This is not me. This will never be me, and I have no regrets. But I do really love ponies.
Today I commented to my roommate that I finally made some improvement on my posture in my riding lesson, after seeing in a video of myself, what was going wrong. She thought it was so weird that I've been riding for over four years and there are still things that I can improve on. Important note: she does not ride. However, is there anything you can be unimprovable in after just four years? This isn't entirely rhetorical; I honestly cannot come up with anything that you can't improve on after four years. Perhaps double-clicking? But in terms of skill sets that involve tremendous motor coordination, it's not really the time that's the issue--it's more the concept of achieving perfection at all, ever (those that know my "professional" research would know how hard it is for me to NOT talk about speech control right now).
Anyway, my modern instructor has been really trying very hard to get me to improve my posture, mostly opening through the shoulders and lengthening the back. So I'm working on my posture. I want better posture. I want this posture to be strong but not tense, self-supporting, and consistent across conditions: low distraction, medium distraction, and high distraction. Now, here are the conditions that I am applying posture to, along with benefits and challenges:
Everyday life:
This is the easiest one to do, and thus the first step. When I'm walking, sitting, or standing, it just takes one small mental reminder to open the shoulders, lengthen my middle back, and support with my core. As I'm writing this blog post, I am doing this.
Pros: Well, good posture is good for you anyway. Specifically, I've noticed that my back is more flexible and also less painful than it has been in the recent past. Some of this could be due to my recent increase in overall activity (~ 3 dance classes a week, + riding lesson every week), but it isn't the existence of dance alone that has caused this improvement, as my weekly ballet class last year did not cause the same improvement.
Challenges: Remembering, mostly; however, this is just the creation of good habits. Even when I remember, almost without fail I will revert back to the original closed shoulders within 5 minutes. It is, however, getting better.
Dance class:
This is the next easiest to do. During my modern class, for example, I can remember to carry myself with (more) correct posture. Remarkably, a lot of this involves releasing tension. Importantly, not clenching down the shoulders, but rather pulling them down and back without pinching at the shoulder blades, as well as lengthening the middle back without pinching on the spine. Sometimes I find that my hands have locked into position, but completely relaxing them will make my shoulders also relax.
Pros: Better lines, better technique; application of the posture here also builds on the same benefits as in the "everyday" category, like flexibility through the back and less pain. Slightly improved balance (greater effect en pointe). Also--improved abs.
Challenges: Doing completely atypical things with my feet, remembering what the order of the atypical things is, and still maintaining a posture that I must devote conscious energy to. Most challenging with lengthy or very difficult choreography.
Riding:
This, for me, is the most challenging. The biggest influencing factor in ranking, I think, is simply how long I've been doing each: I've been dancing since I was 2 and a half, but only riding since I was 18. Another challenge is, of course, that you are working on the back of an animal that is being so pleasant as to cart your butt around. The last thing you want to do is unnecessarily burden their back and their mouth.
Anyway, I started jumping almost two years ago. Now that I've accomplished my goals of not looking down before jumps (which leads to falling off) and having fair consistency in counting strides (the lack of which can also lead to falling off), I'm trying to work on my position, both at all gaits while flatting (walk/trot/canter), as well as my jump position.
- No worming at the (sitting) trot or canter;
- Relaxing the seat (this whole "relaxing" thing seems to be a recurring phenomenon);
- Supporting through the core;
- Low, relaxed shoulders;
- Weight centered; specifically, weight not too far forward, and
- Lengthened and flat upper and middle back.
Here is me riding Freckles about 8 months ago. I am doing the worm:
Here is me riding Elvis a week ago:
Here is me riding Freckles today:
So, this is better (I'm not looking at anything below the knee):
I had a video taken last week and this week because I could feel that something was going wrong, but I wasn't sure where it was. Turns out, it wasn't just the jumping itself that was the problem! The root of the problem is at the canter. Collapsing in the upper/middle back (and, at the extreme end, being one of these guys) during the canter was not setting me up for a good jump position. Sur-prise!
Pros: Magically, having good posture also prevents my weight from falling too far forward. And being too far forward means you will probably fall. And falling from four or five feet up, going from 15 or so mph to a dead stop (when you hit the ground), is very painful. And quite dangerous. I'm not saying that you won't fall if you have good posture, but it seems to help the stickability. On the horse's end, you are carrying your own weight more efficiently, which is always helpful for them.
Challenges: Running around in the woods at 15-20 mph with very little actually between you riding happily on your horse and you being wrapped around a tree comes with some adrenaline. The reaction of humans when they are doing something that is fast and frightening is to curl up into the fetal position and protect the noggin. And this is the opposite of good posture! Instead, you (I) need to work on a., never actually hitting the mental panic button, and b., building in a relaxed, supported posture into riding. Some people naturally come this way; others (like me) need a bit of poking and prodding.
My poking and prodding is mostly self-motivated in riding, though the general posture ideal was catalyzed by my modern instructor. I hope to turn my posture into another success story like how I semi-permanently banished severe pronation (and pain). Start with the basics, like brushing my teeth or waiting for the bus, and work up to running around the woods with ponies.
* This is the opposite of the normal conclusion, or "dressage is dance for horses." I also started dancing 15 years before I started riding. But this direction is more appropriate for a dance blog.
