It happened!!! This thread is for you, Eqtrainer

[dalpal]

Eqtrainer....remember all those lessons where we talked about how you create the frame and the horse comes into the frame...how you sit still and the horse's back comes up underneath you.

Today I was riding the gray mare...and we were having a tough lesson with Jimmy K.....he was really after me about getting her round and listening to my seat...and finally it happened.....another one of those light bulb moments.

As I started sifting back through all my mental Eqtrainer notes...I was suddenly able to just let go in the thigh and let the knee relax....all of a sudden my entire hip area just opened up and I felt like I could just effortlessly stay still....my heels just sunk down on their own...and I just felt as if I was sitting on this cloud and all this power was underneath me. I felt like I needed a shadbelly and top hat. :lol: I was able to totally ride from my seat and could feel gray mare coming up into my seat area (although she was more interested in the jump set up in the ring).

It was the most amazing feeling I have ever felt riding. I felt Beautiful. :lol:, not like a clutz trying to find my balance on my croup high horse.

Eqtrainer....it clicked, took awhile, but it clicked.

I tried to totally recreate it on my gelding, but didn't quite get back to the same place.

I'm so excited......if you had asked me a year ago, I would have told you that I would never be able to sit the trot..EVER.

[EqTrainer]

I am thrilled! :D:D:):yes::yes: I love my job!!!! THANK YOU!!!!

PS - you *are* Beautiful :)

[pintopiaffe]

It was the most amazing feeling I have ever felt riding. I felt Beautiful.

well, crap, now I'm all verclempt. :sadsmile:

And THIS is why we DO this thing called "dressage."

Good for you!! And thank you for sharing that, and reminding me. :yes:

[slc2]

IT...IS....ART!!!!!

EqTrainer knows her stuff :)

[MidlifeCrisis]

Could you bottle some of that feeling and send it to me?:winkgrin:

[Briggsie]

Well, Now I am wanting your tips...of making the frame.
Basically, I dont have problems with the school masters. Of course..MY HORSE...who is in full time training..comes into a beautiful frame for my trainer (of course he does..she is an FEI gold medalist) but GOD it takes forever when I get on. I REALLY feel like a retard just sitting and waiting....no matter what I DO. HELP. Share your tips! What should I do to get the relaxation etc. SHARE your tips. I AM DYING to know.

[dalpal]

I'm sure Eqtrainer will share....I owe everything I understand about rider/horse biomechanics to her. :yes:

bascially, you open up your body much to make a frame (think of an A framed house) and let the horse come up underneath you ...you have to open up, not squeeze the horse in order to do this. Youre going to open where the leg/hip meet (that joint area)...hurts like #@#$%$ when you first start working to do it...I still get leg cramps shooting down my legs at times.

Bascially what happened to me this week...another lady at the barn was having trouble getting her horse through....and I could see exactly everything that Eqtrainer had said to me....I saw the rider's leg pinch and the horse didnt come through. I explained to her that the horse's rib cage has to be able to expand for the horse to come all the way through and when you pinch, he/she cannot.

So I started thinking about that myself today in my lesson....kept telling myself...take the knee off the horse, let it hang.....for some reason today, I was able to finally really release in that hip/leg joint area and let it go. Once that area was released and stretched...the rest of the lower body, just draped/hung like a wet towel against the horse's body. I was able to use just the outside aids instead of battling with balance issues. The horse, suddenly not restricted in her ribs)...came through and up to my seat bones.....Now, keep in mind, this is not an easy horse....so keeping her there, did take work with my seat....I just kept thinking BACK with my right seatbone.....and the words of the instructor on the ground really brought it home...RIDE THE BACK LEGS, sit back, Ride the right hind (Which at the time was my outisde leg)...then he would yell....Rounder, now let go, release, soften......all of this combined with what I had learned from Eqtrainer, suddenly just merged and my body coudl physically release.

It was the most amazing thing....instead of 5'4, I felt like I was 6 feet tall....legs felt incrediably long, heel was down....I just felt STILL, motionless, as if frozen in time, but yet all of this movement was happening underneath me....I could feel the horse underneath my seat, therefore I was able to keep her there by being still and not allowing her to pop me off the seatbones. And the most amazing thing for me.....my heels just dropped and there was no tension in my toes/feet....which for me, is very difficult. Even the instructor was commenting on all of a sudden, my posture was really good. Now for all I know, I looked like $#$%#$#......:lol: But it felt like what I see when those upper level riders coming by on those big lofty horses and they aren't moving. When I looked down at my shadow....the only thing I saw moving was my ponytail swinging in the horse's motion...and I wasn't even feeling the pony tail's motion.
WEIRD.

