While this has no connection with the subjects on the class syllabus, I wanted to write a little about my own riding experiences this week. Hopefully, you'll find something that you connect with, something that will help you along the journey, whether it's with horseback riding or not. If you're bored, feel free to move on....this is part blog entry/part journal/part rumination so that I can work out my thoughts on screen.
Jane Savoie is a well-known dressage rider, instructor and coach. Much of what she has written and produced (several books and many DVDs) has to do with a "sports psychology" approach to riding. In particular, she focuses quite a bit on riding in your mind's eye and picturing what you want from yourself, your horse, your life. In addition, she also advocates thinking in positive terms rather than negative terms. She states, "The brain cannot register a negative." The example she gives in her presentations to groups is, "Don't think of a tomato." Of course, everyone immediately thinks of a tomato, whether it's a picture, the taste, the word itself. The brain didn't register the negative word "don't"; instead, it proceeded to take the subject of the sentence and create it in its mind's eye. So, how does this apply to riding? This is where it gets interesting...
While riding (or instructing), many of us think and talk in negative terms. Don't slouch. Don't look down. Don't let your knee get tight. Don't let your hands bounce. If our brains aren't even hanging onto the negatives, then what we're really registering in our brains and in our bodies is all the objects themselves - slouching, looking down, tightening the knee, bouncing the hands. That becomes "reality" to our brains - which easily translates into reality for our bodies (there's that whole mind/body connection thing!). Furthermore (I love that word), if that's what our brains are creating as reality, that's the picture we're seeing in our minds. If we think, "Don't slouch," then what we "see" in our minds is a picture of our bodies slouching. What then is the cure?
Positive thinking...and thinking in pictures. Instead of using the "don't" phrases, try using the positive flip side. Sit tall. Look where I'm going. Relax and drop my knee. Steady my hands. If you just say those statements to yourself one at a time, they FEEL different than their negative cousins. And, as our brains latch onto the objects of the sentence and create reality from that, we start seeing pictures of steady hands, tall bodies and relaxed legs in our mind's eye. We can also achieve this through holding pictures of those positives in our minds while we ride. Picture Steffen Peters or Courtney King Dye; picture Beezie Madden; picture yourself in these pictures.
Now, all this sounds well and good, maybe a little hokey and new agey, but harmless, right? I thought so, too, while reading Jane's books and even while listening to her at the convention last fall. She certainly has a beautiful, infectious energy that makes you smile just being in her presence, but seriously, my issues with my riding and my horse run deeper than pretty pictures, right?
This is typical Jennifer, by the way. I'll read something, even study it in depth, and think it's all well and good, but it's somehow "other," somehow out there and not in any way really connected with me. Then, I'll stumble upon my own ideas about it usually by accident, and in one grand epiphany realize that whatever it is I've been reading and studying REALLY DOES apply to me. For some reason, I have this thought that I'm somehow an exception to every rule...until the rule gets up and slaps me in the face! :)
Tuesday afternoon. After class was over and lessons were finished for the day, I pulled Obe out of her stall. I groomed slowly and tacked up, fully expecting just to longe her or work her on the ground. After all, the horses had been in their stalls for two and a half days because of the rain-slick pastures. For those of you who don't know, Obe gets a little batty when she's kept inside and can't burn off some energy in the pasture. Not that she's crazy and runs the entire time she's outside, she just needs to move, and a 12'x12' stall isn't enough (which is why she'll sometimes act like she's going to crawl out her window!). So, with my bridle slung over my arm, I walked her down to the indoor arena in the rope halter, fully prepared to work on the ground, but carrying my helmet and gloves just in case I got the urge to sit on her. Another aside here - Obe doesn't like the indoor. She's such a busy-body and know-it-all that she spends the entire time gazing up at the barn, finding imaginary monsters in the corner where the jumps are stored, and ignoring my attempts to give subtle, invisible cues. We've spent MANY a ride in the indoor basically fighting. And, for some reason, this winter our pattern has been even worse than simply fighting. Obe has developed an intolerance for my left rein, and if I use it to straighten her left shoulder, I end up bouncing around in the saddle as she crow hops in one place. It's unpleasant at best, and it's been our major issue over the past couple of months - we couldn't move onto anything else (working on our dressage tests for the spring shows, jumping, etc.).
Her groundwork that day was nice. She was forward and had PLENTY of energy, but she wasn't trying to be a Lipizzaner and do any airs above the ground or anything. She kept an ear on me almost the entire time, and I was able to be pretty subtle about getting her to move her feet in every direction (forward, backward, right, left). So, I put her bridle on, set the mounting block by her side, and put my left foot in the stirrup. As usual, her ears went up, her gaze focused on something on the horizon (turned out to be Jared in his garden) and her neck muscles went stiff. This, also, is par for the course. I went ahead and swung up and asked her to walk out. Not bad...she gave me a nice forward walk. I was circling on the "spooky" end of the arena where the jumps in the corner conceal some sort of horse-eating monster, but I was still getting a nice walk, no stiffness through her back, and she was mostly paying attention to me. I let her walk around on a loose rein for about 10 minutes, just relaxing and feeling her out for any antics. For some reason, a picture popped into my mind - it's a picture that I used in one of our early classes to illustrate a nice trot (when we were talking about conformation and gaits). It's a bay horse, being ridden by a dressage rider, and the trot is pure and correct. There's no stiffness, the horse is round over its topline, there's no forcing with the reins - it's just a nice trot! I squeezed my legs and asked Obe up to a trot - and I SWEAR I got the picture trot! We trotted and trotted....not once did she throw her head up to look at what was going on up at the barn...not once did she tighten and start to prance and jig as we passed the jump corner...not once did she stop and crow hop to protest my left rein. Her back came up under the saddle and it felt like I was posting on a cloud. After about 20 minutes of non-stop trotting (I couldn't believe it was happening), she and I were both a little winded, so I dropped down to a walk and let her have the reins. We meandered around the arena for about 10 minutes...well, Obe meandered and I marveled! I couldn't believe it! There we were in the scary indoor after she had been imprisoned in her stall for two and a half days - and we achieved a better trot than I had gotten from her all winter long!
"There's something to this picture thing," I thought to myself. Ha! Of COURSE there is!
I had another amazing ride yesterday (Wednesday), this time incorporating pictures in my mind of canter work. Wow....
So now I feel like I've stumbled upon this amazing mystery - yeah, a mystery that folks have known about for hundreds of years (philosophers and teachers have known about the power of the mind for centuries!). It's not like I'm some amazing explorer and discoverer, like I'm the ONLY one to have thought of this - but, I've discovered the power of these ideas in MY OWN LIFE, and really, I AM the only one who can discover that! I'm really excited to see where this leads, especially in the next couple of weeks since it seems that we've rounded a corner from this winter's doldrums. I'll let you know how it goes!
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