Eric Horgan Clinic Day One

Two years ago, when Penny had been under saddle about five months and she'd literally just started jumping the week before, we did our first clinic with Eric Horgan. We really weren't ready. He's been out twice since then, it was inconvenient for me to get to one, the other I was laid up from surgery. The stars aligned this time and I was easily able to get a ride for Penny back to where she used to live.

I was really apprehensive about our flat lesson today. Experience has shown me that Eric teaches things different than traditional dressage and I've been in DressageLand for over six months now. In DressageLand, leg goes on, head goes down. Eric's all about the "use the hands to soften the mouth." It was that philosophy that sort of ruined Penny and I, but I had been suspecting something had been lost in translation and I was right. Yes, he does advise the alternate hand (more wrist, but I can't use mine) movement for softening, but one uses it in a soft manner. Not with your reins cranked short and then pulling more. So, I was willing to introduce this back into my ride, because I knew squeezing the reins was not going to ruin my pony.

At one point early in the ride he asked if I was left handed. The answer is "no." And then he commented that I'm atypical, because I ride with a much stronger non-dominant hand, and that my right rein just kept getting longer, and longer, and longer. I then got to explain the nerve issues I have and that was likely the culprit and that while I can try my best to rectify the situation I can only ride as well as that days hands/arms will let me. Later on I was riding around with contact only with my right (outside) hand and my left hand was basically on the buckle. It was the only way I could keep it from getting involved.

Which reminds me of a problem I regularly have at physical therapy. My neck always wants to get involved if I'm doing an exercise that it can, at all, get involved with. Which is also a symptom of a larger problem I have, that was showing itself with flashing neon lights today: every cell of my body that can be involved with the ride is. Eric had to keep yelling at me to relax various body parts. Their default is clenched and tight. I really, really need to stop doing that.