Cob Jockey

Reading about Megan's rides with the Equicube lately reminded me that I've had one sitting on my tack locker for a year. The last time I rode with it was 11 months ago, when I learned I couldn't ride my horse straight while holding it, because it forced me to ride with even reins and apparently I did not do that on a regular basis. Which kicked off the whole Pilates/biomechanics/learning to use my abs/full training hero's journey you're all familiar with.

But now that I have the ability to use my core and my body is a lot less crooked, I wondered what I'd get out of it now.

Good pone

To be honest, while I was riding with it, he went so poorly I wondered if I was making a mistake.

What is even happening lol

Now that I'm so strong in my core by default, holding the cube wasn't really that hard or tiring, but it was curious to note which muscles were tense but not contributing to supporting the cube or riding in any way, chiefly my "underneath" muscles as MW calls them, so the pelvic floor and glutes. When I relaxed those muscles but kept my core engaged, I was able to follow his motion a lot better.

Love what the cube does for my hands in posting trot

Once I sat the cube down though, from the moment he stepped off it was like "...whoa, the cube actually did something." The contact felt solid but elastic, just the way it did at GP trainer's, when I imagined I was still holding the cube. I suddenly realized if I put leg on and "held the imaginary cube", he lifted his back and came together in the best way.

Even more interestingly, when I relaxed my underneath muscles, I had effortless down transitions. Something that's been happening lately that I haven't written about is that I've had a hard time halting him since he came home from GP trainer's (lol) which is obviously a "me" problem and not a "him" problem.

I think with that much tension in my underneath, I was driving him forward and his back down with my seat even as my hands and torso motion were saying "stop".