Return

I have returned to horseback riding lessons.

And actually, my trainer beat me to it.  She asked me to return, which was pretty flattering.  She wanted some more "advanced" riders to work with so she could update her instructor certification.  While I laughed and reminded her that I was nowhere near advanced, it was still nice of her to think of me.

I was already planning to return to riding this month so it was good timing.

I started my lessons this past Tuesday and because it's two seconds from Winter here in Canada, we are switching to basics mode.  We spent the entire lesson pretty much learning how to ride from scratch.  L has made her Winter goal to get all of her riders to have perfect seat and leg position.

So she made us find the perfect seat position and slowly work our way up to cantering (mostly walking and trotting though) keeping that position.  Every time we lost it, we had to start from scratch at the halt.

I halted a lot.

Here's how she said to find it:

1. Take your feet out of the stirrups and lift your knees so that both of you seat bones connect with the saddle.
2. Slowly drop your knees and bring your legs back until you lose contact with the seat bones.  Bring your legs forward just slightly to re-establish contact.  
3. Now rotate your thighs in towards the thigh block.  
4. Bend your knees slightly.  You heels should now be perfectly in line with your shoulders and should gently be able to slip into your stirrups (if they're at the right length).
5. If you're me, you need the extra step to tell you not to shove your heels down at practically a 90 degree angle.

The inside of your legs are for going forward and the outside are for lifting (into the post).  She called us out perpetually if our toes were sticking out because that meant that we had lost our position and were using the wrong parts of our calves.

This may all seem like common sense, but it was actually pretty mindblowing in practice.  I have been in pain now for two days having used the actual muscles I should be using.