next gig: Cavalia

One last morning lesson with my teacher, Sonja before taking Luba home. I requested a lunge lesson in voltige gear. Finish the way we started.

Sonja asks me to recap what I have learned while we are warming up at the walk and trot. She knows that talking distracts my busy mind from what I am doing, allowing my body to be a feeling rider. Soon Luba and I are both ready and we canter. Let go of the voltige gear with one hand, both hands, then arms out to the side, like my favourite scene from the Black Stallion (about minute 5 of this video).





Then Sonja asks me to put my hands up above my head. And I do. I put my hands in anjulai mudra - prayer position above my head - crown chakra.

We practise walk/trot/canter with me asking for transitions using the solar plexus -  manipura chakra. Sonja is just holding the lunge line to keep Luba on a circle. Ride the good stuff and release the rest. Find the internal balance and the rest aligns itself. Like yoga. I close my eyes to see clearly.

Finally, Sonja removes the lunge line. And no, I am not allowed to pick up the reins. Walk, trot, canter, arms up. Me and Luba. Luba and Me. MeAndLubaAndMeAndLubaAndMe.

Luba stands quietly at the barn as I get the trailer hooked up and ready to go. 

We walk over to the trailer and I lead her right on. Sonja puts up the bar and closes the door. 

Angus, Sonja and Luba at Horses of the Sun

Spring training at Horses of the Sun comes to a glorious end. Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you.

Never mind the Musical Ride. Cavalia, here we come!

Let it be

Arrived early for the group riding lesson yesterday. Not having to rush makes it easier to be a Feeling Rider. Have to remember this for endurance ride mornings.

I forgot to wear my Feeling Rider pin, but I imagined that I was wearing it. And that works too :)

Tacked up at the trailer and warmed up in the sand ring as the other riders got ready. Very busy sunny warm Saturday afternoon. Neighbours out with their lawn tractors, kids squealing and running around. I sang "We can work it out" to Luba as we walked around, finding our focus and then trotted some figure eights.

The big "ah ha" of the day was about letting go. Sonja has been encouraging me to ride with my reins held in one hand. This helps me to focus on riding from my seat.

Our group lesson ended up being in the grass ring, a new riding location for me and Luba. The far end of the ring is adjacent to the paddock where Bill and Luba stay. So this end was interesting with Bill calling to Luba and running around. In the end, Luba and I were able to work it out.

Three grays and two bays today. Gray bay gray bay gray. If nothing else, we would be visually balanced and pleasing for the lesson :)

During our turn at the canter, I discovered that riding with one hand makes things smoother and quieter. Putting the reins in my outside hand and lifting my inside arm in a happy salute really helped me to feel the canter and just let it happen. (Let it be. Maybe our next theme song?) Both hands on the steering wheel and I block the canter, making both of us unhappy and tense. Fussing and fighting. :(

The highlight of the lesson was the merry-go-round exercise. Horses on the centre circle going one direction and one horse inside the circle going in the other direction. Luba and I had left lead canter enjoyment while all the other horses did right lead canter around us.

Luba has the potential to be the first gray horse ever recruited for in the Musical Ride!  And now that I can ride with one hand, I could carry that lance. :)

We can work it out

5 am wake up for another early morning lesson. This is really good training for endurance ride starts.

Sonja had her Ipod music box set up for us again today. Today's theme song was We can work it out by the Beatles. "Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend."

No fussing and fighting.

We walked around the scary part of the ring, reins in one hand. We worked walk/halt, trot and canter at the safe end of the ring, reins in one hand.

Right canter with right hand up in a happy salute. Left canter enjoyment with the left hand waving like the Queen. Sonja says, both hands up. So I did. Imagine that!


Listening to CBC Radio 2 Morning on the way to work. The regular segment "Under The Covers" featured a famous Beatles tune, covered by none other than Stevie Wonder.

Coincidence, you say?

Serendipity, I say.

Luba, we can work it out!

The Feeling Rider

Breakthrough today.

