Wed May 22 - 19th session
Today's lecture had to do with action and effect.
If you were to stand very still and move one finger, what is the effect that motion would have on the rest of your body? Most would answer - none - only my finger is moving. But if you really "listen" to your body and follow the effect your moving finger has on your wrist, your forearm, your upper arm, your shoulder, etc, you will realize that "just" moving your finger has a HUGE effect on the rest of your body in terms of sympathetic movements. No part of your body can move without having such an effect on the whole of your body. How sensitive you are to this movement, and how broad your vision, will determine how far into your "core" you can follow the sensation of this impact taking place.
Such is the impact you have on a horse. By the simple placement of your thumb on the rein, or not, can affect your hand, wrist, arm, shoulder, back, seat - and ergo - the horse as well.
Exercises like laying flat on your back and rolling your head slowly from side to side and being aware not of your head, but of all the movements required by the rest of your body, however subtle they may be, will heighten your awareness of the self.
So when we think we had an effect on the horse by using an aid, was it really the aid, or the rest of the body having to sympathize with that movement that had the "true" effect, or a combination of both? Case in point, if using a certain rein aid only works sometimes, then what else is it about the body that is giving an additional aid as well in a sympathetic way, that is intermittent? Whatever it is, find it and use it.
Riding a horse is experimental. It's about tweaking and testing and being bold enough to dare to make a mistake, in the interest of finding the "cure". Horses can be as amazingly forgiving as they are sensitive. When they do forgive, they allow you to learn through experimentation. And when they don't forgive, they teach you directly.
One of the greatest gifts dressage has given me, is the awareness of every move I make, every step, every turn of my head, every muscle in my body. It's quite a revelation.
Next session has been switched to Sunday at 3:30.
Last edited by LC Sponge : Wed, May-22-02 at 19:02.
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