While the clinic has been over for more than 24 hours, this is the first chance I've had to reflect on the entire experience. I can honestly say that meeting Dawn Ruthven and participating in a clinic with her as the instructor has been one of the best experiences in the 20 years I've been with horses.
By the second day, there were several concepts that had made their way into my brain, destined to stay forever. Remember to BREATHE, is the first and foremost. It seems that when you try too hard, straining not only your muscles and joints, but your emotional sensability, you take very short shallow breaths, making it more difficult to move fluidly on the back of a horse.
Next in importance was the correct alignment of the ELBOWS. Dawn's favorite imagery to remind us to keep the point of the elbow down was to picture them as "post hole diggers" that must be positioned straight down in order to create a "buttress" against which the horse cannot pull, but is allowed to lean , while we are NOT allowed to pull back. With the elbows in place, the hands will not have to grab and hold tight, instead they are expected to gently hold the reins, with each finger able to make the slightest, softest connection through to the horse's mouth.
So much of my struggle for the third day of the clinic was associated with the other activity in my life with horses-barefoot trimming. Unfortunately, I tend to use the right side of my body excessively when I am trimming and I've learned that the muscles and tendons I use are being excessively flexed and tightened without the opposite stretch and extension that is necessary to keep the body in balance and avoid damage to the muscles. As I began to ride a day after trimming my own horse, I could feel immediately that my right side was shorter than the left and that the more I tried to balance myself, the more I became intensely focused on just one part of my body instead of being able to breathe, center and ground myself.
That is when the important aspect of body awareness was introduced to us through another instructor at the clinic who is a Feldenkrais practitioner. The method is designed to encourage a person "to experience how the whole body cooperates in any motion. In this way, people can learn new patterns of movement specifically designed to expand body awareness and to enhance the neuromuscular self-image through more efficient and comfortable movement."
The demonstration we were given was specific to the pelvis and clearly identified my own personal limitations of movement based on the shortening of my right lumbosacral muscles and tendons. It was tremendously revealing and expanded the understanding of body awareness as it applies to all aspects of our lives, not just our physical activities. This was another wonderful moment of self revelation and it will make all the difference in my riding as well as my daily activities in and out of the barn.
The second part of the clinic is in just 6 short weeks, giving us all time to absorb and digest all of the information we were given and to share it with our students. I hope I am up to the task. I know that no matter what the outcome of the remainder of the clinic, I have already gained so much information that will dramatically improve my own horsemanship and that I hope to share with all of my future students.
I hope that the CENTERED RIDING concepts will continue to spread throughout the horse world and that amazing educators like Dawn Ruthven will be able to continue sharing the vision of the great Sally Swift (Dawn's 84th birthday is next week and she shows no sign of slowing down). If you want to find out more, go to http://www.centeredriding.org/
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