CENTRED *” RIDING ~* by Sally Swift Photography by Mike Noble Drawings by Jean MacFarlandFirst published in Great Britain 1985 by William Heinemann Ltd Reprinted 1985, 1986 Reprinted by the Kingswood Press 1987, 1988, 1990 First paperback edition 1986 Reprinted 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 (twice) by The Kingswood Press ‘an imprint of Methuen London Reprinted 1992 by Methuen London Michelin House, 81 Fulham Road, London SW3 6RB Copyright © 1985 Sarah R. Swit ISBN 0 434 75336 X (Paperback) ISBN 0 434 75335 1 (Cased) ‘A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Book design by Mark Gabor Printed in England by Clays Ltd, St Ives ple This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed con the subsequent purchaser.1 2. 3. 4, 5. 6. a 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. Contents Foreword Introducing Centred Riding Pretend You Are a Horse . The Four Basics Learning and the Brain Anatomy Balance and Body Freedom + Walk and the Following Seat . Rising (Posting) Trot . Hands Transitions Sitting Trot Circles and Turns Half Halts and Self-Carriage 10 24 32 51 58 66 76 86 96 104 11614. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Appendix I. Riding a Dressage Test The Canter Forces of Energy Lengthening Stride Lateral Work Jumping Suppling the Horse Summary 125 132 143 150 164 178 181 184 Appendix II. Instructors’ Guide to Leg-Lengthening 187 Appendix III. Quick Review of Useful Images Index 190 195Acknowledgments With appreciation and thanks to the people who have helped this book come to fulfilment: To Mabel Elsworth Todd, who taught me so much about my body, who made it possible for me to ride during much of my life, and who instilled in me my first knowledge of centering. To Jean Gibson for furthering that knowledge. And most specially to Peter Payne, who in the last four years has patiently rebuilt my body through the Alexander Technique so that I could continue to work. He has in many ways enriched the scope of my teaching and has also given invaluable advice on the technical drawings in this book. To Doris Eddy for giving me the first inklings of the subtle feel and beauty of the movement of free, soft horses. To Tom Poulin for opening a door that might never have been opened had he not invited me to be a guest-observer of fine, high-level horses. To Priscilla Hergersheimer for the days and hours I sat at her ringside, absorbing the knowledge and teaching of Major Hans Wikne and Walter Christenson, both of whom I also thank. To Denny Emerson for his steady support, his big, push for me to “write it down,” and finally for writing the Foreword. ‘To Essie and Read Perkins for letting me use Huntington Farm as a laboratory to experiment with my ideas. And again to Denny, and his wife, May, of Tamarack Hill Farm, and to Jill and Charles Bronson of Zuleika Farm, where most of the photographs were taken. And to the countless friends who have been my willing and enthusiastic guinea pigs over the years. To Jean MacFarland for her skillful drawings and her patience when asked to have them slightly changed many times over. To Mike Noble for his perseverance and enthusiasm through the hours of taking and processing some 2600 photographs. To my cousin Jane Ashley for being such a stalwart and patient subject for most of these pictures. And to Tara and Gregory Prince. ‘To Huntly Hashagen, who succeeded in deciphering and typing the original manuscript for this book. To Karen McCollom, who worked long and hard to put some order into that confusing mass of material. To Mark Gabor, first for his many hours that went into the early editing, and later for designing the book so elegantly. Lastly, and most importantly, to Caroline Robbins for actually making this book possible through her untold hours of precise editing, as well as all the rest of the details involved in the total publishing, of this book.Foreword Most of us have been thoroughly imbued with the puritan work ethic, which postulates that the attainment of success is directly proportionate to the degree of struggle we expend on it. From the time we enter school we are told to study harder to get better grades, do more push-ups, run more laps to make the football team. “If you don’t try, you won't succeed.” Then we climb onto a horse, a timid creature of flight, which knows and cares nothing of the work ethic, and we drive him crazy. The very act of trying brings tension and rigidity; the horse responds to our stress with his stress, and the downward spiral begins Sally Swift, with quiet wisdom and gentle understanding, asks us to reassess our habitual responses and in so doing alter the way we approach riding and training horses. To understand the main cause of much of our problems with horses, we need to understand the history of riding. In Europe the tradition of classical riding was usually taught by the military. Raw recruits were placed on schooled horses, often on the lunge line, and then drilled for hours a day for months to attain “good seats.” It was survival of the fittest, with lots of dropouts. The recruit had to overcome the physical pain of the moving horse and the emotional pain of the screaming instructor. If he adjusted his posture incorrectly to alleviate the physical stress, he got the brunt of verbal correction. Over months, little by little, the recruit who stayed with the program learned to ride. He may not have known, anatomically, what his body did to accommodate itself to the horse's moving body, but he became a part of that motion. As well as that system works—and it does work, brilliantly—it requires hundreds of hours of time, numerous horses, and constant access to a good instructor. Today, very few riders can afford the time, horses or instructor. Sally Swift has bridged the gap in traditional riding instruction with a thorough knowledge of human and equine anatomy and an analytical, but relaxed, approach to the two. If people can understand how they move, how a horse moves, how they interact, postulates Sally, then they can shortcut, through understanding, at least some of the endless hours of blind rote. This book is in part Sally’s response to the many of us who have been helped by her lessons and who have urged her to “Write it down, organize it, create a book!” So she did. I believe that the readers will feel through its pages the same spirit and wisdom, gentleness and common sense that Sally conveys to those of us lucky enough to be her students. Epwarp E. EMERSON JR. President U.S. Combined Training Association Member U.S. Equestrian Team 1974 World Championships and 1976 Olympic Games1 Introducing Centered Riding Disyeoolsson| the whole, does not ssxchiy eaters ride. There are countless excellent books that do just that. What I do here is offer all riders a new approach to riding based on some mental and physical images that I have developed over many years. It is a centered approach, resulting in perfect body balance and an inner awareness of both yourself and your horse. I would like to emphasize that this is not a book for the dressage enthusiast alone, although many of the tech- niques discussed apply to that discipline. It is a book for all riders and the techniques discussed apply equally to jumpers, hunters, or people who like to hack. I use the word dressage to mean “training,” and this book focuses on the training of both horse and rider for all varieties of equestrian sport. I teach you about a relationship between you and your horse based on a self-awareness that you probably have never realized you had inside you. If you are a novice or intermediate rider, you will not have