Let's get started shall we?

I am often told by my students I should write down my sayings, methods, and explanations when it comes to riding.  Sadly, I'm not certain I can organize my thoughts well enough to put them in to book form...Maybe if some one followed me to my lessons and recorded me, they could manage to make everything linear and easy to follow. Perhaps not.  Regardless, allow me to introduce myself:

I began my riding career very young, I was a natural and because of that I learned many things later than I probably should have.  At first, this my seem the opposite of what SHOULD have happened, but when you think about it, it is exactly correct.  You see, each coach and trainer I rode with made the assumptions that I knew the theory and the mechanics of what I was doing, even though every thing I did came purely out of instinct.  So, even though I could stick and look pretty and fairly correct, I was stuck on a plateau as I was lacking a true understanding of my sport and future career.  Yes, I read many books on the subject, HOWEVER most books on riding are written under the assumption that one already understands the mechanics and the basic theory.   Thus, when you only really know the very basics the rest becomes overwhelming and confusing.  Not to mention, until you feel it, all the theory in the world will do nothing for your riding.

After high school I headed off to Lake Erie College for their equestrian program.  At that time I had no desire to teach, I just wanted to ride and work horses.  Back then ( I don't know if the program is still run the same way) incoming freshman spent their first day at the college held hostage at the equestrian center where we drew horses and rode on the flat, over fences, and worked a dressage test to be placed in the appropriate level riding class to start out.  I was shocked to be informed I was immediately placed in the highest class allowed for a freshman, it was here I learned just how much my riding education suffered by being a natural rider.
 I very easily could have been discouraged and beaten down my first week in my riding classes.  I suddenly found myself confused and fighting my own body trying to accomplish new movements that came so easily to all the other riders, even those with less than desirable equitation.  But, at the end of that first week, our Dean of Equestrian Studies, (who happened to be the instructor for our class) stopped me from leaving the arena with the rest of the class.  I can't recall the exact questions she asked me, I just remember her telling me straight out "You are a gifted rider, but you know nothing about riding, nothing about how your horse works.  We are going to fix that".
At first I wanted to be offended, I wanted to cry, but I also felt a wave of relief.  I didn't have to hide my confusion anymore. I spent every chance I had after that standing in the center of the arena while other riders worked simple exercises while Sue broke them down for me and explained what was happening between horse and rider, why she made the corrections she made to riders and why she allowed some mistakes to slide; for now.  Riding these exercises, after this, became more simple as I learned the whys and hows and things started to come easier to me.
I began to notice the riders that improved the least were those who thought they had the least to learn, even if they were very talented.  I decided to never assume a coach/trainer was wrong in correcting me.  I rode with every coach and trainer I could afford or weasel my way in to helping me out.  I found a wealth of help in my senior class mates, some of who took me under their wing and allowed me rides on their own horses while giving me lessons.
My sites, however, were still firmly set on simply training, not teaching.  That was until I took a summer job as a camp counselor and riding instructor at a YMCA camp in Maryland.  I was quickly made counselor to the "Horse Master's" camp.  A two week camp session for kids with more riding experience.  They rode in two lessons a day as well as enjoying other camp activities.  But before we started camp sessions, we were put through a two week training course through Certified Horsemanship Association concentrated on how to safely teach.
During this course I began to notice something, while we worked through the exercises and practiced teaching each other I wasn't just seeing the mistake being made, I was tracing the mistake back through the body to the source, basically seeing WHY the mistake was being made.  I then spent an entire summer developing this skill with my campers.  If a camper had trouble with heels down, I wanted to know why, where in the body was the problem starting, the heels were in fact a sign of a different, often more dangerous problem, and when that problem was found and fixed the heels would resolve themselves.    This peeked my curiosity in kinesiology, AND I began to realize not only was I good at teaching riders....I truly enjoyed it.

Back to college and I found the riding becoming easier, I found myself offering up advice and analogies to my fellow students.  I took dance and movement classes and found I could apply much of what I learned to my riding and teaching.  I took any job I could that set me in a saddle, learned any discipline I could to broaden my knowledge base and fulfill my curiosity.
By the time I was a junior, I began to see a trend, the schools riding instructors encouraged me to coach incoming students during free rides.  Along the way, I had set myself up to become an instructor.

Now, here is the rough spot.  Regardless of how incredible my junior year was going, I became ill.  I developed major chronic depressive disorder complicated by anxiety.  Turns out, genetically, I was prone to it.  I battled through, but to be honest it made school much too difficult.  And so I never finished my senior year.  And instead of going back one day, life happened, but I never stopped learning.  I settled in to teaching and training in a barn near my fiance's home town.  Then he joined the Marine Corps and I was swept away to Southern California where I now have a small lesson program and I am the trainer and go-to gal for a small arbian breeding outfit, Aya Arabians.  We breed and train old school blood lines, and as a trainer it is the perfect relaxed environment where I am allowed to take my time and do what is best for each horse.

I'm 36 years old this June, a long way from riding my pony, Bucky, bareback in Pennsylvania.  But I can honestly say, I have had 30 years experience, not just experienced the same year 30 times.

I hope this introduction gives you an idea of who I am.  I hope to use this blog to address training, riding, and equitation issues.  Whether they be a safety hazard, causing pain and discomfort to the rider, or pain and discomfort to the horse.  I will give directions on exercises that can help with these things as well.  What may surprise you is MANY of these exercises will  be done out of the saddle.  But, I will get in to that in a future entry.
Feel free to ask any questions, send video or pictures and I will address them in a future entry.

Until then, Just Ride.

Jessica.