Yes, yes. This is going to take a minute to make sense, but it's worth it.
If you are like many horse folk, somewhere in your equine literature collection, there is likely a book called "Ride with your Mind" by Mary Wanless. You may or may not have bothered actually reading it. Mary Wanless studies biomechanics (definition: the study of the mechanical laws relating to the movement or structure of living organisms) of horse and rider, among many other things, and created a system of language that relates to getting your body to do what it needs to do in order to have maximum effectiveness on the horse. So, if instructions such as "heels down", "leg on", "sit up", etc. aren't quite cutting it in making you the Grand Prix rider you long to be, better language on your trainer's part might just do the trick.
At American Sport Horse owned by Ann Howard in Watsonville, clinics with Mary Wanless have been happening for decades. And there are a few quite successful Grand Prix riders who have come out of this training, my coach being one of them. So when we packed up two horses and headed down there for the first workshop of this year, I had already gotten quite a bit of the benefit of this approach in fixing issues with my seat and position working with Tanya Vik for the past year. Now I was lucky enough to be selected as a demo rider in the 3-day workshop (formerly teacher training, but now open to all interested) and able to ride a magnificent Lusitano owned by Barb Bochner.
Being German and a bit obsessive when it comes to riding, the format of this event was causing me some anxiety -- between fascinating lectures on fascia of horse and rider, off-horse exercises, and the demo rider segments, there was no set schedule and rider times. I have this routine that takes up a good hour before ride time, so short notice is not something that works well for me. Especially since the horse I was riding was not one of my regulars. But everyone was super nice and quite relaxed, plus through years of practice I have become more flexible too, so it all worked out fine.
Another noteworthy side note was the group's openly discussed feeling of being a bit fringe. Being new to this, I had a hard time understanding why, as this is an approach to teaching the rider how to use the body in more skillful ways and relate to the horse's body and energy (as in tonal quality of the muscles) more meaningfully. Now, the language did get rather complex for the more advanced riders in this system; and some of the images didn't particularly work for me, but the whole point was to have a respectable repertoire so that one could find something that works for each person to access muscles in their bodies that will elicit a correct response from the horse. If you are playing tennis or golf, you're getting a ton of instruction on technique, whereas when you're trying to learn to ride, it often stops with "follow the motion of the horse" or "heals down, boobs up" etc. resulting in a lot of mediocre riders and stiff, crooked horses with sore backs.
The various lectures were very interesting, from how the brain learns to muscle rings and fascia lines. But I have to admit that anatomy is neither my strong suit nor my passion, and by day three I had a hard time mustering up the necessary energy to keep up with the presentations on the fascia lines. The best news of it all might well be that we can stop doing sit-ups to get a stronger core. Apparently that sort of exercise of isolated muscle groups actually blocks the transmission of energy from back to front, which we as riders do by sending our horses forward. Alternatively we could run with our arms straight up in the air while pulling on an elastic band...(right) or go for yoga or pilates.
But of course for me, the opportunity to ride and get Mary's eyes and hands on me (yes, my seat bones sat on Mary's very own hands!) was the most exciting part. This set up was very different from clinics in which it's more about the horse, as this is rider focused. Plus as a demo-rider, the entire group of onlookers consisting of other instructors and interested dressage folk is invited to chime in with good advice, which requires an openness to listen as not only my positional flaws were noted, but also my voice (which comes from the wrong part of my throat) and the fact that "there is not much of me" -- apparently my back to front width is freakishly small. Anyhow, Mary's initial input involved my still too tall upper body with too much of a hollow in my back (due to a complicated S-curve) and therefore my breath being shallow. The goal was to shrink my front end, get rid of the hollow back, breathe through imagined gills under my shoulder blades to puff me up and make sure I used my diaphragm for deeper, slower breathing. Focus on that took up a fair amount of brain capacity and resulted in a more compact look and a horse reaching happily for the bit.
Mary also put her hand under my seat bones to show me exactly when they were in the neutral "plugged in" position. I highly encourage everyone to stick your own hands under your seat bones and then sit in your normal position, round your back, and then hollow your back to see what your seat bones do with each move. The are huge and feel like sizable door knobs! You really want to get these things under control.
Anne Howard, the host of this gathering, and not only a Grand Prix rider and trainer herself, but also a gifted Physical Therapist (and quite entertaining, might I add), was able to add that my pelvic floor was too flat and really should be a dome. Strangely, this made immediate sense to me and "doming" really helped with the all of the above issues as well -- killing a number of figurative birds with the same stone. I am now a good 12 rides into the horses in training back at home and I must say that I no longer have the issue of one or the other side of their back disappearing from under me. It really creates a space for them to get their back up and into, and puts me in a better, lighter position that makes it easier to move my legs for the lateral aids. I can also feel that there are muscles in my lower back that I must have not used before, as they are telling me loud and clear they are there now.
If you are now wondering what shape your pelvic floor has and if it could make your half passes better if it was a dome, Mary Wanless has a website at dressagetraining.tv and she also does online trainings as I think in 2017, video is probably a better entry point to give you a sense of whether this approach might be helpful to you than the book. Unless of course you're a book kind of person. (And no, I do not get anything for mentioning this.) I do however recommend to be open minded and to "think it", to try out the different images and really work on accessing areas in your body that were passive and forgotten before. Developing the right "tone" in your muscles and proper alignment are key to communicating with your horse and getting a positive response back. Some images will and some won't resonate with you, and that's by design. But we all can become better riders, no matter how good we may already be, and for me that's part of why I get up everyday to do this. Even in this darn rain that seems to keep coming.
Mary Wanless rotating my thigh
Photo credit: Juli Gumbiner
I need to elongate the diagonal between my chest and lower back - simultaneously pressing into Mary's hands.
Photo credit: Juli Gumbiner