learned the subtleties of the horse/rider relationship experienced by expert riders, but these insights, as they come into play, cannot but raise your level of skill and heighten your riding performance. If you are already at an advanced level, you will be able to use these images and exercises to refine your technique and gain that special magic—that something extra—that makes the difference between competence and excellence. Many of the great riders have the gift of natural balance and coordination so that they never have to question how to do anything with any part of their body. If they know what they want to do, their body will respond. Because of this innate coordina- tion, they have not needed to know how one makes a leg move, or how one breathes, or ow one balances. It just happens. Therefore it is usually difficult for them to ex-CENTERED RIDING \ plain to the rest of us less-coordinated mortals how to move some particular part of our bodies. Asa child | certainly was not coordinated or balanced. I had to learn the hard way in every step of my riding career. Because I had a back problem, I was specially taught how to deal with my very awkward body. Through my experiences on learning how to control my body, I developed the techniques given in this book. It was my ‘own back that forced me to concentrate so intently on how the body of a rider functions, and what can be done to improve its efficiency. When I was eight years old I was diagnosed as having a lateral curvature of the spine—technically known as sco- liosis. This was probably caused by an unrecognized case of polio. In order to care for and correct my back problem, 1 worked with Mabel Ellsworth Todd in Boston from the time I was eight years old into my early twenties. Her premise was that with our minds we can control deep, inner muscles that we would not be able to activate by moving just an arm or a leg. She wrote a book called The Thinking Body—the title gives some idea of her approach. She taught a lot of anatomy; a skeleton was always hang- ing nearby, and books were brought out frequently to show how muscles looked and worked. She used a great many images for teaching, such as squatting down and walking like a duck or, when walking upright, dragging an imaginary alligator’s tail along the ground. So I grew up surrounded by this teaching of anatomy and images. By the time I was thirteen years old, I was very overde- veloped on my right side. In order to counter this, Miss ‘Todd made me learn to write with my left hand and give up all sports that required the use of my right hand. She knew, however, that it was important that I enjoy some sort of physical activity; since horses had been my passion for as long as I could remember, she encouraged me to ride. This was excellent therapy because riding uses both sides of the body equally. In order for me to ride, how- ever, Miss Todd sent me to an orthopedist who con- structed a corset brace, leather with steel supports, which Lused for many years. I took some bad spills in it, too, but never hurt my back.By developing equal use of my two legs in riding, 1 strengthened the muscles in my lower body and balanced my uneven muscle tone. Miss Todd’s work prevented me from tipping off center by making the spinal curvature compensate itself. The top of my head was above my pelvis and not off to one side, as is the case with many scoliotic people. I was very fortunate because people in my circumstances were often put into full-body casts or had spinal fusions or other unpleasant experiences I was able to avoid. I was given the freedom of many years of enormous happiness on a horse. After I finished school I taught riding for twelve years, then went into other fields for thirty years. By 1967 my back had deteriorated, though I still did exercises that Miss Todd had taught me years earlier. At this time I was standing tipped to the side and was frequently in pain. In London I met Jean Gibson, who was doing therapy similar to Miss Todd’s. I worked with her two weeks a year for three years. During these periods my input was very concentrated. Jean is emphatic that each part of the body be correctly balanced on the parts below and that the joints be used fully. She feels that this allows the other parts of the body to do their jobs without tensions and extra fatigue, and with balance and rhythm. I immediately realized that everything she taught me applied also to riding, and I have used her work to the full in my teaching. Jean Gibson was responsible for bringing me once again to an upright position and rebalancing my body so that most of the time, though I lived in a brace, I was out of pain—healthiest and happiest, as always, when teaching. Currently Iam working with Peter Payne in Brattleboro, Vermont, where I live. Peter has had extensive training in the martial arts and other forms of body control, culminat- ing in a full course of study in the Alexander Technique (a method of reeducating the mind and body toward greater balance and integration, with special reference to posture and movement). This work is not only reestablishing strength and balance in my ever-tending-to-be-wobbly back, but also enlarges my knowledge of techniques as a riding teacher. INTRODUCTIONCENTERED RIDING When I was in my twenties, I discovered from working with Miss Todd that if I rode from the center of my body, I stayed in better balance and my horse responded better. Jean Gibson later made me tremendously aware again of centered body control and the importance of breathing and balance. Increasingly, I began to realize that there was a great gap in most people's riding knowledge. Even the best riders and instructors, with their innate coordination, were not teaching people how to handle their bodies. They were teaching them only what to do, We who have strug- gled with physical disabilities can often teach and explain coordination more easily. In his book The Ultimate Athlete, George Leonard searches for the perfect athlete and finds much of what he is looking for in the Oriental martial arts, which are based on centered control. In another book, The Centered Skier, Denise McCluggage has developed a method of teaching skiing with centered control that echoes my work almost completely. She, too, had been exposed to the martial arts, having studied tai chi ch’uan, the foundation of all the martial arts. I discovered I wasn’t teaching anything new, I was just a Johnny-come-lately. I had earlier discov- ered the importance of control from the center of the body, and the need for awareness, correct breathing, and quietness of the balanced body. Now I am aware that many of these concepts in fact came from the East and are more than two thousand years old. It is the combination of how your body works, the ability to allow it to function unhampered, and the aware- ness and use of energies created through you and your horse that makes this approach to riding surprisingly easy and very exciting.2 Pretend You Are a Horse Have you ever tied pretending you were a horse? Have you thought what it would feel like to have a rider on your back telling you what to do? Would it be comfortable and enjoyable? Would it be uncomfortable and awkward? If you carry a well-packed knapsack on your back that is also well balanced over your shoulders, it is not an unpleasant feeling. But if it is loosely packed, unbalanced, and not strapped on correctly, it can be very uncomfortable and seem much heavier than it actually is. There is another way of pretending you are a horse. Get down on your hands and knees, keeping your back level. Move around the floor a bit, being careful not to hump your back or let it sag. It will help to check yourself in a full-length mirror. Then have a friend poke you sharply with two stiff fingers on either side of your spine just at the base of your shoulder blades. What is your reaction to these sharp pokes? Ouch! (Fig. 1.) You quickly hollow your back and your head snaps up. Have your friend poke you in different places nearer your pelvis. Each time you will find the same reaction, especially when the pokes are a little farther down. It is not a pleasant exercise. Is this the sort of thing we do to our horses when we don’t sit to the trot correctly, when we bang the saddle at the canter, when we post to the trot and come down too heavily, or when we mount and land—thump—on the horse's back? Your reaction in the exercise was to shrink away from thumps and bumps—to hollow your back and raise your head. How many times have you seen a horse react in just this way? He is unhappy, tense, his back hollowed. His nose is up, his eyes have an inner, fright- ened look, and his ears are back. He looks tentative, distressed; he switches his tail and moves with short, stiff strides. 