where there is snipping and catty remarks there is little learning going on, and little listening and thinking about what is being said.
i haven’t seen any really good dressage riders that were any floppier than the movement of the horse might warrant with a correct deep seat. you have to realize what type of movement the upper level horses produce and what it’s like to sit on them before you start condemning people. try sitting on one of those horses sometime and see just how well you do, and you’ll have more appreciation for what’s going on and what it takes to do the upper levels.
AND…it really would be good to watch some top level dressage riders, instead of the local ‘‘big fish in a little pond’’ who have convinced locals that they’re legends in their own time…and can’t ride their way out of a paper bag.
too, i’d be sympathetic to the lesser lights who are going through the painful process of learning to sit a better moving, bigger moving horse. it isn’t easy, and it’s something most people don’t even have the guts to TRY to learn, let alone to drag themselves out in public and listen to the snips of the know-it-all railbirds who have never done anything, but know all about how everyone who IS should be doing it.
it takes about 3 years to learn to sit a bigger moving horse so most people when they finally get a good moving horse are going to look pretty bad for a good while, unless they ‘‘cut down’’ the gaits of the horse so they can ride them. and in fact, every time they move up, they’re going to ‘‘revisit’’ those learning stages, and you see people going thru these stages repeatedly.
some horses can withstand this cutting down for a time, for others it will interfere with their final amount of gait development reaching its full potential, and wind up permanently restricting them, so it’s a gamble sometimes.
so if the rider can withstand all the inevitable snotty nasty remarks, it’s better for the horse usually to just let 'er rip and hang on as best you can and let the ability to ride the bigger mover develop, and hope that people around will be knowledgeable enough to understand what is going on.
there are inevitable development stages a person’s seat goes through, and if you try to keep them from happening and fight them, your seat just won’t develop.
it means that for a time at the start, a person MUST flop loosely in the saddle, and probably will no matter what sort of tiny little mover they’re put up on. that stage goes on for a long time, and without that relaxation and looseness, a proper seat won’t develop.
later on, the rider will learn to follow the motion and will develop his muscles so he is stronger and has the stomach and back muscles to stabilize himself in the saddle and take on a more elegant, still position.
and at THAT time, he’ll look pretty lousy too - too stiff and too unyielding in the saddle.
but it’s all a part of the game. if you don’t go through the loose phase you’ll never get a good seat…if you don’t go thru the stiff phase later, you won’t progress either.
the only way to avoid these is by restricting the horse with artificial aids and harsh use of the hands so he doesn’t use his body fully. too, less talented horses, the ‘‘comfortable horses’’ that never swing their hips or back, can give a person a false sense of having a good, supple, following seat.
a part of developing the seat is an awful lot of bouncing and flopping and looking basically just horrible, riding without reins, without stirrups, with ONE stirrup, with ONE rein, making circles with your arms, doing exercises and stretches in the saddle, and basically just a whole lot of flopping around. without that, the seat will never improve. but a lot of folks THINK they sit very well and very quiet - sure they do, as long as the horse has no gait, or they don’t try to sit down in the saddle. suffice to say, most people don’t sit anywhere near as well as they think they do - there is always room for improvement, and always the more challenging horse who will come along and say, ‘‘sorry, sweetheart, but you need to sit better to ride MOI’’. and that’s when you start realizing how far you have to go, and how much there is to learn. and THAT is the point where you really start learning, when you realize that you can always be better. AND that someone being not as good as you doesn’t make you any better, or any LESS in need of improvement LOL.
there is a certain amount of education people need to understand dressage riding and to look at it.
for example, some years ago, a junior rider who was my buddy came over to watch riding videos.
with no introduction i put a video on. she proceeded to tear the fellow down mercilessly, criticizing his horrible seat and how he rode.
it was reiner klimke.
[This message was edited by slc on Nov. 12, 2001 at 01:00 PM.]
LOL
