5. Posture, Leadership and Submission

The lumbo-sacral joint in the highest part of the horse's croup regulates the hindquarter's posture and the hind legs' innervation. Its closure empowers the horse, its release deactivates it. Horse and rider essentially communicate in one of two ways, which manifest in the address of this joint.  

One rider - while working in hand - with a long dressage whip softly touches the horse's side. It responds, the hind legs step sideways and the haunches stretch laterally. Elevation and the strike-off which follows are improved. The horse is cheerful. Locomotion gains volume and it continues with an urge to perform.

Another rider - while working in hand - demands a yield of the hindquarters. To do so he fixes the gaze of his eyes steadfastly on the triangle at the widest lateral extension of the equine pelvis. The horse recognizes this primordial gesture and submits. It deactivates major postural and locomotive muscles, which meet in this triangle and respectfully opens the lumbo-sacral joint. The very same release you see in the sliding stop. The horse subsequently does not strike off cheerfully. On the contrary, head and neck drop. It picks up a small trot.

To the unsuspecting viewer these two side-stepping motions look alike. Psychologically, however, results couldn't be further apart. In the first scenario the rider asks peacefully. The lumbo-sacral joint closes and the horse activates. The horse is center stage. The rider acts as a friend and partner. In the second scenario the rider, if ever so inconspicuously, in essence acts aggressively. The horse yields, surrenders and deactivates. The rider takes center stage and the horse assumes the position of a servant.

From the lumbo-sacral joint at the cantilevered back bone's rear end the horse manages forward locomotion. From the back bone's front end it controls speed and direction. Now, let's for a moment continue to observe the second rider; the one who is the master and his horse the servant. In hand he asks the horse to yield its shoulders. He touches the neck with the lead rope and, with one hand covering the horse's eye, drives head and neck away. The horse responds with a turn around the haunches and stretches the shoulders.

When the rider combines this lesson and the hindquarter yielding described above the horse understands in an instant. It activates the speed control functions of the forehand and strikes off in a small well-balanced trot. At the rider's command it tunes down to the walk or halt with ease. It tunes up to a canter or a bigger trot.

Without further comment, any training approach that calls on the horse's submission and by the same token fosters self-control is preferable to the mere development of equine gaits. It is not only movement that counts. The control of movement is equally important. After all who likes to join the jockey, who - for maximum performance - must give up ninety-nine percent of it. A question, however, remains. Will the horse after complete surrender ever again raise neck and withers. Will it remember the emotions that produce elevation?

This said, another aspect is involved. The horse is friendly. It is peaceful and seeks fellowship. It loves excitement and enjoys experiences. All it needs is a leader. Why go for dominance, submission and a balance, which at best distributes the horse's weight evenly on all four legs, if as a distinguished leader I can have both: Friendship and elevation? 

Comments

[Margaret Kunz]

Dear Christine,
A big part of what differentiates one kind of rider/trainer from another is ego. In order to reach great heights in riding or even many life experiences one must have learned to let go of ego. Learning deepens and heightens with less ego. There is a direct relationship between the two.
Margaret Kunz

[Christine Sander]

Hi Margaret,
So now we can communicate, but we are right out there in the open. And of course I would like to post a rather private question. That is, how do you let go of your ego. I mean, what in a Thai Chi situation indicates ego? In respect to the horse I am beginning to recognize when it is me, my ego, that motivates the training. This I learn because horses are older and they tell me what they can and can not do. How is it in training Thai Chi.
Christine Sander
P.S. My mails still don't go through. Not sure what to do about that.

