Breathe into your riding

I recently attended a James Shaw Clinic at Shuttleworth College.

My friend had been pestering me for days to have a look at his website and encouraging me to buy a ticket and go along. However, at the hefty price of £130 per ticket, I was sceptical to say the least!

After telling her that I thought the price was extortionate and that there was no way I was even going to think about it, my curiosity got the better of me. And boy am I glad I did!

The first thing you see on his website is a short You Tube video of him talking to a client. He is explaining to her about moving body parts independently and goes on to demonstrate how he can rotate his waist around without any other part of his body moving or getting involved.

So of course, up I get out of my chair thinking, 'really how hard can it be?' Only to find that actually, it is bloomin hard and I couldn't do it! So now I start to think that maybe this could be interesting and useful, after all, I thought I was fairly flexible and aware of what my body was up to, but this seemed to be the next level!

So we load up the boys on Sunday morning, not really knowing what to expect, but excited all the same.

The gist of the course, although it's called 'Ride From Within', is Tai Chi for equestrians and the day was split into two sections, floor work and ridden work.

The floor work showed us correct posture while standing and that most of us stand with hips forward, chest out and shoulders back. This means we spend our entire time leaning back and supporting ourselves with our hips forward to remain balanced. It was quite strange to hear that we are balanced, ie we don't constantly fall over, but that we are not in balance with correct posture. We continued on to do some Tai Chi exercises whilst in better posture. Not as easy as it sounds!

Then came the best bit, the ridden section. Believe me when I tell you, not one rider left walk! Yes that's how hard it was.

The main focus was breathing and how our eratic breathing, including holding our breath when things happen, shallow breathing, taking a longer breath in than out or vice versa has an undeniable effect on our horses. We learnt and subsequently experienced how a rhythmical breathing pattern is one of the key components of keeping the horse in rhythm. I am not saying it is the be all and end all but it certainly is one of the most important.

Something so simple you say, just breathing? Yes, but until you become aware of your breathing pattern, when you hold your breath, when your rhythm changes and so on, you won't see what effect it has on you and your horse. This can possibly mean the difference between your pony spooking or not, speeding up or not or getting better at what ever you are having trouble with.

It's a shame that James lives in America and that he is only in the UK at limited times. He brings such useful awareness to us which is invaluable to improving our horses. If you ever get the chance to be part of one of his clinics, do go along. It was a great day ad was lovely to meet so many like minded people.

In the mean time, I will be focusing my clients on their breathing and helping them make the same improvements Dudley and I have made.

Happy Riding

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