I was lucky enough to be able to participate in a wonderful clinic this past weekend at our O’Connor Signature facility at The Oaks of Lake City. We hosted a Centered Riding 2 day clinic taught by Heidi Potter who worked under the tutelage of the well respected and admired founder, Sally Swift. In this workshop, we focused and learned techniques on our body awareness and breathing.

Some people think of Centered Riding as yoga on horseback but it’s more about improving our balance, security and communication with our horse. What I discovered to be profound is how our mind can affect our riding. There were a couple of key aspects that I learned that I would like to share:

Awareness of your body

I bet we would all be amazed if we really took the time to recognize situations where we stop breathing or clinch our knees or do other things out of habit. For example; humor me and follow this exercise for a minute.

• Cross your arms...
• Cross your arms again...
• Was it the same arm on top both times?
• Now try it the other way... Does it feel weird?

The same thing can be tried with folding your hands. This proves to us that we are victims of habit and often will float through life and ride without being aware of our own bodies. Instead, practice using clear intent which we can all do through “ideokinesis” a word meaning “the idea you hold in your mind affects the way your body moves”.

Glass half empty or full?

One of the things that the clinician first asked us to do was to NOT think of a zebra…Now, what just happened as you read that? Bet you thought of a Zebra…J Precisely what we did too. She explained that our minds don’t process negatives. Instead it causes us to react in just the way that we are trying to avoid. If we say to ourselves when riding, “don’t get tight, don’t’ get tight, don’t get tight” …we usually end up..getting tight. Instead, if we change our thinking and tell ourselves to relax our breathing then our mind processes that information and we have positive images versus the negative.

75/25% Rule

Another profound realization was that she taught us to focus 75% of our energy on ourselves and 25% of our energy on the horse. If we are not correct then the horse cannot perform correctly. This can also be used in our teaching.

Brakes?

Last but not least. I loved this thought for all riders out there that can tend to get too “handsy” with their half halts. We have all been there. Just remember, we don’t want to stop their mouth…we want to stop their feet!

Rhonda Gailey
Resident Equestrian Facility Manager
The Oaks Equestrian Center - an O'Connor Signature Facility

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