Riding takes my breath away!

Pedro

Pedro

... and Pimpao!
Oct 12, 2000
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Ola pessoal! (Hi everyone! - Portuguese version)


Continuing the odyssey of my riding lessons, last friday’s lesson was a rather eventful one!

The lesson started with a few minutes walking around on the reins (still no saddle) as a warm-up. It was followed by half an hour of lunging, working on the balance (raising hands and looking up, doing "scissors" while trotting, etc), working the trot, canter and downward transitions. Afterwards I did some 15/20 minutes of exercise with the reins. This was when things got interesting!

I was doing canter on a left rein. I was having some difficulty doing everything at the same time, I kept going "Head up – shoulders back – back straight – keep moving with the horse – legs down – relax – keep contact with the horses mouth – keep asking with the legs - ..." over and over again. At some point I got too absorbed with posture and I let the reins get looser and I stopped asking. Catraia (Brat) started thinking in her head "Well, if ya’re not that keen on keeping this up we’ll just take a breather in the centre!". When we were going past E she just veered suddenly inside and stopped. When I felt her turning I had the excellent idea of pulling the outside rein by extending the outside hand and shoulder. As you are probably guessing the end result was: "Houston... we have lift-off!":eek:.

As I was going over what I felt could be translated as something of the kind of "What’s going on?? ... No wait, this is not happening! ... This is not happening! ... This is not happening! ... THUMP ... whhooooof ... OK... that... did... happen". It took me one or two seconds to get my bearings straight. I found out I was lying on my back, with the crop still on my right hand and the reins on my left, with the legs towards Catraia. I got up, got a proper hold on the mare, patted her and nodded to my instructor’s question.

Catraia was looking at me, and I could just imagine her saying "Ya know laddie... I’ve been around... I have a few years under the saddle and I tell ya – there are better ways of getting off!". It took me a couple of minutes to be able to speak again. It felt like someone was sitting on my chest and I couldn’t take a deep breath. I got up on the horse again with the single minded purpose of repeating the exercise. I was quite surprised (if not shocked) and I wanted to repeat it before fear or concern had time to creep up on me. We did a couple of laps at the walk while the instructor explained what had gone wrong. Then I did it again (paying attention this time) and everything went OK.

On the way home a just couldn’t stop smiling at my show (I would pay dear for a tape of the fall and my face:)). All in all it was an important lesson. On one hand it was a warning (when doing things I like, I tend to be fearless – or just plain reckless). It showed me how easy it is to fall if you’re not paying attention and also the importance of wearing a helmet. On the other hand it was reassuring! While I was not afraid of falling (it feels like it will never happen) I was expecting worse from even a simple fall (consequence of too little bike riding, and too few falls I guess). It hurt but it was no big deal – could have been better – but it can always be a lot worse. Just have to keep on going, be careful and hope for the best!


Pedro Fortunato

P.S.: As an end note here are the aids to the back-flop:

1. Get your horse up to the canter without saddle.
2. Don’t ask with the legs
3. Loosen the reins
4. When the horse decides to call it a day just lean to the outside

And there you go!
 
Best laugh I've had for days. Pedro, are you a writer by any chance? I keep telling my littl'un she needs to fall off - the first time's pretty nearly always the worst.

Most embarrassing lift off I ever had was in a stubble field at a canter, my brain 'miles away' horse shied at nothing-in-particular and I looked up from the ground feeling a right pillock to see him coming round in a circle to stand over me and see how I was, and my cavalry-trained father killing himself laughing in the middle-distance (having told me repeatedly not to relax my attention!).
 
Loved your story Pedro. My first flop was a trot through a course of bright orange safty cones. I had only been trail riding a short time and was feeling very proud of myself, weaving the horse in and out of the path of cones. Then I decided to turn around to my friends and announce that I was the Queen of the seated trot. One split second, I looked down, the horse looked down, the cone looked like a mountain and I was the Queen of the Back Flop. Every thing turned out okay, but now my friends call me Queeny.
 