[Margaret Kunz]

Hi Christine,
Please try to communicate with me by email. Be sure to type in my address correctly!
Tai Chi is not going to make you lose your ego. This is a deep personal process. What Tai Chi will do, however, is help you begin the process of emptying your mind of mental clutter which is usually involved with concerns of the ego. Xi Gong exercises are especially good for this and you will find that the slower you proceed, the more 'painful' the work is 'mentally'. By, for example, slowing down just your breathing, you are rather 'forced' to 'let go' of many other thoughts, processes, struggles of the mind that are encumbering the body.
The Tai Chi form is not Tai Chi! The form is more a tool to understand Tai Chi. It is an organized format which, through slow repetition of, helps you study the motion of the body through space---that study is Tai Chi. If the mind is occupied with the ego's concerns, the mind is less fully involved with the motion of the body. It is not that the mind tells the arm or hand to do this or that, but that the mind executes an order and the body responds unimpeded.
In my riding teaching I don't tell students that they should dominate their horses or that their horses must submit to them. My doing this would feed the very ego I am trying to get them to let go of! Instead, I often refer to famous partnerships of extraordinary beauty such as the iceskating pair Gordeeva and (the late)Grinkov.
In a partnership there is a leader and a follower. But in extraordinary partnerships, such as the one mentioned, 'leader' and 'follower' switch places! The strong Grinkov only sometimes leads! He passes the leadership 'baton' to Gordeeva and she leads the dance for a while as he follows her until she then returns the 'baton' to him. Each of these two partners has to leave their ego behind, or better yet, combine it with the other's to form another(new) ego, namely the partnership's. When the mental involvement is with the partnership only and not with what you GET from the partnership, not with what the partnership GIVES to anyone, not with the way you or your partner look and not with some preconceived notion of how things should be.....THEN extraordinary beauty develops.
What we need as riders is to observe horses at liberty and learn the laws of nature. When we follow those laws with them we are that much more likely to create this beauty.
When we begin in riding we are learning these important laws, not the least of which is that the horse can inflict extreme damage upon our fragile bodies when we are caught by surprise when they are afraid or distracted. Our small bodies are no match for theirs so therefore we need to learn how to harness our own power and magnify it and learn to apply it with speed and precision, rather than to make ourselves super strong to deal with their strength. We must also understand that, to a horse, we are a predator unless proven otherwise! If we are not aware of just how much mental control we need to have and how much humility we need we will never comprehend how much holding back the horse will do within himself because he remains cautious of us as partners. He is constantly reading our inner thoughts and measuring them against our outer being to see how congruous the two are. Only by this process of diminishing the ego can we bring about harmony between the elements of mind, body and soul.
In my riding teaching I begin early on acclimating my students to this kind of thinking and how to apply this thinking to the riding position.
Is this helpful?

[Christine Sander]

Hi Margaret,

It may be a good idea you send me your e-mail address again.

What you write is so beautifully put. But, being the skeptical person I am, I have to ask how do you know all this. I remember when as youngsters in high school we were told a model of the living cell, which in more recent research has been completely replaced. The old model was all about randomness, the new model speaks of order and precision.

I love this part ... When the mental involvement is with the partnership only and not with what you GET from the partnership, not with what the partnership GIVES to anyone, not with the way you or your partner look and not with some preconceived notion of how things should be.....THEN extraordinary beauty develops...

But even with this partnership, the rider needs to know how to handle himself in the saddle and how to ride the horse to bring out its best. How do you begin to teach these practical ends?

[Christine Sander]

This I need to think about some more. So true... humility and making the partnership count... C.

... we need to learn how to harness our own power and magnify it and learn to apply it with speed and precision, rather than to make ourselves super strong to deal with their strength.

We must also understand that, to a horse, we are a predator unless proven otherwise! If we are not aware of just how much mental control we need to have and how much humility we need we will never comprehend how much holding back the horse will do within himself because he remains cautious of us as partners.

He is constantly reading our inner thoughts and measuring them against our outer being to see how congruous the two are. Only by this process of diminishing the ego can we bring about harmony between the elements of mind, body and soul.

[Eileen Boxer]

Dear Christine
The text is coming along well and I do like the dialogue exchange with Margaret. I like her eloquence about the partnership, the power play, trust and so on. Human to human interaction and the parallels with horse and human.

