It’s Just a quick one today as I have been so busy finishing off the studio in order for me to get on with creating real life content for you.
Today I wanted to talk about working with what you have and consistency.
You may have noticed the Para European Dressage Championships taking place this week. I love watching the Para Dressage as it always make me challenge my beliefs about how we need to use our bodies in order to communicate effectively with our horse.
There were riders competing with various “problems” including riding with no legs! What these riders all do is work with that they DO have and use that to the best of their ability. They look for alternative ways to get the job done.
Secondly they are consistent. Realistically your horse has been trained to respond to certain aids but he doesn’t know if these are the same aids other horses understand does he? If you really wanted you could train your horse to trot by saying monkey and each time he gets it right you reward him and eventually he will understand that monkey means trot!
So if you really can’t get your leg exactly where you need it to be, if you consistently give aids with your leg where it will go eventually your horse will learn to respond.
This doesn’t give you an excuse to not try and improve yourself as I have already said it is about making use of what you have got; and with that comes making what you do have be the absolute best it can be. Continue to work on that hollow back or wobbly hands etc. but don’t beat yourself and think that you can’t ever achieve your goals it will just take hard work and consistent training. You work hard to improve your horse as an athlete and you should therefore work to improve yourself as an athlete but just remember even the best of the best have their problems they just don’t let them get in the way-Usian Bolt has Scoliosis and he’s the fastest man in the world!
