The Art Of Straightness Biomechanics In Motion
By Joni Bentley
Alignment riding therapy™ is more than just a riding lesson.
It’s a therapy, just like physiotherapy, and it’s deceptively simple – and a lot more effective – compared to traditional riding lessons.
So put your therapy hat on. Set aside your judgments of how you believe the rider’s position should or shouldn’t look. And learn the ART of being straight with your horse without tension and strain –and how to become your own and your horse’s physiotherapist.
We’re going to cover how to:
• Straighten yourself and your horse at the same time while you ride.
• Build a truly great posture for both yourself and your horse.
• Keep training simple by teaching the horse to follow your lead – which means you have to be well schooled!
• Make a shape with your body and transfer it to your horse’s body. Then all he has to do is copy you. For instance, if you want to perform a circle, first teach your body how to perform a good circle on each rein (more about that next month). And then your horse will naturally follow. It’s the same for shoulder-in and all lateral work. Riding truly can be that simple!
• Become a passive leader and keep your horse’s attention to ensure riding is safe and pleasurable experience.
So are you reading with your ART cap on? Then I’ll begin!
Have you notice how your horse’s barrel of ribs swings left and right during the walk and trot?
Check out photos 1 and 2 below.
1. Swinging to the left
2. Swinging to the right
Which side do you think is the rider’s stiff side?
Which side do you think is the horse’s stiff side?
Photo 1
On this rein, you can see that the rider finds it much more difficult to swing her barrel over to the right. This is her stiff side. In horsey terms, you’d say she is hollow on the right.
Notice the red dotted lines along the rider’s upper torso. She avoids bending to the left and opening her locked right ribs sideways by leaning out of alignment over to the left. This is just what our horses do when they lean out of a shoulder.
Look at the relationship between her right shoulder and the red line compared to photo 2.
Many riders are taught that the horse is being difficult and evasive when they do this. They’re not! Instead, just like this rider, they’re locked up through one side. They need our help to unlock and move freely.
Photo 2
On her easy, relaxed side, the rider finds it effortless to swing her barrel over to the left while keeping her upper body in alignment.
Rider alignment
Compare the shape of the rider’s upper-body posture in photos 1 and 2.
Look at the:
1. Ease of movement between the upper body. Does she look more awkward in photo 1, or in photo 2?
2. Does one shoulder look stiffer or higher than the other in either of the photos?
3. Look at the height of the rider’s hips. Is there a difference?
4. Look at the outside shape of the rider’s ribcage. Is one flatter or fuller?
5. Look at the difference in the shape and height of the horse’s left croup compared to the right. Is the shape the same?
6. Look at the position and shape of the horse’s tail relative to the swing of his barrel. Is there a difference?
Good posture is not fixed. Good posture evolves.
Right or left stiffness is common in humans. Just like in the horse, it’s due to being right or left handed.
Right and left handedness weaves a web of crookedness throughout the whole body. It cannot be corrected by merely trying to mould the rider into an "ideal position.” All that does is build another layer of crookedness on an unstable foundation. It’s a cover-up! It’s like reslating the roof and washing the windows of a wonky house; it doesn’t fix what’s really wrong.
To have true stability and strength, you must build on a strong, healthy foundation.
Save time and money with ART!
A strong, healthy riding foundation starts when you understand biomechanics in motion.
Biomechanics in motion is simply how your body and your horse’s body work together in harmonious partnership.
1. Your horse’s barrel swings to the right and allows space for the right hind leg to step well under the body because your ribs have swung in the opposite directon to make space for the right hind to come through. Simply reverse this for the left side.
2. You must be ambidextrous throughout your whole body to absorb the sideways swing of your horse’s barrel and enable the proper placement of his hind legs.
3. When you block the swing on one side, he can’t step as far under on that side. This is how you transfer your crookedness to your horse - by blocking his barrel swing with your stiff side.
4. Then your horse will have one hind leg weaker than the other.
5. You can’t help the horse’s barrel swing equally when you’re physically challenged yourself through one of your diagonal pathways.
6. This eventually leads to a spinal and pelvic twist not only in yourself but also in your horse. And that leads to an array of ailments!
Horses are right and left-handed too!
This horse is right handed – more commonly known in the horse world as hollow on the left and stiff on the right. This means he doesn’t like to swing his barrel up to the left, because that would mean stretching the intercostal muscles between his left ribs. Hollowness equals contraction, especially through the intercostal muscles.
Right-handed horses like this:
• Favor the left rein.
• Lean on the right shoulder on the right rein, especially through turns.
• Drift out through the right shoulder on the left rein.
• Keep the favored left side hollow.
In summary:
1. Hollowness equals contraction, especially through the intercostal muscles, though it goes all the way through to the hips, shoulders, neck, and poll.
2. The rider in the photo above is hollow to the right, so she doesn’t like swinging her barrel to the right.
3. The horse is hollow to the left and doesn’t like swinging his barrel to the left.
4. They exacerbate each other’s crookedness. The rider doesn’t have the strength or flexibility through her right side to push the horse’s barrel up to the left because of the stiffness through her right ribs.
5. Her horse is hollow to the left and needs his rider to swing up his left side to loosen the left-side intercostal muscles.
No matter how much this horse and rider are pushed into the conventional shape, straightness will elude them both until their wonky foundations are dissolved using ART.
Next month we’ll look at banking around corners and how the rider can straighten up and use their diagonal pathways to keep both themselves and their horse straight and sound!
Looking for a new career? Become an Alignment Riding Therapy teacher!
The next Level One ART teacher training course dates are:
January 27th, 28th, and 29th
February 24th, 25th, and 26th
March 23rd, 24th, and 25th
April 20th, 21st, and 22nd
Teacher training focuses on how to:
• Understand and straighten your own individual crookedness
• Understand and straighten your horse’s individual crookedness
• Use your own and your horse’s diagonal pathways to unlock one-sidedness
• Allow both yourself and your horse to come naturally back into the centre point where the diagonal pathways cross
• Stimulate the horse’s desire to learn and work happily with you.
• Prepare yourself to experience simple, effective, powerful, classical riding!
Special Christmas offer: a Christmas present from ART to you and your horse:
Buy one, get one free!
When you buy the ART Home Study course You get contact in detail free. Worth £25.
“Get into the swing of riding” is a double DVD packed full of clearly-demonstrated, easy-to-follow exercises for you and your horse. DVD One shows you how to straighten and re-align yourself. DVD Two illustrates how to bring yourself and your horse into alignment together during riding.
ART™ Lessons. If you’re interested in private lessons at your place or mine, hosting a workshop, or lessons on your own or my mechanical horse, please call 07771 811561 or email me from my website www.jonibentley.co.uk. At the website you’ll also be able to download a free workbook and watch lots of online video.
