Riding and the Alexander Technique

A quick canter through how the Technique comes into play

The Alexander Technique helps you open your awareness of how you use yourself in any activity.  With this knowledge, you can use your anatomy and thoughts more consciously, in a way that doesn’t impede performance.

In a lesson you will start to notice habits that may be unhelpful and thereby start to have a real choice of how to respond to any stimulus in a fresh and creative way, rather than the predictable, unconscious habit.

The essence of the Technique is to embrace a PAUSE – a “mental half halt” – which allows the body and mind to receive full flow of information and allows the system to engage the appropriate tone to give a response in that moment.  This allows a dynamic response, and as you get more skillful in creating this mental space, the subconscious, instinctive reactions bubble up and increase the speed of reaction.  This is obviously important with horses as you are dealing with two brains, two bodies and a multiple of possibilities.

Working with our innate biology makes sense, rather than against it.

We have an automatic Stress Reflex when triggered by a stimulus.  It might not be as extreme as a lion jumping out at us, but the same physical response is unconsciously triggered with a minor stimulus (such as as a ditch coming up on XC or a spider in the bath – whatever it is for you).  This stress reflex is involuntary and instinctive, and a natural part of being alive.  It creates tension through the body and brain for “fight and flight”, adrenaline, and a heightened awareness and response.

If the stimulus actually isn’t that dangerous (no lion) then the tension will dissipate and release and allow the body to go back to a neutral, easy state of function.

However, when we are distracted, we tend not to consciously notice that we haven’t let go of that tension and we start to carry it around with us in daily life.  Our brains are wired to tune out information it gets consistently, to avoid overloading the sensory system, so we start to no longer notice the tightness directly.  Being in a state of tension becomes a habit, and part of our comfort zone.  We only notice the tension when it starts to affect our performance or cause pain and/or a loss of mobility etc.

Our anatomy works with the greatest flexibility and response when in full flow.  So if any part of the body is tighter than necessary (not appropriate tone) it reduces how effectively you can go about things.  Tension can also come through a habit of compensating for an injury that is no longer necessary, but that has become ingrained in how we go about daily life.

This tension messes up the train of connective tissue that runs the length and breadth of our bodies.  One “Anatomy Train” in particular is the Superficial Back Line, and you will see that it starts at the base of our toes, and along our back, legs and all the way up and over our skull to insert between our eyes.

If the stress reflex tension is in play, it tightens our head/neck joint and locks up our ability to allow free, easy, athletic flow up and down our back line.

If you relate similar anatomy for horses, you can understand that the “Back Line” is essentially the same set of structures as the topline in a horse.  We know that if the horse is tight in his poll, he simply can not have a full, free and easy way of using himself.  His topline goes from between his eyes, over his poll, back, glutes, hamstrings, hocks and down to the suspensory tendons inside his hind feet.

If we as riders come to ride with our own unconscious habits of tightness through our back, neck etc, that tension automatically is absorbed by the horse and he has to overtighten certain areas to compensate and absorb what is happening on top of him.

So in a nutshell, if the rider is tight and unbalanced, the horse will have the same pattern.  If we want to improve our ridden performance, we need to use ourselves well first.

Alexander Technique lessons give you the simple tools to open up your awareness of habits that might be getting in your way.  That awareness gives you choices to do things differently in a way that flows.  As with all things simple, it can be tricky to jump out of a comfort zone we don’t notice we have, and some guidance is usually needed to unwind the patterns.

The Technique goes further than simple awareness, with practical skills you develop that enhance that “mental half halt” processing time, open up your sensory receptors, and give you much more engagement with the world around you so you have more creativity and flow as a result.

The lovely byproduct of this is an increased connection and enjoyment of your relationship with your horse and poise, elegance, soundness and fun – for both of you.

What’s not to like?

So how do I have a lesson?   Individual lessons, clinics and workshops

If you are interested in how AT can inter-twine with ridden skills, get in contact.

One to one lessons give you a chance to look at how you are thinking, and what you do in depth.

Group workshops or lecture/demos are other ways to learn, and you will see lots from the other participants to use and work with.

Introductory lectures and demonstrations can be arranged for groups of all sizes (mounted and on foot).

I can tailor packages for everyone – from the fledgling rider through to top flight competitors.  The areas we look at are fundamental and the principles of the Technique apply to everyone.  Becoming aware of your habits around riding as well as in the saddle can make a huge difference in how to get riding as you would like.

As we all have habits in one form or another, everyone can learn from each other, regardless of level.