George Morris Taught Me How to Make My Horse Twerk

It's true.  If you were anywhere near as obsessed as I was with the 2014 George Morris Horsemastership Training Session, there was no way you could have missed this gem of a quote from The George Himself: “Lateral work gets the horse round from behind. He’s dancing from behind. … Like Miley Cyrus, dancing with his hind end.”  Let me explain the complete epicness of those statements: George Morris is 75 years old, and he's the no-nonsense, "do-it-right-or-get-out," cut-you-with-a-single-stare, Master of American Equestrianism-- and he knows who Miley Cyrus is and can use her now disgracefully famous backside appropriately in an example.  Amaaaaaaaazingggg!!!

Thunder says, "I got it going ON!"

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let me explain to you the worth of his twerking example: when a horse uses his hind end more, he takes his weight and balance off his front end, and carries it more in the middle.  This gives him better balance, a smoother gait, and causes him to engage his core muscles to carry himself with better horse posture.  I think of a horse who is really heavy on his forehand (his front legs) as something like an orangutan or gorilla running-- those big front limbs making all the strides as the smaller hind end just sort of keeps up.  It's not a very graceful picture, is it?  A horse who is engaging his hindquarters is also engaging his back and his abdominal muscles, using his whole body to travel like one of those spectral white stallions from a poster or art book.  The difference is easy enough to see and feel: of course you'd rather ride a horse than a silverback.

I got to use his advice tonight when I went out to visit my buddy Thunder, who I have not seen in a shamefully long time.  I went out to the barn in the early evening after work and I didn't come home again until after 9-- needless to say, my time was well spent!

I arrived at the barn and chatted for a few minutes with the barn owner before I got out Thunder's tack and grooming kit and went to work.  The owner mentioned that because of the incredibly awful weather we've been having, the horses have had only limited turnout time and that Thunder hadn't been ridden very much.  Cue my extreme guilt for neglecting the poor baby.  I put him in crossties and started brushing him, checking his muscle tone, looking for any sore spots, getting all the dirt and dust off him, and creating a work plan.  If you can remember back to the Spring, I was trying to get Thunder back into shape since he'd gotten a little on the flabby/lazy side as opposed to being the sixpack-sporting wonder horse he'd been when I first met him.  The last time I rode him, he had been very unbalanced and heavy on his forehand-- he wasn't very comfortable to ride at the canter and he fell in on the corners like a motorcycle.

I decided that the first thing to do after he was all brushed up was to take him on a longe line and see how he was moving from the ground.  I started with a regular walk, then kicked it up to a trot, then canter, before I switched sides and started the walk, trot, canter cycle over again the other way.  He seemed even and decently balanced from side to side (he wasn't falling in towards me as he went around the circle, and he kept the circle fairly round as opposed to jerking it into more of an octagon, etc), but he was obviously heavy on his front end and was acting pretty lazy.  He wouldn't keep a faster gait unless I really kept after him (he'd always try to slow down), and when he would try to keep cantering or trotting, he'd also speed way up to keep his balance-- it seemed to be a constant struggle for him of "she's not looking, so I guess I can slow down, thank God!" and "have to canter faster, or I'm going to tip over!"  Poor baby.

At that time, I recalled a trick I'd read in Biomechanics of Horse Training by Jean M. Kirschman (from Chapter 3: Exercises; Longeing (stretching exercise).  I don't want to take up the time explaining the exercise when I'd rather have the people who are interested study for themselves, and the people who are just reading for fun maintain their interest) that helps to teach a horse to bend on the lunge line, so I used it to help him regain his feel for bending on a circle.  He didn't bat an eye at learning something new, and he caught on very quickly.  I could easily see the difference from when he was longeing the normal way to working him through a nice walk, trot, and canter both ways while slightly bent: as he bent and put his hind inside foot underneath his belly when he stepped forward rather than just letting it catch up behind his front foot (like a silverback), he was much more balanced and his pace was much easier for him to maintain.  Hooray!

After longeing him for about twenty minutes total, I let him take a little break and checked to see how hot he was-- I didn't want him to get too warm just yet.  If he was getting hot and/or sweaty, he'd freeze to death waiting for me to tack him up to ride or I'd have to cool him down and dry him off with no ride at all.  A sweaty horse in the wintertime quickly turns into a walking icicle when all that wet fur freezes-- we don't want that!  Luckily, he wasn't sweaty at all and hadn't worked hard enough to get really warm.  I took him back to the crossties and tacked him up, then rode for around twenty minutes to a half hour (again, I didn't want all the hassle and health risk of a hot, sweaty horse when I had no idea where any blankets, sheets, or towels could be to keep him warm and soak him up.  He ended up warm but with only two sweat spots around his girth when I was done).

Under saddle, we worked in the walk, trot, and canter while focusing on keeping that hind end engaged.  We circled in the corners, spiraled, and serpentined to give him plenty of bend and stretch.  He held it together really well-- better than he ever had since I started riding him again last year.  I of course chalk our success up to George Morris' sage twerking advice and the voices of all my past and present trainers ringing in my head "Inside leg, outside rein!!"  He did beautifully!  And-- best of all-- I felt him canter in balance for the first time in years.  Granted, it was only a few strides at a time since he was still struggling, but it was there and he was reaching for it.  I was glowing the whole time I walked him on a long rein to cool him down, the whole way into the barn, and through the entire post-ride grooming ritual.  He was such a perfect angel.

