Building Blocks, Breathing, and Prix Caprilli Lessons

Sara and Gillian have been taking some lessons together on their horses, and we all joke that these two women are the same person in two bodies.  They often wear the same color to their riding lessons, they are both perfectionists, their horses are both the same age and breed, and they work on the same things at similar riding levels.

Sara and Dewey were dressed in their dressage tack, but we did a cavalletti lesson that morphed into a low-level jumping lesson.  I told Sara, "it's just prix caprilli!"

We often talk about balance when riding, especially when jumping.  Something we've discussed recently is "landing in your feet".  Kimberly Hale Photography got a great shot that illustrates this concept well of Gillian landing after a small jump with Silver.  This is a great example of the concept of building blocks:  when your body is in alignment and all your "building blocks are stacked evenly" landing after a jump is infinitely easier!  I should be able to take a photo of a horse and rider landing after a fence, erase the horse out of the picture, and the rider should be able to stand in the jumping landing position.

The other great illustration we got in photos was regarding breathing, and how the horses just mirror what we do.  In these first two shots you can see the rider has her lips pursed, and is breathing with tension in her mouth.  If you look down at the horse's lips, he is doing the EXACT same thing with his mouth as his rider.

Then, in this final photo, you can see a relaxed mouth and lips on the rider, which reflects in the horse's lips and mouth.