Holistic Horsemanship Teaches a Simpler & More Natural Way to Ride in Harmony with Horses
I’ve been teaching riding, Riding as One™, for decades and the secret to it’s amazing success for both riders and horses begins with learning to ride from the ground.
Learning to ride on the ground first is much easier, and safer, than you think for both you and your horse.
For one, you’re not trying to ride a horse that isn’t balanced and doesn’t feel safe. Horses need to be balanced to feel safe moving, it’s instinctual. That’s why so many horses rush forward, hang onto our contact, or worse, panic when we ask them for bigger, faster movement under saddle and when lunging.
They aren’t ready. They aren’t emotionally or physically prepared.
So, let’s stop this insanity and with it we will stop the accidents, the fear, and the forceful gadgets we are told will make our horses safer.
To ride effortlessly, balanced and in harmony with horses, we first need to connect to our bodies.
How many times have you heard your riding instructor say “Don’t forget to breathe?”
Riding in true harmony with our horse begins with feel, connecting to what we feel in our bodies. Breathing is a great place to start!
We can also achieve this level of connection to our bodies when we embody energy, rhythm, and movement.
This means we connect to how the movement feels in our body.
This is called somatic experience. Somatics is a field within bodywork and movement studies which emphasizes internal physical perception and experience. This is also how we heal trauma – naturally.
While biomechanics, the science of movement, is important to rider biomechanics, it’s the way in which we are teaching science to riders that hurts the rider, and horse, more than it helps.
95% of what’s being taught in riding schools is doing a great disservice to riders and their horses.
Here’s why.
When we focus on mechanics only, we get disconnected from our body, thus we lose our feel. And, without the feel, movement cannot be fluid.
Being fluid is what allows the flow of energy within our body. We all know what it feels like to have tension in our body, and we all know what it feels like to ride a tense horse.
Our goal is to allow (and feel) the flow of energy in movement. Energy flow creates fluid movement and tense energy creates tense, stuck movement.
This is why most riders get stuck.
Instead of feeling the movement, you are being taught to focus on the mechanics.
Riding horses is an art. “The art of developing and coordinating the horse’s physique optimally for the athletic demand of the performance.” Science of Motion
This means we prepare the horse first and before we ride the movement. The great masters of classical dressage understood this, and this is why their horses were sound in mind, body, and spirit.
For riders to learn how to ride effortlessly, balanced and harmoniously with their horses, they need to develop their horse’s balance and self-carriage first, and before they ride the movement they are developing.
This is why so many riders are having a hard time finding their balance, let alone feeling harmonious with their horse’s movement. They are being taught to focus on the wrong things first, such as riding an unbalanced horse and rider mechanics.
In my holistic horsemanship training, I teach my students how to develop their horse’s movement first and before they ride the movement.
This is everything and where we must begin before we torture ourselves and our horses.
I am an excellent rider. If you’ve never seen me ride, please check out my YouTube channel. I have hundreds of riding videos, bitless and in a professional bareback pad.
I’m a good rider because I’ve developed the horse’s movement, so it’s balanced and collected first. I then take my time to slowly, carefully, safely learn to ride that horse’s movement.
This is how we create real connection, harmonious partnerships and safe riding with our horses.
The reality for us all is we can’t ride a trot, or a canter, and in a bareback pad, if our horses are tight, bracing and hollowed out.
No one can, and no one should and that’s my point.
That’s the reality for 95% of riders, riding instructors and trainers. Most are focusing on the wrong area, you, when they should be focusing on the horse’s movement first and before you learn how to ride the movement.
Now we are talking about lunging, the art of lunging.
My Art of Lunging is Pilates for both horses and humans. It’s just as much about developing your horse and from the inside out, and as a professional athlete, as it is about developing you as a proficient and confident rider.
My art of lunging is designed to do many things simultaneously and for both horse and rider.
While you learn how to develop your horse’s movement, you learn how to embody energy and rhythm so you can train your body to ride it. In addition, you are developing a deeper feel and timing of your aids, connection, energy alignment, communication, and regulation – regulation of the nervous system.
This means we are not lunging horses to physically exhaust them, nor are we lunging in mindless circles and repetition. Rather it is about the subtle nuances of developing correct biomechanics, aligning energies, and connecting to our bodies (both horse and human).
My Art of Lunging is designed to develop true self-carriage in any horse, gaited too.
True self-carriage means a horse is carrying itself without a bit, without you constantly bumping their sides, and without being held in a frame. When developing true carriage, the goal is to develop the horse without the rider, freely and slowly, so when you do ride, there is little to no contact around the face, and that's because the horse is carrying itself.
The truth is we don’t need contact if our horse is in true collection. In the end, the bit's purpose in classical dressage is to help re-balance the horse, not control it or contain it.
A great example of a horse in true self-carriage is a playful, exuberant horse moving around freely on its own. These horses are at the highest level of athleticism, achieving a level of graceful movement all on their own.
Unfortunately, we see the power and grace and think the horse can do this easily, and anytime we ask. But reality and science prove this wrong. Like any professional athlete, horses need proper and correct preparation to sustain those levels of athleticism. When they are dancing around on their own, it's for mere seconds, not hours, and not every day.
For a horse to sustain hourly and daily riding at any level, it must be balanced and in shape. And for the movement to be rideable, it needs to be collected so it's smooth and balanced.
Real collection (not forced collection), is about power (energy) coming from the hind end, and moving through the horses body and to the front (this is called throughness).
A collected horse can lift into each movement. This means it no longer pulls, rushes, or drags itself forward into movement.
We’ve now identified the number one issue for riders who cannot ride balanced and in harmony with their horses: their horse’s movement is not balanced or in true self-carriage.
Developing your horse’s movement is easier than you think!
It takes two weeks to develop a new habit, thirty days to build the mental and physical pattern recognition needed for the new habit to become second nature, and ninety days to reach you and your horse’s potential – a balanced and harmonious horse and rider.
Our horses deserve the time it takes for us to develop the level of balance and self-carriage they need to take care of us.
We cannot learn to balance ourselves when we ride if our horse is not balanced first. By developing horses so they are emotionally, physically, and mentally sound and balanced for riding, we not only honor our horses but also make riding safe and enjoyable for both.
Horses are smart and hardwired to seek and maintain balance. Once they are balanced, they always maintain that level of emotional and physical balance—unless they are hurt or traumatized.
This is why it is so important to develop horses correctly and on the ground first. By doing so, we create not only a balanced horse but also a connected, harmonious, and safe partnership with horses.
In just three months you can develop the level of balance and self-carriage in your horse needed for you to become a confident, balanced, and harmonious rider.
My Mastery Riding Foundation Program will show you how!
Remember, the two most important secrets to effortless, balanced riding are developing your horse’s movement before you ride it and learning to embody the movement from the ground (lunging).
If you are ready to start developing your horse holistically, from the inside out, ground to riding, rehab to recovery, beginner to pro, please click here: https://www.taoofhorsemanship.com/horse-riding-holistic-program.
Want to try the Holistic Horsemanship Mini-Series? Regularly $179.99, you can try this series for just $29.99 for a limited time! It's a great way to get an introduction to holistic horsemanship and how my programs work! Please click here for details:
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