Published by Kirsten Nelsen
Bringing out the best in horse and rider kirstennelsen.substack.com
Listen on Apple PodcastsThe unspoken assumption of driving horses energetically forward into bit resistance is that the only option a horse has is to lift the back and engage the hindquarters. But coordination is complicated, just not that simple. Many horses simple drop the back or adjust by going crooked, laterally bending or rotating the spine, instead. As riders we are often unaware of the subtle compensation patterns. Head sets, neck sets and collecting horses into a frame does not cause internal coordination to balance or even be used in a healthy mechanical way. We can't make a horse look right in order to be right on the inside. Bodies have a way of adapting in order to relieve pressure in many ways that are not balanced or even a healthy use of the body. We need to know what balance feels like and let the posture or frame reflect whatever internal coordination is actually doing during development. Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructor www.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainerdeveloper of Training for Optimal Balance www.wexfordfarm.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
Deb and I do our best to answer a listener's question about her sensitive mare that gets a bit snarly when being touched, groomed and tacked up. As people we tend to zero in on these "don't touch me" spots and try to use desensitization to gain acceptance. But the real issue is trust and those areas are protected by a horse for a reason. How we approach, our energy as well as our actions, makes the difference between gaining trust and working through self-protection or not. If we begin with the thought that the horse has a good reason to feel protective, it changes how we handle the entire situation. If we approach respectfully, instead of blasting into protected areas, then horses can at least learn to tolerate the required touching. If we work with what a horse does like, can authentically accept first, then little by little we can work our way into the protected areas and gain trust from our horse. Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructorwww.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainerdeveloper of Training for Optimal Balance www.wexfordfarm.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
There was recently a bridle-less riding competition in England that has gotten a lot of attention on line. Deb and I both love and support these types of competitions because they demonstrate great horsemanship skills, essential self-carriage and refined communication between horses and riders, as it should be. These events help us move away from “framing” horses into uncomfortable, unnatural postures and movement, which we feel is a positive change for competitive riding. Riding horses bridle-less is not a trick, it is a result, the side effect of good training methods. Riders must have better balance because they can’t rely on their hands for stability. Horses must be balanced enough that steering and speed adjustments are easy and can be communicated through the rider’s seat and torso. When horses have freedom to move the neck naturally they find it easier to balance and rebalance during the performance. Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructorwww.optimalposture.org Host: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainerdeveloper of Training for Optimal Balancewww.wexfordfarm.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
How do we work on balance in simple ways everyday? Deb gives us lots of hints from her work as an Alexander Technique Instructor. Often we have poor internal maps about where major joints are in our body, which can throw off the use of our head, arms and legs as a result. Deb goes over in detail where 3 major joints are located and how we can bring our awareness to them, gently moving them, in order to improve our balance while we are out and about doing normal daily stuff. Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructorwww.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainerdeveloper of Training for Optimal Balance www.wexfordfarm.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
Balance in mind and body brings a sense of ease, efficiency, focus and clarity. Finding balance is a self-rewarding process because every time we improve emotional, mental or physical balance we just feel better - thanks to pleasure hormones and reduced muscular tension during motion. Working on balance is something we can do all the time internally even during challenging situations that the external world throws at us. The very first step of working on balance is awareness. Becoming aware of our thoughts, emotions and ease or lack of ease in physical movement is the very first step. Without awareness we rely on habits and instincts. With awareness we have the choice to change our habits. Small pauses with a shift to internal awareness can be done anytime, anywhere and in any situation. Giving ourselves permission to pause and create a little space internally in order to develop more awareness is not hard to do but does require practice. Our habits and instincts will kick in unconsciously all the time. Once we feel bad, muddled, stressed or have physical discomfort, those are the moments we can build awareness and start exercising choice about our internal world. Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructorwww.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainerdeveloper of Training for Optimal Balance www.wexfordfarm.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