1, “Ouch!” This is what we some- times do to our horses.CENTERED RIDING 2. “Oooh . . . Wonderful!” Any horse would like this better. wey RM 3. Unhappy horse A horse will react to more subtle discomfort, too. In the dressage ring you may have watched a rider trying to make the horse round his back, come on the bit, and swing his hind legs under, yet the horse resists all efforts, not wanting to raise and stretch his back—all this because he is uncomfortable under the rider’s seat bones, which are unwittingly punishing him. Now let’s change the picture and try another experi- ment with you on all fours on the floor. Have your friend, instead of poking you rather rudely, play with his or her fingers on your back in a rather pleasant way, working on both sides of the spine at once. (Fig. 2.) Or let your friend caress your back, gently massaging you. It feels wonder- ful, doesn’t it? And what's your reaction? To raise your back, stretch and arch it up like a cat. You could even purr. It is certainly not a sensation that you are going to cringe from, but one that you are going to accept and even enjoy. Wouldn't it be nice to give that kind of pleasure to your {8 Qhorse when you are riding him? Have you ever seen a horse, resistant and stiff with one rider, respond quite differently to another rider? (Fig. 3.) 6This second rider mounts the horse, springing lightly up and settling gently in the saddle. They move off quietly, the rider's body flowing and swinging with the horse’s body. The horse strides out freely, head down, ears re- axed, eyes quiet. Gently, the rider picks up the reins and moves the horse on, body balanced, hardly touching the horse’s back in the rising trot. (Fig. 4.) Circles become easy. There is no resistance. The horse bends softly. The rider goes on into the sitting trot, then the canter, and still there is no tension because the body is swinging with the horse. The horse is both enjoying his rider and is willing to cooperate and move as he is asked. The horse's strides are supple and open, the rhythm pleasant to watch; impulsions come softly from behind with energy flowing through his body. Under such a rider a horse becomes transformed. Even a horse with actual physical problems will be improved to some degree. Under the first rider, one has the impression that the horse is saying, “I wish he’d get off my back. I'm frus- trated. He gives conflicting aids, and I don’t know what he wants; or when I do know what he wants, he doesn’t 4. Happy horse 7 PRETEND YOU ARE A HORSECENTERED RIDING let me do it. He gets in the way and is banging on my back. His inside leg is stiff. If he'd soften it, I'd soften my side, but I'm not going to soften against that iron object. I can’t swing my legs when I'm being hit in the back. I'm unhappy. I can’t move the way he wants me to.” Conversely, when the second rider mounts, you can almost hear the horse sigh with relief. “Oh, this is so much better,” he might be saying. “It’s easy to move under this rider because he’s totally with me, swinging with me; it even makes me swing more. I like working under him. Now I can bring my hind legs under and round my back.” The reasons for the change between the two riders is not only that the second rider uses aids better than the first, though certainly this comes into it. Usually much of the difference lies in how those aids are applied. You are taught what to do and when, but seldom how to use your own body when applying these aids. Try as you will, your recalcitrant body won't let you do what you're trying so desperately to do, and your poor horse is left frustrated and confused. You would like to ride like the second rider—to learn where to sit in the saddle so that you are balanced and positioned correctly. But when the horse moves, the prob- lems begin, and you find yourself stiffening up in an effort to maintain a balanced position. As you continue to strug- gle for the proper position, it becomes more difficult to remain in balance. You become tense and frustrated. The tendency is to feel that the horse is partly at fault. Perhaps he is obstinate or badly coordinated and finds it physically difficult to move correctly. This may be part of it, and may have some influence on the way he is going. But usually that’s not the whole picture. The horse has been put in a situation where not only is he uncomfort- able, but he is also being told to do something at the same time he is being prevented from doing it. (Fig. 5.) How frustrated would you be if somebody gave you a ball and asked you to throw it, but first tied your elbows behind your back? This is the sort of thing we do to our horses Some riders do not have to argue with their own bodies, but can spend their time learning what to tell their horses while their bodies do the work easily and automatically. 8Unfortunately, most people are not this well-coordinated. Under the proper direction, however, they can improve coordination, first learning how their bodies work—for instance, how to move different parts independently from other parts—and then, with an inner consciousness of the correct form and balance, how to merge the whole process together. The perfect rider cannot immediately produce the fin- ished horse. Just as a human gymnast must spend count- less hours developing muscles and coordination, so must the horse go through many hours of carefully planned activity and schooling to develop correctly the muscles and balance needed to carry a rider on his back and produce the preformance that is desired—be it jumping, dressage competition, long-distance trail riding, or just plain hacking, In the following chapters I'll be showing you many techniques and exercises to help make you a centered rider. There is no set rule about how many repetitions you should do of each exercise. Usually two or three repeats are enough to relieve tension or give you the sensation you are looking for. The type of exercise I recommend does not involve getting fatigued. Rather, it is usually a way of learning to feel a new movement or concept. It is a route to softness that some people find more quickly than others. If any particular exercise doesn’t work for you, don’t worry—just try a PRETEND YOU ARE A HORSE3 The Four Basics In order to make your horse happy by knowing and controlling your own body better, you must start riding with what I call the Four Basics. These Four Basics are fundamental to all of my teaching. They consist of the correct use of eyes, breathing, centering, and