Lesson Recap: A Dancer or a Rider

Apparently Winter is going to be about pain.

On Monday we focused on our leg position again, and surprise surprise, I have not magically gotten back into shape in only two lessons.

I know.  You are surprised as well.

We had a lunge lesson where two of us shared a horse.  One girl lunged while the other rode, and we did walk/trot and posting at the walk/trot while focusing on this magical elusive position I am incapable of achieving.

We talked a lot about separating our upper body from our lower body.  Later in the barn, my instructor made us all get into our riding positions on the concrete and practice trying to knock each other over.

Yes.  This is what I am paying for, folks.

The goal of the exercise was to maintain the balance in the lower half of the body but be able to go with the flow, as it were, when someone rammed our upper bodies.  As it turns out, no matter how many times you push me in the back, even when I know it's coming, I will fall over.

Finally, we practiced contact.  With a lead rope and a friend.  We each held a looped lead rope and practiced seesawing and moving all over the place at different rhythms and trying to get the other person to lose contact or stop resisting.  What was really interesting was that after we did this with eac hother, we had to do it with our instructor so that we could feel what our contact should feel like.

It was definitely thought provoking.  I kind of wish I had someone who I could do this with regularly.  Like all the cool kids do, I'm sure.

We talked a lot about using our muscles and separating different parts of our body.  Then my instructor said that frankly, what it comes down to, is that in order to be competitive in something physical like riding, you simply need to train your body in that one particular way.  In her words: "You can either be a dancer or a rider.  Not both."

So the moral of the story?  There's still a chance for my ballerina career.