When it comes to the health of our horse typically the last thing to be considered is how our horse is moving and how we balance as riders - how habits of coordination may be affecting our horse's well being. The veterinary term for dysfunctional coordination is mechanical lameness, meaning discomfort before any limping or pain manifests. While research on equine biomechanics has advanced, the information from that research is not yet part of our regular riding and training work. We have traditions in training that actually cause dysfunctional coordination in horses but they are so prevalent and common that they are never questioned. We contribute to our horse's healthy, balanced coordination or dysfunction every single time we ride and train horses. Because coordination, movement, are just habits stored in the nervous system the person who rides or trains a horse the most frequently has the single biggest impact on that horse's coordination and health over the long term. Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructorwww.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainerdeveloper of Training for Optimal Balance www.wexfordfarm.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
Being "just a trail rider" still means that how we balance on the back of a horse has a positive or negative impact on how horses feel, mentally, emotionally and physically. We are not neutral when we interact with horses. We are either helping horses thrive or we are making life harder. Learning how to adapt to different situations, sometimes rapidly, in order to help our horses feel safe, stable and comfortable during trail rides is the challenge of trail riding. Just because we don't compete with our horse does not mean that we don't have the same impact on our horse's well being. As riders we need to know how to help horses feel safe once they don't, and how to feel physically stable and comfortable when they don't. If we don't know how to do this then we may be more of a burden to our horse than a friend. Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructorwww.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainerdeveloper of Training for Optimal Balance www.wexfordtraining.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
What we put our attention or awareness on has a direct affect on our perceptions. Our perceptions are what trigger general nervous system use, for short or long term survival. Dominance of the sympathetic (fight or flight) or dominance of the parasympathetic (rest or digest) affect the body globally - influencing health, brain function, decision making, behavior and responses, further strengthening or altering the original perception. Focusing our attention on what is wrong is a good way to stimulate a stress response, dominance of the sympathetic portion. Focusing on what is right, gratitude or appreciation for what is going well, is a good way to stimulate dominance of the parasympathetic portion. We actually have a choice about how we feel and how we help our horses feel. How we feel directly alters our perceptions of all situations which influences our behavior and future choices. We can stop a negative spiral into anxiety, tension or depression by consciously altering what we put our awareness and attention on. Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructorwww.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainerdeveloper of Training for Optimal Balance www.wexfordfarm.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
When human hands connect to horses heads and necks through the reins the situation becomes very tricky. It does not matter what bit is used or if the reins connect to a bit-less bridle or halter. The reins are the part that connect the person and horse. How we use the reins always has a dynamic effect on a horse's balance in both mind and body. The inherent challenge of using the reins in ways that benefit horses is that humans love to grip with the hands. We cannot stop gripping with our hands as long as our torso is unstable in the saddle. The most mobile, adjustable part of the horse's entire body is the neck and head. Horses need to make adjustments in neck use when weight distribution becomes unbalanced in the barrel and hindquarters. When we restrict the use of the horse's head and neck through the reins, we can often cause horses to adopt unbalanced patterns of compensation that become habits of dysfunctional coordination. Learning how to use reins effectively - for the benefit of a horse's balance - is a learned skill for all people and takes a bit of practice to override our instincts to grip. Rein contact and even rein aids can be last on the list of things to do when it comes to developing a balanced coordination in horses. A dynamic rein contact only becomes necessary as the horse moves closer to three dimensional balance overall. Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructorwww.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainerdeveloper of Training for Optimal Balance www.wexfordfarm.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
It is a major shift of perspective in horse training to turn the tables on tasks. Most training programs outline a series of tasks to be accomplished in a particular order. This is how most horse training programs are structured. The unspoken promise is that a calm, focused, well moving horse - or balance - will the side effect of doing all those tasks in that order. But we have waaaay too many examples of that methodology just not working for people or horses. When there is a problem either the rider or the horse is blamed for a lack of results. But what if the program is the real problem? When a program cannot adapt to the individual needs of people and horses, then what? Turning the tables on tasks means we learn first how to recognize balance and imbalance, in mind and body, in people and horses. Then we utilize any task in any order to help develop or improve balance. There really never needs to be an order to tasks. Instead we learn how to find the path of least resistance to balance by trying out different tasks and mixing up the order of things. That idea, of turning tasks into tools for balance, is a big one! Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructor www.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainerdeveloper of Training for Optimal Balancewww.wexfordfarm.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
