March 5, 2016

How To Get To Good: Be A Better Lab Rat


Encore & I always look like this. Ha.
You get on your horse, warm up & organize your various pieces & parts, & then you begin work.  Ask him to move forward, connect back to front, create suppleness & adjustability, aiming for the best you can create at both of your levels of ability.  Obvious, right?

We often even think of that process as "easy" in that we can say, "Sit up straight, apply leg, maintain steady, elastic rein connection, do that breathing thing."  And if we do all those things properly, our partner will reward us with a round, rhythmic canter, stepping up through his withers & pushing energy out through the bridle.

Stop me now if that works out for you every time.  Anyone?  Buhler?  Yeah, the devil's in the details.

Solo: Master of Subtle Opinions...
On Monday, your horse decides "leg" means "let me show you my best llama impression!"  Wednesday, his response is, "Eh?  Did you say something?"  Thursday, your left elbow is convinced "steady connection" is best achieved by "death grip against my horse's locked jaw."  You're sorted on Saturday, wow, that canter felt great -- so when you have a chance to get on a different horse, you apply the same process...only to enjoy the Trot At Terminal Velocity with as much bend as a 2 x 4.

Fortunately, we have helmets to deal with the subsequent *headdesk* repetitions!  But what gives?

I posted a teaser quote from a current reading project, so now I'm following up on my promise for more.  Mary captures the individual approach horses require from us, even from one ride to the next, with a great analogy:

"Imagine that each horse, in his evasive movement, resembles one entrance to a maze, which has at its center the good movement we are seeking. With every horse we go on a unique journey & initially, in particular, the feelings he gives us & the difficulties he poses may be strikingly different. The knowledge we glean from one journey may only serve to confuse us on the next – at times we may even have to do the exact opposite of something we previously experienced as being a surefire way of getting us to the center."

Y U play hard to get, cheez??
My suspicions are supported:  our horses really do use us as experimental laboratory mice!  I knew I could hear snickering as I blundered about in search of that cheese with perfect bascule...

What I like best about her imagery though, is that it shines the focus on each ride, each journey, as a puzzle (there could be a puzzle-lover bias here, heh) instead of an assumption.  To solve a puzzle, we have to think about the process, breaking it down into progressive steps towards our goal of a nice transition or a balanced circle.

Mentally, this automatically puts me in the moment, listening to my body & feedback from my horse, then trying something different if we aren't at "good" yet.  At the same time, it subconsciously gives me the critically important freedom to do "the exact opposite of something" that I tried before, creating the opportunity to discover, hey, if I let go, my horse really doesn't run away.

BAM.  (extra hunter Solo for Lauren, hee)
Which I have far better luck with than my approach from past years, of "I did all the things, this is still sucking!"  Trapping us in a dead-end, repeatedly walking into the same wall, blindly hoping it will just fall down & present a full cheese platter.

Now I have a cheese craving, dangit.

10 comments:

  1. Loved this! What a helpful way of looking at the process of improving each ride.

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    1. I'm an easy sell when you combine puzzle + analogy, LOL! But I thought it was a really nice image to tuck into my toolbox that might give death grip arm a nudge next time around, heh.

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  2. mmmm cheese!! lolz! i love that imagery tho - and it definitely works better for me than getting demoralized when i think i'm doing something "right" and still not getting the desired response.

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    1. I have another quote on the list to dig even deeper into that last part! :)

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  3. I think I really need this book!

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    1. It's fascinating reading -- I'm a "books are sacred" person, but it's made the list of "books I read with a highlighter", which is very short indeed. Like all things, you can choose what works for you, but the language, perspective of someone who, like me, came up riding school horses, and the visual/tactile imagery with such thoughtful & insightful commentary makes it so interesting.

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  4. Loved this post, and very timely given my recent feelings of hopelessness surrounding ever getting a dressage appropriate canter on the day :)

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    1. Every day is a new one! Thank goodness for both me AND my horses, LOL.

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  5. The biggest thing I took away from my foray into Mary Wanless was a different way of looking at riding and training. When you approach both as a puzzle to be solved, that the horse is always looking for the easiest thing for him to do and looking for "holes" in the biomechanics of your riding, and you don't validate your existence by how well you ride, some great things can happen. My whole philosophy of riding and training changed after reading MW. I do have to say though, I have found better success with other systems of biomechanics. It's not that I think MW is wrong, the exercises and analogies of rider biomechanics just stalled out for me at a certain point and I got stuck. She has some great points and pieces though.

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    1. Great summary & yes! My philosophy is that it never hurts to listen to a new way of saying things, you never know when one might ignite a lightbulb. :D

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