Satori Center

Resources

Tidbit

Visual for a 'Twirled' Spine
The image for Positions

This week in my Progressions Program the topic is 'Flexibility Through Changes of Bend.'  This topic comes up roughly every six weeks or so as the topic, but it's not like you can ride a horse very long before you need to 'bend' it to get around something.   As mentioned in last year's article(!) The key to this comes from last week's Progression of 'Straightness through Bend' and pivots upon understanding what bend actually is in a horse -- and in a person, too.  

Bend is actually a twirl or twist throughout the length of the spine.  

If you've ever rung the water out of a washcloth or towel, you've experienced the same principle.  If you wring the towel from the ends, it will start to bend.  This is the same principle with the horse's spine.   Because the horse's spine is longer, it looks like a bend.  Since our spine is shorter, we do not bend; only the twist is evident.  But it is the same twist in the horse's spine that results in a 'bend.'

The twirl or twist translates into the inside of the horse's spine lifting and the outside of the horse's spine dropping when it goes into position.  For us, because we have a shorter spine, there is no noticeable bending; however, if we were to get down on all fours and 'twirl,' it would become apparent that the inside shoulder and ribcage lift, just as in the horse's body.    

The Visual

Since we are vertical, it helps to have a vertical image to work with.   For this image, imagine this is your spine seen from behind you.

In this image, each 'hockey puck' represents the location of a vertebra on the plumb line or in the 'column' surrounding the plumb line.   This is different from the spinal column.  The spinal column weaves from front to back through the plumb line.

The shading indicates these imaginary sections are round while the little black hash marks represent the spinous processes of the vertebra in back.  The wings of the spine aren't shown, but when the spine is in a neutral position, they would be on the left and right sides of the column. 

Each hockey puck is 'on' the plumb line, neither to the left nor the right, neither ahead of or behind the plumb line.  Each hockey puck is level to the ground and to the vertebra above and below it.

It's as if your spine were 'in front' of you or you were behind your spine. 

When you are in position left,  

(a) all the hockey pucks have to stay on the plumb line, in their column.  No jumping left or right.  No jumping to the front or back or a diagonal or anywhere else.  They stay on the plumb line. 

(b) all the hockey pucks stay level. there's no 'airplane-ing' anywhere.  There's no tipping up or down on the sides or in the front or anywhere else.  (in truth they do not stay level to the ground but in terms of communicating with your body, you will get the best results by maintaining a level relationship to the ground, which is the same as a perpendicular relationship to the plumb line.) 

(b) each hockey puck would twirl the same amount relative to all other hockey pucks just a little bit to the left, twirling the spinous process to the right.  This is indicated by the hash marks being evenly spaced throughout the length of the diagram.

(c) when the twist is even throughout the spine, the inside shoulder comes back, the inside hip goes forward, the outside shoulder comes forward, the outside hip goes back.   The inside hip comes up just a bit due to the connection of the hips to the spine, but that is accomplished with a different visual.  Your best positioning will come by keeping all the hockey pucks level to the ground.

(for those of you thinking, isn't this the same if this were the front of the body?  yes, it is!  only there's no spinous process in front of the spine to reference, but you can use the visual from the front, too.)

This is just to get you used to the idea, to understand what the visual is and what we want to achieve with the visual.  My recommendation for learning how to do this is with the Lazy Susan exercise.  

If you try it, let me know how it goes!  And if you'd like some hands on, call me up for a lesson.  

Cheers!

L

ps I'll just add, in Centered Riding, the main concept is that whatever I'm doing with my own body, I'm modeling for the horse to do in theirs.  So you'll notice I didn't say anything about which reins to use or where to put my legs or anything.  I do this all on a loose rein. (unless the horse tries to exit stage left and then I keep contact!)

Books: Amazon 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