Snack of the day: 4/21/15

In 2011 the option to ride first level tests at the posting trot was introduced.  My first reaction was...

But a sign of becoming older and more mature is to put your gut reactions aside and consider an issue objectively.  I still haven't decided whether this, overall, a good or bad thing, so in order to do so, let's look at the pros and cons.

Pros

- Allowing riders to post encourages horses to stay rounder over their topline and not drop their backs.

- Many riders are not ready to sit the trot by the time they are ready to move on from training level and forcing them to do so prematurely can have adverse impacts on both their development as riders and their horses' development.  Eliminating the requirement of sitting trot could prevent this.

- First level classes will attract new riders that were previously afraid to attempt a level with sitting trot requirement.

Cons

- The seat aids for leg yields are less likely to be used and perfected when posting trot is allowed.

- At a point in the horses' development when they are suppose to showing the beginnings of collection, the seat will be made less effective and riders will rely more on their hands.

- Riders will just put off developing their seat even longer.

I'm still not sure how I feel about this issue, but would love your input.  Discuss!

Be vewy quiet!

Let's imagine you're at a crowed party trying to have a conversation with a friend.  Music is blaring, there are many other people talking and laughing, and you're having trouble communicating over all that noise.  You can make basic points by yelling like "I like this song!" Or "want another drink?" But more complex thoughts are lost in the background chatter.

Now, let's imagine your friend is your horse. The blaring music is your seat that hasn't quite figured out how to move with the motion, and the conversation and laughter are your hands and legs that haven't developed the ability to become independent from your seat.  You can make basic points like "stop" and "go" with loud aids, but more complex thoughts are lost in the background chatter. 

We use the word "quiet" to describe good riding for a reason.  A quiet rider makes very little "noise" unless he or she has something to say, and when it comes time to communicate, a quiet rider can whisper instead of yell with the aids because there is is no background chatter with which to compete.  So next time you're on your horse, imagine you're hunting wabbits and...

Snack of the day: 4/19/15

Sometimes after a long night's sleep, I have trouble getting myself going in the morning and often like to blame it on inertia.  This is one of those mornings.

For those of you who may not remember from physics class, inertia is a concept explained by Newton's first law of motion.  Objects at rest tend to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force, and objects in motion tend to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force.  Well after being in bed all night, I'm in need of an outside force to get me going, and today (and everyday) that outside force is a big cup of black coffee.

Inertia is also a useful concept to apply to riding if you remember that the motion aspect of it is directional.  So in order to clarify this a little more I'm going to use a visual.  Let's imagine your horse is a wrecking ball hurtling down the long side.

Not quite the visual you were looking for first thing in the morning?

Now imagine you need to make a 20 meter circle at E.  It's going to taking a lot of energy to redirect that wrecking ball and as you redirect it, it's going to lose some of the energy carrying it forward. The smaller the circle, the harder the initial redirection will be and, and the more forward moving energy will be lost during the redirection.

So what does this mean in terms of riding? Well I like to think of the "redirection force" as the combination of inside leg and seat bone that initiate increased bend, as well as the outside aids that hold the desired level of bend and initiate the turn.  So the smaller the circle, the more redirection aids are needed. Then in order to keep your speed constant and not lose forward energy, a positive seat (and potentially leg if needed) must be employed.

For all you science nerds out there, I've left out the variables of mass and velocity to simplify the concept a bit, but if you knew to think of them in the first place, I'm sure you can figure out how they come into play.

I hope the image of a naked Bobby Moynihan hasn't made you completely lose your appetite, and that you've enjoyed this morning's snack.

Snack writing

I would like to write more and I've figured out that the only way to actually write more is to...well... write more.

When I was in grad school, I adopted a habit called snack writing for which I would spend 15 to 20 minute time blocks writing scattered throughout the day as opposed to multi-hour writing smorgasbord.  This worked fairly well for the most part until thesis deadlines and massive editing tasks came into play, but I figured for something as low pressure as writing about horses, this strategy should work quite well.

So here is my plan:  Every morning, first thing, spend 15-20 minutes producing a "snack piece" that I will then share with you, my readers. These "snacks" might be training tips, conversation starters, or maybe just weird musings. I'm aware that doing this first thing in the morning will probably lead to some half awake ramblings, but I'm kind of counting on that to add some entertainment value.  My hope is that this will create some inertia that will lead to longer, better, and potentially HorseNation.com worthy pieces

So now that I've awkwardly explained myself, here is your snack of the day for 4/18/15:


Whenever I hear the Lady Gaga song, "Applause," I change the words to the chorus and sing along:

"I live for the dressage, dressage, dressage.
I live for the dressage-sage, live for the dressage-sage.
I live for the way you piaffe and passage.
I live for the dressage, dressage, dressage."

One day I will rewrite the lyrics to the entire and make a music video.  It will be magical!

Go ahead.  Give it a try for yourself. It fits perfectly!

This snack is proudly brought to you by Biz's inner-crazy