Goose Bumps

Buuurrrr.  Fall temperatures finally got here after teasing us with amazingly warm weather for the past few months.   I’m suddenly adding extra layers and blanketing the dog before she goes outside.  I’m also in a near constant state of goose bumps, but they don’t derive solely from the colder weather.

About this time last year we moved into the house from the camper.  The floors weren’t done.  The sinks didn’t work.  Heck, we didn’t even have counters, but there was heat and that was a lot to be thankful for.  Now the floors are done, the sinks are in, most of the trim is up and we’re getting ready to host our first Thanksgiving.  I’ve never been much of a hostess.  In fact, right now I’m trying to decide where to stash the random construction supplies instead of making seating cards or folding napkins (or sweeping…).  I refuse to stress out.  It won’t be a Hallmark card, but our families will be together.  The light fixtures might be covered in drywall dust, but the warm glow will come from our hearts.  We have much to be thankful for so, rough edges aside, I’ve got goosebumps anticipating the festivities.

The horses are also scheduled to come home this week.  We hoped to bring them up over the weekend, but like anything dealing with construction or horses, the schedule gets shifted.  The list of “Must do’s” is getting smaller.  The list of “Melinda would really like done” is getting longer, but we should have one paddock and three stalls habitable before Thanksgiving.  It’s not going to be the perfect homecoming I always envisioned with sparkling stalls and landscaped walk ways, but we've worked hard to make a horse friendly home.  To borrow the cliche, the dark always comes before the dawn. The thought of good-night muzzle nudges counters the dread of four o’clock mornings in the frigid winter without lights and gives me happy (mostly) goose bumps.

Work at the radio station gets a little lot crazy this time of year.  The holiday open houses, the Christmas advertisements, the special holiday programs, Christmas greetings, and Christmas carols all make life interesting.  But they also bring a special anticipation, an air of excitement, and of course, little pimples of skin all over my body. 

My husband and I are getting ready to spend our second Christmas as husband and wife.  We get to decorate the tree, make cookies, and spread the cheer as man and wife and that gives me goose bumps.

So this Thanksgiving week, each time your skin does its best to mimic the Thanksgiving bird of choice, try to come up with something that gives you good goosebumps and have a fresh perspective on the changing weather and the skin prickling it produces. 

Back Seat Driving

With one horse down for the count, I’ve had a little time to ponder.  My conclusion is far from a peer reviewed, scientifically proven thesis, but I’ll lay it out there anyway.  Ready?  My conclusion: Back Seat Driving is the bomb!

Husbands and wives are cringing, but hear me out.  It all started with a problem.  A friend’s talented little horse was jumping like a champ with his front end, and doing who knows what with his rear.  Routinely his antics left me close to tears, laughing as his rider clung on for dear life.  Apparently, I’m not the most sympathetic comrade.  Humor aside, it was time to figure out what was going on or give up on this case. 

I never “give-up” and rarely concede, so instead of karaoke in the car, I started mulling over the pieces of the puzzle.

It took me longer than I care to admit to decipher that the little guy was jumping by pushing off his front legs instead of rocking back on his haunches.  He’d canter up to a fence, stab his front feet in the ground and then pop over in a bit of a surprise.  While occasionally cute and routinely humorous, it was neither correct nor efficient. 

A horse jumps from their hind legs.  Think about their anatomy.  The front legs are built for swinging forward propulsion, but the real power is in the spring like hind end.  You probably can’t bounce very well on your finger tips (even if you were super strong), but standing on the balls of your feet, you can bounce and even jump quite well.  Horse’s carry 60% of their weight on their front legs naturally, then we add a rider.  It works pretty well if you’re just cruising down the trail or around the arena, but if you need to lift the front end much, something has to change.

Most horses out in a field will naturally change their balance from front to back and back to the front again as the need arises and if you watch a horse jump well (really jump, not just canter over something), you’ll see them lift their forehand and spring from their back legs.  This is an exaggeration, but you’ll see what I mean.

Did you notice how little weight the horse had on its front legs right before the last jump.  Watch it again.  The front legs do nearly nothing.  They basically are just waiting for the hind legs to thrust them up into the air.  So, what does this mean?  We’ve got to think about the back seat.

I’ve had it drilled into my head, “Ride from back to front, leg to hand.”  Sure, I’ve got it.  You’ve got to have “go” before you can have direction or set the tempo.  But it means more than that.  We need to ride the hind legs, not the front.  That’s hard!  After all, we’re sitting much closer to the front end.  Most of us were taught to “steer” like we drive a car, turn the wheel and the front tires or front legs will go in the direction you want.  But what about the back seat?  Sure, it’s going to come along because it’s attached, but if you’ve driven a trailer or ridden a crooked horse, you know the hind doesn’t always follow the front precisely. 

When I’m driving a trailer, I pay more attention to where the trailer is than I do to the truck (maybe not the best plan, but it has yet to get me in trouble).  Wouldn’t it be great if I could start riding horses that way?  It’s a radical change.  You no longer post with the outside front leg, but with the inside hind.  You no longer turn with your reins, but with your seat and legs.  You know longer make a downward transition by slowing down the front end, but by riding the hind legs (I know, I know, Carlie, you’ve been telling me this for years!)  Sure, that awesome lifting feeling at the withers is nice, but it’s the power from the hind legs stepping farther under that’s more important and it’s from the power of the hind legs that you get the lifting in front.  Finally, the take-off point at a jump is not where your horse’s front legs get to the jump, but how, when and where their butt gets there.  Try counting your strides by the pushing off of the hind legs instead of when the front legs land or the flight stage of the canter.  It will blow your mind. 

So there it is, my fresh perspective on riding.  Hide Sight is 20/20.  Back seat driving is the bomb, but you’ll probably need a good friend/helper to get there.