moves. I'm only kind of joking and the part I'm joking about is the other dance moves because I don't know any of them. I'm also joking about Miley. The only word I hate saying more than "twerking" is "Miley Cyrus." We won't be discussing her.
Let's dive right in! So Sunday was a day full of putting my instructor pants on and helping one of my students who recently fell off remember why it is she doesn't want to quit horse back riding. While this topic could be it's own post (and probably will be shortly), I did need to mention it. I wasn't teaching so much as I was getting her on a horse and ignoring the elephant in the room that was her and her mother's fear. In this case, the elephant does, in fact, disappear if it is ignored long enough. We were very successful. I was riding Marvel while she was riding one of our tried and true and basically retired school horses.
Before you ask me where the inappropriate dance moves begin, after starting off with a story of a poor helpless girl who fell off her pony, let me help you. My student is a beginner. A can't keep her heels down or her horse at a consistent pace beginner. I don't know why I thought I could trot off into the sunset (I know, I dream a lot about riding horses in different ways off into a lot of sunsets) and have her follow me around but that was how it was going in my head when I offered for her to come ride.
Backing up so this story makes even MORE sense: on Friday I had worked an extremely long time with Marvel on "long and low." The concept of this phrase is that you ask the horse to relax, stretch his neck down searching for contact with your hands and extend his gate, propelling himself from behind. This helps the horse develop muscles it otherwise would not develop, use himself more efficiently, and also carry himself in a frame that is pleasing to the eye no matter if your a schooled horse person or a homeless man under a bridge who's never seen a horse. I had never had a whole ride dedicated to this work but I did Friday and it was extremely fulfilling. Marvel picked it right up and felt very nice.
So back to my student and I, not trotting off into the sunset as planned. I was planning on working on long and low again with Marvel on Sunday while she was working on confidence. We walked around and Marvel was in a fantastic little self-carriage frame without me asking him anything. Inside I was quite pleased because at this time we were warming up and I hadn't found out yet that my ride was not going to go according to plan.
We made a few circles, I was explaining to my student what it is that I was working on and asked her if she could identify when Marvel's head was up or down. Then I told her we were going to trot. She nodded and off I went. Without her. Woops. I thought she was following but this trot Marvel was giving me was elating. Very "come from behind." It was like we worked on long and low and then I gave him two days and some food and grass to think about it and he really got jolly about the whole idea. I was even more impressed because this was after only about 3-5 minutes of walking with no other warm up, coming straight out of his stall. Gotta love the limber and frisky 5 year olds.
Lucky for me I brought Jesse who screams every time I go faster than a walk. She slapped me back to reality, reminding me that her parents are there watching me leave their frightened little daughter in the dust of my now Grand Prix dressage horse. If we're being honest with each other, she wasn't really that scared, but still, they didn't come to watch me side pass and passage (which is good because we can't do those things). I trotted back over to my little girl and slowed down, coaching her on how to convince Harley, who somehow knew this was Sunday afternoon and she shouldn't be under saddle, to trot. It ended up working out so that she was kicking Harley and I timed it so that after a good hard kick, Marvel would trot up right behind her and convince Harley that trotting isn't half bad. Of course this, coming from a spunky young boy who eats 15 pounds of food a day, is decently muscled, and doesn't always get Sundays off. Oh, and also just figured out how fun it is to trot properly.
Without boring you with any more details of bad ponies and lots of walking, I do have to say that every time I asked Marvel to trot, whether it was on a loose rein or with contact, he almost always offered me a form of long and low. His head stayed down-ish, his trot was never heavy, and he also didn't trip now that I think about it. Realization struck me then. We need to do more working trot exercises. And thus we've come full circle. Twerking, or as I prefer to spell it, tworking. Derived from what I can only assume are English words: working trot. Definition; to literally have a specific ride dedicated to working at the trot, regardless of pace, on proper muscle building of the horse and rider, developing suppleness in the reins, and having seamless communication.
The tworking possibilities are endless. Long and low, driving with your seat and legs, not losing our shoulder, sitting trot, posting trot, serpentines, circles, loose rein, contact, engaging the hind end, transitions. The list goes on. As I believe I've already stated, my philosophy is that if you can't do something at a slower pace, you're a complete silly head (not sure that's a politically correct term but it is definitely nicer than the first few words that came to mind) to try that same thing at a faster pace. I have also come to believe that the trot is a pace at which you can work miracles and give the horse a fantastic foundation for anything he is going to do with you in the future.
Hopefully I've inspired some tworking in my horsey friend's near futures. Or at least hopefully no one thinks I'm a crazed MC fan who is trying to relate her to horses. One way or the other, I'm headed to the barn this afternoon to twork with Panda and Cash!
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