Want to Extend a Connected Trot?

I find it fascinating that even with the most accomplished riders that after about 15 min (sometimes much less time) of the sitting trot their body has tightened against the movement of the gait. When this happens the rider absorbs less of the power of the trot into the body. This causes more imbalances that the rider must further brace against to manage. Returning to the walk or the rising trot has little effect on relieving the body of this tension.

It seems the most effective way to release and recover from this tightened state in the seat is to get off the horse and do 2 simple stretches:

Kiss the Toes

Place Palms on Feet

You will be amazed at the results when you are back in the saddle!

Walking Backwards--What Happens in Your Brain!

Here's a response to a question about the benefits of walking backwards from Lynda.

Hi Lynda,
Walking backwards has very strong and positive effects on the brain. It expands your awareness, something I'm not sure we could measure even if we had a neuro research lab. Having said that, this is what I think, as we walk backwards we are reversing the order in which the muscles are being used and this has a powerful effect on the wiring and firing of electrical impulses in the brain via the nervous system. I also know that the neuro pathways involved in walking are some of the earliest and deeply established wiring paths. Just ask anyone over 3 years old if they have to think about walking? Nope, they just do it. Walking backwards does not use the same ingrained paths in your brain, it develops new ones. It's not that big a deal over all because it happens all the time in the brain. What is fascinating is that the new paths are created by the new movement in the body. Again no big deal except that the vision is not directly involved because we don't look back to see where we are stepping. This increases our need to use other senses. If you look at it from another angle, say the energy/chi angle, every time your foot hits the ground, toes first it opens the yuen cheun ( kidney channel) it then bares the weight of the body which in turn pushes earth chi into the meridian with every step that's cool! Because you can't or won't lean back when walking backwards your bones take on more force from gravity. This greatly increases the electrical activity in the entire bone structure, it's way better than milk for your bone health. This increased electrical activity heads straight for the brain and helps create more and new stimulation for the wiring. All of this could be easily tested if we had the equipment, and feeling better and more alive after walking backwards is all the proof I need. I hope that I have answered your question. Thanks Lynda see ya soon.
James

Sitting Trot

One of the major issues I observe in riders at the sitting trot is the ability to maintain the connection of the sit bones through the entire cycle of the gait. When we loose the rhythm of the cycle of movement the body has to tighten to hold on and in a preparatory reaction to the possibility of hitting the ground. This happens whether we are asking for it or not. The movement in the rider's body looks more like a rising or posting trot than it does the sitting trot.

The movement of the body at the sitting trot should be exactly like it is at the walk. The only difference being the power and the speed in which the body is moving with the horse. The movement of the pelvis, femur bones and lower lumbar mirror that of the rider walking effectively on the ground.

Thanks Florida - What a Great First Clinic!

I'm back home in sunny Arizona after a fantastic 4 days of clinic and lessons in Ocala Florida. The participants were great and Christine did a wonderful job of organizing and hosting the clinic. From the accommodations to the open minded enthusiasm of everyone, I felt right at home and welcome from the start.

We worked on becoming more aware of our breath and the many and various applications it has to riding. Along with the breath we began the process in which we receive and redirect the power of the horse through our bodies. These techniques result in nearly effortless connection with the horse.

Thanks also to Aimee - a gifted instructor and rider. It was her forward thinking that made the whole clinic possible.

I can't wait to work with this group again!

