Energy: What is it? What does it feel like?

There are many definitions for this word 'energy', depending on the context in which it is used. In teaching riding it is when I try to describe 'energy' that I seem less able to! And yet, it is in the attempt to describe it that I learn more about what it is! You see, if we learn something through study, we know about it only in part. But if what we learn we can put into practice, then it is of great value. Practice though, remember, does not make perfect! Only 'perfect practice' makes perfect! What then is perfect practice? Ah, we might think it is the result of repeating something over and over again in a certain perfect way....repetition. This, despite what some believe, is not perfect practice!
The problem with practice is failure. We only know about failure when the effort is over with...when it is too late. Some psychologists think failure exists in the mind and that we need to 'think' success only. Failure is in the past. Thinking failure is thinking in the past and is not of much use.
So then perfect practice is practice that can be put into a specific situation in a specific cicumstance in a specific timing. In other words, it is something that is multi-dimensional in its effect and its usage. If this seems way over your head---wait---there is hope! To do this seemingly impossible thing we need a tool that can penetrate into other dimensions. When we can do this our efforts grow closer to being foolproof---without failure---hence, perfect. This tool is 'energy' or 'chi'.
Energy can be thought of as the life that makes blood flow. Some think it IS blood flow or a chemical process which makes it flow. It might be thought of as simply flow or flow of sparks or electricity or a river of eternal understanding trickling through us. We might explain it as a bubbling up or popping forth like popcorn popping up into a foil container over heat. It might be construed as a heat or a flame, a dragon breath from the belly(as one student called it), a hot breeze or hot blast from an open oven door. I've heard students call it an explosion or a thrust of darts or arrows or a toss of a ball or a moving ball or dot even! It might be felt as a buzz, a hum, a sizzle, a tingle, a champagne buzz, a high.
When energy(chi) is on the move in your body you feel alive, flowing, glowing, poised, at peace, easy, natural, alert, acutely sensitive and able to move with greater precision and finesse.
The horse experiences this as well! Just imagine this! When we feel it and the horse does too the possibilities for success after success after success are hard to fathom. It is as though we are working with something that defies gravity and the laws of nature which we sometimes feel so limited by....defying the things that make for failure. I think the truth might be that energy encompasses the laws of nature that make this work....that make for success....and is something we cannot see and can easily miss.
A simple touch of leg or rein carries this invisible thing called chi which is incredibly powerful and meaningful. It makes us realize that massage is more than enjoyable touch and manipulation. It takes something deep into our tissues. Riding can be this way too when it goes beyond the mechanics of force and pressure. Riding then becomes truly therapeutic for the horse.
To work with energy is to learn what it feels like, listen to it, and look for it everywhere we can. It exists within every effort. It can be plucked up from the earth or drawn down from the heavens. It can be latent, moving, quiet, here, there, in the future, past or present. It can be harnessed, compacted, manipulated, magnified, pushed, pulled(or drawn), tossed, flung, pressed, lifted, projected. It can go around corners or wait in the mind. It is what can make feet move in a way invisible to the naked eye. It is the quintessential tool of great riding!!!
There now, without successfully defining energy, I have succeeded in creating the interest in seeking it out. When we seek, truly seek, we find! "Seek and ye shall find," the Bible tells us and it is so.
Students sometimes ask me how long it takes to learn this feel. I say an instant, a day, a year, a lifetime. Experience does help but it is not essential. Experience makes us shed failures and go where they are not. This seeking finds us what we are after. But I have seen a young child find and feel this energy ever so quickly and apply it to her pony in a way that would take your breath away!
All it takes is the willingness to take what we CAN feel, what we CAN do and measure it to the horse and not to a judge in a judge's booth, not to the mirror on the wall, not to what our friends say, but simply, to the horse. The horse will tell you when you have found what is right. When we think we are right, we must always check with the horse. If he says "no", you can bet you got something wrong.