If we don't breathe our hips don't breathe

I gave a few lessons last week and noticed how I have been slowly incorporating what I get from my yoga practice and yoga teacher training into riding and teaching. It is small things that are hard to explain but during these lessons one extremely important thing dawned on me.

People don't breathe. When we ride we hold our breath. And when we hold our breath we hold our body, we slow our energies from moving around and we block those oh so important hips.

As riders we need to be strong but at the same time relaxed. We need to have a strong core and back but we also need to be light and follow the movement of the horse. One very important thing is that our hips are not jammed and that the energy from the horse is allowed to flow freely through our hips all the way up to the skull and back.

The thing is that our bodies are mostly made up of water and water is energy. The horse is made up of a LOT of water so the horse is a very energetic creature. Energy is very important and we sometimes forget to listen to it. We talk a lot about intuition but how I perceive it is that a lot of the energy around us is just that. Intuition. You either feel good or bad around someone and if we are really honest, how often has the energy we felt gone wrong? Hardly ever.

When we ride a horse we sometimes forget how well the horse feels our energy and the state of our mind at that particular moment. We are concentrated on the way we feel after a long day at work, our thoughts go out to the guy who is impatiently waiting at home or the children that we forgot to feed. We are striving for something and looking for perfection when all we would need is just to focus on being present in the moment.

We often cannot affect the course of the day, but what we can affect is our thoughts and our breathing. We can learn to breath through both the good and the bads and learn to focus on our breath when we feel sad, stressed, unfocused or just stiff in the body. Because a lot of the stiffness that we experience; back problems, stomach soreness and neck and shoulder jams are also mental. They are created by our mind and the fact that we forget to keep that energy rolling. We simply forget to breath. And now I don't mean shallow breaths but breaths that you feel all the way to your toes, deep within the stomach and at that little curve in the back where it usually hurts the most.

Quite often we ask if Our horses have a willing mindset, but what about us? Is our mindset relaxed, willing and co-operative? Are we ready to make that little extra effort the next time and slow down to a walk, maybe even stop for a moment, close our eyes and breath?

Please try it! I promise you want be disappointed and not only will you feel better but you will also develop into a better partner for your horse.


Ps. This is not based on any scientific fact that I will be referring to (although there is a lot of fact available). This is just my way of keeping my blog as my diary and learning and writing down my thoughts. I want to develop as a rider, mother and teacher but first and foremost I want to be the best person my horse could ever dream of. I want my horse to be a happy horse.