|
Body Alignment Lessons For The Rider |
| Print | |
|
A Somatic Approach is about feeling and sensing and informing the body from within rather than trying to apply external corrections.
By taking the main principles of T'ai Chi, Qigong, Psoas Release, Feldenkrais and many other somatic practises Jo will help you to develop your own internal map of how your own body connects; not through learning anatomy, but through developing your own feel and learning to find postural balance without tension. Advanced lessons show you how to use your mind, breath and energy to effect.
- Change postural habits
- Become adhesive in your seat
- More effective in your aids
- Remove chronic tensions
- Become the fluid rider that you can be
Postural habits and tensions die hard for the rider. If your riding instructor keeps giving you the same postural corrections that you would change if you could, if you hold fear, pain or restriction in your body that stops you from being the fluid, adhesive rider that you would wish to be then these workshops will be a key for you in unlocking your potential.
Jo had been a full time professional Riding Instructor for over a decade before her very in-depth explorations into therapy and movement for a further decade. She understands posture, breath and movement as an integrated whole and brings that to you in your relationship to riding horses.
These workshops are designed for the everyday rider as much as for the very highly trained rider. We explore body and movement and its relationship to the riding posture. Through using techniques and lessons you will have an experiential and practical exploration into the dynamics and workings of your own body and its relationship to riding.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Posture & Movement Lessons! |
|
For the rider we explore dynamic posture, form and fluid movement, suppleness, balance and energetic awareness that begins with our own body's structure and function aimed specifically at the rider.
Principles and practises will come from Psoas & Core Release, Breath work, Movement and Awareness, Qigong and T'ai Chi. The results are double-fold. Not only will we be taking close attention to the form of the rider but we will be looking at movement for life and its living!
The emphasis? Fluidity, balance, suppleness, freedom from pain. We want to remove stiffness from riding as a number one aim in order to bring a cohesive and adhesive partnership together. We want to respond to the horse without fear and tightness in the body.
We will be taking a particularly close observation of the major joints, our alignment with gravity and working with our breath and energy system. Taking a close look at alleviating pain and chronic tension patterns and replace that with balance, suppleness and strength.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
The Somatic Rider Series: 'The Posture & Alignment' Workshop |
| Print | |
|
These workshops are dedicated to riders and aimed at the everyday rider as much as for those whose aspirations are to be the elite rider. This is for you if you want to develop skill, body awareness, harmonious movement patterns to absorb and direct the horse with elegance and fluidity, developing yourself by working with you as the individual and unique whole that you already are!
We will take an in-depth look at body structure and function with the aim of developing our skill in the use of our own body for riding. These workshops will be highly practical and experiential in finding your own form. These lessons are not an outside-in approach but an inside-out one! Instead of making constant external corrections to your position by ‘trying’ to make yourself sit well or differently we will involve ourselves in developing good organisational patterns of the body and removing old, habitual holding or tension patterns.
Finding Stability without Rigidity
Flexible Hips & Spinal Posture
Core Strength & Development
Postural Alignment & Spinal Flexibility
Proprioception & Self Awareness
The Influence and Use of the Breath
Finding the Connected Seat to the Fluid Hand
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
T'ai Chi and Riding Horses |
|
 T'ai Chi is fundamentally a study of posture, balance and movement; everything that is relevant to moving harmoniously. Pure T'ai Chi can be likened to a moving meditation whereby each step, or movement, flows into the next; posture, breath, balance and suppleness all add up to a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Whilst it is not necessary to learn T'ai Chi in its pure form, its principles and practises are relevant and highly informing to the rider.
Fundamental to T'ai Chi is the lower dantien. This is the area which resides in the lower abdomen. T'ai Chi-ers talk about this as the centre or beginning of all movement, it is where the body energy and power resides. Being empowered through the lower dantien brings you to your core strength and balance. |
|
|
