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| Exhausted pony... |
I've eluded to the fact that I've found an amazing trainer in my last couple of blog posts, but I really haven't had time to write a blog post that will explain just how awesome she is or how much we have grown since starting with her in March. There just are no words to do her justice really.
I have spent my whole life wishing I could train more seriously, but never having the money, the time or the right horse. And, when I have been able to take lessons its been mostly with backyard rider/trainers who are good, but not great. Even when I was taking lessons with a Prix Saint George level rider and judge a few years back I never quite felt that we clicked. We spent a lot of time working on the horse which she was good at, but you'd think that she'd have also corrected my hunter/jumper seat to make it more correct for dressage which would have helped the horse work in a proper balanced frame more easily... yeah not so much.
So I feel truly blessed to have found my current trainer (we'll call her L for the purposes of this blog), who just to give you some background, is a now semi retired combined training (evener) and show jumper who has competed at the top levels, was at one point long listed for the Olympics, and rode with the top riders competing at Rolex, one of only a few 4 star events in the world. She's trained in Europe and across the U.S. with some incredible mentors in her time. She retired from competition after loosing her last advanced level competition horse to a heart attack. She had stopped training on a large scale, and was just enjoying life leasing a horse to start training him for CDE (Combined Driving). The horse she was leasing (and has since bought) happened to be at my new barn for a short time and so with a a little convincing she started training both Megan and I.
In just a short few months maybe 8 lessons total I have made more progress in my riding then I probably have ever made in 25 years of riding and taking lessons on and off with different people. L being European trained teaches a classical seat as a basis for everything else weather you are doing dressage or wanting to jump or go cross country. She takes everything slow and methodically, and what I love most is that she never puts limits on any horse or says they can't do something until the horse proves otherwise. Her philosophy being that a horse is only as good as its rider verses the other way around. So many American trainers look for quick fixes or focus on fixing the horse with out truly fixing the rider's issues as well.
The little corrections she has made to my position in both seat and hands have made me a more secure rider, and my improved riding has changed Rio's response to what Im asking. While we are still working on building muscle (his & mine!) he much more readily carries himself which makes my job as a rider so much easier. All (or most anyways) of his spooks and silly behaviors are going away because, (a) he knows that I am solid and that he can trust me to support him when he needs it, and (b) because he's carrying himself and working from the back end he really has no where to go but forward. Its much harder for him to spook, jump sideways, or evade the bit.
I find myself riding with a longer leg, a more open hip and ribcage, and a properly anchored heal. I used to ride with short stirrups (more hunter style) because I felt like it gave me more support, but now that I've corrected my whole leg position all the way through my hip I am actually much more comfortable riding with a longer leg. I've found too that its ok to ride with a shorter rein (which used to drive Rio bonkers) because instead of pulling on his mouth I'm pushing him into the bit from his back end so that there is contact, but I am never truly pulling on him. In this way my hands are actually more steady. It was never the tight contact he hated, but more so the fact that I was always bumping him in the mouth. It kills me now knowing that the "dressage" trainer who started him with his former owner used to tie his head down because he is so smart, and has picked up quickly on the idea of self carriage, that there should never been a need to force him into a frame in the first place.
Today L and I worked on lounging with side reins and ground work so that I would be able to work on improving Rio's balance and top line with out the weight of a rider on days when my riding time is limited. I had the chance to talk quite a bit with her after not having seen her in a month because of summer schedule changes.
At the end of that conversation I was told that I am indeed a keeper. That while she's looking to open her own barn in the next year or so and get back into competitive riding she doesn't want to take on a lot of boarders or riding students. She only plans to keep a hand full long term, and along with one of my BFFs Megan I am one of only a few that are in her long term plans. She even mentioned taking Megan and I on as working students so that I would be able to work off my board and train on a more regular basis with out going broke... in and of itself she's already working with me and not charging charging anywhere near what she could given her abilities...that includes the opportunity to ride her horses so that I get more experience outside of just riding Rio who is now in his teens, and will eventually be too old to compete at higher levels if I were to want to go down that road. These are all things that I have heard come out of Megan's mouth, but until I actually heard L say them to me I took it all worth a grain of salt. These words coming from L are huge praise because I know she only takes people that she respects and enjoys working with at this point in her life and career. And the fact that she is a true horse lover, always putting the horses first, and is willing to entrust her horses in my care was an even bigger compliment in my eyes.
For the first time in a long time, because of my riding and the relationships I'm building through it. I'm taking my own health and fitness more seriously, and I'm realizing now more then ever that even though its hard work to financially and physically keep horses a part of my life that with the effort and the right connections horses will always be a part of my life. I don't know what the next few years of riding hold in store for me or what will happen when Rio is ready to retire, but its very exiting to have the opportunities I'm gaining, and its made me a better person and given me a goal to work towards and more importantly the belief that I can reach those goals that I am setting. And, that philosophy has carried over to everything I do in life both in and outside of horses.
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| My current mantra.... |
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