position vs direction - can they unite?

"There is no such thing as a right position, there is only a right direction", FM Alexander said. I have pondered on the words and have found that I do agree and at the same time disagree.

There are those who have trained themselves to become living statues. In their profession the ability to stand still for a prolonged time is trained and developed. Roger "Gränsen" Jonsson is a mime artist with five years of training. -Mime is a combination of tension and relaxation, it's about to rest while standing. To be able to move in slow motion you have to train your body. It takes a couple of years, he says. -When you've put on the costume and makeup and put yourself into position stillness is achieved rather quickly. It is a form of meditation. Even if you are percieved as being standing still you change position very subtly with minute movements every other minute, he continues.

During the 1600s (correct me if I'm wrong!) They trained horses and riders to become living statues. The horse was helped to come into a physical relaxation by soft massage and thereby trained to stay in a pose for a longer time, resting quietly and without unnecessary tension in the selected position.

Positions in this sense perceived as still do not have to be static. And what's preventing them from being static? Well, direction!

If your body is going somewhere - even in slow motion - there's a movement in the brain, that is, the nervous system, and hence a flow of information between the brain and body.

The word position have a physical as well as a psychological application. Deadlock is a term that signals a static relationship without any movement and it can be both physical and mental.

I often see horses and riders in locked positions. A common "place" for a physical deadlock is the rider's hand in relation to the horse's mouth. Another is when the rider takes a position in the saddle, and strive to maintain that position no matter how the horse's body moves. There are mental positions that stem from perceptions that the rider has of himself (performance anxiety) or the horse (lazy, slow, hot)

All deadlock affects suppleness, the muscle suit busy keeping the body in a certain postition, keeping a firm support in the reins or responding to a mental state is stiffening. The stiffened body is affected in such a way that it can no longer follow the horse in its movement/direction.

Now every move requires that the body takes a position. To be able perform a smooth movement requires a clear direction in which way the body/position has to go.

I have started training jujitsu and it's a great exercise in position and direction. If my training partner and I have a good position relative to each other and in our own bodies and a clear picture of the direction of the move, that ensures a soft floating feeling to all moves, and we seem to manage it without apparent effort in our respective bodies, and none of us experience being thrown or tipped over as unpleasant or painful as we train. But when the position and/or direction fails us, we're in trouble, it gets exhausting, inconvenient, uncomfortable (sometimes painful) and the risk of injury increases.

Position and direction are valid also in riding! We do not ride alone, we share a sense of position and direction with a living being. As riders, we select the discipline that we want the horse to work in and the training method.

Regardless of your individual choice, you as a rider need to familiarize yourself with both the position and direction for the maneuver you want to do riding the horse.

Lacking this knowledge transforms riding to horse wrestling and because the horse is much stronger, faster and bigger than us it's easy to resort to "rough methods" and sharper equipment and remaining in the paddock are two bereaved souls...

"Something achieved by means of violence can only be maintained by force."
Mahatma Gandhi

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

Place your bones carefully

In conjunction with a lecture on seat and saddle, I had the opportunity to make an interesting experiment - I put a skeleton in the saddle.

When I work with riders on the wooden horse, I usually talk about the desirable directions that should be in the rider's legs. The thigh should have a slightly inward rotation and rest on the saddle so that the inside of the thighs and knees rests on the saddle flap. Just above the knee the thighbone connects to the saddle flap and it means that the movement of the horse's chest directly affects the bone and thus the hip joint.

The lower leg, on the other hand, will have a slight outward rotation. That brings the calf muscle to drop in towards the horse's belly and the knee have a direction out over the big toe.



There are drawings of skeletons in the saddle, but it adds to the experience to see how well the pelvis connects to the shape of the saddle. As you can see the hip joint and the upper part of the thigh bone is free from any contact with the saddle.



There are of course individual variations in the shape of the pelvis and that is why it is important to try different saddle brands and models. This skeleton had a shape that fitted well in a Top Reiter saddle.

