The Camp post

CAMP DAY 1: 'Too much electricity'

--Instructor A--

So Instructor A was focused on the biomechanics of the rider. I do like studying how the rider affects the horse, but another part of me thinks some of this stuff is smoke 'n mirrors. But regardless, I did try everything she said to do. And she had a couple of excellent points to make.

• I carry too much energy/electricy in my ankles. It was causing me to post really fast because my ankles would literally throw me back out of the saddle way before the horse's motion would. The moment I fixed this, Hampton's trot slowed down and we developed a more swinging rhythm. This type of posting is VERY common in the hunter world. How did I fix it? Wiggle your toes. It took the tension out of my ankles and then it became easy to just wait on Hampton to bounce me back up.

• I also worked on my "posture nemesis," my shoulder blade wings.

It's not pulling your shoulders back, it's pulling your chin in and stretching the back of your neck. This will take me a while to fix, but she certainly gave me a different way of thinking about it.

This is what happens when you just roll your shoulders back and stick your boobs out. As you can see my shoulder blades are still not together and my lower back is now way too arched. 

My chin is up and out.

This is better. See how my lower back is more straight? My chin is in and sort of down and the wings are not quite as bad.

... and that my friends, was about all I learned for the entire 3-day clinic.

... But here's more information just for the hell of it.

• Legs control haunches. Hips control hips. Shoulders control shoulders. Arms control head and neck.
• At the walk, your hips should swing up and down (think slutty model walk). If your spine is not in alignment, your hips can't swing like that.
• I did like her suggestion to use the horse as your own physical therapist. Hippotherapy helps so many things. Let the horse help loosen your hips, back, neck arms. I have pretty tight hips so it was good for me to think about it.

--Instructor B--

This instructor worked only on how to ride in a group (there were 3 of us).

She talked to us about how to keep the correct spacing between one another and what her teminology meant. For example. "All file" means everybody do the command at the same time. So, "all file - volte" means everyone volte. "Lead file" means the lead horse and rider perform the command and everyone follows along in their track.

So Hampton and I spent an hour trotting along in a single file line. I think we circled a few times.

ALL I could think of was "I learned how to do this shit when I was 8 years old!"

This could have been pretty fun if it was perhaps 8 riders or so and it was an actual drill team practice. I would have been all about that. But with just 3 of us ... and just trotting around not working on anything ... uh ... zzzzz.

Hamps was perfectly happy to jog around in a training level frame
all weekend.

CAMP DAY 2: 'Get on the carousel'


--Instructor A--


We stood around for 10 minutes or so while we worked out how to turn our ribcage. Instructor A stressed that to turn a corner, or ride a circle, it's not turning your shoulders. It's turning the base of your ribcage.

Hard to see, but I collapse my left side and drop my left shoulder when leg
yielding to the right.

We did some baby leg yields, voltes and also some shoulder in. Angle and quality of the shoulder in was not even a concern. Only if we turned our ribcage. I was at this point still trying very hard to try her methods. I did roll my eyes when I was facing away from her a few times. You've had a day to get to know the horses and riders. Now challenge us!! If I wanted to ride a fucking carousel, I would go to the amusement park. Gah. I was starting to hear the phrase "full of hot air" run through my mind sometimes. Thankfully, it did not come out of my mouth!

--Instructor B--


I bet you'll never guess what we did. MORE trotting around and around the ring. We even got to do some 20 meter circles. *faint* I do have to give this instructor a little credit here. She said that as we ride, we need to make sure to take 3 or 4 strides to really work on ourselves. So for instance, pick a quarter of your circle or something and fix something on yourself. This I am guilty of. I work too much on the horse and I should take time to fix myself, too.

Instructor A riding one of the farm's young stallions. It was the only
horse she rode all weekend.

It was Day 2 of camp when I started to sort of hear a few other people (and also, my instructor, J, who hosted the camp) comment on how little the clinicians were doing with the students. Ok so it's not just me acting like a spoiled, stuck up brat. Whew! It's just that I am used to such high standards and expectations, that I felt like we were just mindlessly riding in circles.

Oh wait, we were.

CAMP DAY 3: 'Stand up for what you already know'


--Instructor A--

I think I was a very good student this weekend. I did try everything they said and I did it with a smile (to their face, anyway, haha.). So when I walked in to this lesson and had this chat ...

Instructor: "So, are you sore this morning?"
Me: "nope."
Her: "Well then you haven't been doing what I've said!"

... I was pissed. Like personally insulted and pissed.

