17/06/2024
The BHS is one of many riding programs that teaches you to ride with the correct body alignment from ear to shoulder to hip joint to ankle. This is the ideal position on the horse to get the most movement and range of motion from your joints and the horse's joints and muscles. It also puts us in a safe and secure place to ride the gaits and paces with rhythm, speed, accuracy and straightness. I fully agree with this foundation for every rider no matter what the discipline or level of horse activity.
But do we as riders know or are we taught from day one how to step by step achieve this position, retain it and find it over and over? Are the saddles we are using allowing us to find and stay in this position?
I find there is a missing piece in many riding programs today and that is the step by step progression to learning what alignment is and how to find a neutral pelvis position within YOUR body.
I'll say it again YOUR body!!!! You, no matter what age, have to find and realize this input for yourself. You have to feel it inside you, recognize the changes, be able to notice when you release tension, learn to use your biomechanics instead of power and strength, and have easy ways to check in to make sure you are there.
We all have body pattern tendencies and as we age we consider them normal. We may not realize what these patterns are for example:
relaxing on one hip,
hollowing our back and locking our knees,
slumping while we look at our phones and computers,
holding tension in our neck and shoulders,
feeling fear and wanting to squeeze and clutch the horse for safety, and so on.
It's possible to undo all of these posture patterns to ride effectively and learn where our correct biomechanical postural position is for us in riding. It is the only and I mean the only way your body is going to be secure, safe, effective and pleasing to the horse. It doesn't matter if you have an asymmetric body, or former injuries that have compromised you in some way, we all do!!! When you are in neutral pelvis and an aligned spine the body will find your strength coming from your core muscles not your limbs.
As women especially, we typically arch our backs, lift our rib cage and pull back our shoulders when we are told to sit up in the saddle. Or perhaps we slump because of our daily habits and become an anchor on the horse. This is completely counterproductive to riding. It shuts down the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae, shortens the muscles around the sacrum and throws your pelvis off. Instead we need to take steps to overcome these innate tendencies and learn to do the opposite.
To sit tall or have maximum spine alignment opening and utilizing our entire back, we first need to find our neutral pelvis position where we are sitting in the middle of our seat bones on our ischial tuberosities. Sit on your hands and find the bones on either side of your perineum. Rock back and forth and find the middle place on those bones. You can find this in the saddle by putting your knees up (as in photos) and adjusting your seat very slightly.
From neutral pelvis, the mid-to-lower back needs to be full and open, the rib cage needs to drop down and now feel the shoulder blades open wider and breath backward into your upper back. The whole back should be full and your breathing should come from your diaphragm not your chest. Make sure the back of your neck muscles are long and tall. In Peggy's Connected Riding program she goes through each and every step giving you images and words that help you find it in your own body like: "be like a buoy on the water above your pelvis", "do a ballet plie and open your knees become wide through your base", "take a deep breath and blow out the candle between the horse's ears for a rib cage release." There are hundreds of ways she teaches for it to make sense to you and what you are feeling.
Most of us do not know what straightness, alignment or release feels like in our bodies. You need to be able to identify, feel and change in the saddle. Peggy gives us many tools to accomplish this whenever we need them.
Have someone take a photo of you before and after alignment steps and you will see you are not tipping forward like it may feel in this "new" position.
Now you feel light and springy to the horse and he or she will be willing to carry you, develop balance to carry you, not dump on the forequarter and develop carrying muscles properly.
Note the photos from Peggy Cummings' clinic last weekend in Wiltshire. Each rider is taught body awareness lessons on the ground seated, then balanced on the saddle before they ride. Each rider also learns to do ground work asking the horse to connect, lift, and engage with the handler before we mount. Once mounted we take all of this information and begin to experiment with it and see the quick results in the horses!!!
The horses will tell the story of your changes and how your body is now allowing for freedom. I think you probably know by now Peggy is my mentor and changed my riding many decades ago so that I have had a long and happy riding life. Her lessons gave me the possibilities of riding in the future when I thought my riding days were coming to an end early in my life. She comes to the UK as often as we can gather a group of riders. She is here until the end of June and then we are planning for another clinic in October.
Just come and observe if nothing else. You will be in awe of how the horse's respond, relax, understand the messages and seem much happier about working with humans.
This weekend I rode a lovely Spanish horse that had never had any of this work and only been ridden as a hack. The first day he was very heavy with his head and neck, pushy, heavy on the forehand, stiff in the walk and by the end of the second day most of that behavior from him had totally shifted. The owner was shocked and delighted.
It turns out this is a very nice horse with a good mind, soul, spirit and body with loads of willingness. I loved being a part of his transformation. Even though I had not ridden in a year and a half I was able to accomplish a great deal without being sore and without much strength!!! I'm in my late 60s now and this is the only way I will ride. There is no time or interest in my own riding to fight the saddle and try to ride from strength, pushing and power.
Another integral piece was Sara Udal's Connect Equine Saddles which she has created for the female equestrian athlete. We all rode in her saddles in the clinic. It really saved me from crotch pain, swelling, chaffing, lower back stress, seat bone pain and so much more that I experience in other saddles. I didn't have to think about where and how to find neutral pelvis, her saddle put me there! Wow it was a revelation what is possible when the female biomechanics are considered!!
With all of this guidance for me and my riding I was able to feel empowered, safe, effective and joyful!!!
As riders, we need the information, steps, teaching and training that breaks it down for us piece by piece until we can over time integrate the so desired ideal alignment that is sought everywhere! You can use it however you wish, to compete, to hack out, to have joyous rides with friends, go cross country and jump. It works but it is the foundation of what the horse and rider need to connect and work together.
Please reach out to me, Peggy Cummings, Sara Udal or the members of the South British Connected Riding Program. Peggy has several of her certified instructors here in Britain. I am in Essex and others are spread around the southern part of the country. Let us hear from you. We have a Zoom meeting with Peggy once per month to catch up and ask questions. I hope this will open windows and doors for you as you search for answers with your horses!!
