I don't know if you're old enough to remember the days when in order to get all of the items on your grocery list, you had to go to at least 3, if not 4 different stores. There was the butcher shop, where you bought your meat, a bakery for your bread and donuts, a produce stand where you would buy your fruits and vegetables and if you needed anything for your medicine cabinet, you had to go to the "drugstore". It was time consuming, inconvenient and frustrating if you'd forget something and have to make another trip across town.
Well, now there's a simple solution for shopping-the superstore or supermarket! And just as remarkable, is a simple straightforward way to find your POWER SEAT when you ride. By engaging the supportive, powerful CORE muscles (no, I mean the REAL core muscles) of the psoas, located deep inside the body, you'll be able to sit deep in the saddle, wrap your legs snugly around your horse's barrel and keep your feet exactly where they need to be: grounded with equal weight in the stirrups. You will breathe softly and maintain your balance, and your joints will flex and absorb the motion of your horse.
Thanks to the brilliant, yet simple explanation by Karen Irland, Level 4 Centered Riding Instructor and the genius of Tom Nagel's simple book, "Zen and Horseback Riding", (see previous blog entry, "It's Like Breathing Out and Breathing In") riding is even more fun than I imagined. Although, I had read the book prior to attending a recent CR clinic with Karen, her explanation of how to put it into action made it come to life. Now I can't believe how easy it is, not only to use it in my own riding, but to teach it to others, in MINUTES! You don't have to constantly adjust your body as individual parts. You know, just as you fix one, you have to think through another method for adjusting the others. Not anymore....
The most dramatic thing for me was realizing just how much I tighten my abdominal muscles when I ride which immediately pulls you on to the front of your pelvis or pubic bone, instead of on your seat bones . This in turn, limits the movement of your hips, inhibits breathing, creates brace in your lower leg and removes your inner thigh contact. You must soften the abdominals, even if you have to poke yourself with your fingers and breathe through your mouth to encourage the relaxation. It took several attempts to really feel it and keep the softness. Once the abdominals are soft you'll begin to feel yourself sitting in the saddle with knees flexed and lower legs wrapped around your horse's barrel.
Now comes the real key to it all: engaging your psoas. This big muscle on both sides of your spine connects just below the last rib at your back and stretches deep in the pelvis or bowl in your lower body (your bladder is at the bottom of the bowl) and then connects at the top of the big leg bone, called the femur just where we feel our thighs . With your abdominal muscles "mushy" you can lengthen your spine and the stretch the psoas down easily (think of bringing your belly button back towards your spine-you'll initially feel like your slumping-this is your pelvis rocking as you put more contact on the mid portion or seat bones). This immediately tones the inner thigh muscles which creates improved contact with the horse. With the psoas engaged, you are now sitting on your seat bones, instead of pubic. And with your abdominal muscles relaxed, you are able to breathe better and move your hips easily. 
Karen was kind enough to remind me over and over, to soften my abdomen and engage my psoas. An additional benefit to allowing this to happen is that when the hips move easily, so do the feet. When you tighten and tip forward on your "pube" as she called it, you brace in the stirrups and bring your heels too far up or too far down, depending on which direction you tend to brace and with it, you lock your hips and knees. But, with the psoas engaged and joints all moving (hips, knees and ankles) it becomes very clear that these natural shock aborbers are more efficient.
The comfort we feel is reflected in our horses movement as well. Now you can feel the left and right, up and down movement of your horse's hips. Your lower legs, thighs toned and secure around your horse can make imperceptable movements to cue your horse and as you remain grounded in your stirrups, you can rise at the trot, allowing your knees, hips and ankles to absorb the motion. Transitions become a simple act of inhaling to warn your horse that something is about to happen and exhaling as you engage your psoas and complete the transition.
Soften abs, lengthen the spine, feel better contact with seat bones, tone the inner thighs for better contact, feel the freedom of movement of all the joints with feet grounded. You've achieved the POWER SEAT with just one simple act: engaging your psoas. It really is one stop shopping! Best of all, it's easy to share with my students and they can tell the difference immediately. Try it and ENJOY!
