Book Review: Centered Riding

  I recently read the book Centered Riding, by Sally Swift. There is a countless amount of books out there that teach you all aspects of horsemanship, from riding a variety of disciplines, to riding exercises, to groundwork, and more, and many of them are great. However, Centered Riding is unique in that it focus completely on body awareness and becoming balanced and centered using right-brain techniques. These techniques can apply to all disciplines and every rider, no matter what the experience level. Even very good riders can benefit from these techniques.

 After introducing the concept of centered riding, the author describes what she calls the four basic: soft eyes, breathing, balancing, and centering. When you have soft eyes, your eyes are relaxed and you are aware of your surroundings. Breathing is another important basic, because tension is often caused by the rider holding his/her breath. Short, shallow breaths can also be a cause of tension, so breathing deeply is important. The third basic principle is balance. As most riders know, sitting straight with the ear, shoulder, hip, and heel aligned creates the most balance. The author describes each part that needs to be in alignment as building blocks. If the blocks are not stacked straightly, they will topple over. A jumping position, of course, is different, but you still must be balanced. For this you want the center of your body(more on that soon) over your heels. The final basic is centering.  Your center of balance is the middle of your body, towards where the pelvis is. Centering is being aware of your center of balance and using it to move more in harmony with the horse. This is, of course, what the whole book is about.

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 Ultimately, centered riding is about being aware of your body and using the four basics to ride well. The author uses imagery and visualization to help the rider achieve this. For example, she writes that a rider's legs should grow down like tree roots, and that the body should grow tall like a tree. Even just being told in a lesson, "Grow tall like a tree and let your legs grow tree roots," helps me to sit straight and let my legs be long with my heels down. There are plenty more helpful mental images found within the book.

 The bottom-line is, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve their riding and take it to a deeper level, no matter what the discipline.

Centered Riding

 Laura recently lent me a book called Centered Riding, by Sally Swift. This book is one of lLaura's favorites, and I can tell just by looking through it and reading the first few chapters that some of what Laura has taught me comes from this book. Centered Riding isn't a book that tells you how to ride. rather, it is a book the uses phycological images to give a more centered approach to riding. I am going to study this book and write posts about the notes that I take and what I learn. Mostly for myself because writing down what I learn helps me to learn, but I also hope that my readers can learn from it too.

 What is centered riding?
 Centered riding is a centered approach to riding based on mental and physical images. It focuses on how your body works, your ability to function unhampered, and your awareness and use of your energy. This is something that makes this book and its author unique. While many trainers and books focus on what to do to get a certain result, which is of course important, Sally Swift focuses on how to use your body to do things.

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 Unbalanced, tense riders drop down heavily into the saddle when mounting, or thump into the saddle at the trot, making the horse uncomfortable and irritated. They may also use conflicting aids, such as pulling and kicking and the same time, which confuses and frustrates the horse because they cannot do what the rider is asking them to do since the rider is unintentionally preventing them to do so. This like someone tying your elbows behind your back and asking to throw a ball, as the author writes.

However, a balanced rider makes a horse much more comfortable, allowing their backs to swing more freely and their body to become round more easily. A horse that seems unbalanced and resistant with an unbalanced rider can seem to change completely.

 By learning how to their bodies work, using their knowledge of how correct form balance looks like, a rider can improve coordination and balance. This is where the concepts in the book come in.  As I read, I will share what I learn about these concepts.