Whether we or horses are mentally and emotionally unstable or physically unstable really makes no difference. Unstable thoughts, emotions and coordination all intertwine and affect each other. We don't often look to something as instability as the root cause of our problems, but it affects all horses and people at an instinctual level. We simple can't feel safe and unstable at the same time without a lot of conscious effort. Deb and I look at stability and instability in different ways, how it manifests in our experience frequently but fails to get a lot of attention. Knowing how to focus thoughts, calm emotional states and find stability in the right areas of the physical body is how we work through a huge variety of problems and turn things around during rehab. Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructorwww.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainerdeveloper of Training for Optimal Balancewww.wexfordfarm.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
Our bodies are mass with weight. How we distribute our body weight internally and how we use muscular contractions generate invisible forces that always have an impact on a horse's movement. When we ride or drive, our balance or imbalance in the saddle or cart has a direct impact on a horse's ability to balance coordination or resort into dysfunctional coordination because of us. We are never neutral to a horse. How we use our bodies can guide a horse's coordination into a better, balanced, healthy use becoming a primary aid before, during and after using our leg and rein aids. How we use our bodies can also contribute to a dysfunctional coordination already adopted by a horse and can even cause dysfunctional coordination in horses. If we are riding to please a judge or adopting postures that look the part for our sport, then we may not be aware of how we are influencing our horse's movement as soon as we get in the saddle or cart. When our horse has problems, looking at our own balance as a contributing factor is just not on our radar - but perhaps it should be. Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Insturctor www.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainer developer of Training for Optimal Balancekirstenwexfordtraining.mvsite.app This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
The skeletal design of the female body is different than the skeleton of a male body, mostly through the shape of the pelvis and lumbar portion of the spine. Can't reference where I learned it, but I remember reading that the female body also has roughly 20% more connective tissue than males. Our traditional riding instruction works well for male riders but the same instructions actually have the opposite effect on female riders. In order to stabilize our seat as female riders we can begin with heels flat, not down, and shoulders down, not back. In order to learn the muscle use needed to coordinate stability through the lumbar and pelvis, the seat, slumping is a girl's best friend! Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructorwww.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainer developer of Training for Optimal Balance kirstenwexfordtraining.mvsite.app This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
As riders we have to improve our riding skills in order to improve our horse's balance. Our weight and mass has a constant, dynamic influence on a horse's movement whether we are aware of it or not. We tend to focus on our aids with no thought to how we are distributing our body weight while riding. But our weight has a greater impact than any aid can, even with leverage. Improving our riding skills is often the last thing we consider, if at all, as a solution to health issues or chronic discomfort. But how we coordinate the conformation we have can have a huge impact, positive or negative. Improving riding skills means balancing our body over gravity, which is something we all have to learn and practice. Changing habits of coordination is a big ass deal - for us and for horses. The process is disorienting and disconcerting because we are literally altering our relationship to space and gravity. This can be a challenging process if we are attached to all of our traditional instruction, but if we have problems, then improving our own riding skills can often become the solution. Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructorwww.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainerdeveloper of Training for Optimal Balance www.kirstennelsen.com check out my offers at kirstenwexfordtraining.mvsite.app This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
The term swinging back is used a lot to describe ideal use of horse's backs, but what does that really mean? Does the back swing, back and forth or side to side like a swing set? If we look at the spine itself, the vertebral joints and soft tissues that support the bones of the back and pelvis, then the body itself shows us how little mobility it is meant to have there. The back should not literally swing or move like a swing set. The sensation of swinging as a movement adds excessive force and strains a horse's back and hindquarters. The term through-ness might be a preferable description because it does not imply movement, just energy. Swinging movement might also be a safer way to describe good balance in horses, but it is not the back that is swinging when horses move in balance, instead the back feels incredibly still. Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructorwww.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainerdeveloper of Training for Optimal Balancewww.kirstennelsen.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
