The last 8 days I have been in Bad Tolz, Germany a small village in Bavaria. This is now my third time in Bad Tolz in 2011, and has become my home away from home. I will be coming back here many times over the next three years to continue a training course with Mia Segal and Leora Gastor of Mind Body Studies. Many of my students, friends, and colleagues have asked what I do when I come to Germany, expecting to hear I am training with an elite equestrian athlete. And instead, I am training with a small lady in her early 80's to learn how to move myself as effortless as she moves herself!
Over the next three years, I will continue to explore through a journey of movement. In riding we move all the time! And our movements are how we communicate with our horse! Through movements we train the horse to do leg-yielding, shoulder-in, half-pass, lengthenings, and more! We begin by teaching the horse to move through their back. We teach them how to release tension, so that they can move with a longer stride. We teach them to pay attention to their rhythm, to go straight and also to bend through their spine. We teach the horse to be in self-carriage, to move effortlessly and eloquently through the arena. We teach the horse to do what it already does out in pasture, in the arena with a rider!
In many ways, the training I am undertaking here in Bad Tolz teaches me what I teach my horses; how to move my body better. How to move through my back, release tension, lengthen my stride. The course teaches me how to be aware of my own rhythm, straightness or lack thereof! My intent of my journey here is to learn how to be a more attentive student of my movements. To be more aware of what I am doing, how I am doing it, how it relates to the rest of my body (and of course my horses!), and how to improve my movements. Thereby, improving my communication (or aids) with my horses! My purpose of my journey here it to learn how to do what I already do (train horses and people to ride horses) BETTER!
More on my training with the Mind Body Studies Academy next blog!
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