Satori Center

 
 

 

For appointment: 512.869.7903
Amazon-Store
Old Favs ~ Books & Such

Resources

Tidbit

Horses lend us the wings we lack.

~ Pam Brown

Back ] Home ] Next ] [Previous]
Changing Balance Longitudinally 
Fruit Salad Light

Well, to be truthful, this is 'watermelons' -- not much of a salad.  When I was riding I was using cantaloupes and bananas, too.  That's a little bit more of a salad!  In lessons, we often get lemons, limes, cherries, apples, pears and bananas involved.  Sometimes blueberries and pomegranates.  But today I kept it simple!

 

 

The fruit represent the range and type of motion in the hip sockets.  The low, flat melon correlates w/ longer, flatter strides.  The higher, thinner melon correlates w/ collected, lifted movements.  The rounder melons are more of the regular and working gaits.

Each week I focus my training on one of seven topics.  This week's topic is 'how to shift the balance longitudinally.'  Or, in more horse-like terms, this is contractibility and/or collection.

Different levels of expectation

In the training program I've devised, there are seven 'modules' built around seven topics.  I spend one week on a module solidifying one of the skills from that module.  The idea is that by the end of seven weeks, I have seven new skills.  Then I return back to the first module and develop a new skill from that module.  At the end of fourteen weeks, I have fourteen skills. 

Every week when I'm on this module, I'm asking the horse the questions "How well can you transfer forward energy up?"  "How well can you transfer forward momentum into carrying capacity?"  "How well can you lift?"  "How well can you let go?"  

When I'm starting a horse out, I'm asking for the easier things from that module.  In that case, it might be, "Can you change from a flatter melon to a round melon?"  This week I'm asking my horses, "Can you step through a range of melons?"  I start with a very flat melon for four steps, move to a sort of flat melon for four steps, go round for four steps, go sort of up for four steps, and then stay a really skinny and up for 8 steps, then come down with four steps of each size until I hit the flattest melon.

 

In this manner, I increase the tractability of my horse through leadership by example.  I have a thought, that thought affects the way my body behaves, the horse picks up on this and changes it's way of going.   It's not so much a matter of I hold back on the reins or I use an active leg as a matter of channeling the energy by way of communicating directly with the nervous system.

If you'd like to experience this first hand, or understand this better, call me for a lesson. 

Cheers!

L


* The original picture was of a pretty well balanced horse.  The imbalance here is represented by the burst of color.

Copyright ©07/25/16 Lynn S. Larson
Back ] Next ]
 

I *love* these little books.  If you want to find out what the masters said, he's done all the leg work!

 

Masters of Equitation on the Trot: New Edition Masters of Equitation on Collecting and Lengthening Masters of Equitation on Canter: New Edition Masters of Equitation on Counter-Canter and Flying Changes

 

Masters of Equitation on the Trot: New Edit...
by Martin Diggle
Masters of Equitation on Collecting and Len...
by Martin Diggle
Masters of Equitation on Canter: New Edition
by Martin Diggle
Masters of Equitation on Counter-Canter and...
by Martin Diggle

 

 

 

Back ] Next ]

BooksAmazon Assoc. / Old Favs

Links

  Books 

"The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities." 

~ James Allen