You are a scream Pedro- it is a long time since we have had such amusing accounts of learning to ride on New Rider!!

Just one little point. It is all very well instructors telling you 'move with the horse'. Does he actually tell you precisely HOW to? I still have riders coming on my courses here who have never been taught the precise mechanics of how to move with the horse ( the video will show you)and they have been riding twenty years maybe. One session on my Equisimulator, and they get it. Then the question is always' but why has nobody ever shown me this before'? Well, almost no one else has a simulatro, and even the coule that are around, the instructors still tell you 'sit deeper' 'go with the movement' etc, instaed of showing the rider, hands on, exactly how to synchronise their movemenst with those of the horse so that you move together as one unit.

Keep us posted re: your progress, Pedro. I think that you should turn your reports into a diary, and sell them to a publisher on the 'Perils of Learning to Ride!' Just don't expect to make any money out of it though- I know from bitter experience!



Heather
 
Love the story Pedro ! Do keep us posted on riding down south. I might fill you in on my experiences of riding in little villages near Oporto. Or if the hoprse charges off again I could be poping in to see you :) !!

Até Logo (see ya!!)
 
You have a very good point there Heather! In fact my instructor told me (and exemplified on the ground) to use the lower back to kinda of roll the pelvis with the movement and dampen the vertical motion. He told me to keep the shoulders back and relax. Of my own initiative I’ve tried to let my legs extend under me while keeping contact with the horse’s sides. It feels like I’m standing on my legs, with the weight being distributed between the inner calves and the region (whatever its name) between the legs. That as opposed to sitting and feeling the bum taking the weight while the legs go forward. I’ve also used the "trick" of focusing a point in the distance to help evaluate the movement of my head in relation to the world (bobbing, jumping up/down, etc).

After the initial explanation my teacher has not insisted on the position/movement (other then remind me to look straight and keep the shoulders back). I don’t know if my posture is that good, or if it is "good enough" for the time being. After my initial experience in New Zealand (in which at one point I was trotting with both hand grabbing the saddle as strongly as I could – with the obvious lack of results) I find it very good progress that I can trot and canter without loosing contact with the horse's back (most of the time that is :D).

The first topic in my agenda is now helping the horse. I’m not sure what the effects of my movements are on the horse’s back, and I tend to loose the rhythm after a while and have to miss a couple of beats to get on track. Starting today I’ll be using a saddle, if my instructor doesn’t pick up the subject of position and motion soon, I will.

On a related trend, my interest in equine biomechanic is growing. I’ve been using my DVD (great slow motion), a copy of Coppola’s "The Black Stallion" and Stephen Budiansky’s book (which includes a schematics of paw movements in the various paces) to help me get a feel on what the horse is doing under me. I still have to work on the relation between the movement of the paws and the movement of the back, and the effect of that movement in the rider. I want to have, in my head, a good model of the horse’s motion – which at this time I’m nowhere near to have!
Anyone knows of any material on this subject?

By the way - on that drink - it would be a great pleasure to meet you. In fact, if you have the time, I’d love to offer you lunch or dinner. I’m pretty sure I speak for lots of people here when I say that that is the very least any of us can do!


Well, I’ll be having another lesson today (hopefully a less funny one). I’ll keep you all posted on the results :)


Pedro Fortunato

P.S. : Quennie, how is it like riding in the midst of all those "tripeiros"? Did you enjoy New Year’s fireworks :D?
 