James

Don't Change Direction by Rosie McCall

Bustle wobbled up the straight line across the arena, trying bravely to compensate for the blobby torso sitting on her back.
‘Don’t change direction’ she mutters to herself, giving a snort of impatience and stretching her head down to relieve the tension in her back. ‘I’ll give her don’t change direction’ and does a little jinks to the right.
‘It would help if the human learnt how to stand properly before she sat on my back’, the aggrieved mare thought to herself. ‘I can walk in a straight line but I bet she can’t’, she continued to ruminate to herself.
The blobby human vainly strived to sit in the saddle using her sit bones and keeping her pesky hips in place following the detailed instructions been given from the ground. The perfectly balanced male in the middle of the arena, looking cool and relaxed, sighed to himself and decided a little more ground work might help the blobby human.
Now then, weight on the balls of your feet, hips slightly back, ankles slightly bent, and breathe letting gravity do the work and not the muscles. Sounded easy but years of misspent standing, hip shot, leaning backwards was not to be forgotten in one lesson. How can a body sit properly in the saddle if they cannot stand properly on the ground? The importance of how the human controlled its balance and weight was emphasized. Every in balance in the human is felt by the horse. Poor horse having to spend years trying to compensate for the unbalanced human on its back.
Bustle walked calmly across the arena demonstrating a perfect straight line without this wobbly, blobby person on her back. So humiliating for the human.
Dismayed, Bustle was asked to allow the human on her back for another go. Sit bones realigned, breathing deeply into the stomach – or the posh name Dian Tian, reins loose on the neck the human was asked to smile and think Bustle forward with intent and on an inhale of breathe.
‘Hey’ Bustle thought to herself ‘now that was easy, I can do that’. Off she moved in a straight line, then felt a wobble on her back so immediately tried to compensate with a back leg moving up and round under her. ‘Not my fault I am changing direction’ she muttered to herself. The Human aware on a deeper level of her weight and her sit bones, corrected herself and put a little more weight into the offending sit bone and Bustle straightened herself up.
Bustle and the human started to move in rhythm with each other, the human’s body mimicking the flow of motion from Bustle, feeling the power of the hind leg coming up under each sit bone and allowing the sit bone to move with the leg. Bustle walked a straight line up the centre of the arena.
Bustle and human moved out into the big wide world daring to aim across a wide and large stubble field. ‘Will she hold her direction’ the human thought to herself allowing Bustle the freedom to walk at a brisk pace.
‘Oh my god’ Bustle’s head shot up, ‘is that a deer I see in the hedgerow?’ ‘Better take evasive action, you never know with these deer’. Bustle started to move in a different direction, the human shifted the weight on her sit bones, turned her sternum to line back up the way they were going and Bustle settled back down to the original direction. The slow deep breathing and the following hips of the human, relaxing Bustle. They walked across the field at a steady pace, minute adjustments to direction and speed being communicated between horse and human with soft movements of bones and breath.
‘ok’ the human thought, ‘I will aim for a downward transition and a halt’. Not being able to look and think at the same time, she closed her eyes, breathed deeply let her sit bones sink into the saddle and exhaled to a halt. Bustle obligingly came to a stop, one front foot at a time, lining them up precisely. The human overjoyed at the success opened her eyes to be confronted by a large tree and some branches in her face! Oh well, she thought ‘I did not actually tell Bustle where to stop, but to stop so guess she picked the best place for her’. Bustle added a little snack to the days efforts.

……///
Riding a horse is an ongoing conversation between horse and human.
Before we are critical of a horse changing direction, we need to check that inadvertently we are not giving him indication to do so with our bodies.
Anybody who has seen a horse gallop freely across a field will know that a horse can hold a direction without any difficulty. It is when the human element is introduced that the horse struggles to understand the conflicting messages received from hand, leg and body. The right hand says go right, the left leg pushes out, the body leans back and out, now what is the horse to make of that?

Moving Your Pelvis 3 Directions While Riding?

I was reading Anatomy Trains again and, as always, inspired by the author’s insight and guts to say it how he sees it. It got me thinking about the 3 movements of the pelvis while walking. Walking is something that I have spent 1000's of hours doing and looking at in the last 10 years. Wu Style Tai Chi and my most amazing teacher Wen Mei Yu first presented me with the notion that maybe I don't really know how to walk.
Not know how to walk? I’ve been walking for decades! What was she talking about?

What she taught me was that the pelvis can move in 3 directions while walking most of us only allow ours to move in one maybe 2 directions? Picture her (a small Chinese woman in her 70’s) showing me a (man in my 30’s) to follow the expanded pelvic movement. Learning to allow my pelvis to move in this way while walking made a tremendous difference in my range of motion.

This is true for in the saddle as well as on the ground. The 3 directions of movement relate to the 3 bone structure of your seat, the femur bones the pelvis and the lower lumbar. Any restriction in one of these parts inhibits the others and equally any over use of one area causes the restriction of the others. For instance movement one in the saddle, the power of the horse should raise and drop your seat bones in a forward inclination. In the second movement the power of the horse should also pivot your pelvis from the center, (just in front of the sacrum/lumbar area) to the left/center/right. And third, the same power flowing up through the sacrum/lumbar area allows the pelvis to move balanced between the ball and socket joints of the hips, forward and backward with out ever losing the contact of the seat bones. I ‘see’ these movements in 3 dimensions as if I was inside the bowl of the pelvis( your center) looking out in all directions, from that from that reference point the 3 movements combine as one, creating a gyroscope effect in the center of the body.

These 3 movements when balanced receive and redirect the power of the horse entering into the skeletal structure of the rider. They are the foundation of all balance, timing and sensitivity. By the way Balance, Timing and Feel cannot be separated out. They are one, they stream from the same source and that source is your center--your seat.
James

Dr. Dolittle and Chief Dan George Got It Right!

I was looking through Tony Stromberg's beautiful book "Spirit Horses" again the other day and read a quote from Chief Dan George:

"If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other.

If you do not talk to them you will not know them and what you do not know, you will fear.

What one fears, one destroys."

I have talked before about the stressful impact fear has on our bodies and our connection to our horses. I've seen horses risk their own health to support our bad habits that we developed to keep us from falling. I know that if we talk to our horses and then listen to their responses (relaxed neck, fluid movement, etc.) we can do what is not only healthy for us, but healthy for them. When we learn to be balanced we don't fear being on our horse, we don't let fear destroy either of us.

James