Riding is a Two-Way Street By Joni Bentley
Advocates of traditional horsemanship focus on adjusting our outline into an accepted ideal. They teach that when we relax, we can easily fix our riding position and put our horse on the bit.
But is it really that easy?
Or does it take a deeper understanding of what’s going on under the skin, in our – and our horse’s – inner world?
These days, “biomechanics” seems to be the hot buzz-word. There’s lots of talk about the horse’s biomechanics, and some trainers are even exploring the rider’s.
This is great, but it misses a very key point.
Yes, it’s important to understand your horse’s biomechanics. Yes, it’s also important to understand your own.
But until you understand how your biomechanics interacts with and affects your horse’s biomechanics in motion – and vice versa – you’re missing the biggest piece of the puzzle.
So why is there such a big gap between what we feel and say we want, and what we’re actually doing?
All that hype and pressure affects our mind, body, emotions, and sense of inner balance. Our biggest challenge is to let go of this cultural trend and become natural again.
Our horses can help. They’re content with what’s right here, right now; they’re not in a constant search for more. And it’s only when you relax that you can meet your horse in his time zone - instead of pushing him to meet you in the madness.
The quickest and fastest way to switch off your mind is to get into your body and into your senses. In this space you become quiet and open enough to speak your horse’s language.
In this space, you can discover hidden depths in the unexplored territories waiting to reveal themselves to you.
It’s fresh and new and truly magical!
Let’s get physical.
Like many riders I talk with, you may worry about your crookedness and how it affects your horse. Like them, you might think that lessons on a horse simulator will help sort out your crookedness.
Working on a simulator is fine while you’re on the simulator. Unfortunately, it has no lasting effect when you get back onto your wonky horse.
Looking from the rear view
As a right hind driver, Annie drives sideways from her right hind into her left fore shoulder.
Right hind drivers are contracted (hollow) through the right side. It’s easy for Annie to swing her barrel of ribs to the left, but she resists swinging them to the right.
It’s just like you preferring to use your right hand to write or muck out.
As her right hind swings forwards and crosses towards her left fore shoulder, Christian has no support under his right side.
Completing the stride with the left hind coming forward, Annie swings her barrel to the right - and as you can see, it’s a very different story!
This is the apex of her swing to the right – it’s as far as she bends. In terms of straightness this picture looks better, but is it really?
In fact, if her rib cradle were flexible enough to swing equally to both sides, it would correct the over-swing to the left.
After just one day of Correction in Motion (tm) Training
Note: Christian has his right leg too far back because he sprained his ankle and is trying protect
After schooling Christian’s diagonal pathways dismounted, he’s now able (despite the ankle) to work on Annie’s diagonal pathways and help her re-align.
You can see for yourself that she’s swinging better. And you can see how straightening her laterally affects the length and strength of her top line.
With her barrel starting to swing more up to the right, her neck muscles, particularly over the crest, start to do their job of lifting the back and supporting the rider.
Horse and rider: crooked apart and crooked together
Your horse literally imprints his crookedness onto your body, affecting your alignment. Because your horse is big and heavy compared to you, he’s going to win the alignment battle!
And if all that isn't enough to get the old brain cells ticking, how about this?
You, my dear rider, have a wonky foundation.
Your horse has a wonky foundation.
And then what do we do?
We add a third layer of crookedness into the horse-and-rider partnership by going to a teacher who overlays their ideal picture-perfect image onto us!
The good news is that you can change this easily.
As I state in the title of this article, it’s a two-way street. And the only lasting way to solve the problem is to understand the biomechanics in motion.
“Biomechanics in motion” is a big name for something that’s really very simple: understanding how horse and rider interact together, affecting each other’s alignment and symmetry.
My Correction in Motion Training DVD home-study is now hot off the press.
This program is very thorough and very simple to understand.
It consists of 2 DVDs The first DVD shows how you can straighten and re-align yourself.
The second DVD illustrates mounted work you’ll use to bring yourself and your horse into alignment together.
You can buy them on their own or buy the DVDs with a one-on-one personal assessment with me on your specific challenges and how to customise the exercises to get the results you want.
When you understand more about your own and your horse’s crookedness, you’ll also understand the effect of the crookedness the two of you have together.
Then you’ll know how to blend and harmonize with each other in a true partnership.
7th August Writtle College Lordships Road Writtle, Chelmsford, Essex CM13RR
21st August Willow Farm Hanslett's Lane Ospringe, Faversham, ME13
18th September Brinsbury College North Heath Pulborough, West Sussex RH20 1D
Go to my website now for a free workbook and online video www.jonibentley.co.uk
If you would like to host a workshop at your yard please contact us on 07771 811561. If you can’t make the workshops due to location or finances I will be starting a home study training course in June.
How it works:
Each month from June, I will be releasing a lesson captured on 2 DVDs. The content is equivalent to a typically one day workshop. You then practise the lesson mounted and dismounted in your own time and when you feel ready you send me a video/DVD of yourself and then we review the lesson on the phone. The inclusive price is £55 specially designed for hard credit crunch times!