I'm further from Oprto than that, the area's known as "Caes de Lixa" nice huh !! As far as riding Mr.Alface, your schools definetly got it all. I'll have to take a trip down to lettuce land. (no, I haven't gone start raving bonkers some towns in Portugal have a funny nickname eg. Lison is Lettuce don't ask me why)

I had my first lesson in an Alta Escola school yesterday and not one explanation of how to sit or absorb the movement. I aim to try to acheive this but really need to get to a good school, I don't know of any in Oporto, I don't suppose you do ? All I know is jumping yards so I don't get the opportunity to ride dressage at all, that's why I started lessons. The instructor asked my horse to passage and I got seriously bounced, I'm no way near a level to sit this movement.I come from the old "hang on with knees club" and need to learn to balance my weight through my legs and loosen my back. Ah well...dream on!! :)
 
Hey Queenie, you think it funny that people from Lisbon are called "Alfacinhas" (little lettuces) and people from Oporto are called "Tripeiros" (gut eaters - because of a traditional dish that makes Haggis look like a gourmet meal)? Just know that I live in a small town between Lisbon and Cascais called Parede (wall – don’t ask me why) and its inhabitants (including, of course, yours truly) are called Osgas (geckos) for reasons that should be pretty obvious :).
 
HI Pedro and Queenie,


Perhaps we could all meet up for a meal next time I am over- meet the Portuguese contingent of NR! I'll let you know when I am coming!


Heather
 
Hi Heather,

Love to meet up, let us know when you come over. However, meals wise steer clear of Porto's tripe dish :) YUCK!! I'm still not convinced boiled tripe is eadible.

Suzi
 
Having fed tripe to the family's St. Bernards over a period of years, I can safely say that any dish that as much as merely mentions the word 'tripe'would not be on MY menu!

Mind you, I am familiar with a fair bit of Portuguses food- our local pub, my second home I am afraid (well, I do have to feed my students there- alright, I know, good excuse!)has a Madeiran chef, so our menu often has Portuguese dishes on it. Home from home! (so far, thankfully, I haven't seen the mention of tripe though!).



Heather
 
In finding Porto’s tripe dish awful you two agree with most of Portugal’s population south of Douro river. They invented that dish while the city was under siege in one of the Napolionic invasions (nothing better to eat). Somehow they just couldn’t drop the habit afterwards :D.
There are only two other dishes you might want to stay clear of: Boiled snails (no comments) and Portuguese Boil (literal translation of "Cozido á Portuguesa"). Most of the latter one is edible but in the midst of pork, beef, cabbages, potatoes, choriço, etc, you might find the pig’s skin, tail, ears and snout :D. Other then these exceptions the rest is pretty safe (and usually very good).

I’d love to meet with the two of you! I’m sure we can find something that agrees with everyone’s taste (and I’m probably the most picky of us)!

By the way, today I’m really irritated! I just been told that Nuno’s books have never been published in Portugal! Can you believe it? I’ll have to buy a Spanish or English translation, because no one has ever published the original Portuguese texts! You can find translations in French and German but the powers that be in is own country don’t seem to care (I find it hard to believe that his books wouldn’t have at least the same success that any other portuguese equestrian book - and there are a few of those) :mad:.


Pedro Fortunato
(So mad I forgot to sign it :)

[Edited by Pedro on 26th Oct 2000 at 05:52 PM]
 
Pedro,


I don't BELIEVE it!!!! Nuno's books not published in Portuguese? Incredible. He was held in such esteem by so many. I am one of the few people lucky enough to have several hours of video of him, much of it pretty crap quality as it is transferred from cine film, but nonetheless something I treasure.

The last few of his books were published in Australia by Joy Howley. It is her daughter Jayne that features in some of the photos in the books. She was just a kid at the time, but waht a wonderful experiance to be taught by him so young. Jayne is coming to stay with me in January- and I really lok forward to hearing some of her anecdotes about the Maestro.

I should have been joining her at Gologa, as I had planned to come over for the Fair joining some American Lusitano breeder friends of mine- they are meeting up with her instead. I think that their fabulous black stallion may be going- he is in training over there still. I am so mad that I can't go, but I am still trying to catch up with work after an enforced rest for six weeks early this year when I ended up with pneumonia in hospital. I have to attend the Equine Event here in the UK the previous weekend and it would have been a manic rush to get to Gologa, as I am a couple of hundred miles from our main airports too. Trouble is the Equine Event is the same date each year, and so is Gologa. Next year, however, I am going to make time!

If you have trouble getting Nuno's books, I am sure I can help!


Heather
 
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