Leaning to the Left Makes the Eiffel Tower Seem Smaller

If you lean to the left, you will estimate quantities, like the height of the Eiffel Tower, to be smaller than if you were perfectly upright or tilted slightly to the right.  This is further scientific evidence of the mind/body connection.

The mind influences the body and the body influences the mind. Bodily sensations, like sight, smell, posture, etc. can affect the way you feel and what kind of decisions you make.

Leaning to the left makes the Eiffel Tower seem smaller: posture-modulated estimation. Eerland A, Guadalupe TM, Zwaan RA.

Psychology Institute, Faculty of Social Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands. eerland@fsw.eur.nl

Left lead canter has been an elusive goal for me and Luba. We worked on this a lot last year, but we are still pick up the right lead more often out on trail. To the extent that Luba's right pectoral is becoming slightly more developed than her left!

We had a lesson with Sonja this morning in the field. She observed two things. First, I tend to check Luba more to the left than to the right. So if I want her to slow down, I tend to check harder with my left rein and even turn her head towards the left. Secondly, I still tend to ride with my hip flexors too closed up. I need to open them, especially the right side, so that when I give the aid for left lead canter, I am lengthening and opening my right hip and allowing her to step through onto the correct lead. Can you say yoga yoga yoga this week?

So Luba has learned that when I checking to the left, it means slow down. Then I ask for the left canter with a slight bend to the left (and with my right hip closed up) and she she picks up the right canter instead.

To remedy this, we practised figure 8's at the trot, first to the right and then to the left, sling-shotting ourselves into a straight line canter on the left lead (reminiscent of my warm-up-and-leave-camp-at-a-canter strategy at Coates Creek).  If Luba picks up the right lead, I am to try to check her to the right, bring her back to trot, open up my right hip and ask for left lead again when I am in the sitting phase of a posting trot on left diagonal.

They say a good horse makes short miles, but I may also try leaning to the left during the latter stages of the Stormont 75 on Saturday :)