Riding can be a form of moving meditation.  When you do a walking meditation you work on quieting the mind, becoming fully aware of your surroundings and experiencing the present moment.  You use intense concentration on each movement your body makes to help bring you into this meditative state.  Walking meditation is often easier for an individual than a long sitting meditation because you do not have to quiet the body and the mind.  I would argue that a riding meditation is even more powerful because you can use the movement and energy of the horse.  The horse is already living in the moment and much more aware of his surroundings than you are which can help you go deeper into your meditative state.  In addition, from this state of mind your connection to your horse will strengthen.

A ridden meditation is really a hybrid.  Technically you are sitting but your body is in motion from the ripple effect of your horse’s movement as he does the walking.  With regular practice you can get all of the benefits of meditation while simultaneously improving your riding skills and relationship with your horse.  Make sure you are in a safe place to practice your ridden meditation prior to starting.  If you need to, lightly work your horse first to take off the edge.

Part One:

The first exercise is a basic body awareness exercise similar to a guided relaxation meditation where you focus on each body part and allow the tension to melt away.  Start with a soft eye.  Become completely aware of your surroundings without focusing your attention on any one thing.  Be aware of the sounds around you and the smells.  Now take all of that awareness and bring it into your temples and then into your head.  Bring your focus down your neck.  Is there tension?  Is your head stacked on top of your neck or is it tilted?  Drop down into your shoulders.  Release any tension.  Are your shoulders even?  Bring your awareness down your arms.  Are they fluid and following the motion of your horse’s head?  Feel your hands and the reins that run through your fingers.  What does the grip feel like?  Can you feel the connection to your horse’s mouth?

Follow the energy and motion in your arms back up to the point between your shoulder blades.  Feel where both sides of the energy connect at this point.  Allow your shoulder blades to melt down your back.  Follow the energy down your spine.  Are your vertebrae stacked on top of one another?  Feel the motion from your horse ripple through your spine.  Now bring the awareness around though you entire torso.  Focus on your breathing.  Are you breathing deeply by using belly breaths to pull the air all the way into your lungs?  Or are you breathing shallow with only your chest rising falling?  How does the motion of the horse affect your breathing?

Next move your awareness to your hips.  Is your pelvis tilted?  Are you sitting evenly on both seat bones?  Are your hips moving equally with the motion of the horse?  Can you feel the vibration and connection with your horse through your seat?  Drop down into your thighs.  Are they tight or relaxed against your horse’s side? Continue to take your awareness down through your knees, down your calves, into your ankles and then your feet.  What does your lower leg feel like against your horse’s side?  Can you feel your horse breathing?  How do the stirrups feel across the ball of your foot?  Is your weight evenly distributed into both feet?

From here focus on your breathing and become aware of your entire body and how everything is working together.  Feel the motion of your horse and be completely in the moment in your body.  Release any places of tension.  Slowly start to shift anything that feels blocked, stuck or out of balance.  Allow yourself to be aware of any other thoughts and watch as they pass.  Allow any emotions to rise up and fall away again.  You are having the very unique experience of a sitting meditation while in motion.  

Part Two:

After you have practiced, and are comfortable with, part one you can take your ridden meditation a step further.  It is hard to quiet our mind and stay in the moment.  By bringing awareness into your body you can stay present a bit easier.  To take it to the next level you can use your horse’s body as your focus.  You are no longer trying to feel what is happening in your own body- let that fade into the background and become connected into your horse so that you can feel what is happening in his body.

Keep soft eyes throughout this exercise.  When you bring your focus and attention onto your horse it is not through visual cues.  You don’t need to stare at the ears or the neck or the shoulders.  You should feel it.  You can either blend into this exercise from the previous exercise or use it on its own.  If you are starting your ridden meditation with this exercise start the same way you started part one- by becoming fully aware of your surroundings and then you are going to bring that awareness into your horse’s nose.  If you are continuing your part one meditation you will take all of the awareness of your body and bring that into your horse’s nose.

