Ride Amerika

It’s officially winter in the Pacific Northwest, with rain, snow, sleet, hail and wind to drive home that fact.  As a horse owner who keeps her horses at home, I continually work around the weather. In the winter with the shorter days, and variable weather inevitably our horses and we as riders do not stay as fit, flexible and strong as well as we do in the warmer sunnier months. Many of us are forced to give our horses the winter off.  But, that doesn’t mean we have to give ourselves the winter off.

Many days are simply not riding days, unless you have a covered arena at your disposal.  Even with a covered arena, sometimes the weather just seems to win out, even with the best outerwear.  Is it really productive to try and ride when neither horse nor rider can really warm up properly and get to that flexible and supple athletic potential we all strive for?

So how can you keep a supple seat, flexible back and light aids during these cold and dark times?  How about ride a perfectly trained horse? Why not work on your timing and feel while developing correct muscle memory?  How you ask?  Who is going to give me that perfect lesson and allow me to ride their $50k beautifully trained horse?  In Oregon, we have the wonderful advantage of having an Equine Simulator named Amerika, to help us.

Although only about 9 years old this amazing horse has traveled all over the east coast helping riders learn and relearn the subtly of correct riding, before coming west to Oregon with her owner Beth.  This lovely black mare stands about 15.2 hh, has a beautiful long mane and tail and well-proportioned body.  She is a bit slab sided, but overall extremely realistic.  Her gaits are very rhythmic and feel real, with Amerika you never have to worry about obtaining relaxation during your ride.  Her saddle is a normal leather dressage saddle and bridle/reins are authentic.

Amazingly she has a big personality.  How can a machine have personality, you wonder.  Well, let’s just say, that after a few minutes of riding when things are going beginning to jell, you may find yourself praising her or giving her a pet.  I believe this is normal.

Amerika is perfectly trained, so you will not be dealing with a fresh or fractious horse, that bucks or rears or runs away with you.   Okay, she may gallop off with you, but you are safe as there are no sudden swerves or airs above the ground to complicate matters.  Amerika never gets mad when you work on a movement or refinement of aids over and over.   She happily “motors” along doing exactly as you ask.

So how can Amerika help you?  Besides the fun factor she will help you to become more precise and clinical in your aids by doing exactly what you ask for.  I mean exactly!  If you don’t have the timing correct she ignores you or gallops off.  If your aids are too hard or abrupt she “jumps” into the gait, stops or possibly skips up to the next gait or she gallops off.  Amerika helps you to work on your timing and feel, by helping you become more precise.  She is run by a computer so you either aid her correctly or you don’t.

Amerika can help bring to light those subtle hints your instructor has been imparting to you for months or years.  She can show you clearly through the video monitor what your body is doing.  Do you constantly have one hand higher or lower than the other? Is your body saying “go” and your brain saying “whoa”?  Is your body straight or do you have a slight twist near the core?  Do you grip with your toes?  Do you carry tension in your shoulders?  Are you behind or ahead of the horse’s motion?  Do you sit on both seat bones equally?  These are all questions that Amerika can help you answer.

She can help bring to light what you are actually physically doing while in the saddle (not what you think you are doing) and give you the  practice time (over and over) that you need in order to help correct your muscle memory.   What live horse has the patience and body resilience to offer us that for forty minutes straight?

Amerika can help to teach you the balancing act between the aids, as well as proper body position and alignment.  She encourages you to have light and even aids, with seat, leg and rein contact sensors.  Her sensors help teach you the lightest of aids.  The spooky thing is as you get better riding her, she demands more of you and helps you become even lighter and more consistent.

Amerika is an amazing tool for those of us wishing to progress in our riding, coming back from an injury or rehab, or just beginning riding.  She can be the bridge to continued learning if your horse is out of commission.  Upper level riders often used her for their personal warm ups before mounting their horses to begin warming them up at the show.

An equine simulator can be helpful in a variety of ways.  Your instructor, either Beth or Jessica is very close by giving you verbal feedback on what they are observing.  The video monitor is showing you the side view so that you can observe your posture and make subtle changes.  The gaits, walk, trot and canter offer two speeds and if necessary some of the sensors can be turned off or manually controlled. The sensors gather information from the seat, legs and rein contact.  Just like a live horse, you can half halt or halt, walk, trot; both sitting or rising and canter a nice slow collected canter or a working canter.  She basically has five speeds.

One of the lesser known benefits of riding Amerika, is she can be a bit of a physical therapy session.  You may notice you feel better after your ride.  Many riders reported feeling postural changes and suppleness in their joints.  Some expressed a feeling of letting go through the hip flexors.  Personally, this was a huge perk for me as it is a two hour drive each way to ride Amerika and on the return trip I felt much “taller” as well as more muscularly relaxed during the car ride home.  The drive also allowed me the time to mentally plan how to integrate what I had learned from Amerika into my own riding program.

Amerika currently resides at Devonwood Equestrian Center, in Sherwood Oregon with her newest owner Jessica Rattner.  Like a live horse of similar size, Amerika does have a weight limit of 240 lbs.

Jessica, Beth and Amerika are available for lessons, and ready to help you discover more about your riding.   Check out Ride Amerika on Facebook.  To book a lesson you can contact Jessica at 503-625-8831 or Beth at 503-858-7019.