At Horse Listening, we are emphatic life-long learners of all things horsey. You will be reminded time and again about how there is so much to be learned from horses and other horse people, if only we listened.
It's autumn! We're in for a long stretch of beautiful riding weather and quieter days - how about a little self-development off the horse? Dave Thind, horse rider, trainer and instructor, is also an authorized teacher of the Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement method. What is it, you ask?
I heard of the Feldenkrais Method over twenty years ago when I was doing competitive trail riding. Many of the riders were using the Method for developing their own bodies so that they could be better riders. Anyone who had tried it had high praise for how it made them feel. They raved about how much better their bodies felt from seemingly simple exercises. But most Feldenkrais instructors have no concept of how the Method can be applied to horse riding. Dave has expertise in both areas - and applies the Feldenkrais exercises to improve key areas of the body for riding. Click here to directly access his website now.
Read on for an amazing exercise that can help you improve your seat and body position with a simple but profound off-the-horse awareness movement.
This article was previously published here.
Improve your seat and say goodbye to hip and lower back pain with this advice from equestrian biomechanics specialist Dave Thind and American team rider Charlotte Jorst.
One of the biggest difficulties in the sport of dressage stems from the rider’s desire to sit up tall. However, as riders, we also want to be able to follow our horses in a supple way, while maintaining the appropriate amount of muscular activity required for the task at hand.
"The sensation of effort is due to other actions being enacted besides the one intended.”
—Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais
American Team Rider Charlotte Jorst has been incorporating the following slow-motion awareness exercises by noted equestrian biomechanics specialist Dave Thind. Jorst explained that prior to this work, she constantly had to work hard to sit up straight in her riding and was unknowingly working against her own body.
As riders, we must all work on refining our seats. At the higher levels, it is a matter of small details for more precision.
She also revealed that prior to weekly practice of the Dave Thind Method (DTM), based on the Feldenkrais Method®, Jorst could not alleviate pain on her own through the stretching exercises she was using.
To achieve optimal alignment goals and ride in harmony with our equine partners, we as riders must learn where in our bodies we can let go, therefore becoming more supple and fluid. Equally important is learning where in our bodies we require the appropriate degree of muscle tone so that our aids are most effective.
Train at Home
In addition to the help of a good instructor and a suitable horse, you can also train your seat from home. By doing slow-motion exercises to help you learn “feel,” you can easily learn the biomechanics and the secrets of “sitting up tall.” These unmounted exercises can also enhance your riding and help you avoid repetitive stress injuries. Even though we are calling these “exercises,” the ultimate goal is not necessarily increasing fitness, but refining our suppleness and feeling.
Many riders of various levels have achieved their ideal seat and also removed unnecessary stress, pain, and body tension through Dave Thind’s method. Riders can expand their proprioception, increasing their awareness of old habits and body patterns. This helps to reset, reboot and allow the nervous system to choose more optimal ways of moving by presenting options while doing the exercises.
There are a multitude of reasons of why we would want to incorporate movement exercises such as DTM depending on age, goals and physical fitness.
“A smooth sitting rider who is swinging into the horses’ movements is a horseman/horsewoman. This is important for the welfare of the horse. The better the rider’s position, the happier the horse—and Dave helps his clients achieve good positions.” —Christoph Hess, German F.N. Educational Ambassador.
One of the reasons riders choose to incorporate this type of training is to address personal asymmetries. In traditional thinking, if a rider is crooked, we try to find symmetry by unbending or untwisting them in the opposite direction to create a long, symmetrical picture. However in DTM or Feldenkrais, which focuses on why the brain wants to put us in our perceived middle, we must do more of what the body wants to do in order to make the habitual pattern crystal clear to the nervous system. And then the rider can explore the same pattern on the other side. This gives the brain the stimulus needed to rediscover what our true middle is.
“In my early work with Dave, I remember really being fascinated by the concept and the feeling of being tall and upright without working hard,” Jorst said. “Amazing! I was delighted to give up working hard to sit up and keep my shoulders back. His courses have catapulted my riding in a direction that I am very happy with and I am much more supple in my body, both when riding and in my daily life.”
Research shows the “traditional approach” of “fixing,” typically causes more stiffness as the nervous system tends to guard against change that is corrective in nature. Therefore, the body’s response is more stiffness and guarding.
By implementing simple awareness exercises, we can show the brain new and more effective options to move. The easiest, most comfortable and most efficient organization in movement is usually the most biomechanically correct.
Tips to Sit Up Tall Without Working Against Yourself from Charlotte Jorst
1. Get to know your body parts.
Where is your pelvis, your hip joints, the various vertebrae of your spine? With regards to the curves of your spine, how can they change, and what else changes when you change the shape of your spine?
2. Do you stand and walk with your head over your pelvis? We need this when we ride but it should not be forced. Therefore, via the spine, do your head and pelvis communicate with each other in a supple way, or is something rigid?
3. Sit in a chair and try slouching. Then slouch more. What do you need to do with your pelvis to do this well? Your chest? Your head? Maybe even your eyes? If your pelvis was a bowl of soup, tip the bowl backward toward your tailbone in order to lift your belt buckle. Maybe imagine a dog tucking its tail between its legs. See how tipping the bowl backward can help you slouch or round if you wanted to.
And inversely, tip the bowl forward letting your belly out, in order to get taller, vertebra by vertebra. Try doing this without working too hard. As you tip your pelvis forward, you can imagine a string gently pulling up on your sternum. Try to feel and imagine one vertebrae at a time tipping forward and finally coming all the way up to your sternum and your head (to make you taller).
You can also imagine the whole spine like a pearl necklace and one pearl moves the next pearl. This is an example of the head and pelvis communicating with each other.
Go back and forth. This exercise is called “Pelvic Clock.”
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David has several courses that feature many exercises designed to teach a rider body awareness and "reprogram" the body for better posture, riding seat, and symmetry. Feel better and ride better!
David's free mini-course: One hour class featuring body awareness, suppleness and bone strengthening exercises! Click here.
DTM Fall Wheel Alignment Course: David has a brand new, LIVE series of 6 classes that just started this week! If you'd like more information on how to get access (sessions are recorded for replay): click here. Special 10% off code for Horse Listening readers only: type "HORSELISTENING" in the Code at checkout.
DTM Skeletal Course: Here's an on-demand video course that will help you learn the movement you need to absorb the concussive forces coming through your body. Click here.