by Melinda Snodgrass | Feb 7, 2023 | Blog
Today we were working on canter to walk transitions, and Leslie said you ask for the transition by lengthening your leg, sinking down into the horse, shortening his stride, but making the hind legs jump through more quickly, and you give the aid to walk when the horse’s withers and shoulders are coming up to you. I applied this technique and we had some perfect downwards. And then I realized that this was when I needed to be asking for the lead change when we were doing tempi changes....
by Melinda Snodgrass | Feb 7, 2023 | Blog
I keep thinking if I write all this down my muscles will just magically start doing what I want, and isolate the way I need them to. It is starting to work, so hooray. One of the problem is that I was a ballet dancer for a long, long time. Toe shoes, the whole nine yards. But year ago I had to make a choice — riding or dance, and the equestrian sports and ballet are not compatible. I had to make a choice. Horses won… because of course they did because horses are magic and as the...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Feb 7, 2023 | Blog
For years when I rode my low back would end up just killing me. I thought it was the price you pay to ride, but Leslie realized I was hyper-extending and arching my back. So, I tried to fix that, but I was going at it all wrong. I was trying to slouch/hunch and that ended up freezing my hip so I couldn’t swing through with the horse’s motion. And when the hip is frozen I ended up gripping with my thighs and my knees, and all that tension made my tempi changes (flying lead change)...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Feb 7, 2023 | Blog
I needed to put down some thoughts about dressage again so you get to suffer for my OCD about this crazy sport. Vento is wiggly, I mean really wiggly. He’s like a freaking gummy worm of a horse. Which makes dressage a challenge because straightness is an essential part of our sport. Now this isn’t to say, he isn’t good at it — he is a Grand Prix horse and has done very well on a very tough circuit against big warmbloods (he’s a Lusitano), but he and I have to work for it. One of the ways my...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 16, 2023 | Blog
I’m so sorry, but I seem to have punted my brain, and I had the wrong date for the publication date of The Thucydides Trap, the fifth and final book of the Imperials series. It will be released tomorrow, January 17th, not the 15th as I had originally posted. I’m so sorry, but you can read the first chapter if you go to Prince of Cats Literary Productions on either Facebook or Twitter. Anyway, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. It’s all happening tomorrow.
