Reclaiming Sundays

When you work with horses and especially if you teach, weekends are your prime time, busiest time. For many years I never had Sundays off work and although I never usually minded that, I would like to reclaim at least some Sundays this year.

As many of you know I don't drive so getting places on Sundays is a challenge since trains hit slow lane and there are big gaps between them. Shops close at silly hours and there is just this general laziness in the air that wants one join in and relax!

I don't think I will ever have Sundays fully free but I will work towards them being shorter work wise and work free at times..like today.

Brilliant book I am reading now, a Santa gift from my Other Half. I will tell you more about my experience with it once I've finished :) 

Now, I do have that incurable dream of having own little centre one day so when I saw this new book, I just had to buy it. At £3.72 if bought as an e-book for Kindle it's beautifully affordable. I don't own a Kindle as such but use Amazon's Kindle for PC which is not as fantastically portable but saves the expense.

What books are you reading now? :)

Greedy me

Just had these super tasty crepes! I am not normally crazy about food but give my anything pancakes like and I would certainly not say no ;)

The Charles De Kunffy book I wrote about in the post below is proving equally addictive to read as crepes to eat!

Some interesting lines so far:

"'Feel' is predominantly an ability to physically seek harmony through the most accommodating position of togetherness".

"There comes a day, and later on perhaps every day, when one feels that one looses the awareness of skills. We become unaware of ourselves, become oblivious to our aids and whatever the limbs, the torso, and musculature are doing. We become absorbed in an effort that seems independent of the senses and so thoroughly effortless that it suggests a feeling of being in a dream where we can ride for the first time without awareness of effort. When we no longer feel busy, we have entered the artistic experience. And there we find the motion, the flight, the suspension that eluded us before but now begins to flow almost in spite of ourselves...[...] Often, instruction spoils the chance for the artistic experience of the rider. Instruction, indispensable for the teaching of riding skills, is no longer necessary during the artistic effort. As in painting, once the artist has learned to use the tools of the craft from his master, he no longer finds use for the overseer [...]. Therefore, in artistic rider, silence is essential. When the rider succeeds in harmony, it is not done verbally but as a multidimensional effort."

I haven't come across that sort of view before and I am thinking that maybe that is why I feel that I only get the best out my lessons after I have ridden through them on my own the next day...If I think about it I am only ever pleased with my results if I truly feel the horse responding and that is usually only when I just switch off the outside world and go 'into' the horse's motion.

This is not to say I think I got to the stage in my riding that De Kunffy is talking about, I am still way below that level. I still cannot switch off like that every time I ride and often am distracted by people talking, instructing etc But there are moments...when I ride a horse I connect well with or when people around are those who trust me with their horses and I know they know I won't do anything to make things worse...then I can just focus entirely on what I feel in the horse and it all feels effortless indeed. I wish it happened more often...

Reading This Week - Charles De Kunffy

Reading This Week - Dressage with Kyra Kyrklund

Here's my new reading project for this week:


I seem to be reading too many things in the same time. Typical of my greedy reading nature ;)
Off to work in a moment (please rain - don't fall) - just hope my cough doesn't get worse as my parents will give me talking to if I go over to see them being ill ;)

I've got a cold :(

I'm a very pathetic person when it comes to illness - just can't stand it! When I work I'm fine (think I must have it after my father, we are both a bit of workaholics ;) but when I stop the reality of my blocked nose, raised temperature and annoying cough drives me crazy.
Hope it won't last long.

On a good note, I won an E-book by Heather Moffatt - Horseriding Right From The Start; same e-book that caused a bit of a stir in the BHS world. I am reading it now - many true words in it...

Equine Sports Coaching - new book on the market

Thanks to Manage My Horse competition via which I won £400 worth of vouchers of my own choice (I chose £150 of them to be Amazon so I can stock up on all the great books I wanted to buy for a while) I am now book shopping - yay!

This is one of my next reading projects:

I will post a review once I've read it. Amazon says:
"Synopsis
A vital book for equine coaches. Drawing on tried-and-tested coaching practices used successfully in other sports, this book provides an introduction to coaching specific to the equine environment. The coaching process as a whole is addressed for both the horse and rider. The UK Government Coaching Task Force highlighted the need for the development of coaching across all sports, which led to the introduction of the UK Coaching Certificate (UKCC). Soon any coaching of horses and riders will need to be done by qualified individuals only. "Equine Sports Coaching" is ideal for those studying for the UKCC or other qualifications in equine sports and leisure coaching. The key features include: in line with UK Coaching Certificate qualifications; covers performance analysis, periodization of training programs, sports psychology, and communication skills; and, advises on the personal development of the coach to support career development in this field."

