Centered Riding Book 1 Exercises

I am starting to review and practice the Centered Riding Book 1 Exercises, one exercise
or group of exercises a week.
 

Chapter 1: Introducing Centered Riding, where Sally Swift talked about herself.

Chapter 2 Exercises:  Pretend you are a horse.  The rider gets down on all fours and has someone
rub, squeeze or massage your back as you stand and walk.  How do you think the horse feels?

Chapter 3 was a review of the Four Basics, Eyes, Breathing, Centering and
Building Blocks and a few exercises of each basic. More on that tomorrow!

Chapter 4 Exercises: Learning and the Brain.  Use your hard eyes and left brain to think through the exercise/pattern/what to do and use Soft Eyes and right brain to feel the ride.  Learn to ride with one brain then the other brain. Don't dwell on one problem... Your body will respond will less effort.
Chapter 5 Anatomy Exercises.

1. Find the hip joint by lifting your knee up and down while searching for the
bend with your fingers.

*** You can rotate the thigh using a lot of muscle and tension OR you can use
soft eyes, play the internal videotape and see the greater trochanter move
"forward" through the muscles. Use SOFT EYES and see the motion inwardly.

I find that anytime I ride, I exercise the hip joint! This helps me to be more
flexible in my riding. This keeps my hip joint from "catching" or "cramping".
I start out by doing simple leg exercises, just rotate the ankle and lift it up
an down. Swing my lower leg up and down at the knee. March in place starts to
relax the hip joint. Then I swing the leg, back and forth, from the hip, and
not bending the knee. I can't swing the whole let too far, but even a couple of
inches will start to get the hip joint released and working.

As always, do a little at a time, and only what you can do so you don't get sore
muscle.

The review of this part of the chapter is on my chat, Horses Are Our Lives. Click on the link below to join. Read along and/or discuss this and other books with me. I'll soon be back to talking about riding and training tips, health issues, grooming, feed and nutrition, etc.

Join the Horses Are Our Lives Chat Group to learn more of the exercises at:
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/horsesareourlives/

"Embrace the Journey!"
Brenda