Saturdays Super Simulator Session in Suffolk

[Baydale]

See, I did take heed of whoever's recommendation it was to "unwonky" myself with a simulator session at Ashen EC (http://www.ashenec.co.uk/3.html).
I managed to persuade Kerilli, meardsall_millie and BeckyD to keep me company and then promptly bullied poor BeckyD into going first, possibly due to her mentioning she'd had a go on the simulator at YHL, therefore being our team expert. The upside of that, from her point of view, was that I was so busy trying to get photos I forgot to get any video, although obviously she was fantastic (you have to take my word for that), needed only a couple of little tweaks and set the bar that high that the rest of us were seriously worried about how we were going to fare by comparison. Here she is after Becky (our simulator trainer) had tweaked her back, thigh and ankle position:



Looks good, huh, despite saying how odd it felt and not having had the simulator move out of halt yet. Sickeningly BeckyD managed to maintain the same corrected position in walk, trot and canter and it appeared that trainer Becky giving two or three things to keep uppermost in your mind worked a treat. At the same time as all this was going on there was information being charted/graphed re your weight distribution - front to back and left to right, as well as your up/down plane, weight distribution down the rein and what is noted as "drive", but we thought translated better as "consistency" . You could watch this on a screen in a before and after way, as well as having the printout afterwards for each pace. Add to that a mirror in front, a mirror to the side, Becky's training and the input of the other three of us, you can probably see what a great learning experience it was albeit with some information overload at times....or was that just me?

I'm probably not explaining some of this very well but hopefully K, m_m and BeckyD will add the bits I've missed or explained badly, and it's probably better if I just link you to the vids of each of the rest of us so you can see the difference in all of us.

Next up was Kerilli, who will explain her pelvic problems to you (ooh err missus ) and who left the rest of us marvelling at how she manages to ride at all with such pain and discomfort; let's hope Becky's recommendation for a "bodyworker" can help K in this respect. What I found fascinating was how defensive riding can affect your position so much, and how a small adjustment to K's position could make such a massive difference to how "at one" she looked with the horse, I mean simulator. I loved the "stack your buttons" mantra:

Walk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-vnrjmiXSA

Trot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYi8LRzT1pw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN5v8sLdKqw

Canter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8087XDH8yo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVx2FBS5lRw

And then it was meardsall_millie's turn - see how cunning and bossy I was to make sure I was last to go, although that just served to make me more worried and nervous about how bad I was going to be.

m_m always sits so well, beautifully upright, but uh oh, Becky's assessment and prodding and poking pointed out that actually she needs to almost round her shoulders yet roll her arms back, cover the back half of her armpits. Yes, I know it sounds odd and watching m_m put into position had me wincing at how difficult it looked to make the correction, but wow at the difference:

Halt and walk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-iW1FtFIkM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THXIsXKZemU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgYehCXymlo

Trot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=026Vul1y0lc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBG9U6GnTIE

Canter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs5lsOoaRZs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbm9vjDjbgk

Looks tricky, doesn't it? Becky liked that the design on the back pockets of m_m's breeches meant that she could see if she's straight from the back, that could be useful to anyone on here who teaches so I'll be sitting at the end of the arena in the future, bellowing at everyone to ride down the centre line away from me in a straight line.

Last up was yours truly, who spewed out her list of excuses a mile long including fractures, the big C thing, just to see if I could get an easy ride, so to speak. I was shocked enough to look in the mirror in front and see that my right shoulder (my bad side) was about 4 inches higher than the left, and even after a clothing adjustment - as obviously it could have been the neckline of my jumper making it appear that I was hugely wonky - I was still odd-looking. It's very weird when you make the correction, mine involved softening my ribs on that side which let my shoulder and arm drop down, all well and good until the simulator moved into walk. I had to concentrate so hard on the mirror to keep that side level that I couldn't even shift my gaze to the pooter read-out, so only got to look at the detail of that afterwards. I was heartened to hear Becky get very excited at the improvement at one point, but how on earth I'm going to manage that on Jupiter when he starts his ducking, diving and the left/right game, heaven only knows. It is literally like patting your head and rubbing your tummy times 100, but what a difference when you can do it, or start to be able to do it in my case.

Walk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arVeyHShz-o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mrf4GLWucw

Trot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffkv2bZbczM

Canter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIHud4SA_Sc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEsl8bfPe1E

Fun, innit? To summarise I think we all felt it was a great learning experience, moreso with it being a group of us so we could learn from each other. Becky's input was educational, fascinating and insightful, through her knowledge, experience, anecdotes and refreshingly engaging manner whilst putting this across, so huge thanks to her for such a great afternoon. I'm sure I'll have missed lots out but the rest of the HHO posse can fill in the gaps, or answer any questions you have. My brain is officially full after an inspirational dressage lesson on Friday and equally inspirational jumping lesson today, so I can only manage words of one syllable.

