Monday, October 8, 2007

Stories




Riding the Inside of the Horse

"Well, you've got some lightness but you don't have soft" says Mark. She is the last rider of the second day of Mark's clinic in the mountains of New Hampshire. It's breezy and cool, a perfect day for a gathering of students and two talented clinicians so graciously willing to share their knowledge. In the covered round pen a woman with red hair rides her red horse. They've been together for many years, he's 20, been there done that, lots of go. "Does he know he's 20?" asks Mark. The horse is walking forward quite well and gives some to the bit when she asks for it, but there's a bit of a lack of flow in their movements. "You are riding the outside of the horse, but you're not riding the inside." I have read this before, heard this before and thought I understood what that meant, but I was about to find out I'd had no idea.

Mark asks the rider to think about the horse's feet. "Can you tell when the right hind is coming off the ground, the right front, do you feel your shoulder moving back, your hip up, leg out and back again?" As Mark asks these questions, the rider really loosens up, not that she was riding badly before, but now there is lots of movement in her body as she follows the horse's movement. He's pleased that she can feel her shoulders moving, says lots of people can't. She's soon moving softly with the horse and I'm amazed at how much movement is there but how soft and good it looks. Then I notice the horse. Soft eyes, head relaxed, moving fluidly and quietly, smiling! Mark calls everyone's attention to the horse and we're all amazed at the difference in him. "He's relieved that you're finally paying attention to him, where his feet are, instead of thinking about what you're doing" says Mark. He then explains and demonstrates each gait, things I've read and seen on video but that are much more powerful when seen in person. At one point Mark asks her if she has children, "God, no" she says, "I can shoe everything I have." We all chuckle.

Next he tells us about transitions. Words don't work here, walk, trot, canter have no meaning, no fluid picture. Walk, we hear that and see a still picture, trot, canter, same thing, in our minds we see a still picture of a stride of the gait. "I want you to count the footfalls of the gaits, 1,2,3,4-walk, 1,2-trot, 1-2-3, canter" he explains. "Okay, think 1,2,3,4" the horse walks softly on, "Now think 1,2" the horse speeds up and does a couple of steps of trot. "That's it! Try again." With no visible movement of reins or leg, the horse softly, smoothly moves into a trot. We all gasp, the rider beams, can't believe it! As she goes around the arena doing walk, trot transitions with no rein or leg cues, she gets more and more excited. At one point she and the horse stop right in front of me, I reach out and touch him, you can feel the joy in him too. As she gets better and better at this she says "I'll come back to this when I'm having trouble". "This is what I'll fall back on from now on". Suddenly I hear my thoughts coming from Mark's mouth, "NO, this is where you want to LIVE!"

As we walked away soon after, I knew I probably wouldn't remember the rider's name, but I would never forget the way her smile outshone the sun on that perfect May afternoon when she softly rode the inside of her horse.

No comments: