Page 12 - CR NEWS Summer 2020

By Susan Harris
COMPARABLE PARTS
The horse is your mirror. His body reflects yours. Your horse will be tight where you are tight. Your horse will be crooked where you are crooked. Achieve harmony by finding balance and alignment in yourself.
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“The Indian” — Self-Bodywork from Sally Swift
Here’s a self-bodywork routine that Sally Swift created, which she called “The Indian.” She was inspired by the statue “Appeal to the Great Spirit” by Cyrus E. Dalin. Sally described it in her first book “Centered Riding,” and in her Centered Riding videos.
You’ll have to lay your reins on the neck, so make sure your horse will stand quietly or have someone stand in front of your horse.
· Sit balanced on your seat bones with feet out of the stirrups and neutral pelvis. Breathe and center.
· Teeter-totter until you find balance from the seat bones through the top of your head. Check your “building blocks” from your seat bones up through your pelvis, spine, chest, shoulders, neck and head.
· Reach around with your left hand and grasp the back of your left thigh muscle. Turn it very slightly inward, so the femur (thighbone) rotates in the socket and the thicker part of the muscle is at the rear, so the thigh lies flat on the saddle. (Be careful not to overdo it or lean forward.)
· Sit up and run your right (opposite) arm up the center and over your head, with palm inward, thumb backward. Rotate your body a tiny bit to the right (in the direction of the raised hand.)
· Breathe and allow the weight of your foot and leg to lengthen your left leg, so that it drops down around the horse (like the Indian.)
· Return to center. Reach back behind your right leg and (slightly) rotate the thigh inward. Raise the left arm up the center and over your head, rotate your body slightly to the right, breathe and allow the leg to release down around the horse.
· Return to center. Allow a long line up the front of your body, from your pubic arch to your chin. Lift your chin slightly and imagine the weight of the feathered war headdress falling down your back.
· Spread your arms slightly apart with palms up; imagine the sun shining on your face as you look up at the sky. Then bring your arms and head back down, breathe and contemplate your center.
Susan Harris is a Level IV Centered Riding Clinician living in Cortland, New York.