However, I do have homemade flapjack and builders' tea if you've made it this far, help yourselves.

[LEC]

I am shocked that none of you are wearing hats.

Do you think its something you would need a couple of sessions on or do you think you will be able to work very hard and keep it going when you ride?
You and MM should book schoolmaster lessons when you come down for Hartpury as you will be very close to Talland or Dovecote.

[Sarah_Jane]

Sounds a really good session but I am disappointed at you all riding without hats

[Baydale]

Oh it's a very safe horse, never been known to buck or rear but does lean dreadfully to the right, and if you were really bad you could probably just flop off as I feared I might.

I think if you could ride somewhere with mirrors it would be easier to keep it up (they're on my wish list, definitely), but going back again could be very beneficial, I'm sure.

[Baydale]

Oh damn, I can't edit the title of this thread which should read "Saturday's" not "Saturdays", as we weren't a girl band/pop combo having a go on a simulator in Suffolk.

[Baydale]

Originally Posted by Sarah_Jane

Sounds a really good session but I am disappointed at you all riding without hats

I thought I'd live dangerously and go for a full house of fractures, or at least one more to add to my list.

[FrodoBeutlin]

Wow, really really interesting. Would love to do something like that.

[kirstyhen]

You all joke, but when I rode on the Simulator at Hartpury, I had to wear a hat!

Looks interesting, there is one coming up at Eland Lodge soon, not sure if it's the same thing, but I might have to investigate further.

Baydale - my shoulders are majorly wonky, my Traps are hugely uneven and the more I look at it the freakier it looks! OH laughs at it all me all the time for how obsessed I get about it

[trina1982]

I'm so pleased you enjoyed it. I was the one who recommended Becky. She is a brilliant instructer. (i've been lurking waiting for an update!)

'Strider' is the only horse i've ever known with a large red emergency stop button (don't we all need one of these!) on his neck, so i figure you're safe without a hat

I've always found that going away and practising what i had taken away from the lesson always has an effect on the horse. So for me at the moment, i need a more 'swan like neck'. So i practise when i remember (hoping it will be second nature soon) and generally i get at least an ear flick in response (in a kind of, 'ok, what u doin? you've changed something' kind of way). The horse never lies so if i get a positive reaction i keep doing what i'm doing, if i don't i experiment a little.

The biggest thing i have taken away from lessons with Becky is that the horse is the best instructor you have

Loved to hear more updates when you've done some experimenting!
Trina x

[kerilli]

it was really really useful, i definitely want to do it again and would recommend it to anyone. Becky's a great teacher, and having someone standing right beside you (on the mounting block, so level with you = able to position you as you ride0 is absolutely invaluable.
my trick pelvis thing is just a nightmare, it's majorly unstable, always needs adjusting. if the pelvis stays straight for a bit then my sacrum compensates instead. possibly caused by my crumbling & fusing disc, possibly not. it doesn't really hurt as such but it means that i now have absolutely NO faith in my own proprioception - i just cannot tell at all if i'm in the middle or not, rely on someone else to check for me. when i feel in the middle i'm usually sitting to the left, but not always. Becky suggested a fairly radical-sounding whole body treatment and I'm going to look into it. Something to do with remodelling the fascia. Eek.
my perpetual fault has been being too far forwards, so it was a HUGE shock when Becky's main adjustment of me was to slightly push my very upper torso (bra strap level) forward a tiny bit, this is contra to everything i've been told... but it really helped. of course, riding my stupid spooky young mares for months has made my seat more defensive than i'd like. humph.
other good sayings she had:
armpits as open at the front as at the back (this was for m_m, but i took it on board, because it might help prevent my right arm doing the funky chicken all on its own when jumping).
line your bumhole up with the spine (charming, but much more direct than the whole 'worrying about which side you might be sitting to' shenanigans!)
i came up with 'stack my buttons' when she said I needed to check that my front of base of neck, middle of sternum, belly button, and front of pelvic arch were all exactly above one another. I like that image, it works for me.
the last vid of me cantering is very telling i think - Becky told us that the horse's paces were modelled on German Olympic team horses, and just after I'd remarked that the movement was smaller than I expected, my body obviously decided all on its own that it had to make that horse canter bigger, so the canter rhythm bobbled a bit. (rider can affect it, she said beginner or out-of-balance riders can even make it 'lame' sort of thing). it surprised me, since I didn't consciously think "go bigger", nor do i think you can see me do anything different on the vid, but the horse changed. oooer.
the other great little tidbit of info she gave us about it: it has a Left/Right sensor, to tell which side you're putting more weight on. They tested it with all the German team riders when they calibrated it etc. When Nicole Uphoff rode on it, the tester made her get off because he thought the Left/Right sensors were broken. They weren't. Her balance really was that perfect. *sigh* we can but dream...
mega-highly recommended.
big thanks to Baydale for organising it, it was well worth the trip.