Biomechanics Lesson #1

I took a lesson with Anne Howard today and it was delightful! I learned a lot and worked reasonably hard and came away with the following notes for myself:

• Keep my head balanced over my shoulders by focusing on the alignment of my chin and sternum. She recommended focusing on the horse's fascinating poll for a while, at least until my habit isn't to turn my head so dramatically all the time. 
• Imagine pressing my whole upper body against a sliding glass door -- I tend to suck back in my belly and lean forward through my shoulders, so this helps the alignment so my core can work more effectively.
• Some things to remember that won't make any sense to anyone else: 1) Hip flexion
  2) Internal rotation at the hip
  3) Abduction
  4) Knee&toe up
• Focus on keeping my internal rotation solid and posting off the front of the knee knobble
• Post with more oomph up and land more softly
• My bearing down has holes in it. Harrumph. I need to 'exercise'.
• Keep my thigh narrow all the way up from my knee. 
• I need to practice finding my seat bones, especially the back edge and the left and right edges.
• Take a little more contact with my horse (yup... heard that before)
• Focus on the feel of the horse's back underneath me. 

One thing I really liked was the question "so what's happening now?" because it really turned my focus internally and allowed me to 'see' things that I normally would ignore.

Tango's had three days off. But I turned him into an alien:

 Camou had a week of being a camp pony. But he loved it:

 Jimmy got ridden on the trails (not by me.) and then I showed off his 3' jumping skills for the camp kids. We also turned him into an alien.

 Danny was solely ridden on the trails. 

I'm not having a great week in terms of exercising/training my ponies. 

On a very good note, TANGO GAVE A DRESSAGE LESSON ON THURSDAY. Oh yes. And she worked on her leg yield. Boom. 

I'm aiming to take Tango and either Danny or Camou to JK Presents at the end of September. Training level for Tango, and First for Danny. If Camou goes, it'd be all on the hunter end.

That's a reasonable goal, right?

Hmm. First I have to exercise my core a little more. Off to the gym! (not. More like off to do thirty half-hearted seconds of planking before googling various core workout routines. I'm actually terrible at fitness.)