This week, I took a semi private lesson with my best friend, Ada, out in Middleburg. We were taught by Jane Nordstrom who has tremendous experience as a top competitor in showing and as an instructor. She gave Ada and I something to think about that had never crossed my mind before.

One of Jane's rules of riding is, "you can't fight gravity." She explained that especially in a show, you want to notice the details of the ring you're riding in. If there's a part of the ring that is going uphill, or downhill. If you're riding downhill, the tendency would be to lean slightly forward into the motion. But with you and your horse leaning downward, when you come out of the hill- towards a jump for example- this puts you at a bad, unbalanced position to come into the jump. Instead, you want to balance out heading down on a hill, with staying up. This keeps you and your horse collected and ready for a turn into a jump. This was something I had never really thought about before and I thought I'd share it with all of you! :)