Free image from http://pixlisting.com/horse-canter-cycle.html
Recently I have been teaching some beginner students Taiji and after several weeks one student (Karen) surprised me with how my class has benefited her. She's noticed a significant improvement in her horse riding ability. Being heavily involved with horses as a dedicated owner, caretaker and rider, Karen told me of how her the principles of alignment, relaxation, listening to your body, and sinking has translated into her being able to cantering much better on her horse. From what I gather, the ability to relax, listen to, be structurally correct/proper synchronized alignment with the horse, are some of the necessities for good riding. In addition, the trained horse will also do only what the rider asks of it, and being a very sensitive animal, can immediately sense when the rider gets "tense." So bad riding is not really the fault of the horse but originates from the incorrect messages sent from the rider.
Karen told me that previously when learning to master cantering she would quickly get tense, gripping the reins even harder, quickly losing her awareness of her own body, her relationship with the horse, her posture would slip away from alignment with her horse's, then basically she would just hope for the best. From my lessons she has now improved in her own awareness and ability to self-correct her misalignment, posture, better able to hear and dissipate her own tension from different parts of her body, and generally be more calm and synchronized. The benefit of the Master's loosening exercises and approach to the set is that it trains us in doing all these things - AND MORE! - in a constantly moving/changing series of postures, as would be needed when harmoniously synchronizing with another the horse/or partner.
Full kudos to Karen, her trainer Jaimie and Tony for being open-minded and progressive enough to try Tai Chi as an aid to improve their riding ability. This is certainly a benefit I've never seen, heard, nor read about in any discussion about Tai Chi.
Authour - Lee Chang Tye
https://www.relaxedmindtaichi.com
Karen told me that previously when learning to master cantering she would quickly get tense, gripping the reins even harder, quickly losing her awareness of her own body, her relationship with the horse, her posture would slip away from alignment with her horse's, then basically she would just hope for the best. From my lessons she has now improved in her own awareness and ability to self-correct her misalignment, posture, better able to hear and dissipate her own tension from different parts of her body, and generally be more calm and synchronized. The benefit of the Master's loosening exercises and approach to the set is that it trains us in doing all these things - AND MORE! - in a constantly moving/changing series of postures, as would be needed when harmoniously synchronizing with another the horse/or partner.
Full kudos to Karen, her trainer Jaimie and Tony for being open-minded and progressive enough to try Tai Chi as an aid to improve their riding ability. This is certainly a benefit I've never seen, heard, nor read about in any discussion about Tai Chi.
Authour - Lee Chang Tye
https://www.relaxedmindtaichi.com
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