The best 'visualizations ' you have been given.

[KBC]

My coach is very inventive about trying to find different ways of getting my to think about what she is asking…but yesterday I thought she was going to choke laughing…we were trying to get some nice 10m circles, and then 10m figure 8’s. and I was getting heck for causing tension…

Then out of nowhere came “Milking the cow, you are milking the cow” What do you know, madam is suddenly soft and supple. I thought it was because I was ‘squeezing the udder’ seems that it was more than that, my hands immediately went forward…and what do you know, down and soft she went…

Coach thought it might work, but was floored how immediate it was…I guess that one sticks

“Milk the cow”

[downen]

“Nipples East & West.” For posture.

[Periwinkle]

It’s like you’re flying a rocket…one thruster and then the other. Working on straightness with thrusters for legs!

[Displaced_Yankee]

@Periwinkle

It’s like you’re flying a rocket…one thruster and then the other. Working on straightness with thrusters for legs!

Okay, so I have to ask…what are her credentials for knowing how to fly a rocket?

[KBC]

@downen

“Nipples East & West.” For posture.

I am struggling with that concept, seeing as mine are determinedly looking south these days

[jcc813]

“Madonna bra,” “belly button laser beam,” and “boobs out” for keeping a more upright position, especially over jumps.

This one was from a COTH thread on tips for keeping elbows loose and someone mentioned their trainer said imagine you’re scrubbing clothes on a wash board. For some reason that one really resonated for me.

[Toblersmom]

Not really a visualization, but I had one instructor regularly remind me “relax your tongue.” For most people, tension in the face, neck and shoulders will translate into having a tense tongue, and the relaxation of the tongue works pretty well in getting those other parts relaxed, too.

[2DogsFarm]

“There are no diamonds on his neck” to stop me looking down
“Fill your bra” self-explanatory

[Bluey]

Teaching kids having a problem with “heels down”, “toes up!”

[KandC]

Not exactly PG… but I was once told, “Shoulders like a queen, hips like a whore”. And it stuck to the point I have the nickname “The Duchess” at work :uhoh:.

[seabreeze]

I tend to drop my left shoulder. “Keep your shoulders level like the top of an evenly weighted balance scale” stuck with me. Every single time I ride I can’t get that picture out of my head, and I constantly think about making the scales even.

Another was one I read somewhere (wish I could recall where to give the proper credit, but I can’t). It compared the “giving” feeling of connection to the opening of a door. You have your hand on the doorknob, having to grasp it, but not being able to open the door without pushing it away from you.

[Scribbler]

Honestly visualizations mess me up. I get so caught up in trying to imagine the image that I lose track of what I m doing. I’d rather have someone come and position my leg in the saddle than talk about growing roots in my heels.

My coach some times says to kneel like you’re n a pew. We both spent a moderate amount of time as children in churches where that was done. I was however present at a lesson where she said that to a teen who grew up in a Jewish/agnostic household and had no idea what coach meant.

On the other hand, a good 5 years after I finally told coach please no more visualizations or metaphors, I found myself "kneeling’ in the saddle and went oh that’s what she meant!

[Dreamwalker]

When first teaching kids they are told to ‘aim their belly button where they want to go’

[WNT]

“Tetons tall” or “They (your tetons) are headlights, they need to point where you’re going”

For someone who overarched their lower back and stuck their butt out too far, and was sitting too much on their crotch, was the visualization of plucking Kleenex out of a box with the front of their, er, lady bits. As someone who gets too tight and pinch in the front of my thighs, it does actually help, lol.

When I went through a bad phase of jumping ahead of my horse, a clinician told me to imagine she was sitting on my horse’s rump with a hold of my ponytail. That, and falling off twice the first day due to jumping ahead, helped too!

The one I found myself telling younger students who pinched with their knee or thigh or calf, was to halt and imagine they were a chocolate bar melting in the saddle. Their legs were melting chocolate, running down and wrapping around their horse’s sides, with the chocolate dripping off their heels. Then move it off to a walk, trot, etc.

[NoSuchPerson]

I can think of two that resulted in lightbulb moments for me.

I was having a very difficult time doing a sitting trot instead of a bouncing trot. I was tensing up and trying to hold myself still. My instructor said, “pretend like you’re cooked spaghetti.”

In order to stay centered and in balance, visualize a downhill skier, balanced over his feet. I think this is really the same thing as the idea that if the horse magically disappeared out from under you, you should end up standing balanced on the ground, not fall on your face or on your rear. But, even though I grasped that concept, the downhill skier visualization helped implement it.

[KBC]

@WNT

For someone who overarched their lower back and stuck their butt out too far, and was sitting too much on their crotch, was the visualization of plucking Kleenex out of a box with the front of their, er, lady bits.
.

:lol::lol: Sitting here ‘plucking tissues’ thinking, that might work…will have to practice that one…

Then there is the ‘anti visualization’ last time I watched a video of myself, when I thought I had my hands forward, and it was a horrible shock to realize that I looked like I was being taught by the Meatloaf Maestro…puppy paws in crotch…Now I keep that vision and go “Don’t do it”

[Red_Barn]

I still love all the old Sally Swift visualizations, and have used them often myself:

“Imagine your body as a stack of building blocks that will collapse if not balanced one on top of the other.”

“Imagine there’s a balloon lifting you straight up from the top of your head.”

“Imagine each leg has sand bags tied to it.”

“Sitting the trot, imagine your belly as a slowly bouncing ball following the motion of the horse.”

(That Kleenex thing, on the other hand, is just . . . weird.)

[Bluey]

@KBC

:lol::lol: Sitting here ‘plucking tissues’ thinking, that might work…will have to practice that one…

Then there is the ‘anti visualization’ last time I watched a video of myself, when I thought I had my hands forward, and it was a horrible shock to realize that I looked like I was being taught by the Meatloaf Maestro…puppy paws in crotch…Now I keep that vision and go “Don’t do it”

A couple days ago, was thinking reins were really drapey (reining).
Pictures and videos showing, drapey, just not as much as I thought.
Then, normally dead quiet horse was acting fresh.
Was looking for and finding stuff to shy from.
Negative visualization, being old enough to know better, can be handicapping when horse is fresh.

[TheJenners]

@Bluey

Teaching kids having a problem with “heels down”, “toes up!”

I totally used this with the wee kiddos. “Toes up” was so much easier for them, and also:

@WNT

The one I found myself telling younger students who pinched with their knee or thigh or calf, was to halt and imagine they were a chocolate bar melting in the saddle. Their legs were melting chocolate, running down and wrapping around their horse’s sides, with the chocolate dripping off their heels. Then move it off to a walk, trot, etc.

I used something similar, only I said “imagine you are a bean bag, sitting on stick; all your beans are in your ‘feet’ in order to stay on, right?” So I’d be coaching and say “beans in your feet!” Worked but sure sounded weird!

For me, the best was when a coach told me to imagine a string from my butt to the back of the saddle, pulling me back during two point. Fixed my jumping position :yes:.

[WendellsGirl]

I love ‘laser beam belly button’! Will be borrowing that for my kids.