Starting at your horse’s nose try to connect into your horse’s energy and sense the air that is passing through his nostrils.  The breathing pattern of your horse can give you an enormous amount of feedback about his mental state.  Move your attention to his mouth.  Can you feel the connection through your reins?  Try to sense if his jaw is tense or relaxed.  Become aware of his head- what position is it in?  How does it move with his stride?  Bring your awareness up to his ears.  Remember, you are trying to feel your horse’s body not just look for visual cues.  The ears can also give you a lot of feedback about your horse’s mental state.

From here move to his poll.  The poll is made up of a series of joints- the head connects to the first cervical vertebra, the atlas, which connects to the second cervical vertebra, the axys, and then down to the third cervical vertebra.  This is the area of the spine that has the most movement, allows for flexion and provides range of motion for the head.  It is the series of joints that really provide the head and neck set that we are looking for when our horse is in a frame.  It is also an area that tends to get tense and blocked so really focus on the poll to get a feel for its movement and how it is different from the rest of the neck.  You can follow the energy down the neck.  What does the movement in the neck feel like?  Where is that motion coming from?

Then move to the shoulders.  Is one shoulder bigger than the other?  Is the movement in each shoulder equal?  Can you tell if your saddle is interfering with the motion of the scapula?  Remember that the horse’s front limbs are not attached to the horse’s body with bones.  They do not have a collar bone like we do.  The entire body of the horse (and the weight of your body and saddle) is supported in a sling of muscles between the front limbs.  Therefore, any tension or issues in the shoulders or chest can cause a deviation in the movement of your horse.  Take your awareness down the front legs.  How are the legs swinging forward?  Do they swing freely in a straight line or is there a deviation in the swing?  Is your horse reaching forward equally with both front legs?  Can you feel the point that your horse’s hoof touches the ground and the moment it pushes off again?  Is the break over point in his stride smooth?

From there bring your attention back up his back.  Is it hollowed out or lifted?   There really is very little lateral bend in the back.  When your horse bends the feeling comes more from the swing of his ribs.  Can you feel the ribs swing as he walks?  Some horses have more body swing to the left due to the weight of the cecum.  Can you feel his breathing in his chest?  Can you sense if he is using his abdominal muscles?

 Bring your attention down the rest of the spine and all the way down into the tail.  Pay attention to the lumbosacral and sacroiliac joints.  The first is where the lumbar spine, or lower back through the loin area, meets the sacral vertebra.  The sacral vertebra typically fuse together creating one piece called the sacrum.  The sacroiliac joint is where the sacrum runs through the ileum of the pelvis (this is what causes the “jumper bump” or the bony protrusion on the back above the hip joints).  These two joints allow the horse to engage his hind end which then allows him to elevate his front end and go in a proper frame.  It is also the final area that you are going to get any lateral motion in the spine to generate bend.  Many horses have issues in this area so focus on it and see if you can feel the movement.  This is the area that allows the pelvis to tip with each stride.  What does it feel like?  The tail can also tell you a lot about mood, tension and what is going on with the rest of the spine.  How does your horse carry his tail?  Is it crooked?  Is it tense?  Is it active?

From here become aware of your horses hind end.  This is the power house of your horse can you feel the push and power generate from the large muscles in the rump?  Many people forget that the hip joint is actually sitting inside the rump and the motion in the hind legs is generate from this joint and the deep muscles surrounding the pelvis.  Bring your attention down the hind limbs.  What are the stifles doing?  The hocks?  Remember that there are absolutely no muscles in the lower limbs on a horse.  All of the movement in the hock all the way down to the hoof is generated from the muscles above the hock (the same is true in the front limbs- everything comes from above the knee).  Can you sense how the muscles are creating a pulley system through the ligaments to allow the extension and flexion of the lower limb?  Again, feel how the legs swing and how the foot is placed on the ground.  Is your horse tracking up evenly?  Is he landing flat on his foot?  Or is he landing on one part of the foot first?

 From here bring your awareness up to the entire horse.  The horse uses a ring of muscles to generate movement.  When you are riding you are the one who is directing that movement.  You take the lead in the dance to determine the speed and direction of the movement.  Therefore, visualize the energy starting in your core.  You send that energy down into your pelvis and down your legs to ask the horse to move forward.  The energy then travels across the stomach muscles and into your horse’s hind sparking the forward motion in your horse.  That energy travels in waves along the horse’s back.  You must allow that energy to travel through your legs.  It continues up into the chest and shoulders and then down the neck.  From there it goes through the poll, into the jaw and then transmits into the bit and up the reins to where you catch it with your hands.  The energy goes up your arms, into your shoulders, down your spine and back to your core.  Try to feel this circuit of energy and connection with your horse.  I think of it as a figure eight motion or a lopsided infinity symbol.  You don’t want to allow a break in the circuit and the energy should flow freely through you and your horse.  

