position + direction + balance + suppleness = the ability to follow

What exactly is balance and suppleness?

Balance is, as I see it, the body's response to the question asked by gravity. Can I stay on my two feet or motion be it standing still or being in motion? Or if I sit in the saddle, am I able balance myself on my seat bones? How much muscular effort do I need to keep me in balance? Do I have to use the support of something outside of me to keep balanced?

Suppleness is, in my opinion, my ability to maintain self-balance allowing the body to keep up with a movement that is generated by someone (or something) else outside my own body. The movement can be generated by me skiing, cycling, riding or dancing.

The basis for a good seat is when we are positioning the bones in such a way that the postural muscles are given a chance to keep us up-right with least possible tension. That kind of basic attitude gives the prerequisite for good balance and ability to follow the motion.

But the concept of position brings about a possible conflict with both balance and suppleness and that possibility arises if we think of the position as something static, something we take and then hold ("strike a pose").

The Alexander Technique way to make a position relative and alive is to emphasise the directions that you want to be possible at every moment the position is in motion.



The picture above is from the book Riding - a tutorial by Percy Hamilton from 1923 and shows a rider good balance and with good ability to follow a movement follows the extended trot the horse offers. The horse carries his head high, but note that the rider does not sit on a sway-backed horse, on the contrary! That is a well connected back, it is particularly noticeable on the horse's legs - it is a snapshot of strenght!

Keep this image in mind when you study riding today. This rider has no fear of speed or force! He asks for extended trot and he lets himself be carried off by the horse, he has a good position and a clear direction - full speed ahead!

"Toughness and force are exclusive to the mediocre who never want to be true."
de la Guérinière