0. Introduction

In 2006 I discovered a sort of automation in the displacement of my hands. At that time a brief report, on advice of a friend who thought it too vague, was erased. What was happening? In the mirror across from my work station I saw my elbows move back without any muscular input what so ever. This occured whenever I focused on the mysterious nerve section C8. From this section the peripheral nerve C8 proceeds, which - between thorax and neck - exits the spine. This nerve section also feeds the dermatome C8.

In the horse, between neck and thorax as well the peripheral nerve C8 exits the spine. From this point in the front of the horizontal backbone the horse monitors the direction of its movements.

It was not until recently, however, that another significance of this mysterious nerve section dawned on me. The human dermatome C8, that stripe of skin in other words, which - via one of four strands of the accordant peripheral nerve C8 - like all dermatomes is innervated by the central nervous system directly, not only covers ring and smallest fingers. It runs across the outside of hand and wrist and covers the tip of the elbow. Proceeding up the arm it crosses the shoulder blade at its widest expansion and connects to the spine also between neck and torso. No matter how hands, arms and shoulders move, C8 nerve impulses thus delineate human movement in space. Moving the dermatome C8 towards the body automatically arrests movement.

To reiterate. In the neck's base exists a nerve, which - curiously and unlike all other nerves - does not relate to a particular vertebra. This nerve at the front end of the horizontal backbone marks the center of the horse's forehand. From it the horse lowers or raises the head, shifts the neck base laterally and/or bends. From here it controls directions. In the human the corresponding dermatome C8 delineates the movement of hands, arms and shoulders. There is an ostensible reciprocity between the rider's hands and control. The rider pulls on the reins to stop the horse. He pulls one rein to change direction. Exactly how this works and why in fact it sometimes doesn't is less appearant.

The astounding discovery of this automation I made after experiments with Feldenkrais' first lesson tree in the wind. This exercise not only dramatically improved my awareness of balance. It paved the way to equally stunning tests with raising head and stretching upward from the second neck vertebra, which in turn opened entirely new options for posture, movement and well-being. All having to do with reflexes - or should they be called focal points -, which not only correspond to human dermatomes, but in the saddle to the horse's vertical, horizontal and lateral positions. All being subject to will alone.

Three new aspects of physiology thus presented themselves. One: the existence of an energy source, which animates the body. Muscular automations escape the awareness of most modern men. Their source may be the force of life, which enters the new born and leaves the body to decay after departing. Two: the process of how this source is managed. The latter is less obvious and calls for research. It does appear to happen between core and skin. Three: will plays a decisive part.

No, I am here not speaking of some sort of extrasensory experience. Neither do I think these reactions as self-induced. The very same sort of automation was evident in a great number of motions during the Hubert Godard rolf movement workshop two years later, in June 2008. No, I make mention of them because a question arises. Does effortlessness in movement have to do with these observations. Do they provide a clue to much wanted lightness not only in riding?

If so, should these automations remain insiders' knowledge, available to a privileged few. Or should they, on the contrary, be common knowledge available to all.


1. Wings

When I realized that these automations can be trained, generally and for that matter for each shoulder individually, I used them on the horse with amazing results in lieu of hands. And almost immediately a question presented itself. Yes, automations of the shoulders, arms and hands proceed from C8. But, how was the horses' reaction to be understood? They spontaneously change to haunches-in, when my outside shoulder flows back. They pick up shoulder-in on the back-up of my inner shoulder. They react with a displacement of shoulders and front legs, but - with even greater ease - displace the haunches.

Time came to consult the books and look up muscles or some other sort of system, that might account for their reaction. And lo and behold there are two vertebrae - thorax five and six -, which play a special part in the row of vertebrae that compose the human spine. For the reader's orientation. These are the vertebrae located between the shoulder blades, kind of at the hight of wings, if indeed man had wings.

I first noticed wing functions in the human back while doing research on posture in equitation. And now to my surprise such functions may turn out to exist in the horse as well, and play a part in human/equine correlation. To make the connection. In the horse from thorax processes five and six forward extends the long ligament and proceeds in the neck's upper line to the occiput. Thorax vertebrae five and six feature the longest equine spinal processes. They absorb impulsion, amount to the most elevated part of the horse's torso and account for its dimensions. The horse's height after all is measured at the withers.

But, what about wings? "When, while walking, I think of thorax vertebrae five and six and, at the same time of walking tall, a tail wind grabs me and quickens my legs. My eyes awake and draw me to the horizon".

