Lesson: Straightening my body

After just a taste of riding straighter last week, I was feeling hungry to get back to the way I rode when I was in high school. I clearly recall riding Promise on a 20 meter circle on the buckle with no stirrups, using just the influence of my body to maintain the shape, speed, etc. 

So, when T asked what I wanted to work on yesterday, I immediately said I wanted to start straightening my body back out. I realized during and after my evaluation ride just how crookedly I have been riding and that I feel this is likely the base of many of my current issues. She agrees it's a good place to start. And I totally agree with her when she says, we could fix 4 things and break or find 6 other things to fix. I'm thinking my position being out of whack is likely contributing to my feeling weak over fences, which in turn is contributing to my confidence issues.

She had me start off in my 2 laps of 2-point and then we got to work. After warming up with some square corners, we started trotting and she had me focusing on keeping my belly button and chin lifted to keep my upper body up and back, sometimes having me bridge my reins to lift my inside arm up to the shoulder to straighten out. What a difference it makes!

We stopped in the middle to chat about what I was feeling and she said, you have a lot more weight in your right stirrup, jump hard into your left iron. So I did, and she said more, and a third time. How's that feel? I said, really crooked! She laughed and told me I was actually perfectly centered on the horse and in the tack. So, the next exercise was to do posting trot through the first half of the short end, 2-point the second half, then post the long side into the first half of the short side, 2-point the second half, etc to try to reset my body. It was hard! My left side has always been weaker, but it was really magnified when I tried to focus on staying straight. At the end of the 3 or so laps we did, my left ankle was screaming at me. She told me to drop my stirrups and let Eli catch his breath, then we'd do the other side. It was a bit easier going left, but then I tend to drop my left shoulder, so there was more focus on pulling my torso up and back there. 

After another rest, she decided to try shortening my right stirrup 1 hole so that I would feel more even. It actually really felt good. So weird! We cantered like that and it truly did help me keep my body centered, which meant I was able to get out of Eli's way and free up his shoulders, so he felt really forward and fast to me, but T said it was just a fluid, forward canter.

I dismounted feeling like I had really accomplished something in getting back to the way I should be riding and I'm excited to go back next week.