Not physical therapy type tape - just plain old masking tape, painters tape or maybe even duct tape if not pressed too hard. When we place tape on our horse's hindquarters, straight across or point to point on the pelvis, the tape helps us see what is already happening that we might not be aware of yet. Pelvic movement in horses is subtle, the tape helps the habitual use of the pelvis be more obvious. The lesson link below is an example of using a single strip of tape across the top of the horse's hindquarters in order to develop a better eye for how the horse coordinates movement, while loose and while doing a groundwork exercise. Laurie's lesson on youtube: Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructorwww.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainer developer of Training for Optimal Balance www.kirstennelsen.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
We all hold visions in our heads, the image of what we think things should be like, look like or feel like. Then the gravitational force of reality suddenly invades our image. This is the rub. The rub is that uncomfortable feeling when things are not going as planned, when our horse is not performing or acting the way we want or even when life throws us an unexpected change that we did not see coming. That moment in the rub is really uncomfortable, it is a stress trigger for our fight or flight nervous to kick in gear. If we can pause and just sit with the discomfort for a minute or two, allowing the emotions to quiet down a little, then that reality that suddenly disrupted images in our heads might hold a very personal and important lesson for us. We have all felt the rub, many times. We all tend to respond to it by trying to gain more control, distract ourselves or push away anything that challenges our inner image. What we are all capable of doing is using our conscious awareness of the rub and pausing instead of acting or reacting. Pausing long enough to feel authentically curious about what a sudden dose of reality might be trying to show us. Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructor www.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainer developer of Training for Optimal Balance www.kirstennelsen.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
Once again... it depends I guess. Deb and I discuss what this horse training strategy entails and the drawbacks we have seen from experience. At the end of the day this strategy comes from observation of horses, but fails to explain that horses approach and retreat from triggers as long as their safety is questioned. When we use the approach and retreat strategy we are mimicking a stress response in horses. Is that really what we want to do? The strategy Deb and I have found far more useful is "Pause & Wait" rather than taking any action at all. We discuss what is happening in the nervous system during the pause and wait, which is what makes it more useful to gaining a relaxation response instead of feeding the stress response. Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructor www.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainerdeveloper of Training for Optimal Balance www.wexfordfarm.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
For all living bodies the perception of feeling entirely safe, stable and essentially comfortable doing anything is a primary need, not optional. If we consider that feeling unsafe, unstable or uncomfortable might be the deepest root cause of the problem we are having, then we begin to look at the problems we have or problems our horse has through a very different lens. Feeling safe, stable and comfortable is how we shift from sympathetic nervous system dominance into nervous system regulation, or cohesion, or dominance of the parasympathetic nervous system that navigates long term survival. The multiple choice question can also have a fourth option, all of the above, or a fifth option, two out of three. But in order to gain cooperation, authentically bond with our horse or improve athletic abilities, those three magical ingredients must be in the mix, felt inside by every living creature. Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructorwww.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainerdeveloper of Training for Optimal Balancewww.kirstennelsen.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com
Understanding what makes horses tick is complicated and requires an education to some degree. But once we have more depth for understanding horses, then we work in very simple, practical ways. When we try to make things too simple, so simple that we lack understanding, then we typically have problems with horses. When we make things too complex we suffer from analysis paralysis or can't see the issue right in front of us. Both complex explanations and simple observations compliment each other and help us understand horses in ways that make training safer, more predictable and more effective for long term changes that stick. Guest: Deb Romero, Certified Alexander Technique Instructorwww.optimalposture.orgHost: Kirsten Nelsen, professional horse trainerdeveloper of Training for Optimal Balance www.kirstennelsen.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kirstennelsen.substack.com