RE: RE: Re: Rider/horse training

["Kathy Mayeda" <kathy_mayeda@atce.com>]

I've been thru this stuff, too.  But for me the maddening thing is that my
horse is kinda torqued, too.  He has a clubbish right fore, and a dished
left fore, which had me dumping over the left and made him hard to turn on
the right.   He was higher on the right side of the wither than the left.  I
was riding curved out towards the right.  My right hip constantly hurt.
Didn't ride much over the winter because my guy had lost his topline and
none of my old saddles fit.

So, I had chiropractic done on me and my horse, had some voo doo rimpad put
on the dished hoof.  He needed dental work, so I got that done and it needs
to be done again.  Saddle didn't fit, got a new saddle (which I love -
Reactor Panel).  Changed farriers twice, and they all want to "correct"
something in the front.  Taking Centered Riding lessons.  Didn't ride much
over the winter because my guy had lost his topline and none of my old
saddles fit, so did some remedial lunging, etc.  Besides, my hip was still
hurting, we were both torquing, and we needed a rest from racking each
other.  The last chiropractic treatment for my hip was MAJOR and I was
whining to my chiropractor for a week afterwards, but it made a significant
difference in my balance.  Of course, my horse tweeked himself again so I
had him treated chiropractically too.

Well anyway, new saddle, new balance for both of us.  NOW HE'S HIGHER ON THE
LEFT!  But as my friend says - that's good - it means his body is not stuck
in the same balance forever.  It's an ongoing process for me and Beau so
far.  More dental, getting x-rays to see where his angulation really should
be, more lessons, etc.

My point is, after all this rambling, who is making who crooked?  I started
figuring out after awhile that even if I get myself straight and my horse is
crooked, I won't stay straight and vice versa.  And all the above body
issues of the horse came to light when I attended a Centered Riding Clinic
with Mary Fenton.   Otherwise we'd both be bumping around and being crooked
and uncomfortable still.

Nice to have an educated set of eyes on you to look at the whole picture!



-----Original Message-----
From:	C Eyler [mailto:eyler@mindspring.com]
Sent:	Wednesday, March 29, 2000 12:31 PM
To:	Ridecamp
Subject:	RC:  RE: Re: Rider/horse training


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



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