This sentence I penned down in the German virtual workshop on posture some twelve month ago. When I repeat the exercise today, the very same thing happens, and - still never fails to startle me. I do not remember exactly which of the many details in my research initiated this observation. Fact is, it raised the awareness of a sensation, which - not retroactively but actively; not walking but riding - is familiar. The experience of freedom, which presents itself whenever I take a cheerful horse out in a ride; proceeding from thorax five/six and effecting the collar bones. As soon as the horizon leaps into view this curious thing happens right between my shoulder blades. It is a release such as accompanies departure. And when it happens the first command leaps to mind: go and inhabit the earth..

The English tail wind, as does the German Rückenwind, refers to a force, such as a sudden burst of wind, which might grab the entire back, legs and all, and propel the body on. The existence of such a force inside the body is amazing. The connection to the eyes, which gaze at the horizon. The interaction with the horse's withers. The emotional freedom that comes with it. All speak of a well designed system worth knowing.

Remains the question, how does a suspected focal point in the dermatome C8 connect to automations from T5/6 that come across feeling like wings; in the human and in the horse? And why, when initiated on one side alone, does the horse react with lateral movements?

3. Muscles

How I do love books. Just recently picking up a publication on the living language Latin, which - parading European history right before my eyes - helps me to tackle the unlikely task of putting in human words flesh and living matter. But despite my love for books and notwithstanding the need to write I do suspect, that the information here presented might much more eloquently come across in 3D.

And often I wish books were more conclusive. The publication I am consulting begins with the statement, "The human torso consists of several muscle layers." Looking at text and illustrations, I figure the author speaks of the fact, that the human vertebra is protected, supported and animated by several muscle systems, which are layered one upon the other. These interact with a number of muscle systems, which connect to ribs, shoulders and lumbar region. The neck is fitted with several smaller muscle systems, which connect to ribs, collar bones and thorax.

In any rate, here is the mass, which brings about the animations spoken of. Or are they communicated some other way? Through the fascia web for instance, which - at once delicate and strong - envelopes each muscle and amounts to an elastic structure, which in importance may very well compare to the skeleton. Some go as far as pointing out that this web connects our very bones. Taking a closer look I marvel at the innermost muscles of the spine. One by one they elastically connect each vertebrae to the one above and below it. There is a kind of feathered system, which - providing mobility and stability alike - from each vertebra proceeds to four vertebrae above. These postural muscles systems interact with the psoas, a bold muscle deep down in the loins, which from the lumbar region downward passes over the sacro-illiac joint and connects to the thighs.

Looking at the next layer of back muscles, one detail immediately catches my eyes. None of these muscles connect to the two uppermost neck vertebrae. Apparently these vertebrae have specialized functions, animated apart. Muscles that come down from the third vertebra attach to the upper torso above the imagined wings at thorax vertebrae five and six. And interestingly enough the muscles rhomboideus, spanning shoulder blades and spine and latissimus dorsi spanning arm sockets and lumbar area form a diamond right were the deep back muscle longissimus from thorax five proceeds downwards. The serratus anterior placed between shoulder blades and ribs does the majority of work in moving the shoulders from below. From above the trapezius, proceeding from the shoulder blade rim all the way to neck and ribs, arrests them and closes over the diamond.

And on second thought a surprising idea arises. The rhomboideus looks like a transmitter in the matter here under consideration. Why? Its uppermost corner touches on the peripheral nerve C8's exit from the spine. At the bottom it connects to the long back muscle, which as mentioned proceeds from thorax five and contacts the psoas. Laterally it attaches to the shoulder blades' length on one and to the spine on the other side. At its low end merging with the serratus anterior, which proceeds under the shoulder blade to the ribs. The rhomboideus in other words is strategically placed to conduct transactions between C8, shoulder blades and long back muscle.

Looking at these details I am no longer amazed the horse shifts the haunches in reaction to the rider's shoulder. Translational motions of this rhomb-shaped muscle between thorax one to four and shoulder blade, via long back muscle and psoas, apparently directly transfer to the haunches.

4. Mind

No, I did not sleep well after this insight. Just like, God creates the heavens and the earth, it is too simple for the modern mind. But, - adding to this discussion does not upset me, nor the fear of emerging a simpleton.

No, but why in the world did I overlook some special function in the horse's withers? Rethinking classical rein effects their impact proceeds from the center of a dynamic cross, which in fact distinguishes the human body. Why only now did this feature become apparent? After all it as well provides access to the encompassing harmony of a well-balanced horse. And a picture evolved of a tall winged creature; at its center a small upright person with small wings.

