This is the first of the lessons to help you find the effortlessly powerful posture that is fundamental to brilliant riding.
I still remember where I was and what I was doing when Peggy Cummings first directed the different parts of my body into this position. I remember it because I was so astounded by the effortless strength of this position. That first taste of the strength of this position changed my life and opened a world of possibilities for me. I hope it does for you too.
FEEL, the supposedly elusive FEEL of the great horsemen and women of the world, becomes easily available when you add good posture to your unique way of feeling your inner guidance system. And when you practice the posture from this and upcoming lessons and add that to the habit of listening and taking action on Not Quite Rights – you and your horse will both be blown away at how good YOU can be – world class…
There are two reasons for this particular lesson:
1- When you are in this effortlessly powerful posture and in a Quiet Mind , you will increase the pleasure that your horse gets from being groomed and touched generally.
2- You will begin to develop the foundation of the posture that you will take through into an incredibly magnetised butt in the saddle.
You will learn the effortlessly powerful posture standing still so that you can use it to brush your horse, to touch them all over and increase the feeling of pleasure for them and for you in that experience.
For some people, effortlessly powerful posture will be easier to learn in the movement that I will bring to you in upcoming lessons. Any changes towards good posture now though will improve the quality of what your horse feels from you.
First watch this video and then do the lesson yourself using the audio below.
Video troubleshooting – click on watch on youtube.
Stand up for this lesson and practice right now or download it onto your MP3 player or phone and take it to your mirror for a different approach. There is a written version of the audio below.
Here’s an alternate recording OR download it by right clicking this link and save)
Success Tips
1. You will find that using your inner awareness or breathing in and out slowly, looking inside yourself and noticing how your body feels, will help you enormously in finding this posture.
2. For those of you who have very well toned core muscles from gym or pilates or a lot of riding, you are going to have to be specially careful not to engage your core muscles on purpose. This engagement of your core muscles is EFFORTLESS – it’s happens automatically when you are in the right posture.
3. Using my connection to you, just like you do with your horse, I am able to help people find this posture in one on ones. Take advantage of the priority you receive in a monthly seminar.
Written Version of the Audio
You’ve watched Sue do it, now here we go for YOUR part of the lesson. You could put this MP3 file on your player or your phone and do this in front of the mirror OR you could just stand up right now as you listen to the computer. Give it a go, stand up now…
What I want you to do is to feel your posture as it is now. Notice where the balance is over your feet – do you have more weight on your heels or on your toes?
Notice your knees – are they locked straight? Lock them straight on purpose – now loosen the knee joint a tiny bit.
Notice the angle of your pelvis, flex it up and down, roll it forward and back a few times like Sue did in the video.
Notice your back is it arched or slumped? Can you curve your back the opposite way to where it is now – just flex your spine slowly through a COMFORTABLE range of movement from curved forward to arched.
Notice your shoulders. See if you can lift your shoulders up and down – closer to your ears and further away from them.
Notice your shoulder blades – have a play with sliding them up and down your back a little.
Notice where your head is now. Stick your chin out. Stick it up a little. Pull your chin backwards towards your neck. Now allow it to come back to normal.
…Now go into your inner awareness that we‘ve been talking about in previous lessons or just breathe deeply and slowly in and out.
A guide to the posture that we are looking for is to think of all your bones elegantly balanced over the bowl of your pelvis. Give your pelvis a little wriggle right now – side to side – backwards and forwards and just take a moment to get a sense of all those spinal bones all the way to your head, balanced beautifully on top of that pelvic bowl.
Soften your back, slide your tail bone closer to the ground, which has your pelvis flex a little, still breathing in and out slowly, allow your shoulders to relax a little more and your shoulder blades to slide downwards a little if they can.
Simone has her hands in the crease that I am talking about
Now still breathing – in and out – with your palms upwards and your hands open, put the edge of your hands in the crease between your legs and your body.
And allow your upper body to fold forward a little from that crease. I have put an exaggerated photo of this in the written version of the audio so that you can see what I mean.
The huge exaggeration has Simone looking down too – we’d be softly looking straight ahead!
YOU aren’t going to exaggerate it though, because still breathing slowly, in and out, you are just going to float forward from your crease, probably with just a breath out ever so slowly, slower even than that…until you have floated forwards enough to feel your core muscles tighten up automatically.
Now straighten up, give your legs a little wriggle like you saw Sue do in the video and start again. Breathing slowly and evenly, check your tail bone – does it need to slide a little closer to the ground? Check your shoulders, can the back of your shoulder blades slide closer to the ground?
VERY slowly, float forwards with an out breath, folding over your crease a tiny little bit, ever so slowly … until you find that position where your core muscles tighten all by themselves – automatically.
Good job – Play with that. Still breathing in and out slowly, keeping your attention to how your body feels, explore and come in and out of that powerful posture. And know that HOLDING this posture, trying to HOLD it, is the fastest way to lose it.
Good posture is a constantly moving thing staying in the engaged core muscles. It’s not about how often you lose it – it’s about how fast you can get it back.
We will cover posture in a number of different circumstances through the course – walking up and down sloping ground – sitting in a chair as a simulation for the saddle – in the saddle itself – in movement on a horse. Each time we cover this posture, you will get better and better at it.
So for now, if the timing is right for your horse, go stroke your horse like you watched Sue in the video, in better posture now, turning and using your whole body smoothly in the stroke and both of you enjoy the improvement in the connection.