After riding, I brushed him down really well until not a drop of sweat was left on him.  He stretched his neck to and fro so I could brush and scratch under his jawbone where he likes and up by his ear-- he was in horsey nirvana.  I then decided to keep on brushing and to finally do something with his Fabio-turned-bird's-nest mane.  I brushed, detangled, and pulled out dead hair as he rubbed his head against me and softly sighed.  It was one of the very best times I've ever had with him and it's a memory I'm going to cherish for a long time.  All in all, we had a perfect evening of twerking, getting our hair done (oh yeah-- he tried to groom me, too, bless his sweet slimy face!), learning, and hanging out.

Such a pretty boy...!  :)

Don't forget to follow our progress and keep up with what we're doing on the Sonata Equestrian Facebook Page!!

Watch and Read Your Way to Victory

It has only been a few days into the New Year, and this my January Challenge, but I'm already starting to see the differences and feel the frustration an hour a day can make.  To be fair, I've actually been putting in more than just an hour a day so far-- it's just that none have been near a horse.  I'm still trying to get better from my flu, so going outside in below-freezing and single-digit temperatures has not been an option.  When I thought of this Challenge, I pictured myself taking more of my hours per day in a barn.  The reality has been me tuning in to George H Morris' Horsemastership Training Session for hours on end the last few days, learning what I can, and trying hard to ignore my own dull surroundings and my jealousy of the people who are actually there.  It hasn't been easy!

It has not been a waste of time, however, either.  I've really learned a lot by watching the riders and Mr. Morris work with the horses, and of course by following closely to his commentary.  I have picked up his mantra about impulsion and keeping a horse forward-thinking-- here's hoping that I remember that when I do see a horse the next time.  I was delighted when a spectator asked for advice for an "older" rider making her way ("Like me!" I thought), and he answered simply, "Read."  I took notes about the books and authors he mentioned.

I will say, I can see a discrepancy between where I am as a rider and some of the topics he discusses.  There are a few concepts that I just haven't "made it to" yet-- such as flying lead changes and some of the trickier dressage steps.  It's one thing to see someone do something and hear them tell you how to do it, but you don't really ever know until you try for yourself. Hence the frustration I mentioned.  I'm not going to be able to try any of these things for myself if I have to stay safe inside all the time!  The cabin fever of convalescence is killing me!

I still have some waiting to do, however: tomorrow my area is supposed to be hit by a major snow storm, and then the first part of the week is supposed to be sub-zero temperatures.  To me, that is just too cold to exercise in.  Tubby is body clipped and fit, but his joints get so stuff and the air will make him cough.  Thunder is out-of-shape and will turn into a sweaty (and then frozen) mess if I exercise him too much.  I myself can't take much cold air before I have an asthma attack, so waiting is the name of the game for now.

New Year's Resolution

The confetti has settled, the noisemakers have quieted, the champagne has gone flat.  It is New Year's Day 2014.  This is the Chinese Year of the Horse.  All over social media are sentiments of "Goodbye, 2013!" and "Hello, 2014!" as well as a range of emotions concerning the traditional New Year's Resolution.  Some say that it is a lie you tell yourself on January 1st, that will by January 10th prove itself to be nothing more than a public "I-woulda-shoulda-coulda."  Some say that it is a goal that takes all year long to achieve.

To me, New Year's Resolutions have historically been a mix.  Sometimes I chose a resolution destined to forever remain a pipe dream; other years, I neglected to create a concrete goal for the year at all, condemning myself as a person who just won't realistically put in the work after all.  A few years, I met with success almost instantly (met my goal far ahead of schedule, and then sat around for the rest of the year inquiring, "Now what?").  Other years, I plugged hard and away all year long, meeting the goal of "working harder" but losing sight of what I was working so hard for.

This year's goal is much more simple: Make more goals, and achieve them.

My first goal has a time limit of thirty-one days: January 1 - January 31, to be exact.  My goal is to spend at least one hour every day doing something related to horses, although preferably being in contact with horses.  To people with horses, this might seem pretty silly.  There are plenty of horse owners who can use up an hour of every day just feeding their horse once in the morning and once in the evening.  The thing to understand is that I am not presently committed to the care of my own horse, but that I am committed to a great many other things.  For example, Mondays for me usually require me to leave for work at seven o'clock in the morning, and not come home again from working two jobs until eight-thirty or so at night.  After that, it is incredibly easy to plop down on the couch and not think about doing anything else the rest of the day.  Now I am challenging myself to do more.  Simple as that.

Day One of my January Challenge has found me studying hard for three hours from my Equine Science textbook.  I'm coming into 2014 with some residual illness from 2013 (I've been in a three-week cycle of getting and recovering from the flu), so I'm not able to go to the barn to learn anything hands-on.  Besides reading today, I'm going to lay back in bed for a while and watch some more of the 2014 George H Morris Horsemastership Training Session while I rest.

Don't forget to keep tabs on my progress on the Sonata Equestrian Facebook Page!