Alyce redux
I came back from vacation to find that we’d gotten Alyce McNeil to come up and give us (me, Jess, Em and Min) a mini-clinic. It was great. The flatwork was fairly grueling, like the first time we’d ridden with her, but I was prepared for it this time. I also made damn sure to keep Clover in front of my leg going well forward—both Alyce and my trainer noticed. My trainer said that’s how I need to ride her all the time. Yea, I know.
We started off with walk work, and Alyce giving us a halting technique, using our thighs, torso and stomach muscles to halt without rein aids. She periodically had us halt this way several times during the flatwork. Wiggling horses meant we weren’t applying the aids firmly and evenly enough. When I halted and remained motionless, so did Clover. Amazing!
We continued on with many of the same exercises we’d done in the first clinic: slow walk, sitting trot, flexibility, slow trot, small circles. All done to get our horses supple, balanced and forward using their entire bodies.
Eventually we broke to walk down to the back field where the jumps were set up. Alyce had us warm up by trotting over a small vertical several times—she wanted us to focus on keeping the trot steady and even, and not move for the fence. I was seriously out of synch, but even still, I managed to stay over the center of Clover. I saw it on video myself, go figure.
Finally things started to click as we moved on to riding a figure-8 over the vertical, at the trot and then at the canter. Once we got into cantering the fences, my rhythm and release improved. But not necessarily my timing: Alyce asked me what I thought the distance was of one of the combinations, I said, “4 strides, hmmm … ” thinking, “probably 5 for Clover.” So she had me ride it, and I had to blow Clover through to make the 4, which we did, with a bit of a whack from her front feet. Just a wee bit of a stretch.
We finished up with a brief course, with a bending line. Clover and several other of the horses looked hard at a panel, the sun was hitting it just right in the late afternoon. Alyce kept reminding me to keep my hands up as I rode in between fences, which worked, and my releases were pretty good. Alyce has a camcorder and small tv in her car, and as soon as we had cooled the horses and turned them back out, we gathered around and watched our rides. I have to admit, I hardly recognized myself during some parts. I kept wondering, could that be me finally riding? It hardly seems possible.
We started off with walk work, and Alyce giving us a halting technique, using our thighs, torso and stomach muscles to halt without rein aids. She periodically had us halt this way several times during the flatwork. Wiggling horses meant we weren’t applying the aids firmly and evenly enough. When I halted and remained motionless, so did Clover. Amazing!
We continued on with many of the same exercises we’d done in the first clinic: slow walk, sitting trot, flexibility, slow trot, small circles. All done to get our horses supple, balanced and forward using their entire bodies.
Eventually we broke to walk down to the back field where the jumps were set up. Alyce had us warm up by trotting over a small vertical several times—she wanted us to focus on keeping the trot steady and even, and not move for the fence. I was seriously out of synch, but even still, I managed to stay over the center of Clover. I saw it on video myself, go figure.
Finally things started to click as we moved on to riding a figure-8 over the vertical, at the trot and then at the canter. Once we got into cantering the fences, my rhythm and release improved. But not necessarily my timing: Alyce asked me what I thought the distance was of one of the combinations, I said, “4 strides, hmmm … ” thinking, “probably 5 for Clover.” So she had me ride it, and I had to blow Clover through to make the 4, which we did, with a bit of a whack from her front feet. Just a wee bit of a stretch.
We finished up with a brief course, with a bending line. Clover and several other of the horses looked hard at a panel, the sun was hitting it just right in the late afternoon. Alyce kept reminding me to keep my hands up as I rode in between fences, which worked, and my releases were pretty good. Alyce has a camcorder and small tv in her car, and as soon as we had cooled the horses and turned them back out, we gathered around and watched our rides. I have to admit, I hardly recognized myself during some parts. I kept wondering, could that be me finally riding? It hardly seems possible.
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