[Margaret Kunz]

Christine,
I would like to comment on a point from your main article that suggests a slight conflict in your thinking but, which if better understood, might hold important information.
You mention how the psychoemotional state relates to posture. You also suggest how fascia web restrictions promote distortions of movement(and might I suggest that stress over time distorts the fascial web). You then make note of your observation of Fiona in part THREE. Your description of her does identify elevation of posture but I question for what purpose was this posture.
I believe the posture you are describing in Fiona only mimicks the one which is the base of the type of equitation you find most desirable. The posture of danger(or fear) is not the same as the posture of joy(or play). They are similar but not quite the same.
Because it is so easy to conjure up fear in a horse, I believe this is why fear tactics are used so widely to such advantage in training. The increased adrenaline jacks up the posture, add motion, and we have dressage, right?!!! Yes, we want elevation but we want it produced from the right posture.
The word 'friend' in training opens the possibility that we might conjure up joyful excitement in our horses by encouraging them. Might I suggest that by implying that we wish for an elevated posture, that we wish for freedom, that we wish for excitement and fun that our intent might be made more clear to the horse and that he might be more likely to respond more often and more readily in this desirable quality of elevation.
Importantly, however, without our own self-control over mind and body(so that the body is not taking on a mind of its own but is responding to our intent)and without humility, achieving this desirable elevation is quite difficult. I believe this difficulty lies in the perspective from the horse that we are his predator!
I have one additional thought from the last part of your article. If self-control is important for the horse to have gained from training, how much the better would it be for us to consider and tap into the supreme self-control the horse has without us!?

[Christine Sander]

Hi Margaret,

Quoting the passage on Fiona you are right on the button. I noticed the contradiction involved and for a moment thought to do something about it. But then decided, to leave it and speak for itself.

I don't know if you are aware of this, horses run into the fire at the risk of loosing their live. They rush into battle. They are in other words not in all circumstances a creature of flight. they are ready to serve the rider over and against their very instincts.

I therefore have never been happy with the term predator to describe the human/equine relationship. I imagine the first mounted horse. How in the dawn of civilization someone took on the task to make friends with a horse. One you touch a wild horse it gives in and another side of its dual nature turn out. It loves to be man's friend. If only we do our part.

Tap into the horse's self-control. I just finished a German article on Jean Luc Cornille's work. http://otherideas.typepad.com/wwwreitplatzcom_wo_alles_/zum-thema-légèreté/
Maybe you do read German and can understand it.

It happened last spring that on a ride out we got into a bog. You should habe seen Fiona's instant rise of adrenaline... Her four legs were full of mud. But she did it, sovereignly and without blinking an eye...

My mail to you came back again. Do you have a firewall or any other reason, why my mails to you do not pass, while your to me come through?

Christine

[Christine Sander]

Hi Margret,

I also got the following comment via e-mail. No idea why it did not register here.

Its the text that begins with: The letting go of ego is a process...
The second paragraph begins: The idea of focus is not new in riding...

Here it is:
The letting go of ego is a PROCESS. Remember this. In the process all these important discoveries come about. This is how I have come to learn them and I have SO SO much more to learn! The flow of learning is just so wonderful when you have the openess to it.
In my teaching, when the rider first begins learning to ride, this process begins and it begins with the mechanical understandings coupled with the energetic understandings, the latter of which will not be understood until later....but they are included in the teaching because there are moments in the PROCESS when these things can be grasped for brief moments. At this time in the learning, the rider is put to many many thinking tasks. In order to feel we must have thought! The more the thought works for the good of the partnership ONLY the more the feel becomes clarified. I try to get riders to apply a mechanical understanding and to think about what it produces. Over and over I ask them to think about what they are feeling and what is happening. It is truly amazing how many people are not thinking about anything they are doing! It is the ego that is occupied with other tasks!
The idea of FOCUS is not new in riding. Focus helps us begin to feel something. When we focus only on the mechanics only, we don't progress in the process. Only by being constantly reminded that an energetic communication concurrently exists can riding reach limitless possibilities. But focus on the mechanics with these reminders subliminally begins to show us that some other important thing goes on in the riding that we are not aware of! It is this energetic communication. Sitting appropriately on the horse allows energetic communication to happen better and with the right combination of elements it starts to take over and a sort of magic begins to happen.
But remember, Christine, that this is a PROCESS. A beginner rider, if he is human, is going to be concerned about his life and limb on this animal he knows little about. This is natural. This is not our fault. We are created this way. And so for the horse with the human on his back.
When we see certain people able to have all this communication and collaberation with a horse from the beginning, we should just be happy that we have this example of the possibility and not feel sad that we have not achieved it. We are each on our own journey. The wonderful thing is that possibility. I just know that the things I have learned are meant to be spread to others....be it by book or video or whatever. The horses are crying out for this! We can all start the process and we can start it now. Staying on our own road will help keep the ego in check as it will try to compare our road with another's. We, like horses, are individuals. How great is that!
I hope we can get the email dialogue underway.
Cheers,
Margaret Kunz

