Eggbeaters

As I’ve been working on becoming more aware of what I’m doing with my body and position, it has become increasingly apparent that I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing 80% of the time. Inside rein opens, outside rein holds pressure, add inside leg to keep him from falling in, outside leg provides a barrier, less inside rein, more leg, other leg, too overbent, don’t grip with your knees, not so much outside rein, too loose now, more leg, bend your elbows, eyes up, tuck your seat, more forward, heels down, more outside rein, more leg……

It can be a lot, especially when you’re by yourself, to keep all the pieces together. Recognizing this has helped me to become more aware of what I am doing with my body and the subtle cues I’m unintentionally giving. All the while I remain too stiff through the hip. Always stiff in the hip. But through practice and focused lessons, it’s getting better. I’m improving, making the communication between Blue and I more effective. We still have a way to go, but every improvement is a celebrated accomplishment.

As I’ve been working through these things, I’ve also been using my subscription to Amelia Newcomb’s Dressage Academy. Honestly, worth every penny. Especially for the quality of the content and materials provided, the education has been instrumental in our progress and is so practical. You can literally watch the videos and go out and apply the lessons and see a visible change immediately. It’s also been nice that the last few months of training topics have been covering the exact things I’ve been working on. So, imagine my excitement to learn this month’s topic is on contact and connection! Perfect! I needed this! I’ve been working on improvement in these areas for the last three months and had felt as though I had hit a roadblock, I couldn’t figure out how to work through. I’ve felt dead through my left hand when trying to cue. I have difficulty rotating what remains of my wrist, and flexion is not very plausible when holding tension on my reins to keep from losing them, so I’ve felt stiff and rigid. My cues have been nothing resembling subtle on that side and have been ineffective at best. The result was causing Blue to either be overbent, behind the vertical, or both. I was excited to learn from this seminar and the possibility of adding more tools to the box. The Webinar was great, and I could really relate to what Amelia was describing and was guilty of one or two of the issues she discussed. Her explanations of the mechanics of why the ideas were faulty was eye-opening and honestly, made so much sense. When it came time for the exercise, it was described as whipping an egg. The concept is that the rider’s hands should be used as though one was trying to whip an egg, one hand holds the bowl steady, the other does a gentle and subtle whipping motion. We were all challenged to give it a go and report back our results. Since I’ve been living in the Arctic circle the past week or two, this application was put on hold for a few days until the weather was more favorable. Yesterday was the day. As I worked on some suppling exercises to loosen Blue up after having 4-5 days off, I worked on some of the techniques covered in the Webinar. I started with working to the left, as it’s my better direction as my right hand is dominant on the outside. Immediately, there was a very noticeable difference as we worked through the exercises. Blue was lighter, softer, more responsive and had more of a spring to his steps. It was really nice and easy to ride. I practiced some breathing exercises and worked on upping the energy by increasing my energy and conversely lowering it by lessening my energy, it was great. Then I decided to try going to the right. It wasn’t a total disaster, but it was close. I attempted the same exercises, but feeling in my left hand is dull, and I couldn’t give as I wanted to. Blue was doing his best to find the answer to what I was asking, but with my break in feel, the question was muddled. Seeing as how the eggbeater worked so well on the other side, I tried it with my left hand. The result was nothing close to subtle and the cue was ugly and ineffective. I tried again and again and again, harder, and harder each time, which gained me nothing but a steady ache. I could not physically make the same motion I can on my right. It was frustrating. I decided to take a break and worked on walking some serpentines and figure eights. As we wandered, I got to thinking. We commonly compare the level of contact to the sensitivity of the horse, which can feel a fly land on his flank, so often describe the level of contact maintained as soft and gentle. The horse is extremely perceptive to that fly on the flank and so your cues can be imperceptivity small and still be incredibly effective. As we wound our way through the snow, I got to thinking: what if I tried wriggling my fingers. Not the same, but maybe it might work. {For those of you just now tuning in, I experience phantom limb, not the painful kind. Rather, I draw comfort from my phantom limb and can articulate my fingers as if I still had them. Cool, right?).

As I was thinking this, we just happened to be completing one loop of our figure eight to the right and I wriggled my fingers, all of them. There was an instant change, for a split second, and a smile crossed my lips. Out to the rail I went. As we worked trough the exercises, instead of trying the whipping motion, I wriggled my fingers, success. Light, soft, and airy. Lots of spring. But this motion was excessive and began to ache, so I wondered if something even subtler, and not as complicated could work, so I tried just using my index finger in a “come here” motion, or that which is similar to pulling a trigger. BAM. Effective. Easier and less muscle strain. Winner, winner. Same with my middle finger (sometimes it’s easier, especially when my feeling is foggy), same success. Then we tried amping up and down the energy with much success. Thus concluded the lesson. Blue had been paying complete attention to me and not trying to fill in the blanks. This was a huge success! I patted him and told him what a good man he was and gave him a peppermint cookie, then thought he might enjoy playing in the sun in the knee-deep (on him) snow, so untacked him and turned him loose. He looked at me kind of quizzically for a few minutes and proceeded to rummage through the snow for some grass. He didn’t even roll. I put away his tack in the barn and he walked up to me, so I groomed him down, fed him his dinner and turned him out.

Now I have new things to experiment with.

(Mom, what are you doing? Are you daft?)