Centered Riding

I just finished reading 60 pages of a book titled Centered Riding written by Sally Swift. Centered Riding is a technique that is used to help someone have balance on a horse. Having correct balance not only makes the horse more comfortable but allows communication to flow freely, when both rider and horse are relaxed and balanced. So far this book has focused on four aspects of the body that should be considered if a rider wants to become balanced on the horse.

First you must have 'soft eyes'. This means that you must use your peripheral vision to see all of your surroundings. If you see and pay attention to all of your surroundings you are more likely to be safe and conscious of situations around you. Using 'soft eyes' could prevent and aid someone in handling a unexpected situation.

Next is breathing. An example of using correct breathing would be riding a horse past a vehicle that it is frightened of. If you know that the horse is scared of a particular vehicle you might hold your breath or breath quicker from anticipation. By just being calm and breathing normal you not only relax yourself but reassure the horse that everything is okay.

I believe this also applies to humans. For example when my sister was little if she fell and no one was around, or payed her any attention and she had no serious injury she would not cry, BUT if you jumped up and gasped when she fell she would immediately cry. She sensed something was wrong, even if she wasn't hurt, so she cried. The same thing applies to horses, if you act like something is wrong, they will sense this and react accordingly.

The third aspect of balance on the list is centering. You must center your body on the horse. An example given in the book is a doll that has sand in the bottom. You can push the top all the way to the ground, but it will always spring back to the upright position. This is how one should be when riding a horse, you will at times get off balance but you must spring back to your center and remain balance to insure the horse is comfortable.

Lastly the author mentions a concept called building blocks. The rider is to imagine that each section of your body is blocks and you must align them in order to be balanced.

While most of this reading pertains only to a rider and horse I find that correlation can be found to how people can communicate with one another. If you have experience with horses you may find that keeping your cool and balance in a situation helps to maintain a horses sense of confidence. I think that as this interim continues I will find that this situation can also be found between humans. For instance, I was in a car wreck this past Wednesday. I was headed home from the mountains in about 3 feet of snow and the car slide into a ditch. I of course panicked. My boyfriend was driving the car and remained calm the entire time. After the initial shock his calm demeanor made me relax and face the situation. While it may seem unlikely that communication with horses has a connection or relation to humans communicating with one another it is true. I believe my experiences this month will be extremely insightful and useful in everyday life and in unexpected situations.