While looking toward an object, let your eyes relax. Let the object be the general center of your gaze, but look at it with your peripheral vision taking in the largest possible expanse around it.
You will become simultaneously aware of your surroundings and your inner body, the relationship of its parts to each other and to your horse. The use of soft eyes opens the way for proprioception and awareness. Proprioception is the ability to sense where all your body parts are in relation to one another. Identity, one's sense of self, is organically anchored in proprioception. When you are using soft eyes, you will find it much easier to feel how the horse is moving your body.
By allowing you distinct awareness of what is going on around you, beneath you and inside of you, the practice of soft eyes becomes almost a philosophy rather than just a visual capability. With hard, intently focused eyes, you tend to hold your breath, lose your center and be less aware of the relationship of your body to your surroundings, including your horse.
One interesting outcome of this basic is that a number of people working in a small area can ride complicated movements independently without bumping into each other if they use soft eyes.
If they use hard eyes, probably focusing intently on their horses' ears, they will collide and crash. Basic 4: Building Blocks Finally, you can focus on the balancing effect of building blocks.
When you are "built" correctly, your body is aligned for harmonious movement. If you don't have balance, your entire ride will become involved either in trying to find it or in using extra muscular effort to avoid falling off your horse.
As I wrote in Centered Riding 17 years ago, "Your bottom building blocks are your legs and feet. The next block is your pelvis, then rib cage, shoulders and, last, your head and neck. For flatwork, the correct lineup of the blocks viewing the body sideways will allow you to drop a plumb line from the ear through the tip of the shoulder, hip joint and ankle. Just before it passes through your hip joint, you will find it going straight through your center.
Without the other basics, you lose balance. You need them all. Grounding There is a story in my family of my looking up at my father and saying, "I may not go up as far as you do, but I go down just as far. I am constantly impressed by the importance of being grounded in everything we do. Grounding is not a separate basic but the foundation on which the Four Basics depend. Grounding gives everything else security. It is a feeling that your well-established center is dropping energy down through your legs and feet into the ground, while the energy in the ground comes up to your feet.
An image or feeling of grounding has your legs and feet sucked gently down and down, from your open hip joints into the ground where the soles of your feet are secured as if by magnets. The magical part is that the ground, even as it holds you, can move with your feet anywhere you wish, giving you total stability at all times. You know that nothing and no one can knock you over. This sensation happens just as easily when you are on your horse and your feet are not actually touching the ground.
Grounding is not a matter of being heavy. I'll explain. Have you ever had to deal with a small child who does not want to go to bed and somehow makes herself inseparable from the floor?
Similarly, George Leonard, author of The Ultimate Athlete , tells of his daughter, who weighed just pounds, making herself so heavy that a weightlifter could not pick her up! One way to experience being grounded is to try the exercise I call "feet in the sand" described in another chapter. You can also ground different parts of your body: your feet, your knees and your seat. This sensation of being connected to the earth is a powerful tool.
The Basics in Action Recently, I have become even more acutely aware of the power of the center through working with disabled riders. One was Pam, who had lost a significant degree of control of her body and limbs in a car accident. I made no effort to teach her how to ride; I simply worked with her as she sat on the horse. I put my hands on her lower body, front and back, to locate her center as you did when you found your own center.
I also paid a lot of attention to myself, to my own centering, grounding and balance, to my breathing and soft eyes. I talked quietly about her, allowing her to be aware of the area between my hands, especially toward the hand on the sacrum, and discover peace and quiet there.
I persisted, being careful to keep 75 percent of my attention on my own center and grounding and only 25 percent on Pam. More attention on her than that appeared to cause her to overload and block her body, but the 25 percent seemed to quiet her frantically active center. As I concentrated on our centers in that way, her body began to find more normal patterns. Her buttocks relaxed, her hamstrings and the muscles down the fronts of her legs released.
This in turn released her hip joints so her legs dropped down under her, and her torso stopped tipping forward, backward or sideways and came into balance.
