Arrant is how Zissou just described this blog in an email. I'm not sure why he chose now of all times to read my blog for the first time. The invention of shark pants is not my finest hour.
My bottom is still sore. Yesterday I went for a longish walk to stretch out the muscles but I kept nearly crashing into people on Enmore Rd. This got me wondering about how humans steer. Grizelda and I had a go at walking then turning in the kitchen. Grizelda concluded that humans steer with their feet however I concluded that humans steer with their hips. I tried getting grizelda to put her hands on her hips and feel for movement when she decided to change direction, she still disagrees.
This whole human steering business has me once again remembering the horse. Whenever I was riding a good horse the signals for steering and change of speed, pace or impulsion are very subtle. For example a slight bracing of abdominal and lower back muscles can either shorten stride length and increase impulsion or transition down to a slower gait such as from canter to trot, trot to walk or walk to halt depending the emphasis used. Once I rode borrowed a friend's horse for a pony club exam, this was a mistake as her horse was used to camp drafting and barrel racing whereas my horse was more of a dressage horse. Whilst demonstrating that I could adequately control a horse at full gallop I sat up quite tall, braced my abdomen and lower back and slightly stiffened my elbows. This would have caused my horse to slow nicely into a very rounded canter, my friend's horse slid to a sudden motionless halt. The result was amnesia and yet another set of x-rays.
Pondering boringly about horses does not solve my problem. How do humans steer?
My bottom is still sore. Yesterday I went for a longish walk to stretch out the muscles but I kept nearly crashing into people on Enmore Rd. This got me wondering about how humans steer. Grizelda and I had a go at walking then turning in the kitchen. Grizelda concluded that humans steer with their feet however I concluded that humans steer with their hips. I tried getting grizelda to put her hands on her hips and feel for movement when she decided to change direction, she still disagrees.
This whole human steering business has me once again remembering the horse. Whenever I was riding a good horse the signals for steering and change of speed, pace or impulsion are very subtle. For example a slight bracing of abdominal and lower back muscles can either shorten stride length and increase impulsion or transition down to a slower gait such as from canter to trot, trot to walk or walk to halt depending the emphasis used. Once I rode borrowed a friend's horse for a pony club exam, this was a mistake as her horse was used to camp drafting and barrel racing whereas my horse was more of a dressage horse. Whilst demonstrating that I could adequately control a horse at full gallop I sat up quite tall, braced my abdomen and lower back and slightly stiffened my elbows. This would have caused my horse to slow nicely into a very rounded canter, my friend's horse slid to a sudden motionless halt. The result was amnesia and yet another set of x-rays.
Pondering boringly about horses does not solve my problem. How do humans steer?
Comments
I wasn't too far wrong, just a little south and out to the edges.