I like simple things. I know that in order for anything to be practically useful it has to have many parts to it and that can cause complexity but at the heart of each component there is something simple.
My riding sucks. And there are a slew of things I could criticize, starting from the top down: my head tilts forward, as do my shoulders, my hands flop too much, my back curves, my seat isn’t independant, my thighs don’t maintain even contact, my knees occasionally clench and my toes point down. Between my clenching knees and pointed toes, my calves don’t constantly squeeze my horse. And I decided that for this lesson, I was going to concentrate on keeping my lower leg on my horse especially over the jumps.
This is not to say that I simply neglected everything else. It just meant that if there was one thing I was going to try to fix above all others, it would be my lower legs on Future. There’s a reason for this and that is to build from solid fundamentals. I think that your legs are the most important aids when riding. More so then flailing hands or a subtle seat.
My sitting trot was a bit off because instead of letting my calves creep forward, I tried keeping them back. Hopefully I’ll keep stretching regularly and this will become easier. As a consequence, I didn’t sit the canter today nor did I try to sit the trot into any of the jumps — this was back to basics, baby. A solid two-point all the way.
And it paid off in spades. I pushed that guy into every corner I wanted him in, guiding his head to where I wanted it pointing. He cantered into every corner and there was no doubt that he was going to nail every jump I guided him into. He even came off jumps and completed lines that had been evading me for weeks. All because I told myself I was going to keep my leg on through every jump. Who would have thought something so simple would be so effective.
