I often ask my students, "what keeps you on your horse?" answers include stirrups, the saddle, the horn, and even the reins (yikes!). Seldom do I get the correct answer on the first try: balance. This is the one thing that allows us to remain on top when things get exciting.
You work hard to help your horse become balanced. However, before you're able to successfully balance your horse, you must be able to properly balance yourself. Luckily, your horse constantly readjusts his own balance to keep you afloat. By correcting yourself, you'll help preserve his body as well as your own.
Young riders seem to have a natural ability to quickly accomplish proper balance on the horse. They haven't had years of practice at imbalance. We adults usually end up holding our bodies in anything but a balanced position. For us, body carriage is often created by mental, physical, or emotional stress; injuries; health issues; fear; or just plain poor posture.
Our jobs and/or the way we spend the majority of our time are major culprits in creating our difficulties. We tend to overuse some muscles and not use others effectively.
To achieve proper balance, first recognize what it means to be balanced. You need to know how to lengthen your spine, create a balanced support system, and strengthen the muscles responsible for holding you erect.
Balancing Act
- If we can fix our own balance issues, we will have already corrected problems with our horses.
- Imagine yourself as a tree when you sit on your horse, with grounded roots, a balanced center, and branches and leaves to grow tall.
- By inhaling and exhaling purposefully, you can realign and settle your seat.
Then you need to understand and accept that balance comes and goes. It isn't something that you achieve and then get to keep forever. Rather, you'll struggle to become balanced, lose balance, then achieve it once again.
The better you know your body and practice proper posture, the longer you'll maintain balance and the quicker you'll regain it when it's lost. You can make huge improvements just by being mindful about the way your body feels.
On the following pages, I'll give you exercises to help you find your balance and make achieving greater harmony with your horse a little easier. Trust me, he'll love it too!
The 75/25 Rule
In Part I in the June 2008 issue of Perfect Horse, I introduced the 75/25 rule. You'll remember that this rule comes from the words of Sally Swift (founder of Centered Riding™): "We must put 75% of our energy on ourselves and only give the horse 25%." This one statement has had a most profound effect on my riding and my work with horses. Simply put, if we fix ourselves, we most assuredly will have fixed the horse.
This concept is based on the fact that the horse is born with the ability to do almost all of what we ask of him. So, riding well really comes down to our ability to clearly communicate our desires, to use clear intent, and then to stay out of the horse's way and let him do his job.
You must be mindful of communicating with your horse primarily through your body and body language. And you must do this in a way that he can understand. Your mental, physical, and emotional states will play a key role in your success. The 75/25 rule gives you a tool to use as a means to check in with yourself before you start interacting with your horse.
