{"id":21772,"date":"2015-03-02T16:33:45","date_gmt":"2015-03-02T05:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=21772"},"modified":"2015-03-20T11:54:56","modified_gmt":"2015-03-20T00:54:56","slug":"rebel-morrow-riding-cross-country-its-all-in-the-lower-leg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2015\/03\/rebel-morrow-riding-cross-country-its-all-in-the-lower-leg\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebel Morrow \u2013 Riding Cross Country \u2013 It\u2019s all in the lower leg"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Opening\"<\/a>Story by Chris Hector & Photos by Roz Neave<\/h3>\n

One of the many wonderful things about the recent Warwick Summer Eventing School was the chance for Queensland riders to learn from fellow Queenslanders who have made it to the top \u2013 and no one has made it more spectacularly than Rebel Morrow \u2013 Australia\u2019s eventing hero at the last Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

Reb is nothing if not direct, and she is a no-nonsense instructor as she takes her little band over the brush and ditch: \u201cWant to sit there chattering, great but if you want to start him cold, you have to wake him up before you get him to the jump. Hands down, leg on, if you get him deep, don\u2019t just drop him, keep your leg on and give him a confident jump. Soften the front end off a little, you were pulling him up in front of the fence.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there was no slacking after the fence:<\/p>\n

\u201cPick him up, don\u2019t let him go on the forehand after the fence. Do a bit more on landing and get him up straight away. Work in there, get him up and make him carry himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time to move on to the Suspended Log:<\/p>\n

\u201cA suspended log uphill is one of those fences you can\u2019t under-ride. Hold on to a bit of mane, be positive. This is never going to be a pretty jump, you need extra strong leg, extra strong position, and you can\u2019t pull back at all. Sit up tall and come in very defensive, use your voice, use whatever you\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Rebelpotrait2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIf your leg comes off for even one second, then even the best horse can stop \u2013 they can\u2019t see what is on the other side. GET your lower leg on, I can already see daylight between your lower leg and the horse. Be easy on him at the point of departure, he needs to be confident of you in his mouth, use a little half halt but don\u2019t be severe. GOWARN do it again \u2013 I think you sat a bit pretty\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, I had the opportunity of discussing this all important lower leg position with Rebel, who as readers probably know, showed in the publication The Athens Dream that her limbs are not just effective but also spectacular to look at\u2026<\/p>\n

What is the secret of establishing a good firm, secure seat?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way to establish it is to have your heels very deep and your lower leg slightly forward, so that you have got your lower leg closed around the horse and your knee off the saddle: that\u2019s the cement, that\u2019s the basis of your good position. Then it is a matter of being able to sit softly in the saddle, with your shoulders up tall, so your upper body uses strength through your shoulders and your back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sounds great but how do you get your body to do it?<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first it feels very uncomfortable to get your leg forward until you get used to it. They\u2019ve got to keep going out of their comfort zone to get it forward there. Once they realise how beneficial it is to have your lower leg forward with your heel down, they\u2019ll force themselves to do it more. I guess until they have had a scare where their upper body has gone forward, and their lower body has gone back, they don\u2019t realise the benefit of that strong lower leg position. Sit up tall, relax the arms, relax your elbows, and you can lengthen the rein like that, instead of shooting your body too far forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially for young horses, and young riders, until you are experienced like Stuart Tinney, and can maintain a forward seat, the defensive seat is the far safer alternative. I ride quite defensively; it is very rare that I get forward because I don\u2019t want to be caught out. I sit slightly back, and soft in the saddle.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"rebels<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Who taught you this riding technique?<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess because I have ridden all sorts of horses. I haven\u2019t been able to just sit on horses that go for you, I\u2019ve ridden all sorts, and I\u2019ve adopted that position. I watch other riders; I see where Matt Ryan\u2019s legs are \u2013 and where Stuart Tinney has his. Matt\u2019s lower leg is way more forward, and that\u2019s his special technique \u2013 my legs do shoot forward in extreme circumstances, but I am not as defensive as Matt. I sit up taller; I guess that\u2019s partly my showjumping training with Simone Kann and Michelle Lang. I feel quite confident to sit up, sitting soft in the saddle, not heavy on the horse\u2019s back, and use the strength in my legs to balance the weight in my body. I don\u2019t land on their back heavily. I guess my position comes from riding green horses because I don\u2019t want to let them have a scare. I want to be very strong in my legs so I don\u2019t fall back on them, or pull on their mouth. I am always ready for when they spook when they go cross country, they are always likely to spook sideways, and I want to be ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is one of the ugliest things you see \u2013 riders hitting the poor horse in the mouth, then getting after him because he has reacted?<\/p>\n

\u201cI encourage riders to grab the mane with one hand. I will grab the mane. If I am not sitting very well to the horse\u2019s jump, I\u2019ll hold the mane. There is nothing belittling about doing that. You are maintaining your position, you are keeping your horse confident \u2013 grab the mane, do what you have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning cross-country riding skills \u2013 is that just a matter of putting in the miles?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, like go to somewhere like the Warwick School and have two lessons a day with some really top instructors. We all pretty much repeat the same thing, and then it becomes cemented in your mind. It becomes normal. I don\u2019t have to think about that sort of thing any more \u2013 you just DO IT, because you\u2019ve had it drilled into you.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Rebelschild\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A suspended log uphill is one of those fences you can’t under-ride. Hold on to a bit of mane, be positive. This is never going to be a pretty jump, you need extra strong leg, extra strong position, and you can’t pull back at all.<\/em><\/p>\n

You need someone to watch you and scream keep your heels down?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah absolutely. I\u2019m a huge one on that. I hate jumping at home alone. I will avoid doing anything difficult when I am on my own because I want someone there to pick me up straightaway. If I\u2019m not riding correctly, or some part of me looks weak, I want some-one to pick up on me straight away, give me a serve straight away \u2013 I don\u2019t want to get used to riding just \u2018good enough\u2019, I want to ride perfectly and have my horses trained perfectly.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same with your dressage?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly is. I don\u2019t have someone to work with me all the time on my dressage, because you can do your flatwork a lot more on your own, but if I don\u2019t like to go too long without someone watching me. Right now I am desperate for another lesson with Tarsha Hammond, because how she rides is how I want my horses to go \u2013 that\u2019s who I learnt from, and when you are not around the person who taught you, you certainly slip back into different ways of riding. I have to find time to go and work with Tarsha some more.\u201d<\/p>\n

You grew up in Queensland, how important do you think something like the Warwick Eventing School is?<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up doing this, this is what I say to all the kids \u2013 this is what my parents had me doing. It\u2019s up to you how much you want to take out of it. You want to just have fun, or think seriously about it. Listen to these guys, because one day you might get to ride in the Olympics. It\u2019s really cool to teach here because I\u2019m watching little girls with blonde hair go round, and I\u2019m thinking, I wonder if I looked like that\u2026 one was even on an Appaloosa \u2013 because we started out on Appys \u2013 and I thought, isn\u2019t it cool, one day and all of a sudden, you\u2019ve been to the Olympics. I did it\u2026 whee.<\/p>\n

First published in THM April 2005.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Story by Chris Hector & Photos by Roz Neave One of the many wonderful things about the recent Warwick Summer Eventing School was the chance for Queensland riders to learn from fellow Queenslanders who have made it to the top \u2013 and no one has made it more spectacularly than Rebel Morrow \u2013 Australia\u2019s eventing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1244,438],"class_list":["post-21772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eventing","tag-eventing","tag-rebel-morrow"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21772"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21781,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21772\/revisions\/21781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}