Finding the Bass Line

Saturday evening I was in the bay (again, this is the third straight weekend, though obviously last weekend was not planned) for my dad's birthday. I decided to stay overnight there because Kate had arranged to have the trainer I was SUPPOSED to ride with the previous weekend in at her barn. I had asked Kate the day that I was supposed to have my lesson if she might have a horse I could ride with Alexis at her barn and she said yes. I feel that I might have backed her into a corner asking her after telling her that I skipped my lesson to put my beloved pet down... but she really did have a spare horse!

So I drove up to her barn on Sunday morning to get ready for my first lesson in six months!! I can't believe it's been that long since someone pointed out that I really need to sit down on my right seat bone.

Megan, this is called your right thigh, you also have a left thigh,
but this one shouldn't be made of feathers that will blow away at
any moment

The first thing Alexis did after sending me away to warm up was bring me over and measure my stirrups. It looked like my left stirrup was significantly longer than my right. It wasn't. I'm fairly careful about stirrup length but hadn't checked in a few months.

Alexis had a great way of addressing my asymmetry. I've always been told to drop my right seat bone, but the fact that I don't keep it down is evidence that this way of thinking of it isn't helping me at all. She focused more on my right leg than my right seat bone. My right leg gets drawn up under me and I actually end up aiding in a different location right to left. It's really hard to use my left leg in the same way, which Alexis demonstrated by pressing my left leg up. Immediately muscles I never use fired and it felt really awkward. On the right side, it was totally natural to do.

My right thigh wasn't as stuffed as my left and she wanted me to snug it in more. This immediately felt weird, of course, and even just standing there having her mess with me (she had me do a resistance where she tried to pull my right thigh off the saddle) made my inner thigh hurt.

In addition to keeping my right thigh closer to the saddle and more turned on, I needed to drop my leg down a bit. This goes against what Mary typically preaches- shorten the long side rather than lengthening the short side, but it really helped. I imagined getting my calf on him lower to even out my aid so I'm not aiding in one place on the left side and a different place on the right.

Right leg wanting to draw up

As we went into canter, Alexis immediately called me out on something that I have known is a problem, but never have had a trainer REALLY nail me for... I kind of ride with my hands a bit open. I've known about this for years, like I kind of deliberately do it. But that's not okay. So I closed them. I appreciate finally being called out on it

Despite teaching the canter mechanic a LOT, I am still not totally riding it correctly. I follow with my hand maybe better than some, but I still press my hands too far down rather than toward the bit rings. Alexis had me think about riding without a bridle, but still with a bit and reins. If I distort the connection at all, the bit will fall right out of the horse's mouth. I have to keep pressing my hands not just forward in a general direction, but forward directly to the mouth.

In sitting the canter, she noted that the saddle peeled away from my seat a bit in my thigh. I didn't even notice that was happening, I feel like I keep my butt in the saddle pretty well. I had to get my inner thigh wrapped around the tree and not let it drop out from under me. I honestly think this might be a way I'm protecting my back because I felt simultaneously more stable and less stable. In addition, I needed to get broader in my seat- I tend to tuck my butt under me, which is a brand new thing that I do. I've typically needed to tuck it because I get really hollow backed!

Junior was a good boy to canter mostly

Junior's trot isn't exactly like TC's, but it really helped to be on a smaller mover to get some good sitting trot work in. If I can't sit the trot well enough on Junior, I certainly can't sit TC's. In the sitting trot, Alexis wanted me to allow the bounce to come up through my head rather than forward out my face. I have been letting the bounce come out in my upper body and head rather than embracing the up and downness of the sitting trot. I also tend to tip a bit forward (this is also new), so I needed to bring my collarbone over my hip bone and my head back over my spine. I must have been quite forward because the end result wasn't me leaning way back or anything, despite feeling like I was.

I still maintained all the work on my right leg and it felt much better. It's amazing how much this position stuff affects the way I feel right to left. Typically I feel great to the right and terrible left. I know that TC has some stuff going on laterally because Junior immediately didn't feel as out of whack going left, but it's definitely me too. Throughout the ride, Junior got much less feral and much more compliant and I felt so much more comfortable in the tack.

My much better stuffed left leg

Some other things came out of both watching the rest of the clinic, talking to Alexis at lunch with Kate, and talking to Kate about the day before.

Here's what I remember:

Correct biomechanics are the bass line and whatever melody you are playing on top of it (e.g. lateral work, extensions, transitions, etc), the bass line doesn't change. I LOVE this (hence my post title) and I think I need to fully embrace this quite a bit more in my riding.

In the canter mechanic, all of the aids need to come on the backswing. This is super hard. Basically in my ride on Sunday on TC, he was off the bit (which he never is) for a good portion of the left lead canter because of it. In order to do a canter to trot transition, simply interrupt the oscillation of the neck on the back swing.

Stillness is not correct, one must find moving neutral. Only after we are working in complete unison with the horse can we actually influence the horse in any productive manner.

If the horse is tilting their head, on the side they're tilting away from, take that hand and turn it palm side up, then lift slightly. I haven't tried this on TC yet but I'm curious.

If you have a gap behind your butt at the canter, this means that the saddle is falling away from you too fast (not that you're being pushed upward). To fix it, you have to imagine that the saddle is further back/lower than you think. It's essentially that you're being left in the air. Mary said that any time we bounce it's because our hips are stiff joints that don't want to respond quickly to movement.

Cantering

I'm super looking forward to more lessons! I hope to be able to have gifs soon because Kate took a bunch of videos, but I totally played with my horse way too much last night and didn't have time to make them. I also super want a video of me riding TC to compare, but that will have to wait.