Kathleen Lindley July 11th (day 2)
While watching another rider, I asked Kathleen whether we set up some problems for ourselves because we create releases rather than letting a natural release happen out of the situation. She did a demonstration on me where, facing each other, we held each other’s forearm and she asked me to say when she made a release. I could feel the slightest of pressure change. I identified 3 different releases and she told me afterwards – one was from her fingers, one from her elbows, and one from shoulder/back. Then she dropped my arm – and asked me how that felt. It felt awful ! Kathleen commented that a release can be going from a “4” to a “3” and that going to a “0” often is not the good thing we think it is AND means we then have to make the connection/contact again before we can ask again.
In my session, we started with the work we had finished with the day before – walk-halt. Fi was calmer and getting the calm halt more often, or moving her feet less when asked to turn. Sometimes she was just moving her front feet in the turn and Kathleen suggested I just “mix up” the front feet and ask for the halt again. As she was getting it maybe 50% of the time, we then moved on to work on something else (the walk).
Kathleen asked me to think the hind feet through under the cinch. Then she asked me to think of swinging the front feet out under her nose. Both of these improved the walk and calmness. Then I had to add them both together! That was a bit harder as mentally I needed to think hind –front – hind –front so had to swap between images (cinch, nose, cinch, nose) and get which foot I was thinking right. And remember to breathe! The walk slowed and it felt as if Fi was waiting for me to “think” each foot. The walk was also softer. I used the footfall for halt as well, planting the hind foot and thinking the nose down. The first few times were solid halts but she did still struggle sometimes to be soft and not move her feet. I found it hard to get the image back when she “left” mentally, but overall it was a big improvement.
I had worked on some of these ideas – feeling footfall in walk and halt – 3 years previously. But moving the hind and fore feet was something I had seen done with other people and tried at home by myself. Working on this with Kathleen was quite a different experience as you have someone there who can guide you in what you are doing, and feedback on the result. It was a more intense experience, with much better results. It was as if before I had been thinking the feet with “lightness” but this time it was with a real connection, one that was solid for a majority of the time.
Kathleen commented that on day 1 Fi had not really been trying – but today she was.
Key themes for the day:
Focus – my focus on footfall massively improved both the walk *and* Fi’s focus on the job at hand
In my session, we started with the work we had finished with the day before – walk-halt. Fi was calmer and getting the calm halt more often, or moving her feet less when asked to turn. Sometimes she was just moving her front feet in the turn and Kathleen suggested I just “mix up” the front feet and ask for the halt again. As she was getting it maybe 50% of the time, we then moved on to work on something else (the walk).
Kathleen asked me to think the hind feet through under the cinch. Then she asked me to think of swinging the front feet out under her nose. Both of these improved the walk and calmness. Then I had to add them both together! That was a bit harder as mentally I needed to think hind –front – hind –front so had to swap between images (cinch, nose, cinch, nose) and get which foot I was thinking right. And remember to breathe! The walk slowed and it felt as if Fi was waiting for me to “think” each foot. The walk was also softer. I used the footfall for halt as well, planting the hind foot and thinking the nose down. The first few times were solid halts but she did still struggle sometimes to be soft and not move her feet. I found it hard to get the image back when she “left” mentally, but overall it was a big improvement.
I had worked on some of these ideas – feeling footfall in walk and halt – 3 years previously. But moving the hind and fore feet was something I had seen done with other people and tried at home by myself. Working on this with Kathleen was quite a different experience as you have someone there who can guide you in what you are doing, and feedback on the result. It was a more intense experience, with much better results. It was as if before I had been thinking the feet with “lightness” but this time it was with a real connection, one that was solid for a majority of the time.
Kathleen commented that on day 1 Fi had not really been trying – but today she was.
Key themes for the day:
Focus – my focus on footfall massively improved both the walk *and* Fi’s focus on the job at hand
posted by seahorse | 2:58 PM
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