Kokoro Equestrian Centre

20/05/2023

Gracie using tone and her corridor to ride circles and straight lines whilst trying to maintain a neutral seat . Great focus and body awareness today 👏👏

20/05/2023

20/05/2023

Gracie had her first lesson at working with Ash in hand today understanding about how to use her body tone and corridor correctly to create a conversation and a partnership . How the reins are there as a line of communication to provide feedback both ways not there to control or force. Super effort and then to also apply when riding 🐴⭐️

11/04/2023

“If you go through hell, keep walking.”
(Sir Winston Churchill)
Muscles evolve fast. Central pattern generators and fascia take much longer. It takes longer for a horse than a human because a human knows the benefit of the therapy and accepts initial discomfort or pain.
“Movements are generated by dedicated networks of nerve cells that contain the information necessary to activate motor neurons in the appropriate sequence and intensity to generate motor patterns. Such networks are referred to as CENTRAL PATTERNS GENERATORs, (CPGs). The most basic CPGs coordinate protective reflexes, swallowing or coughing. At the next level are those that generate rhythmic movements. Some, such as respiratory CPGs, are active throughout life but are modulated with changing metabolic demands. Others, such as locomotor CPGs, are inactive at rest but can be turned on by signals from command centers.” (Sten Grillner, The Motor Infrastructure From Ion Channels To Neuronal Network.)
The locomotor CPGs are inactive at rest. This is one of the reasons why I emphasize therapies through educated motion. Training the CPGs properly and, even more, retraining the CPGs is often frustrating. If the work is good, the muscles change rapidly, and the initial progresses are encouraging. Then we reach a plateau or even hit a wall. Not only does the horse not progress, but the horse appears to regress. Soon we lose confidence and question the approach. Instead of falling for the pretenders selling you the evangel, keep walking and take a look at reality as you walk.
The horse’s nature is to protect familiar patterns and compromises that damage the horse’s physique over time. The horse explores at first as it is new and intriguing and even provides some comfort. Soon the CPGs and the fascia question and even revolt against the novelty, and we don’t understand because the horse was doing so well. It takes a long time to reeducate the fascia. Familiar patterns are imprinted in the fascia, and regular training techniques don’t educate the fascia. Reflect on the horse’s difficulties and nuance your approach but keep walking. Don’t make a U-turn back to hell resting the horse or returning to your familiar riding and training technique. Even if progresses are slow, the horse is evolving. It takes courage for a human to explore the unknown and even more for a horse. The physical comfort is not there yet for the horse. The horse tries because you ask, but his CPGs and fascia tell him to resist and protect. If you change course, you lose. It can take up to a year to change fascia. Choose a form or training that educates the fascia. Repeating a movement o fit literature or judging requirements does not educate the fascia or the CPGs.
What educates the horse’s CPGs and fascia is soundly understanding the athletic demand and how to develop and coordinate the horse’s physique for the athletic demand. All the fascia training research understands that a repetitive movement does not educate the fascia. Suppose you practice half-pass, focusing on crossing the forelegs above the knees. You just repeat gym-type of training. Instead, if you extend your knowledge and understand how the whole horse physique needs to be coordinated to benefit from the movement. Then your education is effective. But even so, it will take time. The horse will do well at first, and then, the horse will question everything and even resist. You are not making an error. You have not lost all your skill. You are just walking through reality. Understand your horse; give him time, and by time, I mean weeks or even months. Refine your approach, but if you change course. You and the horse return to hell.
Jean Luc

27/03/2023

Niharika and Ash nice riding off the lunge practicing your straight lines and corners not allowing your pony to fall in and cut the corners and to change the direction when asked by you . Good use of your body tone and trying to maintain your neutral seat .Awesome effort for your fifth lesson 👏👏👏

25/02/2023

Neve and Bazil working on counter bend
helping Bazil to maintain a correct pelvic rotation and balance on the circle,not rushing staying relaxed. Neve keeping a soft arm with no tension in the fingers or arms 👏👏👏excellent in hand warm up today great team work and this showed in your ridden work today to !

06/02/2023

Super work Rianne staring to work with your core and tone and exploring the connection with Ash and the influence you can have . In a respectful manner. Exciting to now start on our lateral work . 🙌

28/01/2023

Welcome back riders ! Great to catch up with all the girls and hear about their summer break Neve having the opportunity to farm sit and look after some horses as well as ride them and Rianne attending a pony camp with Tamsin !! Great experiences and loads of fun taking with them the skills and knowledge and being able to apply what we have done in their lessons and being confident and certain to adapt it to the horses they are riding at the time . Well done girls 👏👏.
We started our Intension Board for 2023 every student places their intentions on a sticky note onto the board stating what they would like to achieve in their riding/ground work whatever for this year, then we go through some cool strategies on how to achieve this . So hopefully by the end of the year all our sticky notes will have moved across to the DONE column we’ll keep updating 😄
We will be refining our work on LFS and our ground work skills and keep building on this and also be introducing a new topic science in motion 🤔more on that to come !!
A fun little exercise with a full cup of water walking a straight line then a circle both left and right , looking at and feeling what muscles , ligaments are used to engage the core,rotate,keep balanced,minimise movement and not spill a drop 😂 . Well done to you both for keeping the cup full . Great focus and control and what a positive outcome you both had with your riding today . Looking forward to a fun filled year of learning with you all great to see butts back in the saddle 🏇

28/11/2022

Great lesson for Laura on Sunday. I taught her at Kokoro over a year ago. She’s come a long way since then and got on very well with Harry.
Terrie Barley

24/11/2022

Welcome Niharika to Kokoro Equestrian Centre.
What a positive and enthusiastic lesson today with your pony Ash 😊. Well done for completing all tasks 👏. we touched on a few important basic skills using your body language,energy,spacial awareness,safety,communication and leadership skills .
Your journey has just begun 🐴👏👏

01/09/2022

Laura &Ash also had the experience of riding off the lunge for the first time putting into practice skills they have learnt . Smiles all round 😃Great to see the enjoyment on these young riders faces as they achieve the next stage in their riding. Keep up the great focus ,have fun ! 🐴

01/09/2022

Havana had a great lesson today with Ash .
Today’s task was to catch , groom, tack up, ride walk, stop, turn ,go, off the lunge line . You really showed clear leadership skills today and gave Ash confidence !⭐️
Fantastic effort Havy👏👏👏