Horses are Our Mirrors....
Our Horses Are Our Mirrors
Usually people are saying this in the context of emotions
and I think that part is true, too -
but my example today speaks to the physical body and how our own physical imbalances are so often mirrored by our horse’s imbalances.
The question becomes - which came first? Is our horse our mirror or are we our horse’s mirror? And we don’t always know. Chicken and egg.
So anyways, what this means is we ideally need to be addressing both together if we’re talking about a riding horse and we want to see lasting changes.
What I saw in the session with this client, and what I hope comes through in these photos is the following:
(Bear with me, I went slightly technical for my professional and/or nerdy friends, if you need things simplified ask me! I also get a little dyslexic sometimes with my rights and lefts so if something doesn’t make sense, also please ask)
Horse stuck in right sidebending, turning right is easy, turning left is difficult and requires compensation for lack of left sidebending range of motion. (Owner feels him falling in on left shoulder, “turning like a motorbike”)
Horse right hip stuck forward and pelvis in right rotation (right side of pelvis looks higher than left) and tail tries to compensate for this by heading off to the left. Horse doesn’t really want to stand square behind. Beginning to have trouble holding feet up for shoeing.
Horse shoulders stuck in right rotation (right scapula sits higher than left)
(Right sidebending is often compensated for with left rotation and vice versa because this keeps things vertical so we don’t fall over, this is true for horses and humans even though they’re horizontal and we’re vertical, but other times it’s not so true… like here. This horse isn’t really compensating as much and is just headed to the right)
Rider hips mirror horses hips - right hip sits forwards of left
Not pictured here - but rider is stuck in left sidebending (collapses on left), weight heavier in right seatbone, rider reports feeling like she slides off to the right while riding. (Opposite to horse, acting as one body they balance eachother out to remain upright)
Rider compensates (quite successfully) for her pelvic rotation and left sidebending with right thoracic rotation to bring shoulders back to a more even plane
When checking thoracic range of motion rotating to the right, she can twist all day. When opening to the left she can go about 50% of the way before trying to compensate through the hips.
So who started it? We don’t always know. We fix it by addressing both!
(My guess is the rider is the root cause because she is more compensated than the horse for the various imbalances)
Special thanks to Kaylyn for letting me share her photos from today
