Yoga on Horseback

One of the yoga teachers at the studio where I take yoga is a marvel at explaining how to move your muscles in the different poses to get maximum benefit.  I've been thinking about her explanation of mountain pose, in particular, as it relates to riding.  I started thinking about yoga and riding after reading Shannon's blog on the subject.  Read her excellent blog here.  I especially liked her suggestion about breathing into your legs at canter to keep them from creeping up.

When I rode Jackson today, I thought about all of this.  In particular, I thought about riding in mountain pose.  This is a pose that looks easy, since it is just standing upright.  But, when done correctly, it's not so easy.  The goal is to stand perfectly straight with ears, shoulders, hips, feet lined up.  Sound familiar dressage riders?  Then, you make sure you have equal weight in the four corners of your feet (inner & outer ball of the foot, inner and outer heel).  You want your calf muscles working towards your shins; your thigh muscles spinning back, your sacrum dropped, your pelvis neutral.  And everything sinking down, rooting you to the earth.  At the same time, you reach up through your side waist, release your shoulder blades so they aren't scrunched up, open your collarbone and feel like the top of your head is reaching for the sky.  Got it?  Good.  Now, try it on your horse. 

Jackson was awesome today.  I can't help but think that it was because he had a balanced yogi on his back.  It felt awesome.

Today was warm and sunny again, around 65 degrees.   We have rain in the forecast starting Tuesday night, with a chance of snow Friday and Saturday.  Is that weird or what!!

Tonight we celebrated Valentine's Day.  We don't go out, we don't exchange gifts, we stay home and I cook something outrageously expensive and we drink champagne.   This was dinner:

Salad with pears, mango and pecans

 

Shrimp, crab and lobster tail. 

And WAY too many of these!!

Girls Day

This morning Brett and Flash left early for mounted patrol training.  After mucking, feeding and doing Jackson's fecal count (day 7 of 8, almost done), I headed down the mountain to get Camille.  We went to yoga class, then lunch, and then got pedicures.  We tried a new nail place close to where we had lunch.  They had a big display of the different designs you could get on your nails.  Camille picked a plaid design and the colors she wanted.  Unfortunately, they didn't have any clue on how do do it.  There was this gaggle of manicurists surrounding her, discussing and trying to decide how to tackle the problem of plaid.  She has had plaid before and told me it usually takes about five extra minutes.  ....it took 45.  Sheesh!  No truth in advertising, I guess.

It's been below freezing the last few nights and a cold front is moving in so I've been putting Jackson's medium weight blanket on at night.  He's a wuss sensitive to the cold so I brought the medium down with me so he could see it when I took off his sheet.  Otherwise he would have pitched a fit complained.  He sniffed the heavy blanket, sighed, and let me switch them with no comment. 

Dinner tonight was comfort food.  Pork chops, butternut squash and popovers.  Oh, and wine.  Of course.  My parents live on the Central Coast of California (wine country) and my dad makes wine.  Or, he did until recently.  One of the partners died and the other moved away so they have pretty much stopped.  But, we still have a couple cases in the wine cellar -- good stuff too.  Tonight we finished a bottle of 2005 cabernet that we had opened last night. 

Fried pork chops

Roasted butternut squash with brown sugar and butter

Popovers

I'm a Potato Chip

Tonight I went to yoga class again.  This is my second class with a teacher I had for the first time on Tuesday.  She is pretty awesome.  All the instructors are good at this yoga studio but this one in particular is very good for me.  She teaches a gentle and patient yoga.  I am not either.  My trainer for Jackson is the same and that is what I love most about her as well.  I have learned to be patient with Jackson and gentle in my expectations.  So, tonight I had a very good lesson in being that way with myself.  We started the class with tree pose.  In all the years I've practiced yoga, I have never been successful in this pose.

tree pose

So of course, I couldn't do it.  We practiced the pose standing next to the wall with the leg up away from the wall, and the arm closest to the wall using the wall for balance if necessary.  Very necessary for me.  We spent the rest of class doing poses that release the spine and stretch the back and hips.  Then we tried tree pose again at the end of class.  And I did it!!  She said "some of you may notice that the pose is easier and you are steadier now."  No kidding!  In a nutshell, the yoga poses we practiced in class created suppleness and balance between the uneven strengths in my body.  I am not at all balanced and that leads to me being stronger on one side than the other.  Or the other way around.  Either way, like my horse, I have a strong side and a weak side.  Jackson and I are both potato chips - very uneven in our bodies.  I supple him and improve his strength and balance with dressage.  Yoga is like dressage for people.  So, there I was in savasana at the end of class (see my last post, small stones #3) and I almost started laughing out loud when that analogy came to me.  Tonight, I have a much better appreciation of Jackson's journey to balance and the potential for my own improvement too. 

Breathe

This year instead of making New Year's resolutions or goals, I am picking a word to live by.  Last night during yoga class it came to me: Breathe.

Yes, yoga class.  I haven't been to class in two years and I'm really not sure why I stopped.  I was pretty hard core, devoted, three-times-a-week-addicted for about four years.  I needed it to ride my Friesian; his huge gaits required way more flexibility, balance and core strength than I had from just doing barn chores.    So, I want to start regular yoga practice again, I want to breathe into all my tight joints.  I want to breathe into tree pose - which I NEVER mastered.  You would think standing on one foot could be easily accomplished but I seem to have completely lost my sense of balance.  Now that I've passed the 50 year old mark, the gimpy factor is kicking in more and more.  I'm hoping yoga will help counteract that a little.

I want to breathe effectively when I ride.  In addition to breathing calm and confidence at shows, I want to breathe into my half halts, deep into my seat, and into my legs softly draping against Jackson.  I don't think I'm breathing in this picture:

I want to breathe deeply and fill my senses with horse aroma.  Jackson smells wonderful (when he's clean).  I am going to bury my nose in his neck and inhale. 


Work is stressful (as always).  There will be lots of changes this year.  My boss (a great lady and a great boss) is retiring.  I'm kinda nervous about who our CEO will recruit for her position.  Okay, I'm a lot nervous about it.  Breathe.

I am going to breathe in home and hearth.  I will fill my lungs with clean mountain air, the aroma of herbs crushed between my fingers, roses and carnations.  In the kitchen, I will pay attention to the yeasty smell of bread in the oven, the play of spices in the saute pan, and ribs on the BBQ.

When I feel tense, distracted or annoyed I will breathe deep and find a place of acceptance and tolerance.  I will breathe in the holy and exhale the ...unholy.  Substitute whatever word comes to mind.  They all fit. 

And, lastly, I will breathe in the love of my family.  I will sigh and snuggle deeper into my husband's arms.  I will laugh with my daughter, gasping for breath and snorting like a pig.  I will breathe and release, breathe and release, my son as he continues his journey into adulthood, independence and life away from home.

And, hopefully with all that breathing, I won't hyperventilate.