06/09/2024
I thought this may be interesting for our horseriding clients. Enjoy!
I’m afraid of heights. I forgot all about the feeling until I took my daughter for her birthday on one of those horrible zipline adventures- you know the kind where you’re walking a tight rope high above the ground, with a harness attached by some underpaid teenager disinterestedly watching moms like me dangle next to their giggling children, unaware of mortality and mortgages and cortisol and adrenaline and worry of who will make dinner if this zipline fails?
So I’m high above the ground, tip toeing carefully, and making short, minced steps. I’m leaning forward, rigid, and keeping my feet as close to the wire as I can with each step - not a whole lot of air between my foot and this wire, in case I need to destabilize or grab something.
Consider this feeling now, and picture your horse: stiff, resistant to moving forward, stumbling and tripping. Short, mincing steps, leaning over the forehand, and having to be constantly prodded to go forward.
Are they on a zipline high above a group of laughing children? No, but their nervous system is doing the same job - protecting them from falling down.
When there is concern for instability - or lack of balance- the body tends to pull tightly together and lean.
You couldn’t simply tell me on that zipline to stand up, have better posture, and move gracefully. I would have to find balance up there, and become assured of my safety. Then I would stand taller, move faster, and have more lift in my steps.
And so, when riding, it is essential to remember the nervous systems role in balance - it doesn’t care about grace, only survival.
Until we make movement safe to the horse, we are trapped in a cycle of perpetual internal bracing. Good riders can manipulate the outer shape of the horse, but the best riders take the internal systems and let those shape the outer body - so they are fluid, congruent, and graceful.