[eyesontheground]

This makes me want to come take a lesson with EqTrainer!! I have never had a trainer tell me I was beautiful! I am not sure I have even had a trainer act like they cared if I ended up feeling beautiful or confident or anything close to either of those!

I think I just had a light bulb moment of my own! :sadsmile:

[BaroquePony]

Originally posted by dalpal:

When I looked down at my shadow....the only thing I saw moving was my ponytail swinging in the horse's motion...and I wasn't even feeling the pony tail's motion.


Congratulations. You have achieved what is called a "zen moment", with the help of EqTrainer, of course.

This is a breaking through that many riders don't acheive and you should be proud of yourself.

And, by the way, it is almost always true that the rider does actually look their best when this is accomplished. It is applied physics and mathematics, just as is music.

There is a rythym to the universe and you have found a way to be in harmony with it. This is harmony between horse and rider.

Please, keep doing it. We need more riders that are working correctly.

[lizathenag]

this for me, is the value of COTH board.

You can share stuff like this with like-minded folks. others just don't get it.

congrats and thanks for sharing.

[NCSue]

This makes me want to come take a lesson with EqTrainer!! I have never had a trainer tell me I was beautiful! I am not sure I have even had a trainer act like they cared if I ended up feeling beautiful or confident or anything close to either of those!

I think I just had a light bulb moment of my own! :sadsmile:


This makes me sad. There are those instructors who falsely tell you you are beautiful. I don't have much use for them. Then there are instructors who help you work hard to achieve the wonderful, fantastic results that dalpal felt. I know that she has worked incredibly hard on her riding and that eqtrainer's teaching can only be successful b/c her students take what she says and over time makes it their own. To me that's the essence of a good teacher - student relationship.

Congratulations dalpal. Those feelings are awesome. Thanks for sharing.

[pintopiaffe]

And, by the way, it is almost always true that the rider does actually look their best when this is accomplished. It is applied physics and mathematics, just as is music.

There is a rythym to the universe and you have found a way to be in harmony with it. This is harmony between horse and rider.


This is a lovely, lovely response. Thank you. Your response got me just as teary and gushy as the original post. (yes, even a night later.) THIS IS WHAT IT IS. It's not Olympic medals or HOY standings... it is the music inside of us, finding the harmony and countermelody with the music inside our partner... dancing.

This is such a timely reminder when I am so bemoaning lack of progress 'up the levels.' Screw levels. I need to remember the magic.

Eyesontheground... my teacher is a hard@ss. He is very sparing of compliments to long time students. (there's a running joke about the 'third lesson.' First lesson he is ever so polite and Latin poet... Second lesson, a bit harder, but you still smile at the end. If you come back for a third, LOOK OUT! :lol: ) And yet, when it is right, I *feel* elegant. I *feel* tall and skinny and effective.

Then, of course, we end up riding toward a mirror and all those *feelings* are shattered... :uhoh: My shadow at home is a much more forgiving and *flattering* muse.

But my point is, let your HORSE be your guide in this. No, it's not easy without a teacher to bring you along to the point, but when your horse is RIGHT, when you have his back, and he grows a hand in front, and the reins are just a whisper and a thought... you too will feel Beautiful.

[Perfect Pony]

I have to say, your post made me smile a bit. I am really in the same place, I have a very talented little mare and she and I are learning this "dressage" thing together. After riding for years and years I am back to lunge line lessons trying to figure out this radically different seat, and trying to ride in this weird saddle. It is amazing though, those little moments when you get it right and all of a sudden your horse feels so much happier, so much more forward, and starts carrying you.

The hardest part for me is I have these little moments and then it's 2 steps back!

[JB]

dalpal, what a wonderful story to share! As you probably know, I idolize (and not in a freaky way ;)) EqTrainer as well. Her insight into the horse and rider is, to me, a bit scary at times ;) No doubt there are other trainers like her, but for the likes of you and me, who will likely never, ever encounter them, we are so lucky to have her. I have had some similar moments, here and there, where I really *get* what it's all about. I e-mail her with this insane excitement, and I truly believe that she is just as happy as I am for those moments.

There are people who can ride beautifully but cannot teach. There are people who can teach their way out of anything but might not be able to make their bodies do what's right. I don't get to see ET ride very often *at all*, so won't make comments on that. But I can tell you that while I may not get something the first time, or the 2nd, the continued conversation she is open to, and the willingness to be free with the praise and not derogatory with the constructive criticism, I think eventually I get it, and even occasionally have one of *your* moments where all is right with me, the horse, and the universe, all at the same time.

Thank you ET :D