Learning from Video
There are only a few days left of my two-week vacation. I still haven’t seen any live horses in Denmark (but I have tell you, Copenhagen is probably the equestrian statue capital of the world). My sister thinks I’m a little obsessed with learning reining. I can’t blame her since she’s been watching me ride an invisible horse around her apartment for the last week (trying to get the 5 easy pieces sequence memorized).
As you know, since I don’t have an instructor, I’m learning from DVD’s. The program that I’m following is Les Vogt’s Cowhorse U. I think it’s a great program because it’s teaching me the fundamentals of body control. Not having an instructor though, it’s hard to know if I’m doing everything the way Mr. Vogt shows in his DVD’s. When I watch the DVD’s, I pay attention to where he has his hands, his feet, how he’s shifting his weight etc. However, I just can see myself to know if I’m doing what he’s doing.
A few weeks ago, Leo’s owner, Jim, wanted to film me riding Leo. He wants some before and after footage (he’s been pleased with Leo’s progress). When I watched the videos he took, I saw everything that I was doing wrong. My hands! Oh my gosh! My hands are so high up in the air that the reins are hanging down like puppet strings!
I’m trying not to be too hard on myself for it. I’ve spent a good portion of my riding life in a cutback saddle. Have you ever seen where a Saddle seat rider’s hands and arms are? Just picture someone resting her arms in an armchair; that’s pretty close to it. I spent all those years trying to keep a horse’s head up, it’s a little hard trying to make the transition to keeping the head down.
Back to my topic: what I ended up doing was playing the footage of Leo and I doing a turn around right next to a window (on my computer) playing Mr. Vogt doing the turn around (big difference). It was such an effective way of seeing what I need to work on that I’ve decided to start doing it every few weeks to check my progress.
I also noticed how high Leo’s head is in a canter. Gee, I wonder why that is…
