My crooked nature: an update

As riders, we expect our horses to be strong, flexible, relaxed and balanced. Why not expect the same of ourselves? I started doing yoga to improve upon my equitation, and in the process have found that I am now holding myself to the same standards to which I hold my (hypothetical) horse. After about a months time, I am starting to see several benefits from the practice.

Mental benefits:

1. A greater sense of body awareness, especially concerning my overall posture. It turns out my position flaws on horseback are also present on the ground.

2. The ability to induce a relaxed state of mind. Or more specifically in my case, the ability to effectively deal with stress-induced insomnia.

3. A sense that I can be in control of each part of my body.

Physical benefits

1. Greater muscle definition over my entire body.

2. The return of that thing I used to have in my early 20's. What's it called again? Oh right. A waist.

3. Greater flexibility in my legs, hips, and abdomen.

Is my position perfect now? Absolutely not. Is it improving more quickly than it was when I was just making corrections on horseback? Most definitely! The increased body awareness allows me to recognize when there is a problem with my position, and as I get stronger, I am more able to make the proper correction.

Because yoga is helping me so much to develop into a more effective rider, I have decided to write a series of posts addressing common position flaws, and yoga positions that can be used to correct them. Feel free to chime in with your particular position flaw.

Gus practices "sideways facing cat" as I practice "downward facing dog."

Addressing my crooked nature

So many of my friends reading this may be expecting me to confess my devious nature despite a somewhat innocent appearance, but I am in fact crooked in a much more literal sense. Some may even call me left leaning and be referring to something having nothing to do with politics. I am just crooked. This as you can imagine creates quite a conundrum when trying to teach a horse to be sensitive to my body weight, while giving it mixed signals with my poor position. Aside from hindering good equitation, my crookedness comes with sciatica as an irritating side effect, which I have mostly learned to ignore, but would be delighted if it would just go away.

My poor riding instructor has been addressing this issue from the beginning, and after almost a full year, I have made zero headway on the problem. He does a pretty good job hiding his frustration, but I suspect he feels similarly to how I feel after spending a whole term explaining the null hypothesis to a biology class and still not having the concept sink in. I take improving my skill as a rider very seriously, and for that reason I feel that it is time to address my crooked nature in earnest.

After seeing doctors, chiropractors and physical therapists, it has been confirmed that my crookedness is the product of uneven strength and flexibility on my left and right sides. My left side is both stronger and less flexible than my right side causing my 4 lower vertebrae to be pulled out of alignment. My left hip flexor is also incredible tight when compared to the right. Based on that diagnosis, the solution seems simple. Do strengthening and stretching exercises to even everything out.

After having no luck with chiropractic work and the physical therapists offered by the OSU student health center, I have decided to take matters into my own hands. I have taken up the ultimate form of strength and flexibility training, yoga. Yoga is great for stretching, strenghtening, improving balance, and let's not forget the intended purpose, achieving a meditative mind state.

I've been at it for almost two weeks now, so it's probably a bit early to see any physical results, but I will write in update post in a month or so to fill you in on how things are going. Until then, Namaste!

Equitation: More than looking pretty

For the majority of my life, I have found myself riding horses that are green, difficult, or a combination of the two. This has been the case for a number of reasons. First off, I enjoy the challenge of figuring out what makes a horse tick, and I live for the feeling the comes along with making a frustrated and confused horse enjoy its work. Because of this, I have always been drawn to riding difficult horses, and for the same reasons, riding instructors have always been inclined to put me on horses that no one else wants to ride. The result of this has been that much of my lesson time in the past was spent focused on the horse, and very little time was focused on me. While riding so many green and difficult horses was good for my riding in several ways, it has kept me from developing some basic skills that separate the good riders from the great riders.

This past year, my primary mount has been a horse named Flame, a 19 year old, Country English Pleasure, Arabian gelding. While Flame is far from an easy ride, he is extremely well schooled in the basics, and very sensitive to subtle changes in rider position. I have also been riding with an instructor that is adamant that I have proper equitation.

So what have I learned from all of this? Well first and foremost I have learned that correct equitation is "correct" for a reason. The geometry of a rider's leg position directly influences the geometry of the horse's rib cage, and the overall outline of the horse. A rider's seat can be unbelievably influential in terms of controlling the energy of the gaits. I have also learned that bad equitation can have an adverse impact on a horse's way of going just as much as good equitation can improve a horse's way of going.

Riding a horse such as Flame has allowed me to focus on improving my leg position and I am FINALLY learning how to properly sit the trot. The sitting trot is the ultimate test of a rider's seat in my eyes. I have always been told to "follow" the horse's movement while sitting the trot, but if you strive to "follow," you will always be behind the motion. I have recently learned that they key to the sitting trot is to actively move WITH the horse's motion by engaging your core muscles. I have been shocked and amazed by what I am able to do with my seat now that I am no longer just struggling to keep my butt in the saddle.

I guess the crux of the biscuit here is that good equitation is really important. Listen to your instructor when he/she says "heels down!" or "sit up straight!" because it really does matter. If you use the excuse that you are an effective rider if not the most elegant, to avoid working on your equitation (as I use to), you are only inhibiting your ability to become even more effective and to look damn good while riding. And seriously, who doesn't like looking good?