Since June 2018 I am a Centered Riding Instructor, and here’s why: the more I worked on my horsemanship, the more it dawned on me that we, as humans and passionate horse owners, are almost always focused on improving our horses physically and mentally, but are not always equally concerned with ourselves and our own fitness. We tend to put our horses under a magnifying glass, but let ourselves off the hook a lot of the time.
Centered Riding asks us, as riders, the uncomfortable question: how healthy are we? How fit are we, physically, but in a way also mentally and emotionally. How focused are we (when working with our horses)? How aware are we? How do we carry our own bodies, when we are standing, sitting, walking and going through life generally? How ‘straight’ are we, ourselves, when we are riding our horses? Do we help or hinder them in their movement? Are we tense and is our breathing irregular, or are we grounded and balanced? How loose, supple and aligned are we ourselves, in our ‘poll’ (atlas joint), in our neck and in our spine?
Centered Riding helps make the rider more aware of the (often not so good) habits that have settled into our bodies over the years. Once we are aware of habits that might féél good to us, but aren’t in fact helping us (the problem with bad habits is that they often feel so good), we can start the process of change, and begin using our bodies more effectively, whether we are sitting, standing, moving, and riding.
Centered Riding re-educates us about our own anatomy and biomechanics by means of beautiful, simple imagery and metaphors that can really bring your riding to another level. Studying Centered Riding is an ongoing process for me; it is really a journey toward more balance and self-carriage within my own body, so to speak. I love it, and like to integrate the teaching tools into my lessons.
Want to know more? Don’t hesitate to send an e-mail