So I have dug out the GoPro, and figured I would start trying out its many different attachments, to see what footage I could get. I realised my chest harness is fab for be able to see my hands and the horse in front of me.
Travis is the kind of horse that can look great in photos and videos, but honestly, never feels great to ride. He lures you into over riding and be over fussy with your hands, legs and even your body language. When you sit quietly you feel like nothing is happening, including nothing from him and it is easy to nag him every step. I am finding keeping my hands still hard, as he will chose to lean or use the inside rein for balance and will fall out of the outside shoulder without 100% consistency on the outside rein.
I will definitely use this video angle more often, it is interesting to see in the walk my hands are still and level, inside hand is slightly open with as little contact as possible to prevent leaning, in the trot my hands are still quiet, but I do allow the reins to get too long, I am able to maintain an OK contact, but this comes undone when I ask for the canter, as he comes up, my reins are too long and I lose my contact, throwing my reins at him, in that key moment I lose my communication in his weakest gait.
For comparison I have a video of how it looks from the floor, actually my hands don't look to bad or unsettled and my reins don't look like washing lines, but there is enough 'flapping' to lose that connection.
This has really made me concentrate on my hands for the moment and consider some key questions: What am I telling my horse? Am I helping my horse? Am I hindering my horse? Or am I confusing my horse?
I would love to be able to see my feet more closely, but i'm not sure how Travis would feel about a selfie stick attached to his breast plate!
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We’ve had a busy but lovely few weeks, with all of the trio doing some work. I took Autumn out to a fun ride in aid of the Ukraine which was great, mainly off road (which was lovely) and there was a river crossing in there too.
It all was going so well. I was enjoying the long Platinum Jubilee weekend, being off work Thursday and Friday. I got plenty of jobs done on the Thursday and then on Friday I washed Diva (Melland Queen of Scots) in preparation for Midland Counties Show the following day.
With the summer fast approaching, the time comes for us humans to plan for going away on holiday. For those of us with horses. this can present a challenge.
The trio have been raiding my bank account the past couple of weeks with a full hay delivery, 20kg bag of treats (lasts the a fair few months), farrier, and they were also treated to a back session each with a McTimoney practitioner as I wanted them given a good once over (think I need one too at this rate).