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LATEST NEWS |
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20/06/10
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After so many years of efforts...
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The following article is an excerpt of
'The Code' - HD Encyclopaedia |
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~ Super Riders! ~ |
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Overweight: is this how you consider yourself? |
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..well, good for you! Yes, there are a few facts that 'thin' riders NEVER mention regarding those who may not appear dramatically athletic on a horse, at whatever level (and especially in Dressage), which is this: weight is a huge bonus for the dressage rider, as long as the rider has learned how to use it.
Before I begin to list all the reasons why a heavier rider may in fact need less time than a featherweight (I'm one of them and believe me, sometimes I truly pray to wake up weighing at least ten kilos more than I do..), let me share with you a true story..
Angela
Quite a while ago I was blessed (you'll see why I say this) with being stuck, unwillingly, in an arena together with a person who most certainly did not 'look the part': a woman in her forties, drastically overweight (and I mean drastically as in obese, ok?), really tall too, but who had a smile who could melt an iceberg. Well, I wasn't interested in icebergs and truly my first thought (I had still much to learn at the time) was 'oh my.. poor horse.. this cannot be..' etc etc. Nice kid wasn't I?
Well.. this woman kindly asks to enter the arena with a horse who was not her own and as I was doodling about wondering how much time I was about to have to spend avoiding this rider around the arena (fat = not athletic = not efficient = useless rider that-gets-in-the-way) and when I obviously answered yes she did not enter immediately but turned towards her horse's head and talked to him a little, scratching his ear. Oh well, I thought, this is going to take forever..
In she comes, stops away from the track, swiftly pops the reins over the horse's neck and with the aid of a sort of impromptu mounting block slowly begins her ascent in the saddle, just as anybody would presume a heavy rider would do (just can't be faster, right? Shifting that right leg over must be a problem). Again she talked to her horse while sitting in the saddle and I stopped in my tracks as I saw how she slowly and very gradually allowed her weight to lower. Yes, I saw a rider who was already sitting down get deeper.. and deeper.. in the seat of her saddle. She was still standing perfectly still.
In the meantime I noticed how the love she was pouring into this horse was that of a mother to a child: the horse as from square one looked like he wanted to be nowhere else but with her, and he also looked like nothing else mattered to him - and that hypnotized me. So I had enough sense to stop and watch..
She rolled the inside of her heavy thighs backwards with her hands, slowly. She adjusted herself into what would have been, had she been less than half her actual size, an excellent dressage position. She set her hands in a comfortable way for the horse and from then on she never moved again. She smiled at me again, but with the sort of smile she must have been used to giving to others, probably reading my silly (at the time..!!) mind, and she began showing me, the horse, the world, what the Art of Dressage is all about.
I noticed a tiny shift in her seat, her horse began to walk. he did not look in the least worried or impaired in his movement.
That shift became slightly more evident, and I saw the horse really open up his walking strides. She patted him and talked to him and returned to normal walk once more. A few times like this, then she dramatically stopped moving her seat with the horse and he rammed to a halt. Never did she move her hands. She praised him. And again, normal walk, extended walk, collected walk.. and so on - only using her weight in the most intelligent way I have ever seen to this day: what great brains!
I jumped off my horse, asked to go out, returned on foot and asked her if I could stay there and watch her, to which request she gladly invited me to stay right inside the arena - I zoomed to her mounting block, sat there and for an hour I did nothing but learn, learn and learn.
She rode, and I learned what influence weight and balance have on a horse. I learned how to make a horse feel loved throughout his work. I learned the timing of praise and correction. I learned that correction is not punishment but simply finding a different way to ask a horse a question. I learned how incredibly powerful the magic between a horse and his rider can be. I saw, probably, one of the best riders in the world.
So that is the story - and it is a true one. Thinking back, I realized that my initial (and ridiculous) prejudice crumbled away one bit at a time as I recalled the way she began her work:
a) she created a bond with the horse way before she reached the arena
b) she got on slowly not because she couldn't be faster but to allow the horse to adjust, quietly, in his overall balance
c) she had him recognize her again and again while in the saddle
d) she let her weight become an INCREDIBLE technical yet reassuring aid.
e) she made her horse feel protected and appreciated throughout
That horse gave his heart for her in all his gaits, while she enjoyed showing him that he could do and try things he never done before. At the end of that workout, I cannot tell if it was the horse, if it was Angela or if it was myself who had most stars in the eyes.
Now, back to earth: do you consider yourself a heavyweight rider? Very well: you have a bonus that I, and all my expertise, will never have. I have to make a lot more effort than you to make a horse feel a weight shift - and in Dressage weight shifting is rule number one. There is 'more' of you to use to reassure your horse, and there is less of me - I have to find many other ways to compensate. As you ride (correctly) you create a lot more useful muscle in your abdominals and dorsals than I will ever dream of, and your aids will be clearer, more subtle and much easier to understand than mine. And lastly, for a horse that has a few bucks awaiting under the saddle mine will produce the whole lot while yours probably will think twice before externating what he soon will find an effort (no offence, please, but that's a fact!).
So next time you ride your horse, think of all these extra assets you have, especially when you see thinner riders struggle to keep their horses 'together' and yes, smile at them confidently - because they will soon realize there is 'more' rider in you than they think, and if you follow Angela's wonderful lead, you might enlight a skinny brat like I was into learning - no matter what level you ride at.
Enjoy your riding always, never feel lessened by your aesthetical appearance and remember that using your seat will strengthen your trunk muscles much, which means that you will be increasingly fitter and will see that diets are not meant for dedicated performers of the Art of Dressage: 'supple' does not mean 'thin', and elegance (as Angela has taught me clearly long ago) comes from within :D
RR
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