Here I am getting into the guts of the classical dressage seat.

I sat it well for sixteen strides.

My 10-year-old camera girl bugged out on me. Poor kiddo was freezing, even in all those layers and wool socks with the little ballet shoes, and sought refuge in the heated restroom of the fancy hunter/jumper barn where we practice during my turns on board Shakespeare. But even during the brief period of this vid, I learned so much.

In this segment, we are working on relaxing the hips, letting them hinge. In this order--engaging the kegel muscles, the abs (holding them in a relaxed way), and the ribcage (zipping it up, wrapping it). Becoming consistent in my position. Confirming it in my body. Imprinting it memory-wise in my muscles so that the correct position is a place to go back to. During the trot, you feel it. You feel it. You get away from it. You go back to it. How do you do that? By putting all of the building blocks back into place.

Later our vaulting instructor Marcy had me sing while sitting the trot after I felt I was in the right position. I sang the first thing I could remember--Out of my Dreams from the Broadway musical Oklahoma. We didn't catch that because of the poor freezing camergirl. But I did manage to catch her practice session. (See it next.) It was incredible how my seat improved while singing. And how J.'s improved as well.

We both became, for a flicker of a moment, one with the horse.