Part Three:

Now you can build on the mindfulness, connection, awareness and clarity gained through the first two exercises to help build your relationship, communication and performance with your horse.  Once you have practiced developing full awareness of your body and your horse’s body you can use it to enhance your riding skills.  This is where the practical side comes in for those of you who are not the sort to meditate. 

From the state of awareness gained from part one and part two you can start to manipulate your neutral body position and your horses natural walk.  Again, we will start by exploring your own body first since that is easier.  You should start in a meditative, mindful state.  Begin to manipulate your body.  What happens if you put your head off balance?  Can you feel what else changes in your body?  What changed in your horse’s body?  What if you make one hand tense?  Both hands?  Try dropping a shoulder or rotating your shoulders slightly.  Each time you make a change feel what happens through the rest of your body and feel what happens to your horse.  Go back to a neutral position prior to changing something else. 

For example, go back to a neutral position and then try shortening one side of your torso.  When you shorten one side of your torso the other side lengthens.  What happens with your shoulders? Your hands?  Your head and neck?  Your hips?  Do you now have more weight on one seat bone?  Does one leg now feel tighter against your horse’s side?  How do your feet feel in the stirrups?  Feel how that change in your body rippled throughout your whole body.  Then take the awareness down to your horse.  Is he still tracking evenly?  Moving in a straight line?  Are his back and ribs still neutral?  What about his head and neck?  Once you feel how one change in your body affected your horse go back to your neutral position and try something else. 

Once you have played around with small manipulations in your body and start to really feel how everything is interconnected you will better understand why our body position is so important when riding.  When your instructor tells you to stretch up or drop your shoulders it isn’t just about looking pretty- it is affecting your horse and your ability to communicate with your horse.

Then you can take it to the next level.  Can you start to make movements without moving everything else?  This is your independent seat.  Can you bring one leg back an inch while keeping your pelvis and body neutral?  Can you bring one hip slightly forward without throwing everything out of balance?  Can you open one hand out to the side without it affecting your body position?  When we can start to isolate each body part it allows ud to communicate with our horses with precision and clarity.  It is the ability to develop an independent seat that turns a good rider into a great one.  Think about upper level dressage riders.  They can, through small isolated movements in their body, communicate complex movements to their horse and stay in perfect balance while their horse exerts an amazing amount of power.  They become one with the movement. 

If you can stay in this mindful awareness while you ride you will start to feel the feedback between your energy and movement and your horse’s energy and movement.  It is all interconnected.  When you make a change in your body you can make a change in your horse.  When your horse makes a change it will naturally have an effect on your body.  It is this give and take that allows you to ride in unity.  When you apply the proper aids and ask your horse to bend his ribs will swing to the outside and your body should naturally go with that movement to allow it to happen.  You must follow the motion and energy of your horse to stay in balance with him while simultaneously isolating specific movements within your body to communicate through your aids.  The best way to learn to do that is through the mind body connection developed in the ridden meditation exercises.

Try to maintain your meditative state and build on the basic walk.  Start to ask for changes in the length of stride, change of bend, try a lateral movement, walk over poles, do walk-halt-walk transitions, etc.  Practice your independent seat, communicate clearly and try to maintain the awareness of your body and your horse’s body.  Keep the connection and presence.  As you get better you can continue to build on it.  You can practice maintaining your ridden meditation while riding the trot, canter, pioff, sliding stop, over fences or whatever you are working on in your riding.  If you can learn to do that it will not only help your communication.  If you can feel your body as practiced in part one you will know when you are tightening your jaw or forgetting to breath.  If you can feel your horse you will know when he is not tracking up all the way on his right hind when practicing a movement.  It will transform your riding and your relationship with your horse.     

 Stef Perkins, Bend Equine Solutions