building blocks. Eyes Les experiment with your eyes. First, halt your horse. While sitting quietly, focus very intently on one thing, perhaps a letter marker or a certain post or object on the edge of the ring. Keep looking intently at the object. Concentrate on its exact outlines, its shape, density, color. ‘Take everything in acutely. This is the use of what I call hard eyes. Now relax your eyes. Let the object be the general center of your gaze, but look at it with your peripheral vision taking in the largest possible expanse, above and below as well as to the left and right. Be aware of the whole wide world. Sit comfortably with open eyes and have the feeling of going within yourself as your eyes encompass everything that comes into your field of vi- sion. Remember that you are still aiming at the central object. This is what I call soft eyes. The concept will be invoked and practiced throughout this book. What did you see when you looked with hard eyes? Did you see anything besides the object you were looking at? Not if you really focused. What did you see when you were looking with soft eyes? You probably saw at least half the arena even though your general focus was toward one object. When I teach the use of soft eyes, I start by standing in front of riders and then walk a semicircle around them, asking them to tell me when I disappear 10from sight. Standing on that spot, I ask them to look at me. Most are very surprised at how far they must turn their heads to find me. Usually I am standing well behind their shoulders before I disappear. What does this mean to a rider? It means simply that your eyes can give you much greater awareness if you allow them. Try another experiment. While walking your horse without stirrups, shift back and forth between hard eyes and soft eyes. Hard eyes are easy to do if you look at your horse’s ears. Soft eyes, with your vision very wide and open, are easy to do if you look above his ears out into space. Which way do you suppose it is easier to feel what your horse’s back is doing to your seat? You will quickly find that it is much easier to feel this when using soft eyes. The more area you encompass with your eyes, the more you'll be aware of your seat. Glazing or making your eyes fuzzy is not your objective; that would most likely reduce what you feel with your seat. From this experiment it becomes clear that soft eyes are much more than just a way of looking. Using soft eyes is like a new philosophy. It is a method of becoming dis- tinctly aware of what is going on around you, beneath you, inside of you. It includes feeling and hearing as well as seeing. You are aware of the whole, not just separate parts. Ponder the implications of this technique, this tool. ‘The two ears of your horse are always in front of you, but so many of the important parts are under and behind you, where you cannot see them. When I first started teaching the technique of soft eyes, Ihad an exciting experience with four girls, good riders, all reaching for their Pony Club B-rating. Working in a small arena, these four girls rode for nearly fifteen min- utes with soft eyes, each following her own, varied pro- gram, with up and down transitions, circles, turns, ser- pentines, and changes of direction. Not only did they do some superb riding, but during the entire time nobody ‘came near to running into anyone else. Because of the soft eyes, they were constantly aware of where everyone else was and could therefore plan their movements so that each girl worked independently without bothering another. M ‘THE FOUR BASICSCENTERED RIDING Another student of mine was Sarah. When her eight- year-old daughter, Brooke, came home from a hack, Brooke was furious with her pony, who had been totally ill-tempered and uncooperative all the way. She was de- termined to sell the animal and give up riding. Sarah took time to tell Brooke all about the idea of soft eyes. It was like a new kind of game. Then she suggested that Brooke ride her pony to the end of the road and back. Off she went, cantering gaily, then turned and came trotting home all smiles. When Sarah asked Brooke what her body had felt like with soft eyes, Brooke thought a moment, then said excitedly, “Like jelly!” Brooke kept the pony. Soft eyes have other applications, too. Well-known event rider Denny Emerson uses them in competition. Just before the stadium jumping phase, he takes two or three minutes to sit quietly on his horse, and, going inside himself with eyes very soft, he rides the whole course mentally. Later, during the actual ride, he can then flash back and forth between hard and soft eyes as needed. What are the essentials of soft eyes? + Ride with wide-open eyes and peripheral awareness. + Maintain awareness of your entire field of vision. + Allow yourself to feel sensations from within. What are the results of soft eyes? + Greater field of vision. + Increased awareness of your own and your horse’s body. + Fewer tensions. + Easier and freer forward movement. 12Breathing The second of the Four Basics, correct use of breath, is vitally important and closely related to the other Basics. We will refer to breathing throughout this book, so it is important that you have a good visual and mental image of how the whole breathing process works. In breathing you must think about your diaphragm—a powerful muscle that goes across the body beneath the rib cage. The front end is just at the bottom of your sternum, or breast bone. (Fig. 6.) The diaphragm is shaped like a dome or mushroom; it cups up into the rib cage. Its root is attached to the front of the lower spine. It is one of the largest muscles in your body. When you inhale, the dia- phragm is pulled down, creating a vacuum in the lungs and drawing in air. When you exhale, the muscle relaxes, the diaphragm rises to the resting position, and air is pushed out. When asked to take a deep breath, many people will expand the rib cage sideways and upward as much as possible, forgetting about the diaphragm. This is an ineffi- cient way to breathe. The diaphragm should be pulled down, and if the rib cage and shoulders are not tense, the ribs will open automatically and the back will spread as a result of the incoming air. If we breathe as nature in- tended, the lungs are given a chance to fill the large area created by a somewhat expanded rib cage. The diaphragm is the major mover, followed by the ribs. As you walk on your horse, use your imagination and soft eyes and feel that your breath is going down through your body to your beit line and even beyond, into your pelvis. If you can, imagine that it is going down even farther, maybe all the way into your boots. If you feel activity at and below your belt line, you are not actually feeling air, but the motion of the muscles pulling the diaphragm down. Now put your hand flat across your belly, thumb upon your navel. If you are breathing correctly with your dia- phragm, you will feel action under your hand. Now try deliberately breathing only from your chest; you will find ‘THE FOUR BASICS Se = y) 6. The diaphragm looks like a ‘mushroom. Its root is attached to the lower spine and pulls the dia- phragm down to draw breath in ‘and relaxes to let it out.7. Breathe through your whole body. Imagine that you can breathe all the way down into your feet through an imaginary flexible 8. Breathing only in your chest is like blowing up a balloon. It is hard work. no action under your hand. Then return to the correct, effortless, normal breathing that involves your entire body. It is easier to work with mental images than to think of specific muscles. Try feeling that