This is going to be fun, get out the pop corn! Eternally inspired by my trainer's mantra: "The horse can only go as well as the rider can sit!", which describes the biomechanics-relationship between the rider's alignment and muscle tone and the horse's body response, I thought I'd look at my own evolution as a rider. Having been a horse crazy kid, I was "denied" any formal training and access other than the wistful gazing at pasture horses by my parents. So after grad school at age 25, with a job and not many bills to pay, I started riding lessons. Lessons soon grew into a number of consecutive part-leases and two years later into my first horse: A rescue OTTB that was advertised for "experienced riders". (I am now shaking my head in disbelief at this decision.)
So let's first look at my ever so humble beginnings. It's not easy to organize one's own body when simultaneously attempting to organize a 17.2 Swedish body. Note here that I'm the prototypical "zero tone" rider, being pulled out of the saddle and hanging on the reins for dear life. And the only reason we are not completely falling apart at this point is that the horse is in draw reins set up as Ausbinders, i.e. they go to from under the belly to the girth, not to my hands. This is similar to how horses are set up in Germany when one learns to ride.(Disclaimer: I absolutely do not condone the use of draw reins.)
Learning to ride on my faithful schoolmaster Cezanne, a Swidish WB by Zorn.
Now let's look at me trying to ride my aforementioned OTTB Raleigh. He was a hot, spooky little guy with a host of mental and physical issues. Here I'm in a lovely chair seat and still super low tone, but slightly more stable than in the above picture on Cezanne. I've managed to create a fake "frame" but no connection back to front.
My OTTB Raleigh on a good day. It is only by miracle that we both survived our mutual greenness.
This awesome mare almost convinced me that I could ride. She and I got along from the first ride. She earned her owner a silver medal and took me from Training Level to Third in a year. Ciara didn't have fancy gaits but she worked hard (and always knew better). Throughness wasn't her forte and I was screwed without the double bridle. But I managed to learn a ton from her. Postition-wise you can see that my shoulder-hip-heel alignment had gotten much better but the thighs (and toes) are still rotated out rendering my seat ineffective. I also still have a fairly significant hollow in my back.
Ciara, now in her 20s, is still being ridden. I leased her in 2008/2009 and showed her at Third Level, getting a few scores around 60 my first year ever showing.
Since Ciara was only available two days a week, and I wanted, well "needed" more, I decided to get my very own Ciara, with just a bit better conformation and gaits. And so I got my girl Nina. Nina is a gorgeous, smart Holsteiner mare with opinions, but also was always loads of fun. As she was on the hotter side, she brought out my low-tone natural state of being as you can clearly see here. But Ciara had taught me enough to keep things together with Nina, though I still struggled with a steady back-to-front connection. My alignment is not as good and tone sucks as well.
My Holsteiner mare Nina. She unfortunately injured herself a couple of years ago and had to change careers.
In comes instructor "stretch up tall". As you can see, I've clearly mastered that ;). You can fit a basketball in my hollow back. And the thighs and toes are still rotated out. To be fair, several instructors have tried to pull them into a correct position, but in a manner that hurt like heck and was unsustainable for even a second after they let go. But I am able to create a better back to front connection here as there is a bit more tone. I still rely quite a bit on my (wide) hands though.
I'm riding a friend's super cute older Arab mare, Wasabi, here. She can be a wild little thing, but she's also adorable and quite a cute mover.
Then I started working for and with someone who integrates a good bit of biomechanics into her instruction. My alignment and tone are getting much more solid. I'm able to create a correct back-to-front connection and have the horses much more on my seat. I can now improve horses, rather than just not mess them up. A body worker working with one of the rehab horses I train confirmed that the muscles are building correctly in the horse, which only happens through correct riding. In addition I started riding with Andrew Murphy who took my riding skills to a whole different level as well (See blog post: Mind blown, life changed.)
Here I am riding Rohanna, a lovely pony in training in an Andrew Murphy clinic. She wants to be a bit quick and has a tendency to curl, so we are working on proper over the back alignment to have her naturally go in the correct position.
Here I am riding Denali, a very sweet sale horse after ca 2 months of training. While my upper body still looks a little taller than Mary Wanless would like to see, I am in good alignment, good tone and have the horse's back well engaged with a soft, rubbery connection back-to-front. The horse is still a bit behind the vertical with the poll not at the highest point, but the work is moving him toward that goal.
