Be sure to read... our Introduction to EquiMotion What is Feldenkrais?
	Presented by:   Robert Spencer      Guild Certified Feldenkrais® TeacherCM   Nancy Camp, MA      Integrated Riding Instructor

The Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education is one of the most powerful awareness training methods available today. In EquiMotion workshops riders use this awareness to fine-tune posture and motion. It is possible to approach feelings of weightlessness, with no grasping of legs or arms, a state of relaxation in motion that is full of vitality and ease. In this state:

• The static that impedes communication with your horse is quieted
• You feel centered and connected
• The horse is attentive to subtle communications
• You easily access more of your potential

When the skeleton relates well to gravity, excessive holding and effort in muscles is unnecessary. Customary strains, stresses and aches fade away. By exploring the Feldenkrais Method^®, you become a better rider by making yourself a more functional human being. The results translate throughout your life as well as in your riding.

Morning floor exercises conducted by Robert use Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement^® lessons to increase the rider's appreciation for the complexity of simple movements. Mindfulness is the watchword. In the afternoon riding sessions Nancy's teaching expertise with Connected Riding™ techniques, developed by Peggy Cummings, takes the work to the saddle. Integrated Riding seeks ease in motion and communication with the horse. In the afternoon riding sessions, Nancy shows riders how to achieve and maintain a neutral pelvis to obtain independence between the upper body and the leg. This enables riders of all disciplines to truly follow the horse's motion. The result? Riders find ease and improved satisfaction in their riding experience and their relationship with their horse.

The Importance of Maintaining "Neutral" Position
Flexed Back	Neutral Pelvis Balanced Rider	Extended (Arched) Back

Flexed Back: This position results in unsteady balance. The axis in the upper body is broken. The stress lines in the illustration indicate where a body in this position will have to contract muscles to hold the torso upright. This position actually defies natural balance, requiring effort and resulting in discomfort. It also creates a "heavy" and restricted leg. When mirrored by the horse he will travel heavy on the forehand.

Neutral Pelvis: This position allows the rider's body to "rebalance" automatically. Notice that the axis of the upper body (above the hip joint) is unbroken and maintains its vertical balance without stress or strain. The automatic "rebalancing" action is a slight buoy effect. This position in riding enables the horse to release his base, travel freely and carry the rider with ease.

Extended (Arched) Back: This position also results in unsteady balance. In this position, the rider is subject to being left behind the motion or easily thrown forward. The axis of the upper body is broken. The stress lines in the illustration indicate where a body in this position will have to contract muscles to hold the torso upright. When mirrored by the horse, he will travel head high and hollow backed.

For further information, please consult: Connected Riding™, an Introduction by Peggy Cummings with Diana Deterding, illustrations by Nancy Camp, ©1999 PRIMEDIA Enthusiasts Publications, Inc.

Click About Whole Horse Training for more information about Nancy, Workshops, Clinics and Classes Schedule for our current schedule, or QUE PASA Newsletter for a recap of 2003's workshops.

Welcome to EquiMotion
By Nancy Camp

EquiMotion was born from my desire to find an effective way to give riders a kinesthetic sense of body awareness. Often during a riding lesson, after the rider’s repeated attempts to accomplish a seemingly simple task on horseback the horse will suddenly respond. For an instant everything is in harmony and I find myself shouting with glee, “Did you feel that?” Many students reply, “Yes,” and mean it. Many reply, “Yes,” even though they are afraid or embarrassed that they didn’t really feel anything. Some say, “I think so.” And then there are the honest souls who say, “Not really.”

I empathize with their struggle. I rode and showed horses for thirty years with little sense of how or why my body behaves as it does. I could contort my body into a “correct” seat. I could handle difficult horses and I rarely fell off. Staying “with the horse” meant I could shove my seat back and forth in the saddle and move my hands on the reins enough to keep from bumping my mount in the mouth. I never realized how compromised my “feel” was until my awareness changed once I began studying riding with Peggy Cummings, developer of Connected Riding®. Many of Peggy’s methods are based in the body awareness training that comes out of the Feldenkrais Method®. My enthusiasm and curiosity continued to develop, and through a student and friend, Murray Weston, I met and began working with Robert Spencer, a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher®. From our work together, EquiMotion Workshops and Integrated Riding were born.

Everyone who rides talks about “feel.” The ability to feel the horse’s movement is critical to effective riding in any discipline. So many riders struggle to feel which lead or diagonal they are on, and believe it is a magical skill that only highly experienced riders can obtain. All too often, riders believe that achieving and holding a certain predetermined position will give them the feel they seek. But in reality, holding any one position produces stiffness and limits a rider’s effectiveness and ability to communicate with the horse.

Riders know that movements in their bodies affect the horse’s way of going. But how many question how the movement of the horse affects the rider’s way of going? Traditional riding instruction is filled with commands that, unintentionally, cause riders to stiffen various parts of their bodies. This stiffness in the rider invariably translates to stiffness in the horse. It only takes a glance at most riding videos or equine magazines to notice horses struggling to perform difficult tasks under riders who could be doing more to help them in their efforts.

So when I talk about body awareness, I mean simply being aware of what takes place inside your body when you ride, and the very real consequences of this. I speak of a give and take relationship with the horse. This is different from instruction based in body mechanics that emphasizes how you can move your body when you ride. Traditional instruction dictates a correct position and leaves it up to you to figure it out, right or wrong. Integrated Riding instruction takes into account not only the fact that you are moving as you ride, but also that you are on a moving “object.”

The basis of EquiMotion is the Feldenkrais Method®. Robert Spencer leads riders in Awareness Through Movement® lessons, movement and sensory explorations that highlight habitual patterns and their limitations. Because the limitations are habitual, we usually do not sense them -- only the pain and limits they impose. By exploring the movements in carefully crafted, non-habitual configurations, we interrupt the old patterns, opening the possibility for learning something new. Freed of the old habits, riders find their movements becoming more natural, and their posture more easily upright. They move more freely in any direction from a balanced center.

Workshop participants then take the benefit of their off-the-horse experiential learning and proceed to a riding lesson with me. This isn’t a riding lesson in the traditional sense at all. Our goal together is to discover how the awareness obtained in the morning session applies to riding. This piece is critical to your success as an effective rider, and it is equally critical to my success as a riding instructor. When you are on the horse I can’t tell you what you feel or what you should feel, and neither can anyone else. I can, however, ask questions and lead you to finding your “feel,” or a new awareness of it.

These workshops have proven so effective and helpful to riders at all levels of experience and in such a variety of disciplines that Robert and I have decided to offer this unique experience in printed form.. The audio CD is Robert’s recording of an Awareness Through Movement® lesson designed to help you discover some of the awareness critical to your understanding of achieving and maintaining a neutral pelvis. The printed material presents exercises to be done mounted. It is illustrated and explains further how these principles apply to riding.

For more information about EquiMotion or to inquire about follow-up lessons, visit Nancy Camp’s web site at wholehorsetraining.com. And please feel free to contact us with questions and comments.