Dressage and Basic Equitation

    I am interested in the relationship of “good use” to how we ride and interact with our horses.  From novice to advanced riders, we can all benefit from learning how our own habits of movement can be a block in our learning and in our communication with our horses.  And I find that the more I understand the relationship of the head, neck and back as the intrinsic balance in both the horse and rider the clearer my learning, teaching and training become.

    I offer unmounted lessons on the Alexander Technique as well as lessons on my horses focusing mainly on the seat and how it relates to the freedom of movement in both horse and rider.       

   Posture is an expression.  It is the output of the complex system of the body involving emotions, personality, confirmation and compensations.    It’s unique for every person...and every horse.

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ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE AND RIDING
(see Articles for the full article)
Alexander maintained that "Man is a psycho-physical whole... he is a unified whole." Living creatures do not function in parts. The part is always a reflection of the entire system. ....We should not be so determined to get a specific result or movement that we compromise the use of ourselves or of our horses. "No matter how many specific ends you may gain, you are worse off than before, [Alexander] maintained, if in the process of gaining them you have destroyed the integrity of the organism" (Frank Pierce Jones). How we get somewhere is more important than whether or not we arrive.
                                                              Elizabeth Reese, Dressage and CT

THE GOAL OF RIDING
(From "Shambala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior")
“First you must trust in yourself.  Then you can also trust in the earth or gravity of a situation and because of that, you can uplift yourself.  At that point, your discipline becomes delightful rather than being an ordeal or a great demand.  
When you ride a horse, balance comes not from freezing your legs to the saddle, but from learning to float with the movement of the horse as you ride.  Each step is a dance, the rider’s dance as well as the dance of the horse.”
                                                                Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche,