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I am reminded of one of my most powerful learning experiences. I'd spent years trying to make my horse be 'deeper, rounder, and more through' as the dressage experts would call it. At the time I don't think I really even knew what that was! Fast forward several years. canter 2 with Danke.jpg

Later I acquired another horse who's sensitive nature required that I really learn to sit in a completely passive manner. I began to call this my "paraplegic" seat for lack of a better way to describe it. It turned out that all horses I rode like this loved it. Hmmmmm.

Back to the first horse I mentioned, whose name is Tulsa. By the time all this was happening I was no longer making riding her a priority and I was using her a lot for lessons. She was (still is!) very safe and a great lesson horse. Since I knew that all horses appreciated the passive seat I'd discovered I was requiring that my students use it on Tulsa. I remember asking one of my more advanced students, because Tulsa looked so good, how it felt. She said, awful! That was really interesting feedback because really, I liked how Tulsa was moving so freely. More hmmmm.

So, one day I took Tulsa out for a ride myself. I wanted to spend some time with her thinking about this 'hmmm' thing. ;-) I decided to put her on a circle and focus on one thing only, keeping her nose aligned in front of her shoulders and her shoulders in front of her hips. I'd do this with rein contact through my upper body. I would not concern myself at ALL about her being 'round' or 'soft'. I did NOTHING with my seat to "FIX" what I thought was wrong with the picture.

True to form, she felt AWFUL to me. Hard and tight in her back. But I made the promise that I'd do as I instructed my students, I'd remain passive and following with my seat. No matter WHAT. I felt like I was bouncing around like a fool. <G>

I will tell you that keeping her aligned WHILE staying passive with the seat is not so easy but it had to be done. I'd say that it took maybe ten or fifteen minutes of what seemed like torture for ME. LOL Then, amazingly, she let the tension go and everything changed. It was a real REVELATIONAL moment. And I DO LOVE a good revelation! LOL

From that point on, I realized something really important. *I* had to 'go first'. IOW it wasn't up to me to MAKE the horse 'soft', it was up to me to prove that I could be trusted to offer that soft seat FIRST.

I think a lot of folks get to thinking that they need to be soft with their hands. What I see in my teaching is a lot of efforts made to have 'soft hands' when what the horse really WANTS is mobility from the rider. This mobility comes from the joints of the arm, lower back, hips and so forth. You can keep a fairly firm grip on the reins and as long as YOUR BODY is mobile and IN TIME with the horse's the horse WILL become soft and round.

Once the horse trusts that he can move freely the rider can make suggestions about balance and bend within the movements of the horse. IOW in time with the horse's movement. This is what is meant by an independent seat. The ability to remain passively mobile during the 'suggestions' about the other stuff.

I will add another story for illustration. I had a young girl, about 14, riding Tulsa. This gal had already been riding for some time and thought she was fairly good. ;-) But she could not get Tulsa to move at all. I explained to her that Tulsa was very sensitive to thighs gripping her. It was necessary that she have some FAITH and let go. LET yourself bounce around like a rag doll even. She thought I was INSANE. But she did as she was told.

As I expected Tulsa began to move freely. Within minutes I was seeing the most lovely flowing picture. The two moving beautifully in harmony. I was getting goose bumps. LOL I asked her, how does it FEEL? She said, TERRIBLE! Why? I asked. She said she felt like she looked like a fool floundering around. HA HA HA I said, if ONLY we had a video of it. You would not say that if you saw it. What *I* SEE is perfect harmony. :-)

What she didn't realize was how MUCH she would have to allow herself to move in order to move WITH Tulsa who was a much bigger bouncier mover than she'd experience before. She'd been TRYING too hard to 'be still' when that was actually blocking her. What she perceived as bouncing around all over the place was in FACT her FINALLY allowing Tulsa to move and going with it.

The moral, again, <G> is our perceptions about what is happening is not always accurate. It really does help to have educated eyes on the ground.