the air is going through a big, flexible tube, right down through the center of your body to the bottom. (Fig. 7.) I have one friend who feels that this tube is large, elastic, and blue. You can imagine it any way you wish. Visualizing that you are breathing to a point below your belt line helps make the diaphragm descend. Then, if you simply allow the ribs to expand without force, you will have air intake with less physical tension than if you were to breathe by consciously raising your ribs. Denise Mc- Cluggage has some wonderful breathing images in The Centered Skier. She says the difference between breathing with your chest and breathing with your diaphragm is like the difference between balloons and bellows. You have to push hard to blow up a balloon (Fig. 8); you have to make a strenuous effort to suck the air in through your nostrils and spread your chest out all over the place to fill it. Yet this is the way many people breathe. Bellows, however, open easily to let the air rush in and close easily to let it out. (Fig. 9.) So instead of imagining a balloon in your 9. Breathing with a bellows in ‘your lower body is ensier and more efficient 14chest, visualize a bellows between your diaphragm and your pelvis and quietly keep it opening and shutting. It will do all the work for you; your nostrils will only be the funnel. The ribs lift and spread softly and automatically, then drop again. Their motion becomes the result of breathing, not the cause. Open the bellows, in flows oxygen; close it, out goes carbon dioxide. ‘Try holding your breath for ten seconds, then breathe normally. Did you feel the tension in your body when your breath was held? And did you feel your body relax when you began to breathe again? When you hold your breath, you build certain tensions in your body to which a horse will react. I discovered this fact many years ago while riding Kim, a hot little horse at Colonel Guirey’s, in his covered arena in New York City. He was concentrating, on two other riders and I was left happily on my own. My horse never wanted to do a flat walk. He'd always rather jig or go even faster. I was determined to make him do a flat walk around that ring. I tried everything I could think of, including holding my breath. We could get almost around the ring, but at the letter B, Kim always jigged. I remember saying to myself in desperation, “I give up, I just won’t do anything.” I sat relaxed, breathing normally, and then Kim started walking quietly around the ring and past B time after time, never jigging, as long as I kept breathing. If I changed my breathing pattern, he was off. I tried trotting. Again, if I breathed rhythmically, he would not hurry. Suddenly I was conscious of the Colonel watch- ing me intently as I circled. “What have you done to Kim, Miss Swift?” he asked. Being young, I somehow felt embarrassed. “I’m just breathing, Colonel,” I replied. How would you feel if your horse held his breath? Frightened, most likely. And that’s the way he'd feel if you held yours. You can breathe a horse to quietness. You can breathe him past things that scare him. If you hold your breath as you come to that big rock, he'd say, “She’s ‘THE FOUR BASICSCENTERED RIDING frightened! There must be gremlins there.” (Fig. 10.) But if you keep breathing or talking (you can’t hold your breath when you are talking), it gives him confidence. Breathing must be done without tension. Allow it to be constant and rhythmical. Holding your breath blocks the suppleness in certain parts of your body. And remember to allow your- self to breathe through your whole body. ROAG 10. If you hold your breath, gremlins will jump out at you. What are the essentials of correct breathing? + Breathe through your whole body. + Breathe rhythmically and constantly. + Allow the bellows to work. What are the results of correct breathing? + Reduced tension in your body. + Body becomes less top-heavy. + Center of gravity becomes lower. + Horse becomes quieter and more responsive. + Rider will not tire as easily. 16,Centering The third of the Four Basics is centering. In order to effectively control your body and your horse’s, you must be able to find your center. Most of us tend to be top and front oriented. We also fuss too much about details, do a lot of over-organizing, and breathe mostly in our chests. Alll these characteristics increase our tension, reduce our mobility, raise our center of gravity, make us top-heavy, and reduce our coordination. By centering—lowering our center of control—we can overcome these tendencies. If you watch someone riding and he looks off balance, jerky, or stiff, it is almost always because the center is wrong. The rider is usually behind his own balance and behind the motion of the horse. If he can get the center correct, the rest will fall into place. To find your center, simply point a finger at your belly to a spot between your navel and your pubic arch, the front of your pelvis. (Fig. 11.) Deep behind that point, against the front of your spine, lies your center of balance, your center of energy, and your center of control. From the bottom of your diaphragm and rib cage, large muscles stretch to the lower spine. Other muscles connect from there into the pelvis and down to the thighs. These are ae ; some of the deepest and strongest muscles in your body. + PORES ea If you were to cut yourself in half at your center, you would find that, because the lower, or lumbar, vertebrae are very thick, the front of your spine is actually in the center of the circle of your body, not at the back, as you might have thought. (Fig. 12.) Down here, deep and close to the lumbar spine, you also have the largest bundle of muscle-controlling nerves in your body. At the site of this { | large nerve center and the heavy, controlling muscles, is your center. 12. Cross section of your lower body at your center. The spine at this point is so thick that its front’ is in the center of your body. ABDOMINAL. WALLCENTERED RIDING 13. If you imagine that you are a doll weighted at the bottom, you will remain stable, How do you achieve centered control? Use your soft eyes to become aware of your body and organize your breathing. With your diaphragm, let your breathing slide down through your body and you will find yourself breathing to and through your center. For you it may come simply through breathing, or perhaps from images like a great hand at your center, or an internal electric generator sparking energy, or by grabbing a bunch of your shirt below your belt. Allow yourself to be one of those rocking dolls that are heavily weighted at the bottom. (Fig. 13.) You can push the top over as far as you want, but it will always bounce upright again. This is the way your body should feel—so stable and deep at the bottom that the top can do nothing but remain balanced and upright. If you find a particular image or thought that works for you, hold on to it, because every time you return to that image, you will automatically feel that centered control. Many times I have rescued a circle that was about to turn into a pear by saying quickly to a student, “Center your- self now, and now, and now.” You cannot force yourself to do this. If you have difficulty learning how to center yourself, take your time, give your body a chance, don’t force it. Retire to your center and be quiet. Let your breathing become organized. Breathe to your center. What are the essentials of centering? + Find your physical center with your hand. + Use soft eyes. + Breathe down through your center. + Allow your awareness to drop to your center. What are the results of centering? + Balance, control, and energy are established. Center of gravity is lower. + Upper body seems lighter, more stable, and easier to handle. Seat and lower body seem heavier and secure. Tensions that block the flow of energy through your body are released. + You will be relaxed and ready for the next movement or exercise. 