We were doing typical flatwork, but my instructor noticed that all of us in the group had a habit of leaning forwards in the canter. This wouldn't be so much of a problem in and of itself - once you know, it's not too hard to fix - but none of us were aware we were doing it. I could look at the others and see that they were leaning forward slightly, but when I was cantering I felt like I was sitting up straight. It was the same for the others as well. I don't have any recent videos of my riding, so I went back through some old ones and made a little gif to show what I mean.
Although this clip is taken from a jumping video (this is part of/just after the get away), you can quite clearly see that I'm leaning forwards. I can't recall whether I thought I was sitting upright or not when this was taken, as the video this comes from is a couple of years old, but this is pretty much how we were riding in my group. Not brilliant, right?
My instructor decided to do an exercise with us where we had to lean back in the trot before we asked for the canter. When I say lean back, I mean actually going past straight (because in trot we actually look like we can ride!). The point of this was so that when we were in canter, we would still think we were leaning back, when in actual fact we were just sitting up straight. I have to say, it was a really weird sensation. I'm guilty of leaning forwards in my transition anyways, so having to lean back to go into the canter and then feeling as though I was really far back was so confusing.
It was quite effective though, because I now know how it should feel when I'm sitting up straight. The horse's neck seemed quite far away, but I suppose that's something I should get used to. It was quite fun because we all got to partake in it because we all had the same issue. After the canter work, we completed the riding section for the mini road rider badge, and part of that involved trotting. The canter work had me sitting back to much that when I went to have my turn of looking-over-my shoulder-to-name-the-picture-on-the-card I chose to stay in sitting trot. As I was going around by myself, I could keep the horse at a pace that felt comfortable, and as I was sitting deeply into the saddle I felt like I could do it all day. As someone that usually disliked sitting trot with the stirrups, this is saying something!
All in all, the lesson was great. Not only do I have a brilliant bit of advice for cantering in the correct position, which will be very useful for the dressage test next week (wish me luck, and keep tuned for the results of that), but I also earned my mini road rider badge, which is pictured to the right.
Until next time...
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