Picture a sunny May morning just before 7 am. Sand ring freshly dragged. Classical music filling the air.  A rendition of All the Pretty Little Horses.




The lesson today is to dance with your horse. Don't worry about what direction you go. Walk, bend. Halt. Rein back. Walk on. Trot. Canter. Scared of our own shadow. Sit. Breathe. Relax. Feel the music.

Working on halt. Soft seat sends energy down, close hands, release.

I tend to get stuck giving the aid and forget to release. But not a release that throws it all away.

It's a release that softly gives the energy back to the horse. Lob the ball to her and she catches it and lobs it back.

Suddenly the penny dropped.

Halts, turns on forehand, reins loosely held in one hand. Sharing the energy back and forth. I breathe and Luba breathes. I ask halt, Luba halts and our energy goes quiet. You don't make your horse halt. You ask your horse to halt and she obliges.

We walk over to Sonja and Luba starts giving releases like when she gets body work. Soft eye, slow blinks, lick, chew, yawn, sigh.

Be.

Putting away my gear in the trailer and Sonja brings me a gift. She pins it to my shirt and says this is to mark the day I became a Feeling Rider. Keep it with me when I ride to remind me of how to feel when we ride.

Thank you, Sonja and Horses of the Sun.

Sonja's gift for Nancy, the Feeling Rider

Unclenched

Took Luba to the back trails. Sonja's paddocks are sandy and grassy - virtually no mud. Luba has forgotten what mud looks like and there is a patch of mud at the entrance to the trails. I stayed calm and stayed patient, used my crop sparingly but to great effect and we were off!

Luba was very looky today. Three spooks - the horses at the far end of the field, a wild turkey near the picnic table and a duck flying out of the creek.

I know that wild turkey hen is out there!

Spring has sprung! Wild violets?

We walked most of the first 25 minutes trying to focused. Once we found the driest spots, we set about to trot and then cantered the long stretch at the back of the paddocks. We trotted towards home and cantered away from home. Took a 10 minute break back at the trailer and then did the trot/canter work again on the long stretch.





Today it really hit home that clenching with my thighs is bad. Relaxing and lengthening my inner thigh allows me to sit deep. When I sit deep, I can recycle Luba's energy (and my energy). On each stride, as I catch her energy, I can soften it when I pass it back to her. Like someone throwing you a baseball really hard and then you catch it and lob it softly back.

I practised speeding up and slowing down the trot or canter on the long stretch using my seat and recycling the energy. Going fast is not scary when both of us are in sync. Be the canter. Be the trot. Human Be-ing.

In other news, having the trailer parked near the paddock has been good ride camp practice. I have a total system worked out now. I LOVE my new saddle rack in the nose of the trailer.

HOTS ride camp - the scene of the great Bolt and Bail Episode

Luba post ride

And Luba is now totally bombproof about small motorized children's vehicles. :)  Sonja says it is easier to train the horses to get used to the little jeep than to tell the kids to stop playing.

Children At Play

Experience life with horses at Horses of the Sun. 

Gray Bay Parade

Group riding lessons. 

How to play well with other children. 

How to keep it together when warming up for the start of an endurance ride. 

Had a lesson on Friday with Sheila/Bill, Uwe/Samba and Heidi/Inca. Luba was a pill. She did NOT like Inca being anywhere in her vicinity.  She needed remedial help.  We had to work away from the other horses on our own circle at one end of the ring. It took about 20 minutes of bending and halting for her to find her focus.  Good thing Sonja is so comfortable with horses and people with special needs. We all have special needs.

We never did join the others on their circle, but we did have left and right lead canter enjoyment by the end :)

After the lesson ended, we did trot/canter intervals down the driveway. It it about a 1/4 mile long and we did it 10 times. By the end, Luba was starting to breathe hard. I practised relaxing and lengthening my inner thigh, especially up high.

We joined the group lesson on Saturday. Sonja suggested I arrive early and warm Luba up away from the sand ring. So we went to the grassy spot near the gate and repeated our bending and turning lesson as the others arrived in their cars and opened and closed the gate.  Luba settled quickly and walked calmly up to the barn. We continued bending and turning on the lawn as people made final adjustments to their tack.