18THE FOUR BASICS: Building Blocks The last of the Four Basics I call building blocks, which is a way of describing balance. If you balance the various parts of the body correctly, one above the other, you will reduce the amount of muscle tension or strain used to keep the body upright and, in doing so, save the energy for other uses. You will find that building blocks tie in so closely with the other Basics—soft eyes, breathing, and center- ing—they are difficult to learn and master unless all four are practiced together. I like to think of the building blocks as children’s wooden blocks. You can make them different colors in your mind, if you like. The point is that building blocks must balance one above the other. (Fig. 14.) If they are not carefully balanced, they become unstable, or worse yet, fall down in a heap. (Fig. 15.) Your bottom building block is your legs and feet. The next block is your pelvis, then rib cage, shoulders, and last, your head and neck. For flat work, the correct lineup S S of the blocks (viewing the body sideways) will allow you 14. Building blocks must be care- to drop a plumb line from the ear through the tip of the fully balanced, one above the other. shoulder, hip joint, and ankle. (Fig. 16.) Just before it passes through your hip joint, you will find it going straight through your center. Wssy N 15. If blocks are not balanced, they will fall down. 16. Plumb line dropping through building blocks. 19 0CENTERED RIDING 17a & b. Even in the galloping seat, the center must be over the feet: When standing on the ground your center must be over your feet or you will fall down. That is also true in any correct riding position, But you don’t always need alll the blocks. For example, in a jumping or galloping seat, instead of five blocks you only need to line up two—your center and your feet. (Figs. 17a & b.) The mass of your hips stays behind the plumb line to offset the weight of your forward-reaching head and shoulders. To be able to balance your building blocks correctly, there are two important variables that need to be adjusted properly. The first is the length of your stirrups. It varies according to the conformation of the rider and the horse, and also with the type of saddle used. If you are using an all-purpose or forward-seat saddle, you must ride shorter than you would ona dressage saddle. But if you do have a dressage saddle, don’t be carried away by the feeling that you must ride with very long stirrups. Balance and effi- ciency in the use of the legs is the key. When your legs are in the correct position, your feet should rest lightly but flat in the stirrups. If you find you must reach for your stirrups, they are too long; your feet will swing forward and you will lose your bottom building block. If you are long-legged and/or your horse is round and shallow- bodied, you will need to shorten the stirrups in order to reach his sides with your legs. Your stirrup leathers will probably be at least two or three holes longer for flat work than for galloping or jumping, but must still hang straight, behind your knee and in front of your ankle, with your hip joint over your ankle. If you have heavy thighs, you'll have to ride with shorter stirrups. Accept the fact or lose weight, but don’t compromise your riding.The second variable is the saddle. Many saddles are designed so that balance is impossible, given the confor- mation of your horse. For proper building blocks, a cor- rectly balanced saddle is needed. (Figs. 18a-e.) This is why you see so many saddles boosted up behind with foam rubber pads or cushions. The lowest part of the saddle must be in the middle, close to the pommel. If it is too far back, there is no way you can ride in good build- ing-block form, so don’t hesitate to join the legions using foam rubber under the cantle or a well-made wedge- 18. The same saddle on different horses. a, Horse One. b. The saddle fits. 21 % ty. = eo Ths wi c. Horse Two. d. The saddle sits too low in back because he is wider in the withers. a e. Balance of the saddle corrected on Horse Tivo by inserting foam rubber cushion under the back of the saddle. Though it now looks too hhigh in the back, the foam rubber will squash down sufficiently with the rider's weight. of aera: rmCENTERED RIDING shaped pad. Be sure to insert the cushion between the saddle pad and the saddle. Do not use a blanket or towels under the cantle or your horse will develop a tender back. Best of all, though not always possible, get a saddle that will properly fit your horse. What are the essentials of building blocks? + Balanced body, from feet through head. + Properly adjusted stirrup leathers. + Correctly balanced saddle. What are the results of building blocks? + Consistent balance with the horse’s movement. + Fluid and comfortable motion of the horse. Now you have the Four Basics: soft eyes, breathing, centering, and building blocks. So try trotting your horse, rising to the trot, allowing all your weight to go through to your stirrups. Don’t block your downward weight by pinching with your knees or any part of your legs. Let your legs rest softly against the horse’s sides. Use your hip and knee joints freely so you can feel the full up and down motion of the rising trot. Using soft eyes, breathing, and centering, check your- self to see if your building blocks are truly correct. If your center is behind, your head and feet will probably be forward and your horse will be trying to catch up with both of them. If only your feet are forward, you will be coming down too heavily on the cantle of your saddle and your horse will not like that. Try this exercise: Post one beat, stay up on the stirrups for two beats, post one, stay up two. Do this continuously. If you are not balanced over your stirrups, you will bang down on your horse and will be forced to stay down more than one beat. But when you really find the correct bal- ance and rhythm, this exercise is like a dance. Allow your body to come into balance as you trot. Give it time. Let your center of gravity drop, and think about your breathing and your center of energy. On each rise try to feel that you have a spring pulling your center (or your 22belt buckle) diagonally upward and forward toward the sky. (Fig. 19.) Gradually your center will come forward and, as it does, your legs and feet will move back under you. Your body will become more erect, with your shoul- ders and head no longer leading. You will now be able to come down in your trot more lightly and farther forward on the saddle. This balance is easier on your horse. He would prefer to carry you over the stirrup bars rather than feel you bouncing backward, down on the cantle. The usual comments by my students at this point are: “It is so much easier.” “I feel so much lighter.” “It is no effort.” “I feel so with my horse.” The horse usually has something to say, too. The rapid, high-headed horse who has been trying to catch up to his rider's head and shoulders in order to avoid the bumps on his back will gradually relax; his strides will become slower and longer; his head will go down and his back come up. The lethargic horse, on the other hand, will begin to move forward more freely, with longer strides, and become more alert. You and your horse feel more fluid as you come into balance with each other. Both of you start to become the lovely ideal of the horse-person, not just a person on a horse. 