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Long Eyes  

Every now and again I'm riding around, concentrating really hard on getting something right, reviewing what I know in my head, getting annoyed things aren't working so well, and in the midst of the thunderstorm in my head this quiet little voice whispers in my ear 'Man I feel uncomfortable.  My butt hurts!'  Or, 'why'm I slapping this horse's back so hard?'   Or, 'Gee my neck hurts...'  And if I listen, it might add something like, 'and my arm is about to give out, too.  what's up with that?'

O.  Well.  Um.  Yeah, I'm about to bore a hole through my horse's neck as well, aren't I?  Sigh.

That's the cue to change what I'm doing and get my basics back in order.

One of the easier ways of doing this is to change what I'm doing with my eyes.  (You can experience this, too, right now, by following along.  Find something to stare at.  (Stare so hard it starts to smolder!)  Take stock of this state.  How is your breathing?  Are you leaning at all?  What tone do you have in your muscles?  Notice how it seems like you're looking out at the world from the front side of your eyeballs?)

When I realize I'm about to bore a hole through my horse's neck, I ask my body to look at the world from the back side of my eyeballs.  It's not like I know how I do this but somehow I'm suddenly a little bit further back from what I'm looking at.  And my eyeballs don't hurt quite so much.  

The next thing I do, after a few strides, is I ask my body to look out through my eyes from the middle of my brain, back where the two halves connect via the corpus callosum.  This is sort of in the middle of the head, between the ears.  I imagine that somehow I can see from this place and ask my body to do that.  And again, I now feel like I'm somehow further back from what I'm looking at, and my face feels different, especially under the eyes.

Then for special effect, when it seems like I've managed this for a few strides, I ask my body to look out at the world from the back of my brain.  (Thankfully the world doesn't flip upside down at that point!)  Now I notice that things are really different.  The amount of brain chatter is down to zilch.   The tension in my shoulders is gone.  My jaw is maybe a little slack (whups! gotta put that back up!) And I'm moving with the horse.  And (surprise, surprise) the horse is going better and whatever it was I was trying so hard to do is now working a lot better, too.

For the next few minutes I will make it a priority to monitor my eyes and continue moving my point of seeing further back, from the front of the eyes to the back of the eyes, from the back of the eyes to the mid-brain, from the mid-brain to the hind-brain.  I'll go a few steps and then I'll do it again.  I just keep doing this for a bit -- maybe for a couple circles or a couple diagonals.

When this is going good,  I'll also check in on my other basics from this place - how's my building blocks?  where's my center?  am I grounded?  Usually I'll find things pretty much on target, pretty much aligned.  If not, it's a quick bit of awareness and my body responds.

It's all so much easier with my 'long eyes.'

Have you had a chance to play with this in your riding?  What is your experience with this?

To give credit where it's due, Thanks! go to Robin Brueckmann, a Senior Centered Riding Instructor & Clinician, Judge, & Competitor, who taught this to a group of us in NY while sitting astride barrels.  They give wonderful feedback! 

Books: Amazon Assoc. / Old Favs

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