If you missed part one, the gist is this: I’ve joined a dressage book club and it’s forcing me to think critically about my dressage training and understanding of theory more than ever before and I’m here to write about it because, well, that’s what I do!
The second half of Nuno Oliveria’s book Reflections on Equestrian Art discusses dressage movements and the correct training and execution required to do them. If you’re looking for succinct, yet highly valuable thoughts on piaffe, passage, flying changes, and collected/extended movements, I highly recommend the back half of this book. (Also, if I didn’t mention before, this is a rather short, easy read, so it’s great for a busy equestrian!) This is also where I learned that there is such a (horrifying) movement as the “canter to the rear” which to me looks like a horse with spider legs moving very unnaturally but to my husband, “looks like all the other insane things you dressage riders do.” I’ll let you decide which camp you fall into.
Before I dive into the meat of this post (riding with feel and virtuosity) I had to share my fun lesson from book club: gymnastic exercises are not just for fences. Who knew! Oliveria mentions gymnastics in the book and I had assumed he meant cavaletti work because cavalettis are an important component of dressage training, at least in my eyes. During our book club discussion, gymnastics came up and we all agreed that gymnastics are intended to create an exercise which shapes the horse, rather than the rider shaping the horse alone. However, the course of discussion soon revealed that the rest of the group was talking about things like serpentines and half circles, not bouncing through small raised poles. Of course, I’ve used flat gymnastic exercises thousands of times, but had never heard them referred to as such. Thinking about them as gymnastics really helps me think about the movements differently, more for the purpose of shaping the horse than anything else, which I think makes the practice less intimidating.
Riding with feel and virtuosity
Now that the fun fact is out of the way, let’s get thoughtful. On pg 61 (I’m pretty sure there’s only one print version of this book, so if you’re reading along at home our pages should align), in the section about “A Supple, Correctly Worked Horse,” Oliveria writes:
“...it is evident that having obtained the required flexibility and suppleness, it is also necessary to ride with feeling, and even with virtuosity in order to obtain from the horse all that he can possibly give.”
Of course it is fundamentally important both a horse and his rider be physically fit and capable of their dressage task at hand, but Oliveria once again pushes his riders further, demanding that we ride with feeling and virtuosity. The book club agreed this is a lovely sentiment but wanted to know: what does this mean?
Jane, our trainer and fearless leader, demystified the “feeling” by pointing out that, more often than not, we know from feeling when a canter depart goes wrong and is sending us into a rough canter. That, on a basic level of what we feel, is what it means to ride with feeling. Of course, this goes deeper into also feeling your horse’s emotions and reactions and sensing their thoughts. It’s important that riders constantly ask themselves why their horse does what it does, knowing that more likely than not, it’s a reaction to something in their environment.
The group briefly touched on the idea of mindfulness during book club, and I’d like to linger on that a moment. Mindfulness has become a bit of a buzzword, which is a shame because its meaning is inherently important for healthy living. People will wax a lot of poetic about mindfulness, but to be mindful essentially means to be present.
The act and art of becoming present in your environment and entering a state where you don’t fret over the past or worry over the future can be incredibly difficult. And while for me riding makes it easier to be in the present, it’s still incredibly difficult not to bring baggage from past rides into the present one. Perhaps even more difficult is resisting the temptation to let our future goals interfere with our present rides. It’s so easy to get hung up on lesson plans and ideas for what we’re going to do that day and forget that those plans are ultimately at the mercy of an animal that can’t read a show schedule. This is where mindfulness comes into play, allowing us to better our feeling in (and out) of the saddle.
This month, I’ve begun practicing meditation to help cope with my anxiety. I started doing so when I realized that I’m horrible at being in the present and spend most of my time obsessing over the future. It’s not a great way to live and I’ve heard that meditation can help this, and after a few weeks of practice, I can confirm it’s starting to help. This is great at work or when I’m at home, but it also applies to the barn. When I start thinking too far ahead during my rides and begin to get frustrated, it’s getting easier to rein in those thoughts and remain in the present, with my horse, during the ride we’re currently having. I think this is the “feel” Oliveria asks us to have, the sense that during the ride our energy is in the moment, with our horse, asking them to do what they’re capable of in the moment.
The Skill Factor
Despite his strong belief in feel and virtuosity, Oliveria never lets his reader forget the importance of skill. A rider can have all the best intentions and all the compassion and mindfulness in the world, but that alone will not get one through a dressage test--at least not successfully. Both are important to the equestrian artist and both should be developed in tandem.
This is where education comes in, preferably in the form of a trainer. I’ve heard before--and was reminded during our discussion--that a skilled trainer and a balanced horse can help an unbalanced rider improve their skills, but an unbalanced rider left on an island with a balanced horse will end up with an unbalanced horse. We as a group spent a bit of time discussing the importance of taking your development as a rider seriously, so I want to end on a list of ways I’ve found that help me grow as a rider. If you have any I didn’t name, drop them in the comments! Good development is an investment of time (and usually money) but it’s an investment that pays off in dividends (or however that money metaphor is supposed to end...I’ve never had a good financial investment!)
Ride with a trainer
Ride in clinics
Audit clinics
Take notes
Write blog posts based on your notes (heyyy)
Talk to your friends who ride
Explain concepts to your friends who don’t ride
Join facebook groups and follow discussions
Ask questions endlessly