December was a weird month, I ended up making as much in my business as I made in July, which is really atypical. Normally people take riding time off for the holidays, don't ride due to rain, or travel a bunch in December. I usually teach a lot up until October and then November it starts to wane a bit and in December and January, I start having mild panic attacks about money. This month though, I think people wanted to take dressage lessons with all their free time, which was GREAT because it allowed me to basically spend down business income to reduce my tax burden this year without panicking.
One of the things I did was buy myself some teaching equipment. I have always just shouted at people rather than used a radio, so I got myself a Comtek and I LOVE it, although I sometimes forget to bring it and end up shouting anyway. Oh well, I'll figure that out.
I also picked up this belt thing that Mary Wanless has that forces riders to keep their hands forward and doesn't let them pull back on the reins. I really wanted bands that go around riders but they didn't have any for sale when I looked, oh well.
And the last one that I bought that I actually have been able to use (not sure when that belt is coming and I will one day get those bands) is an Equicube!
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| Such a good pony |
Basically the Equicube is about 4lbs of solid rubber with two handles. You hold it over each of your reins and it forces you to keep your hands at the same width, not pull on one rein, and not fiddle fuck around with the reins. I didn't have any major reason to buy it, just wanted it to use on occasion with certain clients, not really for myself though. I don't tend to ride with my hands very wide, don't pull on the left rein nearly as much as I used to, and I don't really sponge my hands or anything. But I did want to see what the cube was all about so I could help my students out with it.
I got on and placed it over my reins and started walking TC around. He was a little skeptical of what I was holding because it might have cookies and he wanted to make sure before we kept going.
At first, I thought that it was a bit useless, TC walked like normal and I didn't feel any more or less effective/strange/what not. Then my biceps started to fatigue. I had chatted with a couple of people who have them and that's a sign that the rider's core is not supporting the weight of the cube. So I repositioned my shoulder blades, worked to plug into TC's back a bit better, and engaged my core. It felt better, but then my shoulders started to fatigue and the cube bumped TC's withers and his little head came up and back at me like WAT IS DIS THO?
I finally got my arms to stop fatiguing when I turned my core on a LOT more than I had before and got myself even more into my thigh and out of my foot.
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| The view was incredible |
I felt better, but my core was getting tired quickly, so I hopped into posting trot. Immediately I dropped my core and I knew this because I accidentally bumped TC's withers again (it's soft rubber so he responded to it by glancing back at me, but it's not like it hurt him) and my arms started hurting again. TC came up off the bit and it was a circle before he stretched willingly to contact again... when I turned my core back on.
I didn't do a huge amount because my core was so fatigued and TC was starting to feel a little amped. But I did learn a lot in the short time I used it and I was able to make some good changes after I put it down!
The big thing I learned was that TC never curled while I was using it. I don't typically have all that much contact with the reins when I'm riding him so I didn't think I was pulling on him, but I do think it's due to my bear down clearly being weak right now. When I played with it after I put the cube down, the more my core fatigued, the better he went in the bridle.
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| This trail was super fun! |
The day after I rode in the cube, we went on a trail ride, more on that later, but the following day, Friday, I rode him over cavallettis and focused a lot on my bear down. It was a HUGE help and led to a friend at the barn yelling at me from across the arena that TC's trot looked amazing. All I was doing was trotting around on a circle in his working trot focusing on my bear down and staying plugged in.
I've since used the cube on a few clients and it's been fascinating. Everyone gets something a little different with it. One of them realized they needed to be more into their thigh to stablize themselves in the core but then the horse slowed down and they realized they needed more lower leg. Then bam, horse was evenly connected to the bridle and pushing way better from behind. One gets disorganized in their upper body and it was impossible to get the hands wide and the shoulders hunched while carrying the cube without fatiguing the upper body.
I think I'll be adding it to my client's rotation for sure, but I will definitely be adding it to my own riding on TC as well! Aaaand I need to start working out more.
