Creating Safety in Movement: A New Way to Help Your Horse #89

In this episode, Mary Debono builds on the previous discussion about why it’s crucial to work with, rather than against, a horse’s current movement patterns.

Mary explains how supporting a horse’s tendency for spinal extension, for instance, can be the first step in helping the horse discover healthier movement options, like flexion and rounding.

By exaggerating and then gently guiding the horse back to a more neutral position, the nervous system starts to feel safe and open to new possibilities. This method not only benefits the horse’s physical health but also fosters a stronger, more trusting bond between horse and rider.

Mary also touches on how important it is to involve the entire spine, rib cage, and sternum in these movements, emphasizing that healthy movement isn’t just about the back but the whole horse, including the horse's mind.

This episode serves as a valuable guide for equestrians looking to improve their horse’s movement and deepen their connection through gradual, supportive methods.

Key Takeaways:

• Support Before Change: Supporting a horse’s current movement habits, even if they seem "incorrect," can create a foundation for lasting change.
• Safety and Ease: Ensuring the nervous system feels safe and comfortable is crucial for helping the horse explore new movement possibilities.
• Whole-Body Movement: Healthy movement involves more than just the spine; the rib cage, sternum, and other parts can also participate.
• Shared Awareness: Working together with the horse to explore movement creates a stronger bond and a more responsive nervous system.
• Gradual Progression: Changes in movement should be introduced gradually, respecting the horse’s comfort and existing patterns.

Resources:

💥Learn how the Feldenkrais Method can help improve your seat, position, and balance on your horse! Free rider videos masterclass: https://www.marydebono.com/rider 💥

Email [email protected]

All information is for general educational purposes ONLY and doesn't constitute medical or veterinary advice.  

TRANSCRIPT:

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Hi. In the last episode, we talked about why actually going with the horse's habit, for example, and if you haven't listened to the previous episode, please go and do that. It's episode 88. In the easier movement Happier Horses podcast, what we talked about was say, for example, you have a horse that doesn't round their back very easily. So we actually help support what they're already doing, which is more extension.

Right. Which is, I hate to use the word inverted, but that idea, in other words, they're not rounding and lifting the back. We actually support them in that. That is the first step in helping them change out of that maladaptive habit. Okay. So again, please listen to that episode if you haven't already, otherwise this won't make as much sense. So we talked about, okay, that's a first step, is often supporting what the horse is doing.

Okay. And I laid down the reasons why that's so important. Well, now, okay, we don't leave them there, right. We don't just do that. Right. Because that on their own, the horse may then, and something I didn't mention in the previous podcast is this, in using that example of the horse that has more, what we call extension, right. Rather than the spinal longitudinal flexion or the rounding, when we support them and actually exaggerate that a little bit for them, and then we return to their neutral, to their baseline, they're actually experiencing flexion.

Yeah. Because flexion and extension are relative terms. Like if I am really extended and then I come into just little more, what people would call a neutral spine, that process of returning is flexion in a sense. Okay. So it's like the brain starts to get used to, oh, I don't have to stay stuck this way. I can come a little bit this way more into flexion. So it's the same thing with our horses.

So, for example, when you help them go a little bit more into it, what happens is then coming out of that, returning them to their neutral, to where they started, starts to let the nervous system know, hey, it's safe to go in this direction into more flexion. Okay. Even though we're not taking them past their neutral, we're not taking them past where they went yet, but it's safe to do it.

It feels okay. It feels good, actually. And you're co creating these new possibilities with your horse. Okay. And with a sense of ease. This is really crucial. Okay. So you're starting to give the horse that experience. So I want to be clear. It's not about keeping them stuck in that inversion. It's now, how do we do it in a way that isn't alarming to the nervous system? So that's.

That's one really good step. But then, you know, there's other steps we need to do, right? Because on their own, again, the horse may start to then realize, oh, I can do this. And, you know, they start to actually go more into actual flexion, into actual rounding on their own. But there's a lot more to it than that, because two things. Number one, when a horse rounds their back, or human rounds their back, for that matter, it's not just happening in the spine, or at least ideally, it's not just happening in the spine.

And the problems we run into, both horses, humans, dogs, etcetera, is because other parts of us are not supporting the movement. So, for example, we, in my move with your horse program, we spend a lot of time working with the horse's rib cage, the sternum, the ribs, the thoracic spine, because that is so crucial to the horse being able to round their back. Same thing for you, right?

It's not just happening in the back. When you learn how to soften your sternum and ribs and actually have them participate in the movements of your spine, you have a healthier spine. There's less wear and tear. It's so much easier. The effort of the movement is distributed more equitably. And that's the other thing in our work. We also wake up all the different parts of the spine. So it's not.

So the flexion, for example, isn't just happening in certain areas, like chunks of the back. Again, this applies to you as well. You know, it's really getting all the vertebra to participate as they're intended to, right, as they were designed to do. As many of us, horses and humans, get into habits of overusing certain parts of the back and underusing others. So we don't want that, right? We want to make sure all the parts.

So we do this with our hands. We actually wake up these different parts and remind the horse that movement there is not only possible, but it feels better. So again, step number one is we support what the horse is doing, and then we start to add in these other elements. We start to add in the waking up, the sternum, the ribs, you know, touching and moving different parts of the spine, doing all these different things to bring more wholeness to the movement, more integration of the different parts of the horse.

So now, so we do all that as well, but we don't just go, again, right into trying to, quote unquote, get the horse to round or do flexion. No, instead, what we often do. And of course, this is on an individual basis, but I'll often explore. Hmm. Okay. The horse takes the rib cage and spine, you know, forward into extension easily. Okay, we know that. How do they take it side to side?

Because there's very, very gentle movements of the rib cage that happen side to side of. So we often do this with our hands on the sternum. There's other ways we do it with working with the ribs and in between the ribs. But can the sternum move side to side? Now, that's not a contradiction to what the horse is doing. It's just another experience. So now you're waking up these parts in a non threatening way.

This is really valuable. This is how you're helping the horse create these new possibilities. And it's very, very important to do this with a sense of safety. We talked about this in the previous episode, because that's how the horse will be able to listen and learn something useful. If they're worried, if they're anxious about it, if it feels uncomfortable, they won't learn anything useful to take with them.

It's very important to maintain this sense of ease, kind of just, and help the horse kind of be curious about what it feels like when the sternum goes this way or this way. And then what we do is, I often think of what I call a sternal clock. Like if you picture a small clock, like on the ground underneath the horse's sternum. So somewhere near, like the front legs area on the ground.

And if you think of 12:00 is when the horse, you know, the, the horse's rib cage moves a little bit forward. There are ways. Now, please don't try this at home without expert advice, you know, guidance. I teach you how to do this in my move with your horse program. I do not teach this over the podcast because it's much, it's very involved. But all I want to say is give you kind of a glimpse into how we work and how different it is.

Because what we do is we play then with that clock always respecting where the horse is at the moment. Because if 12:00 is towards the horse's head and 06:00 is towards the horse's tail, for that horse that's inverted, that horse that drops their back, 06:00 is not going to be readily available and probably not comfortably available at all. So instead, we play by moving the sternum and the ribs in such a way that they're going through the other hours of the clock.

And then we gradually add in a little bit, maybe an inch this way and that way, and we start to help the horse, again create these new possibilities where movement can feel easy. That's critical. You don't want the movement to feel unpleasant. Okay? The other thing is, what's really, what really differentiates this work from so much other work. And again, so much of this is informed by the Feldenkrais method, which was created by Doctor Moshe Feldenkrais.

When you allow the horse to discover these things, kind of, you know, with you, right? So they're there. It's something you're doing with them that's a very different experience for their nervous system than if you're doing something to them. Like, I'm going to get you to round your back. Right? That's something done to them. When you go down this path of, like, mutual curiosity, what I call shared awareness, where you're both, like, really interested in how this feels, that's a totally different experience for the nervous system.

Now, the horse's nervous system is like. Like, they decided to do this, not you. The horse decided to now explore flexion, for example. Okay? That is very different, drastically different than if you quote unquote, get the horse to do it. So now the nervous system is like, well, this is cool. This actually feels easy. This feels better than when we're going around with our head up in the air and our back dropped.

So you want to maintain that sense of ease and pleasure. I always say you want to associate movement with ease and pleasure. Another one of my kind of famous lines is movement benefits from choice. What we're doing is we're giving the horse more choice in how to be and how to feel. This carries over to wonderful benefits in often the horse's behavior, in their connection with you, in their communication with you.

Now, you're a friend. You're not a foe, you're not an adversary. Right? Now, you're helping the horse feel better in body and mind. Right? You're someone they want to hang out with, of course. So there's so many benefits to this work. And I. And I have to say, you know, after doing this, you know, for so long, which I love, there is a joy that comes with this.

When you enter into that state that I call shared awareness. When you're both curious and playing with this sense of ease in a movement and how this feels, right. You're using your hands, your whole self, to be in connection with your horse, right? And to communicate in this way with the nervous system. It feels so darn good. And after all, you and your horse deserve to feel great together.

So I hope this gives you some ideas. Please let me know if you have any questions. I love hearing from you. I enjoy getting your questions and I just made do a podcast episode about this, but we're going to continue this theme, by the way, in the next episode. Stay tuned. Thank you so much and I look forward to talking to you again soon. Bye for now.