A Good Book on a Hot Day

Been working on my centered riding, mostly while reading Sally Swift's books. It's been so hot here (up to 108 two days ago), that the only thing we've been doing with horses is hosing them off twice a day.

I've had a chance to watch more from my library of videos as well and the title of one caught my eye: "Balanced Riding". Here was a chance to see how other clinicians approach the idea of balanced riding in their instruction. It gave me a chance to apply the "Four Basics: soft eyes, breathing, centering and building blocks as well as grounding and clear intent" in a real example of riding.

Teaching a rider how to find her balance point, the instruction proceded to ask the rider to move her horse to the left at a walk in a round pen, while the rider held on to a rope attached to a halter. Except, the horse kept moving to the right.

The rider was having difficulty keeping her right leg stretched to the stirrup (because she was using her stronger, contracted right leg to balance herself in the saddle)and it threw off her balance which then pulled her horse in the same direction (her body was not lined up as building blocks and her feet were not grounded evenly in the stirrups). The horse moved very slowly with hips that moved as restricted and tense as the rider who was instructed to secure her"butt"into the saddle by placing hands on the withers and push herself back(rider was no longer centered, using the less centered upper body to secure her seat). With shoulders rounded and arms stiff at the elbow and weight forward, staring down at the horse's head (hard eyes, instead of soft eyes which leads to restricted breathing) it was clear that their would be no feel of balance by the horse from the rider on his back.

There was no evidence of a following seat, as the rider's hips were tense and unmoving, not allowing the horse to move her when its hips moved (she was not giving clear intent to her horse as to which direction she was headed through soft eyes and awareness of her own body and was repeatedly instructed to use the rope to turn her horse-the rider was not turning from her center).

The lesson was intended to improve the rider's "core stability". But, how does one develop stability when their weight is not evenly distributed, relaxed and moving freely with the horse and she is breathing short, shallow breaths, with shoulders, ribs, pelvis and hips stiff and inflexible. The rider expressed frustration as she did not feel her balance was improving. How could it? In hopes of giving the rider a better idea of what was being asked, she was allowed to ride the horse with no contact, keeping her hands on the withers to push herself back to her balance point. Again, because she was tense and restricted in her body and off balance, the horse would not go forward unless the instructor moved a rope near its body to drive it forward. Fortunately, this was a quiet, low key Icelandic horse who naturally is not an excitable, forward going horse. I think the lesson would have gone much different with a more sensitive horse, but only in that the rider would have been focused on slowing and stopping the horse through a series of pulls on the rope or one rein stops, which would have further exaggerated the rider's loss of balance and upset the horse.

Overall, it was a great way for me to "develop my eye", a skill that we were encourage to work on by Dawn during the first session of the instructor's clinic. Unfortunately, it changed my opinion and confidence in the clinician, whose videos I usually find very helpful and instructive. I have gotten a lot of help from them in terms of their benefit to the horse. It's clear that many of the natural horsemanship clinicians may have it right when it comes to the horse, but they still have a long way to go when it comes to helping the rider. I recommend they get a copy of Sally Swift's book and spend a hot summer day inside with a cool drink and READ IT!