The subtle art of ELASTIC RIDING

Two minds

Riding is about the meeting of two minds, yours and that of your horse; and of two muscular suits cladding two quite different skeletal structures.

You probably spend quite a lot of time schooling your horse, attending to his balance and co-ordination.

But what about you? What about your co-ordination? Is your postural support as good as it could be?

The way you use your whole body will influence (for good or ill) the way your horse uses his whole body.

The seat and riding posture

Most riders work on their seat and riding posture. But what you do on your horse is totally dominated by what you do off it. The way you support yourself to walk, talk, eat, dance or slob on the sofa all has one force to content with, and that is gravity. If your response to gravity is effortful and tense, then that is how you will ride.

Old habits

We are all slaves to our habits, and find it very hard to change things. Habits of postural misuse embed so strongly in our nervous systems that we don't realise we've got them.

The Alexander Technique helps us become more aware of our habits and teachers us to breath, co-ordinate our musculature and improve our postural support. It is taught on an individual basis as 'hands-on' work from the Alexander teacher is a vital part of re-educating you. It can be of enormous benefit to riders.

Carolyn Nicholls is a very experienced Alexander teacher trainer and rode passionately as a teenager and young woman, competing in dressage and cross country events. She offers one day workshops for riders to experience how the Alexander Technique can benefit them both on and off their horse.

Workshop details

10.30am - 11.30 Introduction and individual work from Carolyn and a senior colleague.

11.30 - 11.45 Tea break.

11.45 - 1.00pm Demonstration of 'saddle work'-not on your horse!

1.00 - 2.00pm Lunch.

2.00 - 4.30pm Carolyn will work with individuals and their horse, (30 mins), using Alexander awareness to improve the Use of both horse and rider. This is very gentle work that can have powerful results. Another Alexander teacher will give participants an individual Alexander lesson (30 minutes) and you will find you can learn an enormous amount by observing Carolyn working with other riders.

4-5 participants only.

Your Elastic Riding Workshop Alexander Lesson

As part of the workshop you will receive an individual Alexander Lesson with an experienced Alexander Teacher.

The Lesson The lesson lasts 30 mins and we will work with you lying on a special teaching table (provided by us), and with the movement from sitting in a chair to standing up. This might seem curious but it is a movement that demands great co-ordination of the muscles and reveals to an Alexander teacher what you are doing to achieve this co-ordination. Gentle Manual Guidance As Alexander teachers, we use our hands to bring about subtle changes in balance and muscular effort. Our hands offer you a different experience of your body. It is not manipulative and you don't need to undress. It's not a therapy it's a learning process. But its not book learning, it's both mind and body learning. With the help of an Alexander teacher you learn how to improve your breathing, balance, co-ordination and movement. You learn, not to relax, but much more effectively, you learn how to release tension and stimulate a lengthening of your musculature. This lets you move and go about your life freely and easily. It's a skill, which, like riding a bike or driving a car, initially seems to have too many things to co-ordinate! With practise, the Alexander Technique becomes part of your way of being and you wonder how you managed without it. It's not like a massage, the teacher's hands subtly promotes change both during the lesson, and lets you to continue to work with what was initiated in the lesson and integrate it into your life.

People find that lessons highlight their own role in the build up of tension.

Benefits include

•  Improved breathing and balance

•  Learning to move more freely

•  Increased awareness

•  Helps management of back pain and other muscular problems

•  Co-ordinate body and mind

•  Encounter a new way of thinking that can unlock your creative flow

Working with your horse

First and foremost I am not a riding instructor, I am an expert on Use-both in humans and other mammals. I have worked with riders and their horses over many years.

The lesson with your horse

During the lesson time, you are responsible for your horses behaviour. This workshop is looking at improving balance and co-ordination between two consenting creatures!

The lesson lasts 30 mins and you will gain the most from it if you and your horse are ready, calm and warm.

We will be working with the relationship between your body use (which includes the way you think) and the use of your horse.

We will be working to allow your natural postural reflexes to work effectively and to get you to allow your horse to do the same.

This means getting yourself organised so that there is a natural tendency for your body to 'flow' upwards. This makes you light and springy (whatever your physical weight) and gives you freedom of movement and balance.

Undoing the knots

When you and your horse are not working well together, or you want to get the best performance possible out of you and him, you need to be in total harmony and you need to be working in such a way that you allow your horse to move well.

If you are tense, with tight arms and a stiff back or neck then you will communicate this to the horse, who, if he is sensitive, will stiffen in response.

If you are lucky and you have an experienced well-trained horse, then he can teach you a thing or two.

Format

We will be looking at how you sit and respond to your horses breathing (or not), how you maintain your self in transition between gaits and generally how you maintain flexibility during movement.

The work is gentle and probably somewhat different from other work you have done. It is not about achievement, it is about looking at your activity and seeing if it can be changed and improved.

Most riders (and horses) find this way of working very releasing and exciting. When tension is removed then natural exuberance can emerge. When poise and spring are released you can make the most of your energies.

I look forward to working with you.

More information 01273 562595