Monthly Archives: June 2013

Jun20

what do you want?

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Brandi Rivera riding Sanne; Photo by Jeffrey Anderson

Day 3 of the Aikido and horsemanship clinic with Mark Rashid in New Hampshire.  It is interesting to me how “Abrahamic” this work is.  By that I mean, Mark is continually reminding us to focus not on the problem, but on what we want.  This from Abraham:

Anytime you feel negative emotion, stop and say: Something is important here; otherwise, I would not be feeling this negative emotion. What is it that I want? And then simply turn your attention to what you do want. . . . In the moment you turn your attention to what you want, the negative attraction will stop; and in the moment the negative attraction stops, the positive attraction will begin. And—in that moment—your feeling will change from not feeling good to feeling good. That is the Process of Pivoting.

So today, instead of focusing on the discombobulated feeling in the downward transition from canter to trot, he asked me to picture the transition I wanted, including breathing, and feeling the rhythm of going from a three-beat gait to a two-beat.  After a few times, I could feel the ease and flow of that transition beginning to come through.  He also pointed out that I had been doing “my” transition, not “our” transition, meaning Sanne’s and mine.  When I shifted mentally and physically to blend with Sanne, things began to open.

I think that is a problem with a lot of riding (and relationships in general).  We are doing our ride, and the horse, the softness, the harmony, the opening is either absent or inconsistent.  Mark teaches that consistency leads to dependability, which creates trustworthiness, leading to peace of mind and finally softness.  THAT is the training pyramid that I want to pay attention to.  Aikido is teaching me more about flexibility, awareness and also about developing fluidity and even-mindedness in my responses to whatever arises.  This morning, I was stiffening my arms to protect my shoulder.  I found that if I softened, I was far less likely to get hurt, and that it also began to dissolve that habitual fear-based reaction.

Here is what I want:  to be a helpful, soft, consistent, even-minded, kind, connected, joyful rider, lover, mother, friend, being.  Is that too much to ask?  I think not!

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Jun19

notes from the dojo

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This is Mark Rashid and his wife Chrissie in the dojo up in New Hampshire where we are studying Aikido and horsemanship.

Today we learned the rest of the horseman’s kata, which is a series of movements based on approaching, mounting, riding, dismounting and honoring the horse.  The spiritual underpinnings of this kata are about forgiveness, “wiping away” the past and moving/focusing forward.

In our riding, we are focusing on the same things.  By seeking softness in our hands, legs, backs and minds, we are in a sense asking for forgiveness.  Each time we try to soften, to be clearer, more subtle and precise, we are moving forward, wiping away the past.

Today one of my lessons was about completion, so that each movement with the horse – backing up, halting, softening, was complete and full before going onto the next thing.  It is a continual practice of opening; to ease, to flow, to connection, to the horse, to ourselves.

Jun18

aikido and the horse

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Up here in the White Mountains of New Hampshire with lovely Sanne, studying Aikido and horsemanship with Mark Rashid.  In the Aikido class this morning, we practiced circling our hips like stirring a big pot.  Then we circled our hips from the “inside wall” of the body, and then from the organs.  Then we came to stillness while still maintaining the feeling of circling the organs inside the body.  To me, this felt like a dynamic, soft stillness.  We practiced breathing laterally, expanding our ribs sideways.  We learned the horseman’s kata – more about that tomorrow. We practiced transmitting softness to and through our partners.

Riding in the afternoon was about bringing the lessons from the morning’s class into the horsework.  It was amazing to feel how the habitual patterns of riding pushed away the newer somatic information from the morning. I felt as if I had to wade through my busy-ness, my “doing something” to get quiet enough to feel myself and my horse. I thought about re-patterning and how learning a new pattern can take hundreds, even thousands of repetitions.  I thought about how learning softness – because it is not really a pattern, but a way of being – is slipperier still.  Part of that is because our human tendency is not toward softness, but resistance and tightening.  It is reflexive, protective, fearful.  Sanne, on the other hand, tends toward softness.  The minute he feels an opening, he is soft.  That is his gift, his teaching, his desire.

My job is to look for and create that opening. Breathe in, breathe out.  Repeat with attention.

Jun17

on the road

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Judge Manning picked up Sanne today, along with Jane Strong’s horse, Dutch, to head up to the New Hampshire clinic with Mark Rashid.  I have a special fondness for Judge because he brought Capprichio up from Florida to Martha’s Vineyard seven years ago.  Every time I see one of Judge’s trucks I feel warm: safe horses, happy arrivals.

I will be posting this week from New Hampshire, where we will be having full days of Aikido and horsemanship.  I plan to be transformed.  Sanne is already perfect, but I am sure will appreciate any improvements on my part.