What a lovely variety of riding seat work work we had this morning! Paul with a posture “problem” that had been weighting the front end of his horse, who found a lovely posture in his walking as well as his riding (as he’ll find out when he takes that out to his horse). Susan’s experience was quite different. Her seat was still lovely and spongey 3 years after I first helped her find it (is it that long?), but she could feel tension in her body as she picked the reins up – which turned out to be her experience of Ignite’s tension. So Susan learned a way to help her horse find relaxation and confidence in the reins. I’m looking forward to hearing her feedback on how that goes! And last but not least, Oriana whose seat bones were uneven after her hip replacements and who found evenness again.
The last bit of the seminar was not as tidy as normal – I hurt my own back just before I came on air. Enjoy!
The Keys to Success
You may have noticed the pattern that was the key to all three people making profound and what will be permanent changes/progress:
- Getting Present to their bodies with breathing and expanding awareness into their whole body
- Noticing the tension or un-evennesses in their body – in Paul’s case me bringing that to his attention.
- NOT trying to fix it. Consciously fixing it means you’re stuck making those adjustments for a very long time, if not forever.
- Understanding the perfection, the rightness of the tensions in our body – knowing that these are just the brilliant way our bodies compensate for old tensions and injuries.
- Soft smiling eyes that are just …feeling…nto the rightness.
- In Susan’s case with Ignite, she was following the good feelings – her lovely spongey seat – and using the tension in her body as an opportunity for a conversation with Ignite.
- Using the amplified field to make breakthroughs that might have been more difficult alone.
- Walking the changes in afterwards, flexing the feet thoroughly, feeling into the earth with our feet.
And we’ll look forward to hearing about everyone’s experience when they take these breakthroughs out to their horse. As always, a big part of the conversation can happen in the forum afterwards. So please talk about your experiences with this lesson on the forum! Here’s the link.
Enjoy our Brags this month (that people sent into me!)
Anna Karin says:
I have a small brag. The old trotter Sogå doesn’t like when putting flyshield or salves on him. As soon as I walk into the pasture with something looking alike it he walks away, even if it is not for him. Some days ago I was working with him in the arena and there were some biting flies. Since he doesn’t like it but is a very obedient horse and stand still while holding him and doing things to him. I want him to not shut down when I have him on the lead.
So I got the idea that I should do some work with him and the jar. I reached out for the flysalve. I turned Sogå around and we took a walk with the jar. After some steps Sogå started to sniff the thing he was following and thought it was very interesting. After some walk we stopped and I asked S to come to me as I hold the jar. We took pauses when needed and he released some tension. I asked him to leave me and the jar and asked him to come back. He did that in a lovely way. And he had his brain with him.
In the end I could put some salve on him. Now I can walk in the pasture with a jar and he doesn’t walk away, but if I have a spray with me he moves off. Some more things to do that can help strengthen this lovely boy.
I am so happy and grateful for listening and follow my heart and my inner guide . When I do that the joy fills my heart and doing things together with the horses brings so much energy and good feelings. I just love it.
Now I can see the result of working in tiny steps, the steps sometimes are so tiny so it is hard to notice them. But suddenly you are there, at the goal, and it can be hard to look back at what I have done, because it has been a slowly and smooth way forward. I have not made any plans on how to do things, just followed what has been feeling good.
When I bought Jeremiha I couldn’t help him on his hind leg with his eczema. He threatened to kick out. Now I can haunch beside his leg and put the salve on feeling so safe. 🙏
Anneke says:
This beautiful portrait of Skjóni was made by Aad Hofmeester, husband of an old horse friend of mine.
I am so happy that he is presenting himself in the saddling enclosure nearly every time that I want to play with him.
We are progressing with the riding. We solved a problem that we had with making a balanced left turn, which really feels good.
The confidence is still something that is not self-evident and changes from day to day. I think I will have to accept that he is a very sensitive horse and that I will always be learning about that – it cannot be taken for granted. If I do, he will remind me to stay in the moment.
Looking forward to the seminar,
Love
Anneke
From Penny with Caramel who’s recovering from long term laminitis issues. Darn it the photos wouldn’t load to show you the changes in her lifting her withers and back!
Penny wrote: We go for a walk nearly every day now, sometimes just for about 20 mins, other times we are out for over an hour. We both ‘know’ what kind of a day it is going to be. Although at first we walked and trotted, more recently she wants to just walk, so we are doing that at the moment. It feels right so that I think is what is needed.
Caramel is a very willing pony and I have to be extra careful to encourage her to have a choice rather than just take the easy option for her- to trot when I ask her if she would like to. We are becoming even more in tune with each other already, and it is especially amusing when we both try to mirror at the same time.
These are the photos taken during our video session where her shoulders and withers lifted.