Margaret,
Just a brief comment. It may not be so bad after all to have this dialog here. That way all texts are in one file. Best, C.

[Margaret Kunz]

Christine,
I was going to suggest you explore Jean Luc Cornille's work with Science of Motion. I have taken numerous horses to Jean Luc for help through clinic participation in the past and the results have been delighfully satisfactory!
The subject of horses running into fire is intriguing. My guess is that they would do so in search of their safe place(their stable box or stall) even if they had just fled from that very place. They might also be consumed with the chaos of the situation and are trying to locate other members of their 'herd'. I would doubt that a horse would run straight into danger with clarity of mind. Chaos is a bad thing.
As for horses rushing into battle, I would think there was an emotional interpretation of such situation that we don't fully appreciate. No doubt some(bolder) horses might make better battle horses than others who might crumble under the chaos and excitement.
The term 'predator' is appropriate for discussion. After all, what makes a friendly-natured horse able to prefer(or trust) the 'energy' of one person over another? or blatantly dislike someone!? How is it that he can pick a person out of a crowd by the way they sit or stand or move(or even think!)? Recognition of danger is hardwired into the horse so that he can instantly poise himself for flight if necessary. And why is it that we can 'accidentally' hit a horse with our fork when in his stall and he knows that it is a mistake and not a threat? How is it that horse and cat, for example, can nuzzle with one another and know that the other will not harm him.
As ugly as the term 'predator' is, it cannot be left out of discussion. In an instant a posture of joy can be turned into a posture of fear. And for that matter, a rider's posture might be communicating just enough tension that the horse remains 'on guard' and unable to release himself into a posture of joy. The rider may not be implying that he is the predator but that a predator may be about. The horse primes himself into a state of warning. The tension in the horse has not taken him one way or the other just yet! Which way will the adrenaline serve him at this time?

[Christine Sander]

Hi Margaret,

Do we have all mails in the file? Nothing lost this morning, which would be pity. In this correspondence so many things are touched on. Should we streamline it towards Tai Chi and teaching students? What do you think?

I guess Fiona approaching the gate in full alert, and me saying that this is what we need from the horse under saddle is not fully answered. I'll have to give it some more thought. It is along the lines of horses having intentions and reading the rider's intention.

As for the flight instinct. How often do you see a horse prepare for flight when it is with the rider? If leadership works and the horse is healthy (i.e. no fear of pain looms) it will have no reason to run. This said, there are countless horses threatened by pain and hence the reoccuring situation of horses shying, not wanting to go forward, not trusting the rider. For me it is a health issue. Obviously leadership must be well established with horses that have pain issues. And beginners deserve healthy horses.

You seldom hear of the predator here. It appears to be an American discussion. I have thought about it some more. In the ancient world, which the O.T. and Greek mythology speak about, there seems to have been no enmity between man and beast. People where vegetarians.

