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Mouth and Tongue Issues

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Mouth and Tongue Issues

I recently received an email from a lady with a question about a tongue issue that her horse had all his life. His tongue often comes out of the front of his mouth, c. 4cm, and goes back in, almost like a snake’s. It sounds like a licking motion. He has a tendency to worry and to get distracted.

Since I don’t know the rider or the horse my advice had to be relatively general, suggesting several possible causes for this phenomenon that she can investigate on her own. And then I thought that this might be an interesting topic for others as well because mouth and tongue issues are not uncommon, and they can be caused by a variety of factors.

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Connection(s) And Throughness

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Connection(s) And Throughness

Connection(s) and throughness is actually a rather large topic on which you could write a whole book because there are several different aspects to it that you can explain in great detail. There are many different connections that have to be established between the rider’s aids and the horse’s body, between the horse’s legs and the ground, as well as between the different parts of the horse’s body. With each new connection, the energy of the horse’s hind legs can travel more freely through his body and the permeability for the aids increases. Every time a connection is lost, the permeability diminishes and the movement impulses of the hind legs as well as the rider’s aids get stuck.

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Aids as Boundaries

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Aids as Boundaries

Aids are used for a variety of purposes. They are a means of communicating our intentions to the horse. They are sensors that feel the horse’s muscle tone and mood. We can use them as probes that follow the pathways of the horse’s bones and muscles to find any stiff, inflexible joints and muscles. And they can be used to frame the horse and create boundaries within which we want the horse to move.

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Investing In Yourself To Help Your Horse

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Investing In Yourself To Help Your Horse

You have probably all seen funny memes and jokes in which the horse has the best of everything - custom saddle, top notch farrier, regular massage, osteopath, chiropractor, you name it - while the rider wears old, worn out boots and breeches, and takes some ibuprofen to keep going. There is often a stark contrast between how well we take care of our horses and how much we neglect to take care of ourselves. Sometimes this probably has to do with the limited availability of funds. So we prioritise the horse over ourselves.

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Tip: Turn like a compass [+ VIDEO]

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Tip: Turn like a compass [+ VIDEO]

In riding turns, many riders turn their heads and shoulders too far in the new direction, while their pelvis remains more or less straight. The horse, however, tends to follow the alignment of the rider’s pelvis. He will typically go where the belly button is pointing. If you want to leave the current line of travel by riding a turn, you have to indicate this by rotating your pelvis and pointing your belly button in the new direction.

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Transitions Into Lower Gaits

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Transitions Into Lower Gaits

Down transitions are often more difficult for horses and riders than up transitions because horses tend to resist more against the half halts in down transitions than against the driving aids in up transitions.
For a good down transition, the combined weight of horse and rider needs to flow through the spine and through a specific leg into the ground, so that the horse can stay balanced, round, and light. If you ride a down transition into a hind leg - which is usually the case - this hind leg should fold its joints as it allows the half halt to go through. If there is any muscle blockage anywhere along the path between the bit and the hind leg joints, the horse will resist against the aids.

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The Circle of the Aids

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The Circle of the Aids

The circle of aids is an important concept in the rider’s training. It refers to the flow of energy within the horse and to the way the rider’s aids stimulate and channel this flow. 

The circle of aids typically begins with a driving calf aid that brings the horse’s hind legs closer to the center of gravity and into the sphere of influence of the seat. If the hind legs are too far out behind, they are out of reach for the seat and the horse’s back drops. Trying to apply any seat aid at that moment will make the situation worse. It will cause the back to drop - and hurt - even more, and the hind legs will then actually be prevented from stepping under by the weight aid. 

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The "HOW" of Learning Rider Feel - Part 4 of 4

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The "HOW" of Learning Rider Feel - Part 4 of 4

So what IS Feldenkrais? And how can YOU use it in YOUR riding?

Very simply Feldenkrais lessons refine your ability to ‘listen’ to the information from your senses that lets you know the quality of your balance, breathing, posture and movement. It is this ability to pay attention to the subtle nuances of your sensory feedback mechanism that makes the difference between the effortless co-ordination of great riders and expending too much energy for the job in hand.


As a rider, it can help you to recognise and inhibit the unhelpful muscular efforts that interfere with your performance. You will become more discerning and improve your sensitivity, so you can respond quickly and easily to your horse. You will become quicker at identifying how to adjust any part of your body so you can ride how you’ve always wanted to. 

