Post by horseguy on Jun 12, 2017 17:27:20 GMT
I have been working with a rider who is at a point where feel must include an eye in the approach to a jump. Ironically at the barn were we are, the Hunter Jumper instructor can regularly be seen teaching counting strides to students who lack both balance and any degree of unity with their horse. Still, this instructor insists that the ability to count strides between 12" cross rails is more important than the ability to sit a horse in a practical way.
This student has a relatively high degree of unity and her feel for the source of the energy in the horse's stride (hind or fore) is developing nicely. She is at a point of blending multiple senses like the source of impulsion, like the horse's mental acuity in the moment and simpler things like speed and stride length. All these must blend now into one experience of unity with the horse and then be applied to a task like jumping. In making the move to the next step we must add another sense, depth perception, so as to pick a point of commitment to the jump. This step is not unlike a juggler keeping 4 or 5 balls in the air and throwing them one more.
And this is the point of my post. An instructor's knowledge and experience of how to build this sequence of the elements of Feel is all important. I cannot imagine a student with little or no stability in the saddle, not an inkling of how to layer the experiences of speed, the energy of gait transitions, centrifugal force in a bend, as well as other building blocks of unity, being taught to focus on counting strides on a premeasured course of jumps. It makes no sense.
The real goal, the goal that soldiers were taught in order to execute a mission on horseback successfully, is to build unity layer by layer within equilibrium of balance and the dynamic ever-changing power of the horse. Then and only then dose the number of strides to a jump matter. And furthermore, we never count strides through a course of jumps like a string of beads because inevitably the horse will get off the measured striding or the prescribed line and then only the ability to settle and commit will result in success. This is why we teach settle-commit even on a measured course of jumps, and this is why we develop "eye", in order to settle and then determine the point of commitment each and every time.
Hopefully this process of settle-commit becomes so subtle that to the untrained eye it appears to be one even motion throughout the course of jumps, just like the stride counting Hunter/Jumpers want so much to display. Their problem is they always start at the end, trying to "look" a certain way. In the Military Seat tradition we seek to "be" a certain way and while the two might appear similar, they are vastly different in their execution. This difference is exposed each time a Hunter/Jumper rider shows up at a fox hunt. Without the flat terrain, the groomed footing and the measured striding to obstacles they cannot achieve the "look". Only the ability to "be" in unity regardless of terrain, footing and distances works when flying across the countryside with a horse.
This student has a relatively high degree of unity and her feel for the source of the energy in the horse's stride (hind or fore) is developing nicely. She is at a point of blending multiple senses like the source of impulsion, like the horse's mental acuity in the moment and simpler things like speed and stride length. All these must blend now into one experience of unity with the horse and then be applied to a task like jumping. In making the move to the next step we must add another sense, depth perception, so as to pick a point of commitment to the jump. This step is not unlike a juggler keeping 4 or 5 balls in the air and throwing them one more.
And this is the point of my post. An instructor's knowledge and experience of how to build this sequence of the elements of Feel is all important. I cannot imagine a student with little or no stability in the saddle, not an inkling of how to layer the experiences of speed, the energy of gait transitions, centrifugal force in a bend, as well as other building blocks of unity, being taught to focus on counting strides on a premeasured course of jumps. It makes no sense.
The real goal, the goal that soldiers were taught in order to execute a mission on horseback successfully, is to build unity layer by layer within equilibrium of balance and the dynamic ever-changing power of the horse. Then and only then dose the number of strides to a jump matter. And furthermore, we never count strides through a course of jumps like a string of beads because inevitably the horse will get off the measured striding or the prescribed line and then only the ability to settle and commit will result in success. This is why we teach settle-commit even on a measured course of jumps, and this is why we develop "eye", in order to settle and then determine the point of commitment each and every time.
Hopefully this process of settle-commit becomes so subtle that to the untrained eye it appears to be one even motion throughout the course of jumps, just like the stride counting Hunter/Jumpers want so much to display. Their problem is they always start at the end, trying to "look" a certain way. In the Military Seat tradition we seek to "be" a certain way and while the two might appear similar, they are vastly different in their execution. This difference is exposed each time a Hunter/Jumper rider shows up at a fox hunt. Without the flat terrain, the groomed footing and the measured striding to obstacles they cannot achieve the "look". Only the ability to "be" in unity regardless of terrain, footing and distances works when flying across the countryside with a horse.
