Finding Fluidity....

Saturday dawned bright and shiny. Or at least I am sure dawn was fairly pretty, as I was asleep at the time. Personally didnt crawl out of bed until ten thirty or something. Even that late Cairo was sprawled ignomiously across the bed, enjoying his sleep. I love that cat.... sleep as much as I want and he's like "Hey cool.. SLEEP!" Not like Jones - aka the Demon Spawn, who got up at six and ran around "Are you up yet?...how bout now...*poke* Now?" *headdeskrepeat* So glad Davey Jones is a happy barn cat now.

Anyways! Saturday-day was a non event. Weddinged with mom, played the ever faithful photographers assstant, carrying things to and fro, holding flowers, picking up trains, etc.... was a short one at least - and there was NO first corintians!!! YAYAY! Srlsy, C, if/when you get married, if you put the First Corinthians speech [you know, the love is patient, love is kind BS] in your cermony, I will smack you upside the head. Instead there was a reading about marrying your best friend, which was the nicest thing I have heard at the forty some odd weddings I have been to!

So boringness aside, when we got home it was late-ish - 7 I think - so I didnt know what to do. I knew I wanted to play, but more than that I knew I wanted to work on ME. The evidence is in the pictures, two posts down - knees gripping and coming up making my seat unstable! OH NOES! Bless Mo forever more, she allowed me to just walk over, play some very minimal games and hop on bareback [..fourth try this time] My fluidity issue with her is at the trot. That sounds wrong, like its her fault somehow, but its all me, and I know it, so now you know it!

We set of at a trot, and of course Mo is Miss Energy going "OH BOY! Whats that over there? Oh AND THAT!" And so on. In addition to mastering [attempting] fluidity, my independant seat got a work out to boot. [Wii Fit says my balance is decent, so that was a surprise, I thought I was waaay off.... I credit Mo entirely with her wiggleyness for making me be balanced just to survive!]

I rode with just a halter and one rein and did a basica passenger lesson, messing with different things in my body, trying to move in harmony with her trot. I focused on keeping my weight back, but stretching my legs DOWN. There is an SC DVD somewhere with that on it... Yvonne and her balance point... I should find and watch that. Around and Around the pasture we went on our snaky trail. Mo played the extrovert being long and wanting to speed up - I had to remind her we were trotting a few times, but nothing major.

I found that if I have my hands in front of me, even if they arent on the reins, I have better balance, so I practiced with them up by my chest and back leaning on Mo's bum and everywhere else. I was really concious of MOVING my lower back and shoulders, because I think I tend to "get in the position' to ride, and then stay there trying not to move, even if it is subconcious because I sure dont do it on purpose!

Finally I felt something resembling fluidness and going in harmony. I wasnt bouncing like a maniac and my bum wasnt catching air at every stride [total plus!] and Mo was starting to stretch down and blow out [whoo!] So since I had things working fairly well at the trot I decided to move things up into a canter. WELL NOW! Mo thought it would be SUPER FUN to gallop around instead. Hang onto your hats ladies and gents because apparently when Mo wants to go Mo can GO!!!

I have to admit I sort of played daredevil teenager and just hung on for the wild ride for a bit before asking her back to a more respectable canter. It wasnt dangerous or out of control, just FAST, which for me, equals FUN. Plus it was SMOOTH. At the canter I found an interesting dilemma. When I stayed sitting where I was at the trot I ended up 'waxing the saddle' as it were, even though there was no saddle. For any one who has done that bareback, its not comfy... going the wrong way against the hair, so I knew something was wrong. I proceded to repeat my trotty exercises with substantialy faster success. The canter isnt really that hard with Mo, especially when she is willing to keep going forwards. I just thought it was interesting that where it worked for the trot, it was wrong for the canter. It makes sense of course because of the weight shift from 50/50 to 40/60, it was just fun to put it into practical experience.

Mo was being pretty go-y so I started doing some big canter circles using my focus. That was pretty cool. I had to support zone one a bit with my rein, but all the other zones followed my focus and the feel off of my legs - which was a weird experience, with her nose going the opposite way of the rest of her! We did that both ways for quite a while until she settled down into a nice easy cadenced canter. It was pretty much dark by now so we walked out then.

Pretty interesting stuff! Apparently I have been using a saddle to much and need to brush up on my bareback on more than just comfy Kota!

:-)
S