Friday, October 16, 2009
Women and Horses Program
“Women and Horses” is a unique program of riding lessons and retreats designed to help women understand and actualize the innate, intuitive and powerful understanding you have of the horse-woman relationship. All women are welcome - beginners and professionals; health-challenged, fearful, returning after years away from horses, horseless or horse-owning, competitive or pleasure, riders and non-riders. We use videographic, photographic, and art assessment, coupled with women's psychology and women's ways of knowing, to help you balance, center, and connect while riding. Our retreats explore the horse-woman relationship using the different ways we know about, learn from, and respond to horses — intellectual, experiential, spiritual, and mythic — to create a powerful, new, integrated understanding of women and horses — one that will make you a better horsewoman, on or off horseback! Lessons and retreats are held at our Elizabeth, CO, facility or we can arrange for lessons and/or retreats at your facility as long as it's along the Front Range, from Ft. Collins to Fountain. Visit our website to learn more and to register. "Women and Horses is a program of Tapestry Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Space is limited, so sign up now!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
We owe it to our horses
We owe it to our horses to learn to ride in a balanced, centered, and connected way. In reality, anyone can get on a horse and ride. Horses are such willing creatures that they will find the balance for us. They will make sure that they are under us as we move from side to side, as we tilt forward and back, as we plop on their backs. They will do what we ask even if we pull on the reins and jab them in the sides incessantly. Not many humans would put up with that. But horses do.
None of that kind of riding is necessary. Think of how subtle a horse actually is. Watch a fly land on one, and they know it is on them. A tiny fly compared to a huge horse. They will use a very small flick of a muscle to get that fly off of them. If that does not work, only then will they increase measures, eventually biting at the fly, to finally get it to move. They are showing us how we should interact with them. Subtlety.
When we are riding them in a balanced, centered, connected way, we can use our seat to guide them and ask for whatever we want them to do. We can be as subtle with them as they are with a fly. When we do this, when we ask for things from our horses with subtlety, they will respond because that is how they relate to the world. A mere movement of ears can tell one horse to move away from another. A mere centering and sitting deeper on the horse can bring them to a stop in a heartbeat. No reins, no talking, just subtlety.
Keep this in mind when you ride and when you watch people ride. Think of a video that someone has recommended to you from YouTube. Now, go and watch it again. Many times when you do, you will realize that the rider is totally unbalanced; that the horse's mouth is being pulled on; that the rider is standing in his stirrups as a way to slow or stop the horse. Think of how hard the horse is actually working to keep that rider on their back. Perhaps in many of these videos and pictures, we should be thanking and complimenting the horse, not the rider. A less-forgiving animal would not put up with such behavior.
There is no such thing as a perfect rider. The very best riders, as in the most balanced, centered, and connected riders, spend many hours, both in and out of the saddle, learning these skills. To watch them is to see true equestrian art. Horses are willing to go a long way to give of themselves to meet us where we are, no matter our skill level. We owe it to them to work on being balanced, centered, and connected so that we can, hopefully, meet them as close to the center as possible, creating harmony and partnership between horse and human.
None of that kind of riding is necessary. Think of how subtle a horse actually is. Watch a fly land on one, and they know it is on them. A tiny fly compared to a huge horse. They will use a very small flick of a muscle to get that fly off of them. If that does not work, only then will they increase measures, eventually biting at the fly, to finally get it to move. They are showing us how we should interact with them. Subtlety.
When we are riding them in a balanced, centered, connected way, we can use our seat to guide them and ask for whatever we want them to do. We can be as subtle with them as they are with a fly. When we do this, when we ask for things from our horses with subtlety, they will respond because that is how they relate to the world. A mere movement of ears can tell one horse to move away from another. A mere centering and sitting deeper on the horse can bring them to a stop in a heartbeat. No reins, no talking, just subtlety.
Keep this in mind when you ride and when you watch people ride. Think of a video that someone has recommended to you from YouTube. Now, go and watch it again. Many times when you do, you will realize that the rider is totally unbalanced; that the horse's mouth is being pulled on; that the rider is standing in his stirrups as a way to slow or stop the horse. Think of how hard the horse is actually working to keep that rider on their back. Perhaps in many of these videos and pictures, we should be thanking and complimenting the horse, not the rider. A less-forgiving animal would not put up with such behavior.
There is no such thing as a perfect rider. The very best riders, as in the most balanced, centered, and connected riders, spend many hours, both in and out of the saddle, learning these skills. To watch them is to see true equestrian art. Horses are willing to go a long way to give of themselves to meet us where we are, no matter our skill level. We owe it to them to work on being balanced, centered, and connected so that we can, hopefully, meet them as close to the center as possible, creating harmony and partnership between horse and human.
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