DefinitelyDressage.com

I love nuts. One of my favorite holiday memories as a child was when my mother bought mixed nuts in the shell and we would have them the entire holiday season. I was quite good at shelling nuts. In fact I spent a fair amount of time shelling pecans and walnuts for baking. I was good enough to mostly shell them into full halves withou broken pieces. Since my childhood I've frequently eaten nuts but rarely had to actually shell them. A few weeks ago I saw the mixed nuts in the shell in the produce section with the nut cracker conveniently next to it. On impulse I bought a couple of pounds and a nut cracker. Now several weeks later..I still love nuts but my hands ache and my old skill is definitely limited. Arthritis in the hands doesn't help either. My nut cracking has improved slightly but not much in the last few days. However I can tell it will improve if I'm willing to work through the aching hands.

This reminded me of reriders talking about coming back after years of not riding. I'm not a rerider. I learned to ride as an adult of 38 and struggled with tension, fear, and stiffness. My natural "feel" is limited. I had no body memory to fall back on and my progression was slow. I suspect that these patterns that we learn early in life probably have a major impact later in life as to how far and what quality of athletic movement we will actually achieve. It makes me wish we could get more children on horses, even if only briefly, so they could set some muscle patterns. So maybe sometime in the future if they get bitten by the horse bug at a time in their life when they can actually afford to indulge it they will have some muscle memory to fall back on. Just musing on a beautiful New Years Day! Sorry for all you cold people...its in the 70s F here today, although we could use some rain.

I am with you on the memories of nuts during the holiday season. My mom also bought mixed nuts in the shell.

The big thing that brings out an appreciation of body memory for me is playing the piano. I played piano for 10 years as a kid (from grade 1 to grade 11) and haven't practiced or played much since. But I can still sit down at mom's piano and play a few of my favourite pieces - Beethoven's Fur Elise among them. If I start thinking about it, I mess up, but if I just relax and let my hands do their thing they remember what to do.

Me too with the nuts in the shell, and absolutely about the muscle memory. When I get back on a horse, I'm probably operating at 75 - 80% of my past ability, with the exception of confidence and fitness. And boy, oh boy, is that confidence thing huge! I'm 60, and haven't ridden regularly since I was in my early 40's.

And do you know how hard it is for me say that I"m 60? Not out of ego, but because I'm really not sure when and how that happened. Okay, now let me tell you about my aches and pains!

We still often do the nuts in shell thing this time of year. Several years ago, my parents got us a neat nut cracker. It’s a little vice. I think it is specially for pecans, but walnuts and filberts work too. Most pecans can be cracked without broken pieces if your careful.I didnt get nuts in shells this year, but this thread is making me want to go get some!

As far as riding muscle memory, my body clearly remembers what to do, but there are so many other issues that arise in older age that it (my body) doesn’t always comply. This is off the topic a bit, but there was recently a great thread on COTH about older riders. Lots of good advice on how to keep going.

My mom also bought mixed nuts in the shell. I can still see the wooden howl of them.

My muscle memory is pretty good, and I'm always surprised when I am able to pull a 30 year old nugget of dressage instruction from my brain.

Srhorselady wrote:I still love nuts but my hands ache and my old skill is definitely limited.

Probably why I use a hammer and a pair of pliers.

I've noticed the same problem with squeezing the nipper handles, though. If I don't wear thick gloves, blood vessels in my fingers pop and then those fingers apparently don't have good circulation and freeze faster than the others. I'm thinking that it must be because the connective tissues in our hands gets thinner and weaker, because I never used to have that problem.

It makes me wish we could get more children on horses, even if only briefly, so they could set some muscle patterns.

My granddaughter never showed much interest in the horses, but then she met other little girls who were dying to ride and I think it sparked her interest, because last summer she asked me to teach her to ride. I can't really see her getting into horses the way I did because she doesn't seem to have that kind of an interest, but who ever knows which ones will stick with it?

I never cared whether my kids or grandkids got into horses because I saw too many mothers put their own riding aside when their kids started riding. But now that I'm fading out anyway, I'm hoping she does get into it, because I have a 13 year old who would make a good horse for her if she became a good enough rider.

M&M wrote:And do you know how hard it is for me say that I"m 60? Not out of ego, but because I'm really not sure when and how that happened. Okay, now let me tell you about my aches and pains!

My lack of drive has developed slowly enough that I've been able to see where I was headed, so was able to avoid going out and buying any more horses (just in case they might have been more suitable for me as I declined).

https://www.amazon.com/Mechanical-Crack ... B01M4R6V5G
Use this for cracking those nuts! (tidbit from down here in chilly GA, pecan country:)

I've been riding since a kid, have only taken a break for any length of time twice, once while I was pregnant (hurt to ride after 4 months) and once while we were building our house/farm (18 months off that time) So muscle memory is good, position is always a work in progress.

khall wrote:https://www.amazon.com/Mechanical-Cracker-Nutcracker-Sheller-Kitchen/dp/B01M4R6V5G?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-d-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B01M4R6V5G
Use this for cracking those nuts! (tidbit from down here in chilly GA, pecan country:)

.

That’s the one my parents gave us! It’s so much fun to use!