And, while pondering, the day remounted when - at the age of four - I tumbled down the dark, narrow staircase of a postwar German apartment block and broke off my wings. Here now wings grow back. Time to marvel and to celebrate. And yet, like Jona looking down on Ninive, I was angry. Limitations, which - so it turns out - only existed in my mind were gone. I was free. Standing in the open. Ready to mobilize.

So many chances missed. Unending detours. Why? A day later I make a decision. I will return to my research and trust that from the body and the Spirit all insights will emerge. And to the school of modern equitation (SomE) I will add a school of modern thought (SomT). Barack Obama was voted into office today. This very day a call reaches me. "... just men will rule and handle the law... ." And, " ... some tell deceit. They let the hungry go starving and don't give the thirty a drink."

Now wings have caught my attention. And no longer the centaur but the pegasus plays the major role. Feldenkrais, the athlete coming from the ground; Alexander, the artist going to the sky; and - Rolf, adding completely new dimensions. From C8 the horse manages directions. From T4/5 it monitors speed and displacements? From C2 it elevates? Senses set off the animations of the core?

A few days later I again look at a balance in the horse's innervation. It is the concept I used in 2007 to open study-horsemanship's first presentation: elements of equitation. Double checking, a new thing occurs. Yes, lumbar six/sacrum one are the two bones, which form the sacral joint at the end of the horse's cantilevered backbone. Hidden under the pelvis' upper wings this joint is found in the croup's highest point. It is balanced by neck nerve section eight at the front of the cantilevered backbone in the center of the horse's forehand. Midway between them, at thorax twelve and thirteen, the rider's seat bones weigh down on the horse's back. And yes, the meeting of muscular means at lumbar two and three in the horse's flanken correspond to thorax four and five of the horse's withers. Gosh, I should have known...! Speaking of the horse's balance.

5. Starting All Over Again

And it just so happened that horses came in that needed to be started all over again. While they were young these horses carried me all over the place and provided the basis for a research of the physiology of riding. Now - most of them well over ten years old - they are beset with stiffnesses and resistances. Curious, the horses that took me flying down the tracks, across the fields and up into the forest, now do not even want to leave the yard. My wings are back. My feet begin to propel me on. And now their wings are broken and their feet no longer want to carry them.

And it just so happened that there is a note in the internet of a German born, U.S. trained Western rider, who officially starts and markets today's young Hannovarian horses. A world opened reading it. Was there no German training facility to do the job? 

Some forty-five years ago my mother succeeded to send me, one of her six children, to the Landesreitschule Verden, located in the hub of Hannovarian breeding. Students were encouraged to choose their horse. Sinfonie, a dark brown, four-year-old English thoroughbred mare was my choice for riding. She was a horse much like Sinja, who - after the miracle mare Farma - helped me to restart riding age forty, and like Filly, the lovely daughter of a mare that brought us to Normandy. And I selected a chestnut, four-year-old Hannovarian stallion for grooming. 

To make a long story short. I finished best of class on a young thorough-bred mare that did not have a hint of the aides. And I saw a young stallion severely beaten, - by the school's Bereiter. No wonder I knew, even at age fourteen, that I did not learn anything. Leave alone there was nothing there to learn. And now some forty-five years later the idea besets me, that learning in equitation is for fallen men and the horse's fallen nature. The young well-balanced rider and the optimistic young horse get on without teaching. The veteran addressing a veteran horse, however, requires learning.

Take the reins in one hand. Let the other hand glide forward and lightly touch on only one rein. It takes a while. And several attempts. The result, however, does make waiting more than worthwhile. The horse's sides awake and like a miracle suddenly the hand touches the horse's innermost being. The hand coming on gently, with a tiny movement, intrigues the horse. Softly it begins to move tongue and jaw. Enjoying it - you can almost see it smirk - a new realm opens. Horse and rider now live in one building. And what happens in the building is of greater consequence than what happens outside. The back mounts and movements flow again.

This I learned as a seasoned veteran from the mentioned German Western rider's newest book on how to train warm-bloods for a new, a modern type of equitation. While sitting on the horses, awaiting their reactions, something dawns on me. My one hand, holding both reins, sits on the horse's withers on top of thorax processes four and five. The ring finger of my other hand, in the skin region C8, breezes on the rein. Gladly I reclaim my maiden name Tine and give thanks to the One behind the it just so happens ... .

And another idea besets me. Wouldn't it be the time, no only to continue the research of riding and expose what makes for lightness. But also to write a history of the physiology of riding; of what really happens in the body and how it relates to mind and spirit. The young soldiers in the fields, the olympic riders on the pedestal; then and now. The jumper and the jockey. A well researched, clearly argued and fully documented history of human physiology?