A saddle seat that follows the shape of the pelvis gives the muscle suit that keeps the skeleton upright a possibility to become a body with a relaxed balance, allowing for a smooth riding with precision in the giving of aids.

"Dear riders - don't just look - please observe! C. Harris

3 P: Perception, position, precision

Perception, position and precision. These are three words that Maria and I have chosen as a recurring mantra. We often mention these words when we teach and you can see them in our ads. Here I will present the words and explain why we have chosen them. We have fond that it is fun and interesting to play with these words since they have multiple meaning and can stand for different meaning in different contexts.

Perception
The Swedish National Encyclopedia explains perception like this: "perception, take notice, mental interpretation of the sensations produced by stimuli from the outside world, the basic function by which living creatures are informed about their surroundings. Perception results in an inner image of the outside, which is organized so that we can develop appropriate actions. The ability to perception has developed in connection with the capacity for movement. "

We perceive things around us through our senses (eyes, ears, touch). Often we receive so many impressions that they have to be sorted. The sorting takes place in the brain. My brain and yours choose in any given situation which impressions that it should focus on. This means that two people can experience the same situation quite differently, and that they can come up with entirely different "appropriate actions".

Position
Position can stand for both positions in my own body, that is posture or non-posture. The Alexander technique have tools with which I can explore just what my ideal position is where only the postural muscles are involved and nothing else. Position can also mean the horse's posture. Like humans, the horse can have a good posture, or be disconnected or tense. Position can also stand for my relative position to the horse. Both in work from the ground (whether it is work in hand or (free-) longing), as well as in riding, my relative position to the horse is of importance.

Precision
Precision hardly needs any further explanation in itself. Both perception and position can be made and maintained with more or less precision. I see precision as the result of perception (I perceive that what I need to control a given situation), and position (my own, the horse's and the relative position between our bodies).

But not perfection
A word we have deliberately chosen not to focus on is perfection. Sure, perfection is something to aim for, but we believe that the path to perfection is not made easier by focusing on being perfect. It becomes too easy to focus on what is missing, and then it is to easy to start judging yourself. Instead, we suggest that you (and we) just focus on perception. Perception means that you strive to become aware of what is happening in your own body, the horse's body, with your communication, in the surroundings etc. It is impossible to focus on all at this at once. To educate one self as a rider consist, among other things, of learning to focus on that what is important in that particular instance. This of course is easier if your seat is good so you don't have to think about it, or that you are so used to handle the longe line you don't get tangled up in it.

Maria and I also thought we are extra clever for choosing perception, position and precision since these words are spelled the same in both Swedish and English. Imagine that :)

Why The Quest for Equipoise?

The reason we have choosen to name our blog The Quest for Equipoise is that it summon up the work Lena and I do together.

Quest is a long search for or attempt to find something. In Wikipedia quest is descibed as a journey towards a goal, requiring great exertion on the part of the traveller, and the overcoming of many obstacles, typically including much travel especially over a body of water. (Note: Both Lena and I have travelled over the Atlantic!)

Equipoise is defined as the state of being balanced or in equilibrium, usually connoting something that is a product of counterbalancing. (Wikipedia)

As I see it Equipoise is a blend of words with great importance an impact on the work we set out to do.

Equi turns the toughts towards equilibrium and equine. In our work we strive to acchieve a poised equine as well as a poised rider, both of them in physical and psychological equilibrium.

Quest indicates that time is of importance and that there is a purpose for this journey. In our case the purpose is to make equipoise a quality in both rider and horse.

Lena and I have choosen three words that describes what we focus on in our teaching; position, precision and perception.

If these three words are the guiding stars on our travel along the equestrian trail then passion is what drives us forward and potential is what we se in each horse and rider we meet.

So, you are hereby invited to join us on our quest for equipoise. Feel free to share your thoughts, reflections and experiences with your fellow travellers on the trail.