Julie Goodnight at the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo 2012

I was so excited about seeing Julie Goodnight at the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo!  We went up Thursday night to stay at a hotel and be there for Friday, Saturday and Sunday....well we only did Friday and Saturday.  We slept in on Sunday but that's another story!

The first day we went to Part 1 and 2 of the "Natural Ride"  Julie demonstrated the physics of riding and why we position ourselves the way we do.  It was a refreshing new look at riding for me, at least the way she explained it.  There were two horses and riders in addition to Julie and Twyla.  There was a cute Pintabian and a palomino.

 Julie explained the footfalls and demonstrated her body movements with the gaits using exaggerated movements of her body as she rode.

What really helped me was learning how to feel the diagonal that you are on by feeling the horses outside rear leg as it pushes you upwards...your outside hip is lifted and this is the correct time to rise.  This seems to work better on a curve since that outside hind leg would indeed need to move forward and cover more ground but if you pay attention to the lateral side to side motion you can feel your hips lower and rise with the horse (kind of like you are trotting too!).  I'll have to do some practice!  I wish I had my own horse to practice and feel the trot and know what diagonal I'm on even in a straight line!

Then Julie went onto the canter in another one of her presentations.  This time it was just Julie, Twyla and the gal who had the Pintabian.  They worked on stopping with little rein use, Julie had a neat way of explaining and showing how to really work your seat and not so much the reins.  It's still easier to say than do but watching her presentation and her standing on the ground showing our body positions during different cues was a lot of fun. 

The canter is something a lot of us fear and it often has to do with that first swinging up and then down of the head as the horse begins.  That makes sense.  She stated that you lift the inside rein as you press with your outside leg to help lighten the horses shoulder to get the correct lead.  I think that's the order...see I need to pay more attention rather than take pictures huh!!

Most of what she went over is in her principles of riding DVD set that I plan on purchasing.  I really enjoy watching her show on Mondays so seeing her at the Expo was awesome!  I will certainly have to attend clinics and perhaps at a future date when I have my horse go to some with my horse.  I know that things will come up that I will like to have the Goodnight eye on!  She also has several weekend Yoga and Riding vacations where it's several days of concentrated riding, yoga and good times.  How fun would that be!

I was also pretty impressed that my husband never picked up the magazines he brought to read when "he got bored", he was captivated the whole time watching Julie!  Awesome!!  And of course knowing me, I just have to say I really appreciated and applaud Julie for wearing a helmet during her clinics and encouraging others.  The other riders wore helmets as well, it's most likely a Julie Goodnight requirement!  Rock on!