RE: Re: Rider/horse training

["C Eyler" <eyler@mindspring.com>]

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a skilled rider -- have always said
that my horse is better trained than I am.  Lessons have helped, but there
are still areas where my riding sucks.  The result has been that I often do
not feel balanced, which means that my horse has to work much too hard and
that sometimes I'm just plain scared.

Recently I wrote to Sue and asked her for some help.  The immediate concern
was that on close, counter-clockwise turns in the ring, my gelding would
fall in rather badly, and I felt like I was going to tumble out of the
saddle.  All I'd been told before was to put my weight in my right stirrup.
Not good enough.

Sue wrote back with some very specific suggestions, but that's not what
helped the most.  She really got me thinking about the minutae of what my
body was doing.  When I started paying attention to my hand placement, I saw
that I was consistenly holding my right hand forward of my left.  And as I
began trying to correct that, other things became obvious.  My entire body
was torqued to the left!  No wonder my poor horse was falling in on turns to
the left!  No wonder he consistently wants to go with one diagonal/lead over
the other!

For this rider, training has nothing to do with being judged.  It's about
keeping us both sound for the long term.

Cindy