Category Archives: horses, dogs & more

Jun23

more notes from the dojo

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Here we are performing a part of the horseman’s kata. Our instructions are to focus on feel, timing, blending, balance and breath.  The same principles apply to the riding. My whole week here in both the dojo and the saddle have been about cultivating continuous, soft attention to all five of those elements.

Today in the dojo I felt myself distracted, having a hard time paying attention.  I think of that as either dropping the reins or worst case, slipping out of the saddle.  It is a way of stopping riding – tuning out, going on a little mental hiatus.  Mark talks about learning to pay attention to whatever is most important, which is the thing that we are doing – not giving everything that is happening around us equal importance.  I could feel myself struggling with that.  Maybe I was tired or full of the week’s experiences, but I didn’t like to feel lax or inattentive.  I wanted to hold myself to a higher standard – to meet the sensei’s or the horse’s presence with my own fullest, most engaged self.

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Jun20

beneath the surfaces

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What I continue to learn is that it is important to look beneath the surfaces of whatever is showing up in my life.  Not in an effort to complicate things more, but in order to see more clearly, notice more detail, get clearer and appreciate more.

Sanne the Lily of Holland, my beautiful horse, is a great example.  If I listen carefully, get quiet and take time to feel into the texture of his body, my hands, his mouth, I can feel that he is always looking for and offering an easier way.  That is what has been happening this week in the Aikido/Horsemanship clinic. Mark Rashid is helping me to clear away a lot of my own clutter:  physical habits, unconscious tensions, general unproductive busy-ness.  Doing that helps me to feel Sanne better, to blend with him, to start riding our ride, not just mine.

His wife, Crissie, offered this piece of homework a couple days ago:  Blend with something or someone.  I encourage you to try it.  Besides blending with Sanne, I did some blending with my waitress at dinner the other night, with the current of the stream I visited today on our day off and with my morning tea.

Jun20

what do you want?

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Brandi Rivera riding Sanne; Photo by Jeffrey Anderson

Day 3 of the Aikido and horsemanship clinic with Mark Rashid in New Hampshire.  It is interesting to me how “Abrahamic” this work is.  By that I mean, Mark is continually reminding us to focus not on the problem, but on what we want.  This from Abraham:

Anytime you feel negative emotion, stop and say: Something is important here; otherwise, I would not be feeling this negative emotion. What is it that I want? And then simply turn your attention to what you do want. . . . In the moment you turn your attention to what you want, the negative attraction will stop; and in the moment the negative attraction stops, the positive attraction will begin. And—in that moment—your feeling will change from not feeling good to feeling good. That is the Process of Pivoting.

So today, instead of focusing on the discombobulated feeling in the downward transition from canter to trot, he asked me to picture the transition I wanted, including breathing, and feeling the rhythm of going from a three-beat gait to a two-beat.  After a few times, I could feel the ease and flow of that transition beginning to come through.  He also pointed out that I had been doing “my” transition, not “our” transition, meaning Sanne’s and mine.  When I shifted mentally and physically to blend with Sanne, things began to open.

I think that is a problem with a lot of riding (and relationships in general).  We are doing our ride, and the horse, the softness, the harmony, the opening is either absent or inconsistent.  Mark teaches that consistency leads to dependability, which creates trustworthiness, leading to peace of mind and finally softness.  THAT is the training pyramid that I want to pay attention to.  Aikido is teaching me more about flexibility, awareness and also about developing fluidity and even-mindedness in my responses to whatever arises.  This morning, I was stiffening my arms to protect my shoulder.  I found that if I softened, I was far less likely to get hurt, and that it also began to dissolve that habitual fear-based reaction.

Here is what I want:  to be a helpful, soft, consistent, even-minded, kind, connected, joyful rider, lover, mother, friend, being.  Is that too much to ask?  I think not!

Jun19

notes from the dojo

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This is Mark Rashid and his wife Chrissie in the dojo up in New Hampshire where we are studying Aikido and horsemanship.

Today we learned the rest of the horseman’s kata, which is a series of movements based on approaching, mounting, riding, dismounting and honoring the horse.  The spiritual underpinnings of this kata are about forgiveness, “wiping away” the past and moving/focusing forward.

In our riding, we are focusing on the same things.  By seeking softness in our hands, legs, backs and minds, we are in a sense asking for forgiveness.  Each time we try to soften, to be clearer, more subtle and precise, we are moving forward, wiping away the past.

Today one of my lessons was about completion, so that each movement with the horse – backing up, halting, softening, was complete and full before going onto the next thing.  It is a continual practice of opening; to ease, to flow, to connection, to the horse, to ourselves.