I am very self conscious about my riding ability or my perceived lack of riding ability. Now don’t get me wrong, I know I can ride, I can keep a horse balanced and in a rhythm for 160km, I’m not a hindrance in the saddle and I carry my own weight evenly, I know this because I wouldn’t get a horse around an endurance competition, or even through the training, sound and happy if I wasn’t.
BUT my classical riding skills are pretty non-existent. I don’t know what half the movements are and I definitely don’t know how to do them. If I want canter I stand and make a noise to my horses and just like that they canter. If I want a flying change I then sit put the opposite leg back and I get a flying change. But that’s not how it’s meant to be done and I spend the majority of my time stood in the stirrups.
So in my constant quest to be better; physically, mentally, technique and knowledge. I have been riding different horses, having lessons from different people. Learning from different disciplines and trying to soak in as much information as possible. I fully believe that you can learn something from everyone and every experience, whether it be a positive or negative, what not to do, what you don’t like or a lightbulb moment of clarity.
I’ve had instructors that want to teach me how to ride like a dressage rider and instructors that want to teach me how to use dressage as an endurance rider. The two are very different and I learnt from both. More recently (which I didn’t get on camera for a vlog, because only 10% of my life makes it into vlogs, and I don’t carry a camera with me for every moment 😛 ) I had a go at jumping. I haven’t jumped in 3 years and I had a lovely horse who will jump anything you point him at, he was very forgiving of my mistakes, but seeing strides into a jump and thinking about my position particularly on landing, gave me a lot to think about in terms of how I hold myself for the steeper up and downhills of an endurance ride. It also gave me a huge confidence boost in my riding ability as I felt like I managed to jump 1.10m with relative ease, all be it mainly due to the horses ability.
Another thing I’ve been constantly tweaking over the last few years is my saddle, the stirrup bar position, the knee support, the type of seat, I’m on a quest to find the saddle that is best for my horses but also makes me use my body actively whilst effortlessly putting me in the right position, I hate feeling like a saddle is ‘holding’ me securely, I want to hold myself and the saddle let me do that. I think I’m almost there, I have bought two second hand reactor panel saddles to make sure they suit my horses and if they do I have the opportunity to make a custom saddle to suit my riding. I have previously used free and easy saddles which allowed me a lot of customisation but they are no longer in business and I wanted the support of an active saddle company to try new things and make new saddles.
So between all my riding lessons, my webinars, sport psychology, training and saddle exploration I think I’m on the right track to improving my riding ability. My self confidence bounces up and down like a yo-yo but overall I feel like I’m getting there and I need to remind myself that we’re all a work in progress.
Beth Endurance 