This Really Does Work: Watching Equestrians Refine Posting
This Really Does Work: Watching Equestrians Refine Posting
In the visual arts, theater, cultural events and yoga instruction, the North Country performs way above our weight class. I now know that we are also beautiful and accomplished equestrians.
Matthew Roy is a masterful trainer of horses and riders, and a bit of a visionary. His Whitefield, NH, stable houses 40-some horses and is the "home away from home" for a posse of dedicated riders, many training for competitions. Matt had checked out an Awareness Through Movement lesson and had a flash about how his distribution of weight across hips affects his communications with his mount.
Brilliantly, IMHO, he invited me to teach that lesson to a group of his more experienced students. Little did it occur to me that the 'Ribbons and Gentle Fingers" lesson would be a study in the nuances of posting. In the lesson, students imagine a gentle ribbon drawing the chest and sacrum outward and up while a gentle finger guides the opposite side inwards and down. I teach this lesson to meditators, to people who don't want to slump at their desks, to skiers - and now riders! Of course, we visualized blue ribbons.
I got to watch the riders as they experimented with the lesson on horseback. And I witnessed some dramatic shifts. One student was using her back muscles to lift into a post. Matt encouraged her to focus on the downward motion of a ribbon pulling her sacrum toward the horse's withers, and her movement instantly became more fluid and graceful. Another student started to work on her tendency to lean back in the saddle by practicing "super slumping.*" Slumping doesn't come naturally to her, but she now has something to play with as she explores allowing her spine to relax out of rigidity.
Big up to Matt, his barn rats, happy horses and students. Whenever the competition season gets started, the Matthew Roy Stables riders will be prepped to bring home the big blues.
Stop Light Mini Lesson: The Super Slump
Back by popular demand for desk jockeys and, now, equestrians. Here's a trick to try when your shoulders are locked in a slump, your low back is frozen, your chest is collapsed, and your neck is grumpy from trying to hold up your entire body. Super Slumping lets all those overworking muscles let go so when you release the slump - POP! Your chest opens, your head lifts, your low back relaxes.
If you have 15 seconds, try this mini-lesson:
Sit comfortably with your legs level with your hips and your feet firmly placed on the ground.
Imagine a ribbon (blue if you are a rider) tied to the inside of your breastbone. It comes down through the center of your body and out through the sacrum.
Take a breath. Then exhale while you imagine someone gently pulling the ribbon down towards the back corner of the room. Allow your chest to soften as it is drawn down. Let your back to round and your shoulders spread, Notice how your belly to come a little towards your spine. Your weight shifts back on your sit bones and onto the heels.
Exaggerate the rounding into a Super Slump. Let your neck go soft, your head drop so your chin even rests on your chest. Take a few breaths here.
The release the slump to POP up. Repeat a few times until your breath is easy and your back feels a bit more relaxed.
If you are on a horse, time the movement down towards the withers with the gait. Enjoy the POP of the forward motion of the gait. Use this move to help slow the horse down without pulling on the reins.
Enjoy!