Her seat settled all over the saddle. When she was led off at the walk, her back rippled; she moved with the horse with a following seat. Each rider I worked with responded the same way. It seemed like a miracle. My hypothesis is that the senses of the disabled and of all of us in varying lesser degrees are more peripheral than centered.
There tends to be a lot of extraneous activity and disorientation in the periphery. When we can bring awareness and quiet into the center, the extraneous activity can be brought in, reorganized and sent back out again in better order. The way in which centering is helpful to disabled riders indicates not only that the center can be a powerful area of reorganization, but that the body seeks normality. If we can remove or reduce interferences, the body will return to as close to normal as possible.
I was curious to discover if the same effect occurred with able-bodied riders. In some of my clinics, I tried doing the unmounted, hands-on work first so that less would have to be done on the horse. The riders worked in pairs, with one putting her hands on the front and back of the other's lower torso.
Centered Riding is not a 'different kind of riding' or a discipline in itself but it is a tool which can be used in all disciplines. The methods teach, explain and allow riders to 'feel' a clearer understanding and connection between rider, horse and instructor. Based on the knowledge of horse and human anatomy, bio-mechanics, balance and movement, Centered Riding increases body awareness and understanding and helps riders recognise old habits to enable them to replace old patterns with new thought processes thus allowing horse and rider move more freely to improve performance.
A rider has to learn how his own body and the body and mind of the horse are functioning to be able to improve all their skills to perform together in better balance and ease. It uses centering and grounding techniques from the oriental martial arts, along with body awareness, mental imagery and sports psychology. This work teaches riders how to re-educate their mind and body towards greater balance and integration.
Through increasing body awareness, inhibiting old patterns, and replacing them with a more balanced, free, and coordinated use of self, both horse and rider can move more freely, comfortably and confidently. The Basics are enhanced by Self-Awareness , Clear Intent for effective control, direction and use of aids, and Grounding for stability and balance.
Application of these principals help solve many problems that horses and their riders face. Centered Riding teaches you how to help your body do what you need to do in order to ride well and allow your horse to do his job well. This can actually be confusing to the horse as it inhibits the connection from your center, seat and legs, into your hands. This lack of connection can result in the horse not staying on the rail, falling in on the corners, and not being able to maintain a steady rhythm and tempo.
A softly closed hand simply serves as a hook for the reins to pass through. This image should help you provide a nice feel and connection with your horse. When we consider our hands, one basic goal is to create and keep a straight line from the elbow to the bit, following softly with a giving hand. It is important not to bend or break your wrist line while holding the reins. When that occurs, you immediately block and disrupt the flow of energy, breaking the connection with your horse.
Imagining that you are wearing a wrist brace or you can actually do so will help you remember to maintain that straight line. As your horse raises and lowers his head, your hands simply follow, keeping that straight line. When we consider connection and softness through our hands, we need to rule out any issues with the bit. Bits will create either relaxation or resistance in your horse.
You must first rule out pain, which could be skeletal, muscular or in the mouth itself. It may be necessary to consult a veterinarian, an equine dentist, an equine chiropractor, or all three. Once you have taken pain out of the equation, you must next be sure your horse is comfortable with the bit you have. Try different bits and compare his response to each. It will become clear which ones he prefers, assuming your hands are not the issue.
Our goal is to ride in harmony with the horse, without impeding his natural movement and balance. I really like reminding my students to imagine they are riding all four feet and the body of the horse. Riders are often amazed at how responsive and correct horses can become when they make their suggestions though their centers and minds first. Next time you ride, try setting your reins down while in a safe, enclosed area and direct your horse with only your energy, intent and body.
Then slightly soften the thigh you are turning towards. Try halting by using only a big, deep, audible exhale and stopping the movement of your seat. This exercise helps bring awareness to riding with your body first, then using your reins to improve balance and communication in a soft, suggestive manner.
Be mindful about asking slowly and releasing quickly. Your horse will thank you! When you hold your hands horizontally you are physically crossing two bones in your forearm, thus disturbing the connection.
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