An "AHA!" Moment Thread

[SolarFlare]

I came across a really helpful one on Valerie Pride’s account last week - she’s been posting short clips with various tips for riding better dressage tests.

I tend to go too deep into the corners at times, especially when I’m trying to make sure the judge sees the difference between my corner and my circle (I’m going to blame this on 10+ years of scribing at eventing dressage and writing it many times ). I know I do this, my coach knows I do this and reminds me, but my brain just will. not. fix. it.

Her tip was to ride “block to block” - ride from the block holding the boards before the corner to the one after the corner. This gives you a target to look at and keeps you from riding right into the corner and getting stuck.

I tried it last night with two 10’ poles at right angles to form corners, and rode from the end of one pole to the end of the other and what a difference! So much smoother!

[luvmyhackney]

A trainer was explaining how they maintained contact from their shoulders, really little muscles there that allowed small movements vs just saying soft elbows that I had heard a million times. It’s not just soft elbows but the whole arm from the shoulders to the fingers.

[NaturallyHappy]

@Jackie_Cochran

I found out that timing my aids correctly was easy. Everything on horseback became so much easier after I read that book. It is not a big mystery like a lot of writers about equitation make it out to be, it is not hard like a lot of writers about equitation make it out to be, it is sooooo simple and the horses are so much happier with me riding them now in spite of my MS because I know how to time my aids in such a way that it helps instead of hinders the horse

This x 1000💗

[Texarkana]

Another dressage-related “aha” moment for me:

Ride a circle like a diamond.

[Pep_n_Ann]

My horse was an only horse for most. He was absolutely fine. Laid down regularly to sleep. He was also happy to hang out with buddies when camping or if he needed to stay with a friend while I was out of town.

[Ajierene]

@strangewings

The first time I truly had my position correct in motion , I felt like if the horse was literally taken out from under me, I would land on my feet. Something I had been told I should be looking for in alignment in the mirror since my first lesson, oh 20 years prior. I did not realize in all that time that “correct” would literally feel like what I had been told it should look like .

On a similar note, my trainer told me I needed a new jump saddle with my new filly and that I looked better in another student’s saddle. I did feel all off jumping but didn’t really connect the dots until someone was just trying to be nice and videoed my jump round at a show. I was like man, “I look AWEFUL, even at the jumps that I felt like I rode well!”

That’s when I realized I needed a new saddle and $2500 later, I had a lesson and for the first time in a while I didn’t need to repeat the exercise several times before “getting it”.

[mika0116]

dressage junior - jumped a bit as a kid under 12 but not more than 2’3 so I never learned true jumping position like others would have, tall kid (tall adult) so the horses mostly just cantered over and there wasn’t much of a “jump”.

jumping position is where your glutes/hip hinge back (up out of the tack with more weight than you think in the BALL of your foot with your toes forward and not out) - the upper body just follows. It is not a learn forward fold. Putting your heels down and holding your body in your glute and hamstrings is what brings you back into the tack on the backside.

It was during this semi recent re-teaching that my more recent trainers discovered that I should be riding in a flat seat with a narrow twist and less knee roll. I used to have to FIGHT to get out of the tack in a deep/semi deep seat. Yet I would feel not plugged in and like a rock was between me and the horse due to the too wide of a twist.

My jump saddle bought to fit an old lease has been wrong for me for almost 9 f*cking years.

INSANE - the slight chair seat / defensive position I’ve had in my jump tack all about disappeared and my stability increases lesson over lesson.

No wonder why so many rides outside of my dressage tack felt just … not right. I didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to feel “weird” jumping.

Def blaming my trainers in the 2010s for not fixing it when I returned to jumping in my early 20s. But so happy it is getting addressed now.

[pony_grandma]

It’s the hand,wrist,elbow line that pulls the shoulder back and down into the seat. Easy peasy once you get the correct alignment. I make kids carry a small coffee cup so they can carry their hands.