Taking It Home

I ride five days a week for forty-five minutes a piece, and do Pilates once a week for an hour. That adds up to almost five hours of training a week. With most other sports, athletes who want to play at a competitive level often put in many more hours than this. When it comes to riding, however, that isn't always possible. If it were just up to me, I would spend every free second I have on my horse. The problem is that that just wouldn't be fair to him. We need our horses to enjoy their work, not resent their riders. We need to be careful not to work them too hard. So with only being able to ride forty-five minutes a day and Esso getting two days off a week, it is extremely important for me to, as my trainer likes to say, take my riding home.

I try to pay as much attention to my "position" on the horse as I do off. Working my arms independently from my body, standing straight, etc. My trainer is trying to get me to write at school with my elbow against my body rather than sticking out, which is actually a lot harder than it sounds. In addition to all that, I do exercises every night. I stretch, hold plank, etc. As much as I dislike spending 20 minutes every night trying to strengthen my core when I could be snuggled up in my bed, it is always very obvious from my riding when I have and haven't been diligent about my exercises. I want to be the best rider I can be, and if that means giving up twenty minutes of my sleep every day, then that's what's going to happen.

Actions and Consequences: Training a Baby

If you had asked me one and a half years ago whether I felt like I could train my own horse I would have laughed. The answer would have been a loud and clear "No!". Now that I'm doing exactly that I realize that it's not as impossible as I used to think. 

I've been training Esso for just over a year now with the help of my trainer, Kristina Harrison. Esso was three years old when I got him, and at the time I knew close to nothing about training a baby. Krisi, who has done it several times before, is still showing me the ropes.

I do feel that training my own horse has made me a much better rider. If I have learned one thing so far it is that every action has to have a consequence. The way Krisi taught me to ride Esso is a way I have never ridden before. In the past, my trainers have always taught me to avoid mistakes, cover up any rough spots as well as possible. Make it look easy. Krisi has a very different approach. Instead of having me hide my mistakes, encourages me to make mistakes as long as I correct them afterwards. Say I ask Esso to canter, for example. If he doesn't move right off my leg I make an appropriate correction - a tap with the whip or a bump with the leg. If he does canter I give him a pat, let him know that he has done something right. That way Esso learns that every one of his actions, every choice he makes to either obey or ignore a command, has a consequence. 

I have had such a great time with Esso so far that I actually want to make a career out of training babies. Krisi always says that after you have trained a handful you look back on your first couple and think "if only I had known that then!" Hopefully I'll be thinking that about Esso one day.

Give Left, Give Right, Give Both

In dressage, we strive for self-carriage of the horse - that is, when the horse carries its own weight rather than relying on the rider to do it for him. Being as young as he is, my horse, Esso, is just learning to master this task, and our main focus during my riding lessons this week was to achieve such self-carriage. My trainer, Krisi, would first have me put my left hand forward so that there was slack on my rein, then my right hand, and then, if Esso had been holding up his head nicely, both reins.

At first, this exercise made Esso a little mad. He was used to having my hand there to support him, and then all of a sudden it would be gone, leaving him with nothing to leverage on. He would still rest on me in between releases, so his head and neck would jut forward and out every time I let go of one rein. We worked on it all week, and Esso got better and better at holding up his own head.

On Saturday we had our last ride of the week. As soon as we picked up the trot I gave right, gave left, and then gave both. Esso's head never moved an inch, proof that after a week's worth of hard work, we had finally achieved our goal, and Esso was in perfect self-carriage. I gave him a huge pat and made a big deal out of him. I myself couldn't have been happier! For those little moments of victory, that's why I do dressage.

Talking Like a Crazy Woman

Photo by Christina Schweighofer

My trainer talks, I listen. That's how my lessons usually work. We both wear a Comtek box, and my trainer, Kristina Harrison, wears a microphone so that I can hear her voice through my earphones. This week, we decided to try a new technique. I got the microphone, and Krisi got the earphones. I rode like I normally would in a lesson, but I talked the entire time. I told Krisi what I was doing and why I was doing it, if I didn't like something I had to tell her what I didn't like about it, and how I planned on fixing it. And I wasn't allowed to stop talking.

At first it was difficult. I didn't know what to say, and I got out of breath after just one sentence. After the first five minutes or so it got easier. I didn't have to look for something to say, the words just came out of my mouth automatically. Talking out loud forced me to concentrate completely on my riding, and helped me to effectively get my aids and corrections through to my horse.

The next day we did the same thing again, and I had another great ride. On the third day, my trainer took the microphone back, but I still talked to myself during my entire lesson. I ride 100% better when I talk out loud, and I am working hard to make it a habit that I will keep for the rest of my career. Hopefully I'll eventually learn to carry on this monologue in my head, but for now, if I have to sound like a crazy woman in order to ride better, then that's exactly what I'll do!