Blog
Learning to Ride
This past week we were working on serpentines–a good lesson. No huge “ah ha!” moments, just several little clicks as things slotted into place. I’m not complaining–it was very satisfying to come away and know there had been definite progress during the lesson and that previous lessons were starting to gel.
But in thinking over the lesson, what strikes me most is how good serpentines are for me as a rider. Forget the horse–I like serpentines.
I like to think ahead. Always. To be planning my next move. If I hang too much on the same thing, I get bored and switch to auto-pilot. This is why the hunters don’t interest me as much–trying to maintain the exact same thing all the time doesn’t challenge me in a way I enjoy. I’m not saying hunters are easy–I think it’s extremely difficult to put together a flawless hunter round–they just don’t challenge me mentally the way going from movement to movement in dressage does.
There’s also that little issue with my fear of jumping that keeps me out of hunters, but that’s an issue for another day.
But serpentines, as I was saying, work for me. Changing the bend isn’t automatic for me, yet, so having to think ahead on each loop and mentally check my aids, as well as ensuring the horse stays coming forward through the movement, is a mental game for me. A constantly changing mental game. And if I get it wrong–if I miss the bend or the horse gets sticky in the transition?–it’s not long before I have a chance to try again. I can’t dwell on what went wrong, the way I might in a circle. If I get it right, the loop lasts just long enough to confirm my aids are correct, and then I have to change again–so I also can’t dwell on my success so long that I lose the edge/preciseness of my aids.
Every change in bend is a chance for me to self-check where I’m at and if I’ve “got” it–whereas in other figures (such as a circle), there aren’t really built-in checks. I can “decide” to check myself at this and that point on the circle, but it’s not the same (for me) as the definite change in bend on a serpentine.
It’s like the free walk/long rein across the diagnol–another exercise with several built-in transitions. I can’t stick, I can’t obsess when it goes wrong (or right). I can only keep moving forward and maybe retry the entire exercise.
I know some riders hate serpentines–they hate the constant changes. They work best when they can, say, ride a twenty meter circle over and over, letting the sameness of the shape help them fix their aids. For them, the stability of the exercise is a bonus. Where I get sloppy on a circle–because I become complacent about the shape, or my outside aids, or my inside hand, or what have you–the circle offers them a structured way to work towards perfection of the aids.
I’ve always sort of “known” this about myself–how I like to ride, the challenges I like to approach–but for some reason it’s making sense this week in a way it hasn’t before. It gives me a sense of independence–a feeling that, if I were riding outside lessons, I wouldn’t be completely lost.
It’s a good feeling. I feel like I can actually ride. Serpentines, at least. Don’t ask me about circles.
« Finally a break Is there a horsey blogging community? »
Comments
No comments yet.