If you want to experience this now try this short Feldenkrais lesson…

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The "HOW" of Learning Rider Feel - Part 3 of 4

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The "HOW" of Learning Rider Feel - Part 3 of 4

Recently I was out on a hack with a friend. She was asking about Feldenkrais and how it applied to riding. She had observed me having lessons with my trainer and was struck by my ability to easily move my body in a particular direction or with a certain quality.

I explained that Feldenkrais lessons improve the quality of our action and that we can apply the experience of moving better to our riding. She looked puzzled.

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The "HOW" of Learning Rider Feel - Part 2 of 4

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The "HOW" of Learning Rider Feel - Part 2 of 4

In my last blog I described how I got to a pretty low point in my horse-owning journey. Before Shana’s email dropped into my inbox, I had felt compelled to have lessons with one of the yard staff because it seemed easier to fall in line with their wishes rather than to be on the receiving end of their sniping or criticisms whenever the classical trainer that I wanted to work with came onto the yard. 

I had also surreptitiously signed up to a couple of online trainings with people who seemed to have a similar philosophy to my own, but I was not having any success in translating their teachings into my riding. I was at the point where I would sail down the school on the right rein, trying to apply what I’d learnt online about steering, but with no positive result whatsoever. I was frequently to be spotted stuck in the corner of the school while my horse ate the hedge. Amusing though this was - and I do have the capacity to laugh at myself - this only served to contribute further to my feelings of inadequacy and embarrassment.

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The "HOW" of Learning Rider Feel - Part 1 of 4

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The "HOW" of Learning Rider Feel - Part 1 of 4

There’s nothing like the feeling when everything comes together and you are totally at one with your mind and body. When I’m in that state, where the lightest of intentions turns into effortless action, it’s the most exhilarating feeling imaginable. Some people call it being in a state of flow, but I think of it as being ‘in the zone’. When I’m in the zone, I feel completely in balance, I feel strong yet light and, most importantly, I have this immense sense of freedom that allows me to be totally spontaneous.

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Core Stability

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Core Stability

A member asked a question about core stability on the Artistic Dressage page. I was struck by the huge variety in understanding of what the core is, which got me thinking about how you might access your core in a way that could be effective in riding, as well as in daily life. So in my ride today I decided to pay very close attention to how I keep myself in balance and report my findings back here. I’m not the greatest or most experienced rider, however many years of teaching Feldenkrais, movement and sport has given me a relatively refined sense of how I’m moving at any point in time.

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Game Changers: Some Important Discoveries In My Own Journey

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Game Changers: Some Important Discoveries In My Own Journey

As riders and teachers our particular approach, our techniques and methodology, our focus is very much a result of our own personal journey. It is shaped by the difficulties that we had to overcome, our own weaknesses, our discoveries, our teachers, the horses we have ridden, the books we have read, the other riders we have interacted with, and also by the students we have taught.

Occasionally, our personal journey leads us to discoveries that are real game changers for us. To others, they may be insignificant, but to us the world will never be the same afterwards. We can almost divide our riding career in pre-discovery and post-discovery. That’s how much these discoveries helped us improve our own riding. These game-changing discoveries will be different for everyone. In this blog post, I want to share some of my lightbulb moments that have helped me move to a higher level of understanding and practical skill. Perhaps they will be helpful for you as well, and maybe you can think of your own momentous discoveries and share them with us.

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Turning The Pelvis With Ease

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Turning The Pelvis With Ease

This week's newsletter article is a guest post by one of our guest teachers in our courses, Catherine McCrum. Catherine is a Feldenkrais practitioner and Gestalt psychotherapist living and working in London. The Feldenkrais Method is a way of improving how you move and function in daily life with a particular focus on how your unconscious movement patterns and posture holds you back from doing what you want to do with ease and grace. She works with a wide variety of clients and students from athletes and performers to people with neurological difficulties. Her original training was as a ski coach and trainer which she finds very applicable to her relatively new love of riding and her horse.

Release Your Fascia To Improve Your Seat

Release Your Fascia To Improve Your Seat

Only a supple, relaxed seat allows you to apply correct, fine aids. Any weakness, crookedness, or imbalance will have negative repercussions for the training of the horse or the communication between horse and rider and lead to problems. A friend of mine said the other day: “Horses have made themselves available to us.” They accompany us, are partners, and don’t carry grudges. Even after we have made mistakes they give us the great opportunity to further our development - mentally as well as physically. When we learn to become aware of our senses, to feel, to see, and to hear, our horses provide us with the great opportunity to achieve physical and mental balance. They teach us to find ourselves by observing our own behavior, our thoughts, and emotions.

 

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