Horses of the outside world. Shetland Pony zoomies. My Shetland: In Search of the Yellow Bucket. Scroll down for video.
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Driving lesson with Coach James. I said that in the photo from the show, above, I thought I was leaning a touch forward. This would not be out of character for me to be physically leaning forward, nor mentally out of charterer to be reaching forward instead of sitting chilly and letting the world come to me.
We worked on that.
Sit up. Put the shoulder over the hips. Sit back away from the horse.
Aesthetically, I looked more in control. Presented a better picture. Performance Driving is all about the horse. Still, it doesn’t hurt to have the driver display an air of elegant competence. I have no idea how they judge Academy Driving.
Functionally, sitting up made my arms feel softer.
I have been told to sit up a time or two before. It hits different when you are sitting on the bench seat of a cart rather than in the saddle on the back of the horse. Less ancillary movement to deal with. Less time spent balancing. Less ingrained muscle memory.
Each time I reminded myself to sit up, my arms feel both softer & stronger.
There are two ways to pitch forward. Bend at hips with straight spine. The hips and the shoulders remain the same distance apart. This is not always bad. This is how you two point.
The second way to pitch forward is to curve the spine. The hips and shoulders come closer together. This is not always bad either, provided the shoulders don’t get involved. An imaginary line across the upper back should stay straight. I don’t see the use in riding, but when I try, it feels like a modern dance move.
However.
What most of us do is slump. When the spine curves forward, we pull our shoulders in and hollow our chests. We curve along two axes. I know I do.
Try this. Sit up straight. Upper arms at your sides. Elbows at 90o. Lower arms parallel to the ground and to each other. Hands up as if holding reins. Or carrying a tray, for non-riders. Now swing your arms back & forth. The hands moved freely along parallel tracks.
Now curl your shoulders in. Immediately, I felt less mobility in my shoulder joints. Also, when I swung my arms, my hands smacked into each other. Less freedom of motion. Less area to move in.
I applied this to my next riding lesson. Made a hash out of it. I was concentrating so hard on my shoulders that I let the rest of my body parts go wandering. I was trying to throw shoulders back by brute force without have the rest of my torso organized. It took me three-quarters of the way through the lesson to get back to status quo ante. Not the big revelation I was hoping for in the saddle.
Will keep working on it, particularly as it is so much easier to feel in the cart.
Onwards!
Katherine
Virtual Brush Box 
A note about the photo: I recall noting in Light Horse Breeds, my favorite horse book, that photos with driving are always framed to raise the front end of horse, as if the horse were moving uphill. And it’s still done.
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A dog show photographer once told me that each dog breed has its own photo requirements.