We were six horses in total, including Samba and Inca. We were three grays and three bays. Sonja put all the bays at the front of the line and all the grays at the back and we worked on precision riding. Walk, halt, turns on forehand, trot, change hand, canter, turn back on centre line, change direction. Then she mixed us up, one bay, one gray. Everybody walk, front horse canter around the school. Then two front horses canter around the school. Sonja took much pleasure in the symmetry of the colour coordination :)

The best news is that Luba and I did not need remedial help today! I carried a crop which also helped with her focus. We participated fully in the lesson and even picked up our left lead with some help from Sonja on the timing. 

now (imagine you are cantering)

Now (imagine you are cantering)

NOW you are cantering!

I do not have a great sense of where Luba's feet are when I am riding. So we are going to work on feeling the right moment to ask for left canter.

We cooled out by walking up the laneway, past the paddock where Bill and Luba live. Bill was quite miffed that Luba was out riding without him. He accompanied her down the side of the paddock and when we carried on past and towards the back trails, he started to protest. Big gallops around the field and huge bucks. Beauty in motion! 

Luba is also looking lovely. She is getting free choice forage and less feed (down to 4 cups of Evolution Elite twice a day). I am saving the Xplosion feed for race day ;)

Here is how she looked in the warm morning sunshine today.

Serious Moonlight May 6, 2012 at Horses of the Sun

Don't do it. Be it.

Amazing how easy it is to get up at 5:30 am when it is for an early morning riding lesson. :)

Things have been really hectic at the office, so I haven't even been out to the Horses of the Sun since Sunday. I was due for some Equine Therapy.

Time for lateral work now that we are having some left canter enjoyment. We tacked at the paddock and walked up the laneway to work in a small grassy area near the gate. Working on something new, so working in a new place too. Actually, I think that Sonja knows that I work better outside the riding ring :)

Walking only today. So even though Luba wanted to trot, we kept things under wraps. Warming up in the dewy grass of the cool morning gave me the feeling of warming up before an endurance ride. Normally, if Luba is antsy, I let her trot and work with that. But as Sonja pointed out, if I can also keep her focused at the walk, this adds another tool to the toolkit.

Walking, halting, back-up a couple steps. Walk on. Serpentines and bends. Once Luba and I settled and were working smoothly, we started turns of the forehand from the halt. Then from the walk. Then turns on the haunches, from the halt and then the walk. Before long Luba was very loose and crossing over front and back.

Every now and then, Luba would get antsy and start to jig. Sonja said, "If you don't like it, don't ride it". This seems contradictory to the mantra of "Work with what the horse is giving you". The difference is you choose to work with the good stuff. If you ask for trot but your horse gives you a beautiful canter transition, work with that and then ask for the trot again. If you want your horse to walk but she tucks her nose and starts to jig, you choose not to accept that gift. Don't ride it if you don't like it. Halt. Back up. Start again.

Another tip that helped Luba and I to settle into the walk and lateral work was for me to stop trying so hard. Don't do it. Be it. So I stopped looking down. I stopped jerking my head up when I realized I was looking down. I closed my eyes for a moment and then opened them to find my drishti on the horizon. Let everything soften. Breathe and Luba breathes.

We rode for about 40 minutes total with lovely lateral moves by the end.  Without it even feeling like a riding lesson!

I love Sonja and Horses of the Sun.
Be it.
So ham.

The Horses of the Sun

From the silver steed, the black, the bay
To the golden and the dun
These are the living colours
Among the Horses of the Sun

From the whisper of the autumn wind
To the laughter and the fun
These are the breathing forces
Among the Horses of the Sun

From the first dim light of morning
To the setting of the sun
We speak the peaceful language
Among the Horses of the Sun

From the spirit of the movement
To the tasks not yet begun
Our lives and souls belong
Among the Horses of the Sun
Sonja Koch