23 ‘THE FOUR BASICS 19, Feel a spring pulling your cen- ter forward to the sky.4 Learning and the Brain The ability to use the Four Basics successfully depends upon the functions of the brain and learning. The brain is divided lengthwise into two separate halves, the right and the left. They are connected by the corpus callosum, a two-way bridge of nerve fibers between the halves. The right- and left-brain concept, as outlined below, will help our awareness and learning patterns. In general, each side of the brain has its own functions. ‘The left side is the practical side. It likes to handle things ina linear manner, organizing and arranging the details of life. It likes to be rational, analytical, and verbal. It is the busy side of the brain in the technical world that sur- rounds us. The right brain deals with much larger areas, in wholes instead of parts. It is intuitive and full of imagery. It likes to integrate and synthesize, allowing things to happen simultaneously, and has little use for words. Have you had times of physical activity when your body gave you pure joy, when what you did seemed infinitely easy and correct? Maybe it was that perfect fluid tennis stroke, or perhaps a flawless run down a ski trail. These are the breakthrough moments when the right brain is allowed to take over the responsiveness of your body with no interference from the left brain. If we use a left-brain approach to riding a circle, for instance, and list all the six or seven details needed, we'd be halfway around the circle before we finished the list. Because of the way our language works, we are forced to think and talk about the aids in a linear sequence and fragment the information or activity into sections. When the right brain, however, controls the activity, the muscles of the body respond automatically, with simulta- neous and synchronized movements to whole-image di- rections 24Unfortunately, all too often the left brain will interfere. Its chatter interrupts, “You never get your outside leg on steadily enough” or “My horse'll veer toward the barn as always, and lose his rhythm by the gate.” Often the left brain will bring in something totally inappropriate, like “I forgot to brush my teeth this morning!” Horrors! Concen- tration and synthesis of the aids are lost. Actually, the brain halves do not have to be in constant battle. If correctly used, they become equal halves moving, and molding against each other, like oil and water in a glass ball will change shape and mold and flow around each other, yet stay the same in quantity. (Fig. 20.) They become unopposing opposites, different but working as one. The only trouble is that you often overuse the left brain at the expense of the right. So now you must consciously learn to use the right brain in a trusting, relaxed way. You must learn to fight less and flow more. To make a circle, for instance, each of the many neces- sary aids must first be learned separately by the left brain. Start by letting the left brain analyze the position of the pelvis and seat bones and discover how this feels and looks. Then, with soft eyes, let the sensations settle in your right brain. Add to these the placement and timing of the legs, then the use of your shoulders, arms, and hands, and the position of your head. Each image you build into the right brain must include not only how you and your horse will look, but how your body will feel under you, and even how the horse’s feet will sound. Feel, sight, sound, and rhythm are all one complete package. Each new or corrected detail dropped into the right brain will become a part of a synchronized function—no longer a ‘one-two-three process. It is important to realize from the beginning that imag- ery can influence muscles. Muscles can be brought into action or released by images without discernible motion. In this way the quality of control of the arm, leg, or whatever, can be improved and eventually, through prac- tice, become automatic. To achieve this goal, it is first necessary to isolate each part of the body so the rider may learn how that part functions and how it feels when it LEARNING AND THE BRAIN 20. Oil and water, in a moving glass ball, continually flow and reshape but never blend.——< CENTERED RIDING moves correctly and incorrectly. This bit-by-bit approach gives the rider an understanding of the role each body part plays. Then an increasingly efficient use of the body becomes possible. This learning process actually develops quite rapidly, assuming each section is understood before going to the next. To let the right brain take over, trust is essential—trust in your body, your horse, and the ability of your right brain fo assimilate all the correct information. Inner Video An inner videotape can help. This is a private videotape inside you. To play it, use your soft eyes and, in your mind, see, hear, and feel an entire movement or exercise before actually doing it. It can also be useful to play your videotape continuously during a movement and then replay it afterward to check any errors. Try this: Before doing a circle, as you center yourself and organize your breathing, play your videotape of the whole movement of your horse-person and then trust and allow your body to function without tension and fear; the hard-eyed left brain will gradually become quieter and stop interfering. This does not mean you don’t use your aids actively. You do, but the parts of your body will cooperate and will move with less effort. How did your circle feel? Was it smooth and open? How did it sound? Were the horse's feet light or heavy on the ground? How did it look? Was it round, or was it oval, pear-shaped, a spiral, or perhaps even had a corner? Did that devilish left brain interfere? On your internal video- tape, replay the circle as you rode it. There are probably some unclear spots. These are the parts that were not quite right. So take those spots out of the tape and throw them away. They are past, and you don’t want to worry about them again. If you worry about them, they will get in the way. Having thrown away the incorrect parts, edit a new section into your tape and, playing it correctly, ride an- other circle. The minute you've ridden it, use your instant replay again to see how that one went. If there are still 26,some unclear sections, repeat the editing process, set in the good images, and replay. Each time you do this, you are deleting from your right brain the wrong “footage” and replacing it with what is correct. As you progress to more precise work, your videotape images will become more complex, but no harder to carry out if you have trained your body and right brain through constant repeti- tion and correction. Your body eventually develops the ability to respond to any image your videotape plays. Remember that as you begin learning a new technique, the images should be simple, and the right and left brain, soft and hard eyes, centering, and breathing just all work together. You can learn your video routines without being on a horse. Let’s say you have had one of those frustrating riding days where everything seemed to go wrong. It would be extremely useful, later on, in peace and quiet, to play all the riding sequences over and over as you knew they should have been. Next time you ride, the problems actually vanish—movement occurs easily, rhythmically, and correctly. By playing your edited videotape, you have clarified the new movement in the right brain. This is a known psychological phenomenon called covert learning. Concentration In order to learn most