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For Teachers, part 2:  Defining the Goal 
what are we aiming for?

For recap, we can agree on a few things ~

  • "Everyone (including the teacher!) is doing their best to do their best.  No-one is intentionally, consistently doing the harmful or non-beneficial thing thinking it's the beneficial thing to do."
  • Repeatedly telling someone "here's the bulls eye, hit  the center of it" does not automagically give them the skill set to hit the bulls eye in the center.   
  • Micro-managing a situation also does not give someone a skill set, and has (imo) a certain violence to it that dismisses the student's ability and method of learning as well as robbing them of learning something deeply.
  • Teachers want to facilitate learning.  

With that all in mind, what is the answer to the question: "Why is a person doing something that really just isn't helping themselves or the horse?"  

I am wondering if these three things may come into play:

  • the student doesn't know what the goal is, actually
  • the student doesn't know what they are doing really
  • there is some influence that is interfering with everything.
 
What is the goal?  What are we aiming for?

Truthfully, in riding, the bulls eye, can be a complicated thing.  There are really two bulls eyes -- one for the rider and one for the horse.  The bulls eye needs to be described well enough that the rider or horse can discern when they've hit the bulls eye and when they've missed.  Until someone says, 'hit the red x' it's all a funny looking bunch of circles.  Unless the goal is defined, the rider and horse will be aimless.

I further submit that understanding and achieving the bulls eye for the rider is the one more under control of the rider, and while the horse can sometimes be used as a measure of achievement, it is better to have an internal measure.  But first one must know what it is one wants to achieve!

If the goal is to 'ride quieter' this sounds lovely but is not very measurable as it is stated.  A more attainable goal would be something like 'the rider's seat remains in the saddle' or 'the rider's legs drape around the horse.'   These second statements can be objectively observed.  For instance, the rider's seat is / isn't in the saddle; on a scale of 0 = no movement and 10 = lots of movement, one can 'measure' how much movement is happening.

As to what that the horse is meant to be doing, many of the books tend to devote much of the writing to what the horses needs looks like.  Which can itself provide contradictions -- as an example, for 'shoulder-in' we have different attempts at describing what it is exactly:

USDF Definition of the Shoulder-In: A shoulder-in is performed in collected trot. The horse is ridden with a slight but uniform bend around the inside leg of the rider, maintaining cadence at a constant angle of approximately 30 degrees. The horse’s inside foreleg passes and crosses in front of the outside foreleg; the inside hind leg steps forward under the horse’s body weight following the same track of the outside foreleg, with the lowering of the inside hip. The horse is bent away from the direction in which it is moving.

 

Current Wikipedia, In the shoulder-in, the shoulder of the horse is brought to the inside, creating a 30-degree-angle with the rail, with the neck bent only the slightest amount, only softening in the jaw so that the corner of the eye is visible to the rider. The horse's hind legs track straight forward along the line of travel while the front legs move laterally, with the inside foreleg crossing in front of the outside foreleg and the inside hind hoof tracking into or beyond the hoofprint made by the outside foreleg. Because the horse is bending away from the direction of travel, the movement requires a certain amount of collection. The shoulder-in can be performed at any forward gait, but in dressage competition it is usually ridden only at the trot.

 

From Riding Logic, In the shoulder-in, the horse is positioned as in bending, but he is bent more in the ribs and his fore legs re, therefore, off the track so that the inner leg follows the outer fore leg.

And, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words:

and from my own workbook:

So the first order of business is to decide what it is one wants to be doing.  Both in the horse and in the rider.   

Setting aside for the moment that anyone of these aspects can be hotly debated, if the teacher has an idea of what they wish to impart, it is useful to make sure the student has a clear idea of what that is and has, in some fashion, agreed to do it.

One time after like 30 minutes (way too long, btw) I finally asked a student, 'Could you tell me what you're doing?'  She relayed this information and much to my dismay it had very little to do with what I'd said.  I asked her about that and she cheerfully told me she was doing what her last instructor had told her to do.  Which, indeed, she was.  Lesson learned on my part!

 

More thoughts on this to come ...

L

Copyright © 09/15/2018 Lynn S. Larson 

Are you looking for something more in your riding?  Something that really connects the inside and the outside? Sometimes a hands on experience can do a lot to clarify something written.
I've studied horse and human anatomy for twenty five years.  I started with Centered Riding and that is solidly based upon how bodies work and how brains process information.  I know Alexander, Feldenkrais, Trigger Point, myofascial, Ortho-bionomy, how to develop resistance training programs, and more recently I am incorporating concepts from Body-Mind-Centering.  I've done yoga for more than forty years, studied (and used) the chakra and meridian systems for over twenty.  Sometimes I don't go into theory because in the middle of a lesson it would detract from the practical learning of how to ride, but I do clinics where I share this information along with how to incorporate it into your training program.  And if you really don't mind listening to me yak forever, I can easily do that during a lesson, too.  It's just most folks want to ride!  

 

Copyright © 11/30/17 - present Lynn S. Larson
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