Monday, February 7, 2011

Working From the Center

Most people reading this know a few things about the action of the leg. To most it means go forward or go sideways. It would be fine if this was all we needed it to mean. But what if I told you that the rider's legs can tell a horse to move his legs visually in one way but inside he can be using his muscles in 100's of different combinations. In other words a simple collected trot can have any number of combinations of muscle usage and still look the same! The research and exploration in biomechanics of trainer Jean Luc Cornille elaborates on this fact and calls us to use care with what we ask, how we ask it and when we ask it.
You don't need sophisticated understanding to figure out the what, how and when. Equitation researcher Christine Sander is in the process of translating into English her sensitive approach to starting(and re-starting) a horse. I found this approach quite meaningful, mainly because of its simplicity and consideration of the horse on a level more in tune with the orchestration of motion as the horse sees it. And it is congruent with Jean Luc's work and demonstrates an important idea. That is if we work from the center, the parts that follow it will find the right combinations of muscle usage with the least chance of getting it wrong. And by that I mean that the horse, being so willing, is often so ready to answer that he hurries to do so and the configuration in which he answers is not always healthy for him. But he does it to please!
Eventually we are so lost in a mire of tensions and misunderstandings that we cannot find our way out of it! A simple request of the rider that SHOULD produce a simple clean answer very often does not produce anything. Why? Because it did not originate from the center! Example: The sensitive horse that lost his sensitivity...shut down. This can be avoided if we ask consistently from the center.
What is the center I am talking about? I see it as a spiritual place. The horse has one and the man does as well. Combining these centers is a first step. How to do this?
The center is our place of identity...like our heart. If we work from the outside we see identity as flawed---we see all the imperfections. But if we view our work from the inside(the center) we will see that God has not created imperfection.
Today, instead of looking to the outer horse, search to the inner horse, the perfect horse. Go to that place in quietude and ask, quietly, from there. Whatever the answer, know it is the perfect answer! Maybe not the answer we want or expect but it is perfect. Let it suffice. Now change the question---change the direction, change the intensity---even wait with no questions. You will soon be amazed. What you will find is that on the inside of the still horse is a lot of motion! The frenzied horse has chaotic internal motion. It is useful if we claim our right to restore order. We do not do this by imposing order from the outside but more from suggesting on the outside and waiting upon the horse, with the horse, from the inside....and go on with him when he answers.
If we are sensitive and open to the horse's way from the inside we get a clearer sense of how to sit with better poise to help the horse do his job. We hold our reins more delicately and touch with our legs more gently. We turn with the motion from this center and we find the tone we need, the breath, the beat. And we dance in heavenly romance. Riding should be deeply romantic. We should fall into it and get lost there...in the center.

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