The image of the predator is very much a thing of this current world. The horse has a dual nature. Out in the wild it is attentive and ready to run. In the stable it is relaxed and ready to serve the rider. It does not know good or evil in the human sense. And it has everything to full understand the rider. Kind of amazing isn't it.

Christine

[Margaret Kunz]

Saddler and McTimoney practictioner Ilga Cottle from England says she believes horses are hellbent on pleasing us. I think she is right! But my question is just how well will this pleasing horse elevate for us if we are self-serving or causing him damage and pain?
I am trying to differentiate for you in your thinking that there are ways to sit in the saddle that are more conducive to obtaining joyful elevation and less likely to be misconstrued with the request for the elevation of flight preparation.
"No enmity between man and beast" is where we 'were' and where we are 'going', one hopes. While we are in the middle, we have to deal with the concept that beast is here to 'serve' man! Man is unfortunately the worst predator on earth because of his greed and self-absorption.
Perhaps we can hope to use wisdom of a Higher nature and befriend beast once again. The horse is certainly waiting for this.....and willing to hold hands with us whether we are nice about it or not.
The image of the skaters Gordeeva and Grinkov speaks volumes to me of a befriending in partnership that is rather a model of how we should behave and interact. Taking their relationship a step further, we know that they were married. So can you imagine the depth of communion they had on the ice? Would we not do better with the horse if we considered his perspective and his voice as essential to the ultimate partnership?
Not addressing the posture just yet is not avoidance but an important delay to be sure all the ingredients of understanding are layed out on the table so that when the descriptions seem complicated they can be more simplified by putting them beside the goals.
Are you on Skype, Christine?

[Christine Sander]

Okay, so we are on track. Completely agree that all these questions must be settled before communications on practical issues in the saddle or how to prepare for them from the ground can begin. Yes, joyful elevation!!! All the horses I soon hope to have under saddle and in a regular riding/training routine have health and hence fear issues. I find that for them the slow approach of Tai Chi also works. They are much more comfortable to try a movement that otherwise they may refuse. Key always ! is the mounting of the back. I see the same thing happening in Jean Luc Cornille's videos.

I am not very comfortable on the phone, but given the fact we have no e-mail contact it may be a good idea to speak on the phone at least once. I have a zero account for world-wide calls. So all I need is your telephone number. You may want to send it through Andrea.

[Margaret Kunz]

Christine,
The first step to understanding the posture of the rider and how he moves in his stillness upon the horse is to understand the music of the horse you are working with. Each horse is an instrument with his own qualities and so for the rider! The two of you are going to play a duet! The horse will have his own musical way of moving and the rider will 'intervene' in this music with his weight and his own musical vibrations that are unique to his body. To dictate the music is to contrive it. A conductor can have an entirely different intrepretation of a piece than the individual members of a symphony. The individual members cooperate to bring this interpretation to harmonious fruition. But what might happen if you had a small symphonic group with no one as 'the conductor' and you rather collectively interpreted the piece impromptu? Would you have complete chaos? or would you have an exciting and unique cooperation that invited each member of the group to offer his best to the combined effort and bring about an extraordinary interpretation that exceeds all expectation!?
I'd actually like your thoughts on this!(or anyone else's, for that matter!)

[Margaret Kunz]

Christine,
If you have not already done so, I would like to suggest you take in the information that Dr. Andrew McLean has on equine behaviourism. His website is www.aebc.com.au and he is a world renowned expert in equine training psychology. He has personally helped me work out a dangerous bolting problem I had with a horse and I feel that every good horse trainer should have at least one of his books in their library. The two that I have are THE TRUTH ABOUT HORSES and HORSE TRAINING THE MCLEAN WAY. He has a very well organized clinical approach that is somewhat sterile of the softer, more obscure communications we are discussing here but, in my opinion, what light he sheds on horses and how they might think is by far more fair to them than many of the so-called natural horsemanship methods you might come across throughout the world. A lot of what he explains is in the practical way to manage the chemistry of fear. And, interestingly, what he describes harkens to the mechanical aspects of dressage!

[zalary]

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