Knuckle neck

Since I got to leave work early due to the WTO situation downtown, I was able to get to Hilltop Stables early enough (6:30pm) to observe other riders. I really do learn a lot from doing this. Its one of the things Jenny Hale taught me early on in my rowing instruction…you can learn a lot by watching. I’ve decided that visualization is really important to me in training. Watching the UW crew guys, watching fencing bouts, and other riders really helps me focus on what I need to concentrate on. The funniest part of observation time was one of the horse’s (Mac) response to a reindeer antler/Santa hat that someone put on top of my UW cap. Mac just couldn’t stop looking at me. He’s a curious horse, but the look on his face was hysterical…not sure if it was worry or disbelief.

I was pretty tight at first and had the usual problems getting Pet to listen to my aides, he seemed to keep wanting to make short turns. Laura had me pull the outside reign along with pressure on the inside leg to get Pet to stay to his full turns. Got a handle on this then worked on getting good flex in Pet. This basically means that I was trying to get him to curve his neck (eventually his whole body) into the turn or path I am taking. I did this by pulling my inside elbow back while maintaining constant pressure on the outside reign. Took me a couple laps in both directions, but I eventually got it. By the end Pet was responding much better to all my commands. Then up to canter where I finally figures out what Laura has been trying to tell my about using my knuckles rather than my wrists on Pet’s neck during the 2-point and canter. It felt 100 times better when I started using my knuckles.