efficiently, you must be able to concentrate. You can’t force yourself to concentrate, how- ever; if you do, you will immediately find yourself tense— with a scowling face, set jaw, and tight shoulders, holding your breath, with your center of gravity rising. This is hard work. This is the left brain being busy and getting in the way. Most people want to be in total mental control of everything they do and find it difficult to allow their bodies to function without step-by-step instruction from the left brain. Watch a child or puppy playing. It has total concentra- tion on whatever it’s doing, be it chewing on a toy, chasing a ball, or building with blocks and throwing them down again. (Fig. 21.) The concentration may shift from 27 LEARNING AND THE BRAIN 21. A child lost in total concentra- tion, playing with his toy blocks.CENTERED RIDING one thing to another, but when it's there, it is total, complete, relaxed, and happy. In total concentration like this, the left brain is not interfering. Children and animals have not overdeveloped the left brain as you most likely have. Your goal is to allow yourself to concentrate just like puppies and small children. Betty Edwards, in her book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, tells us how she found that drawing seems to be a right-brained activity. She describes her state of concen- tration: “Ihave always done a lot of demonstration draw- ing in my classes, and it was my wish during the demon- strations to explain to students what I was doing—what | was looking at, why I was drawing things in certain ways. Toften found, however, that I would simply stop talking right in the middle of a sentence. I would hear my voice stop and I would think about getting back to the sentence, but finding the words again would seem like a terrible chore—and I didn’t really want to anyhow. But, pulling myself back at last, I would resume talking—and then find I had lost contact with the drawing, which suddenly seemed confusing and difficult. Thus I picked up a new bit of information: I could either talk or draw, but I couldn’t do both at once Thave had riders who were able to work in this state of true concentration. I can suggest things to them that they will incorporate instantly into their physical work, but they do not or cannot respond verbally until later. Their descriptions of how they felt during that time tend to be vague, though I can see in their eyes that they are still feeling, those satisfying sensations. How do you achieve this happy state of concentration? For some the path is more difficult than for others. Out- side elements batter at the door all the time: the stirrups feel wrong, a dog starts barking, your horse sees a gremlin behind a tree, a gust of wind comes along. The way to deal with these left-brain intrusions is to accept them as facts and immediately disregard them without further consid- eration. Do not argue. The stirrups really are okay, the dog does no harm, the gremlin disappears, and the wind makes no difference. (Fig. 22.) Your riding awareness and concentration have hardly been disrupted after all. 28You can practice in a playful way. Let’s ride a circle again. Using your videotape, switch back and forth be- tween the left and right brain, center yourself (right brain) with breathing and soft eyes, then place your legs cor- rectly (left brain). Now center yourself again, recheck the placing of your legs, and so on, back and forth. It should be easy and fun, like a game, not dull and frustrating. Soon you will find that you play less with the legs because their placing has become coordinated and simultaneous with the centering. There you are, joyfully concentrating ‘on doing circles. You have opened yourself and let the concentration happen. It probably would not have hap- pened if you had rigidly decided, “Now I'm going to concentrate on circles.” 22. When you concentrate, distractions are of no concern.CENTERED RIDING Awareness and Self-Exploration The object of my teaching is to enable the pupil to absorb the offered information and then use it independently. All too often a student becomes dependent on my presence. Before you can work effectively alone, you must have a sound knowledge of how your body performs. Once you have this grounding, I can help you achieve increased awareness and greater independence. Until about the age of two, bodies move in a natural way. From then on the customs of society tend to inhibit natural movement. For example, a child sitting in an ill- fitting chair is told to stop wiggling, though a healthy body wants and needs to wiggle when in discomfort. Social situations create a multitude of incorrect muscular patterns that most of us live with all our lives. The next exploration-exercise helps to dispel the bad habits and allow the normal, correct ones to take over. You probably often concentrate too much on a single problem spot, feeling that it must be corrected before you can move on. But as you struggle to make that correction, you neglect the rest of the body, which becomes distorted, full of tension, and out of balance. When you begin to feel this kind of discomfort, try exploring your whole body, section by section. Don’t dwell on any one part. You may make some surprising discoveries, or none at all. Don’t worry, just accept whatever comes. People with short, squat bodies who would like to be tall and slim may find their bodies asking for more room. An ineffective left leg may tell you that the tension in your right hip, or even in your neck, is the real trouble. A problem you've never been aware of may become evident. Wherever you put your awareness on a particular part of the body, you drop some energy into that part. You should not waste that energy by trying to make a specific forced correction on that original problem spot, because this will make you dwell on an incorrect habit. The right technique is to move your awareness quickly to some other body area. The energy left behind can then be used to correct the problem. It will allow you to use muscles you previously did not know how to use. goTo watch a student work through this exploration is fascinating. You can see the rider’s body becoming softer, more fluid, taller, more balanced, legs longer and more supple, ankles and knees soft, hands sensitive. The exer- cise demonstrates that if you remove the muscular and nervous interferences you build into your body, you will begin to function naturally, in a more balanced and effi- cient manner. When one girl told me that she could do what I taught her about 90 percent of the time when with me, but only about 40 percent when alone, I realized I must give my students some better tools to take away with them. She practiced the above exercise in self-awareness diligently for the duration of the lesson. By the end she was deli- riously happy. She had never ridden so well, and her horse had never been so forward-moving, light, and bal- anced. Most important, however, was her feeling that she could use this technique anywhere, anytime—take her instruction with her and be independent. What are the essentials of learning and concentration? + Use your hard eyes and left brain to identify the correct functions and feelings of a particular movement. + Use your soft eyes and right brain to allow that feeling to become integrated in the right brain as a part of the whole. + Don’t dwell long on any one problem area in your own or your horse's body. What are the results? * The parts of a movement will be synchronized into a whole. + Your body will respond with less effort and will function correctly, 31 LEARNING AND THE BRAIN