Learning the Mary Way

 I love my trainer, but I also get a lot out of working with different people, who might focus on a different aspect of my ride or explain something in a new way.  Plus I have some extra flexibility in my schedule while unfortunately my trainer does not, so I took the opportunity to sign up for some lessons with a local biomechanics specialist.  She is a student of Mary Wanless, and for anyone reading who is better versed in MW than me (I'm brand new to it!) if anything sounds wrong it is probably my misunderstanding or doing a poor job describing it and not a fault of the trainer.  And I have to admit, I've read several other blogs where the bloggers discussed Mary's teaching and there was a lot I didn't really understand but after my first lesson is starting to make sense!

My mount was a cute little quarter horse. I got on him and the first thing my instructor did was shorten my stirrups, to a length that is actually comfortable for me but shorter than what I think of as traditional dressage length.  Then she watched me walk as I normally would for a minute or two before having me stop for my first adjustment.  Now I've heard before that you need to rotate your leg in from the hip, and I thought I had been doing that, but it turns out I wasn't!  After the adjustment I saw the difference in how my upper leg was lying on the saddle, especially looking down comparing the two legs after only one had been adjusted.  I could also see my toes were pointed more forward.  And then the next step was she put her hand kind of behind my heel and told me to push against it, and keep that feeling.  

She also put her hands under my feet and told me not to crush them, and that is how much weight I should have in my stirrups.  I worry about losing my stirrups, so often jam my feet way in and try to keep really heavy.  My instructor said with keeping my legs more still, and letting the light friction between the stirrup pad and soles of my boots, I won't need to worry about losing my stirrups even though I have less weight in them.

We talked about how I need to carry more weight on my seat and upper legs.  One thing she said that particularly resonated with me was that the stirrups are very unstable, they can swing or bend.  On the other hand the torso / girth band area of the horse is one of the most stable parts of his body, so I that is where I want to put myself.  

I walked some more trying to get used to the new feeling, and it definitely felt different.  For the next adjustment, my instructor put her hand in front of my knee and told me resist against it and keep that feeling.  It should feel almost as if though I were kneeling on the ground.

Resistance points (imposed on old position!)

Then after another brief period walking my next adjustment was to resist against her hand with the back of my ankle, without taking my entire leg off the horse.  My toes were already more forward but this corrected it further, and hopefully will help with my "nagging" legs.  By which I mean my lower legs tend to swing and bounce a bit, when I ride Cupid it often looks like I'm nagging him to go when really I'm not trying to do anything at all.

Next we moved up to the torso, and my instructor reminded me to engage my core.  She asked me what other sports I do, and when I said kickbox she said basically to ride like I'm about to take a punch to the stomach.  So that is the "bear down" I've heard other bloggers refer to, lol.  

Finally, she told me to keep my elbows bent but have the feeling like I'm resisting against something in front of my hands.  

The lesson ended we me trying to do all of this at the trot.  It did feel weird and different, and also just weird and different since I don't ride new horses very often.  But in the two rides I've had on Cupid since, I think my leg has felt steadier so I'm hopeful!