ktv
While my journey started originally with natural horsemanship and following many of the big trainers there, because I found it was the gentlest and aligned way to communicate and learning the body language of the horse or understanding more how to use your own energy and your own body language to achieve a more calm, relaxed horse in mind and body.
But the natural horsemanship I feel was a great foundation for the behavior and the obedience of a horse.
In a sort of a herd communication with the rider, but where the classical dressage builds on top of that is actually going into the engagement of the horse’s body and being able to move correctly and teaching the horse how to respond correctly off of the classical academic aids.
So, for me the natural horsemanship is a is a perfect way to start them because it takes their mind and relaxes them so that they have the right mindset to start.
Of classical work.
So, it's kind of one step that builds upon another, except in the in the natural horsemanship, we often focus on disengaging, disengaging the haunches to create softness in the body.
In the classical, we take it up to the next step, where you engage the haunches and you start to work them into straightness and into lightness.
So that's how those two disciplines connect for me.
So true connection to me feels like.
The rider and the horse become one, and not just in the way that they're moving, but in the way that they're thinking.
And so for me, connection means that the seat is that the horse is so connected to the seat of the rider and the rhythm of the rider that the hind leg moves as though it was the rider's own leg moving at the exact same synchronicity as the riders pelvis moving forward.
And so when that happens you're able to maintain the rhythm of the horses.
Movement without bumping in the saddle or anything.
There is total synchronicity between your body and the horse's body.
And so I've always connected it to the movie Avatar where they have the cues that connect together and you see the consciousness of the rider or consciousness of the person connecting to that animal.
In the Avatar movie, you see the consciousness transferring into the animal.
So I always take a mind body approach to rioting.
here you take the mindfulness of the rider and you and you tune in, you look inwards so that you can feel your own body and feel the inside of the horse's body.
What's going on? And how this shows U is the impulsion of the hind leg matching the rhythm of the rider, and this impulsion of the hind leg moving forward into the bit all the way over the top line, into the softness and the connection of the hand, and then back again through the hind leg.
So there's this constant circuit of. A flow of energy and it never stops.
Celie is a Dutch trainer living in Florida who gives clinics on natural horsemanship, classical dressage and liberty training throughout the world. www.artfulriding.com