I'm going to try and be as tactful as I can here without being a total snob and bitch. But the camp was full of a certain type of amateur rider that maybe rides 2 or 3 times a week. They otherwise are not in the best of shape, and frankly a lot of them were quite a bit older. They started riding after they had already raised their children. So MAAAYBE walking around for an hour while crunching your abs made them a little muscle sore. Possibly.

(note: I do wonder, tho, if some of them were just saying that in order to kiss ass to the instructor)

 Please don't take this the wrong way, as they are wonderful women. But I ride almost every day. I'm also younger and in pretty decent shape. So no, walking around on my horse for an hour did not make me sore. Even twice a day rides. Infact there were a couple of lessons where neither Hampton or I even broke a sweat and it was in the high 80s all weekend.

So I was pretty insulted when she accused me basically of not trying. And in a snooty manner I might ad. I took the high road and did not run my mouth back at her.

Your elbows should be in front of your torso. Here, mine are not.
Bad Karen. But in other news, Hampton looks like a stud!

Moving on, that lesson was about 15-20 minutes of free walking. She encouraged us to really move with the horse and basically pump our arms in order to encourage a bigger walk. I did get Hampton to walk pretty darn big. I did continue to do what she asked. I mean it was easy work for Hampton and not harming him at all so what the hell. We did do some trotting and cantering as well. Mostly 20 m circles, transitions. No new information shared.

I was told not to let me hands get too wide. This encourages the horse to
duck behind the bit.
Funny because I was JUST TOLD by Houston to widen my hands to
encourage Hamps to seek contact and bend.
WHICH IS IT?!?!?!

--Instructor B--


Hampton's ride lead canter has gone to shit so I'll need to fix that but NO ONE said ANYTHING about it until I actually brought it up in the last lesson with Instructor B.

I asked her to help with it and she said the canter was fine. That I was pulling too hard on his mouth and overbending him. This is NOT what I felt was happening.  I felt like he was cantering as stiff as a 2x4 around the circle, dropping his inside shoulder and not bending around my right leg. So yes, when I asked for some flexion with the right rein, he would argue with me - brace his neck and toss his head. The ROOT of the problem was not me pulling on the right rein. I know this. There is something else going on. It might be me, it might be him.

Right lead canter. A good moment.

She told me that I did not know how to turn my horse. That I was having a problem turning on the 20m circle. ARUGH!!!! Lady I am not having a problem turning! I am having a problem bending his ribcage! For the love of God!

I'm not sure what the deal is. I did get it to improve a bit when I ignored the instructor and went back to what I already know. Hampton and I needed to have a "moment" and then we moved on. But I think he'll be spending a few days this week on the lunge. If it's pain or soreness related, I may be able to see it better. If not, he can just fight with himself and work it out. For sure there will be no showing until it goes back to normal.

One of the best parts of the weekend was this last lesson I spent a little time beforehand asking for half steps so I could watch in the mirror. Hamps was so cute! I mean we're not really there yet, but he will bounce his croup around for me. haha. Good boy!

.... so what have we learned.

Believe in yourself and what you already know. Do what you have to do to fix yourself and your horse. Even with a new teacher. I'm such a people pleaser, that I was afraid to get after Hamps about the right bend thing in fear of "getting in trouble." So by the end of the weekend, the right bend problem (at the canter only) had now become a real issue that I am going to have to fix at home now. It's not really a big deal, but they should have helped me with that. There were a lot of people with bigger issues than just learning how to ride single file. They should have been given some tools to help improve things like, oh, I dunno, getting your horse to go forward or keeping your hands quiet. I saw one lady ride around (seesawing her horse's mouth, btw) with her spurs dug into her horse's sides. She never took them off. If it were me, I would address these types of issues. Not if you were capable of following another horse 'round and 'round. We all drive cars, we can do that. :)

Sadly, Hampton and I returned from camp the same horse and rider that we were when we went. I didn't see or feel any marked improvement. That to me is truly sad.

I know when you put a bunch of dressage women together for 3 days + heat that people will get cranky. But the attitude one instructor displayed was pretty arrogant. She also MADE SURE to let us know that she did beat Steffen Peters in a PSG once!! (He was riding a greenie).

Once again: I DON'T GIVE A SHIT.

I am a really great student. Very teachable. I will try all day for you. Hampton is also a great student. He is very trainable. If you cannot make some sort of improvement in one of both of us over 3 days, you FAIL. You don't get any more of my money. Buh bye. You can name-drop all you want. It does not impress me whatsoever. I want to see and feel results. I mean seriously if you are such a big name, then why can't you improve upon a couple of nobody's from Kentucky?

-------

Despite all of this, I really did have a lot of fun. The people are wonderful to hang out with. The horses are beautiful and I enjoyed chillin' with old friends. And best of all, I got to spend it with my horse. :)