10/12/2024
The Route that Would Prevent Pathology
“It’s funny how people will believe in Wi-Fi, invisible waves powering everything, but still think energy, frequency, and vibration are just some mystical non-senses.”
Riders talk about their horse on different online groups using Wi-Fi waves and frequency but still believe in communicating with the horse with spurs, weight on the bit, and shift of their body weight. The horse is a tensegrity structure, so we are. The efficiency and stability of a tensegrity structure is the perpetual adjustment between the tension of all the tensegrity structure elements. Releasing or contracting one element would alter the integrity of the whole structure, and we are told to shorten the horse’s lower line and stretch the upper line to improve balance, gaits, and performance.
Riders are comfortable using wireless technology and yet still believe in theories relating the tone of the horse's whole physique to the intensity of the contact on the bit. Some remove the reins and believe they do better when taking another bifurcation of the wrong route. The route that would prevent pathology is communicating with the horse at energy, frequency, and vibration levels. Not only is it not mystical, but it is easier than the mechanical approach.
Pathology cannot be cured. All drugs and therapies do is ease the pain, reduce the inflammation, and slow the evolution of the processes, although, recent studies demonstrate that one of the drugs commonly used to slow the process accelerates, in fact, the development of arthritis. The only way it would be possible to restore structure function would be to identify and correct the source of the abnormal stress loading the structure. Only then could the remodeling restore the structure's integrity with the help of adequate medication, therapies, and correct hoof balancing.
Equally skilled riders can make the horse do it or educate the horse’s physique for the athletic demand of the performance. The former is a competitive rider; the latter is a therapeutic rider. A competitive rider who uses therapies to fix the damage caused by his training approach is not a therapeutic rider. The therapeutic rider does not activate the horse legs with a whip to create a pantomime of Piaffe. The therapeutic rider evolves from the reductionist, linear, and heretical belief that balance is achieved by shifting the weight backward over the hind legs to the capacity to lead the horse’s mental processing toward the mastery of the forces above and around the center of Mass.
Reductionists dismiss the concept as mystical because it is not easily done with a mindset based on mechanical thinking. They talk wirelessly but use heavy contact of the spurs and bit. They talk about lightness but I feel heavy tension in their forearms when I touch the reins.
Often, in a clinic, a rider asks to ride her horse. I oblige and feel the horse’s dysfunctions, I explain the muscle imbalance, inverted rotation, or other issues I can feel. If I ride the horse long enough, I identify the root cause and explain how the whole physique adjusted to the dysfunction and arrived at the actual pathology. I then explain the first step of the rehabilitation, allowing the horse remodeling process to remodel the problem instead of turning in a circle from one compromise to the other.
The rider understands intellectually but still thinks mechanically, and the task appears overwhelming. If the rider is sensitive and more concerned about her horse than the ribbon, I suggest an easy first step. I ask the rider to slow down the horse without using the hands. I suggest holding the reins on the tips of the fingers and keeping the hands steady without pulling back. I tell the rider that the horse might increase the contact on the bit, but instead of pulling back with the arms, which would bring back the dialogue with the horse on the bit, the rider opposes just enough muscle tone to keep the hands and fingers steady. I advise the rider to liberate his or her mind from the concept of obedience and control and explore authentic partnership. The horse is willing, but we cannot experience how much the horse is willing as long as we expect obedience to our aids. We need to realize that waves, vibrations, and frequency are created through the tone of our whole physique instead of the hands, the legs, and body weight. Our mind concentrates on slowing down the horse, and our physical intelligence figures out how to create the right energy and frequency. The horse responds when our physique reaches the level of subtlety, which is the horse's comfort zone. The horse welcomes us into his comfort zone.
We need to believe that we have the sixth sense and let our physical intelligence explore our senses. If we try to do this consciously, we will not succeed because our minds think about our horse’s large mass and trigger too much muscle tone at the wrong frequency. The horse responds when he feels the right wave and frequency from our body. Every time the horse responds, the rider cannot believe that he or she did it because it is much more subtle and different from the principles and actions of traditional equitation.
Marketing aims to make the buyer believe that he needs the product. The usual strategy is to convince the rider of his incompetence and his dependence on drugs and therapy. Only if the rider identifies and corrects the source of the dysfunction, loading the structure, drugs, therapies, and proper trimming can help the remodeling process recreate the structure's integrity. It is a journey I choose and teach the journey.
All the daily videos in the Science of Motion courses show how to teach a young horse to efficiently carry a rider or a more mature horse to learn the transition Piaffe- Passage. The horses show reciprocal gentleness, kindness, and a deeper partnership. They are in their comfort zone and explore their advanced mental processing capacities.
Jean Luc
