Trying M. Wanless method:"Help, my a$$ is too big"

[jennifer2]

a Mary Wanless book (Nat'r'l Rider) and Sally Swift--- And I really won't loan these out again....sheesh.

I didn't think I missed Centered Riding (I thought I "had" it all- yah, sure) and I re-read it last month (library where I moved FROM has it) and now I want it back!

Mary Wanless is so DENSE, as is Sally Swift. And the things that we assume are so are often backwards and I get turned around often when I'm reading.

I DID notice last night doing stretches that when I bring my left thigh forward that it DOES let my right hip slide back (guess what my problem spot is- hehe), and I certainly feel that way when I try it on Aramis. I know a lot of his crookedness is my own twist.

[Luci]

Help. My trainer tell me that I am gripping with my thighs too much and not balancing enough. I'm riding her mare while my guy is injured and her stride is soooo different. Suddenly, I can't stay balanced at her canter and it takes a while to let my heels drop at the trot. How do you do this? Does Mary Wanless address this at all?

[jennifer2]

I like to imagine my horse growing into my behind and up through my back-- "Cowboy Posts" I call it- like on the little molded plastic cowboys and horses that come in the big bags at the dollar store.

The energy can come up through the horse's behind, flow through his quarters and back, up through my behind and out my chest.

Then there's GEL...Or warm Hunny...all through my body. There's a hole in each heel where it flows oozing out and then there's AIR-- bubbles of SUNSHINE rising up through the Hunny and out the top of my head.


Or I'm a sandbag from my knees to my waist and my sand bag wraps around the top of the horse, my legs hang below the knees and my body is a balloon trying to rise up from tyhe sand bag...

One thing I used to do- on my own horse- was practice riding with NO point of contact other than my seat. Try sitting a trot with your WHOLE leg out away from the horse, now POST like that!!!! (NOT on a silly horse and not on a baby!!!) That will help you really feel what your body can do. I don't think I could do that now.

It's hard to not grab with your thighs, but when you do it actually pushes your seat up out of the saddle and closes up your front.

GOOD LUCK! Practice in your mind a LOT.

[Luci]

Thanks! Those are good suggestions. I really like the sandbag idea. In high school when I spent all that time bareback crusing over to friends' stables to hang out I never had to think about balance. It just happened. Maybe I should take advantage of riding a calm horse and drop my stirrups.