About the Author (from http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/ ): Alison Lincoln has a BSc in Equine Sports Coaching, and has taught on Sports Science and Equine Science courses at several different colleges in the UK. She has over 10 years experience as a Pony Club instructor, as well as experience in business performance coaching and life coaching.

Reading This Week - "Dressage Today" from USA

Thanks to my dear American friend (virtual hugs to you Candace!!!) who, since April this year, was putting aside issues of "Dressage Today" and have just sent them over to me I've been having a magazine reading delight!! The articles are great and very informative, I almost missed my train station today while reading through one of the stories (Guenter Seidel road to Grand Prix).
While browsing the info on "Dressage Today" I noticed you can subscribe to an online version for just $10 (12 issues I guess?). Now, that's the thought...:)

E-BOOK: "Special Report on Diseases of the Horse"

Download this ebook for free (The Project Gutenberg eBooks):

SPECIAL REPORT ON DISEASES OF THE HORSE.

Reading This Week

I am actually reading a...non-horsey book! It must have been at least a few months since I read anything that dared not to speak about equine anatomy and physiology, stable management and the likes and I am pleased to announce I am reading THIS. A gift from Ricky :) I am close to read all the books by the author, my favourite being The Tenth Circle often described as a metaphorical journey through Dante's Inferno. Quite an extraordinary novel.

Reading This Week - "Rider Biomechanics - Basics to Brilliance" by Mary Wanless

Reading This Week - "Studies in Equitation"

I have just started reading this quite an original book: Studies in Equitation by Tony Silverman.
I don't normally buy those 'Learn to ride/learn how to teach to ride' books as they are so shallow and useless that I would rather send the money to ILPH. I much prefer reading classic books on equitation as I seem to find them thoughts provoking and mentally stimulating.
However, I bought this one. Mainly out of curiosity as: 1) the author worked for the famous London riding school 'Suzanne's' which was forced to close its doors due to insurance premiums and 2) there was a mention in Horse & Hound that he had to publish the book himself. I said to myself - I wonder why? Was there no one wanting to publish it? Is it controversial in some ways?

If, like me, you expect to come across some dry instructional material, the first thing that will hit you in this book is the way the content is presented. It's not your usual 'studies' book; it's a true tale of an instructor for whom horses and teaching were the most important things in life. A tale that really grabs you and you find yourself reading until 1am as if it was an exciting fiction story in front of you. Everything in the book seems very real and you can tell the author had been in every situation he wrote about.
What I especially enjoy in the book is the fact it is written to help instructors of average, weekend, riding school riders and yet the quality of the teaching described is probably better than that of many sessions with so-called trainer on your own horse. As the author say - the basics are everything.

I do smirk sometimes while reading as Tony Silverman has this very specific, mentor like style which sometimes can come across as a little hmm, patronising. I don't think this is the case though; I think he is just one of those rare type of instructors that never stops learning, who, although humble, also knows his value, and who, to quote him, always "teaches from the top 10% of his knowledge".

There are some things in the book that some could call slightly old-fashioned and maybe over the top but nevertheless it is a one of a kind read, written with an incredible attention to detail, presenting the author as a person full of opinions and yet very open - minded.

If you click at the picture below you will be able to browse the content of the book. Have a read :)

Reading This Week - "Tug of War - Classical versus "modern" dressage"

While at Olympia I made sure I bought myself a nice stack of reading projects ;) At the moment I have a pleasure to be half way through a mega interesting book: "The Tug of War: Classical versus 'modern' dressage". It's a truly engaging read on various schooling methods, including currently debatable "rollkur" - or hyperflexion, and their influence on horse's health, development and athleticism. If I could I would buy lots of copies and gave it as presents to all my clients.

Reading this week - NLP in Sports Psychology

Since almost every rider comes with an individual set of different learning styles I like to read up on variety of teaching methods. One of my riders has recently been prizing the NLP (neurolinguistic programming).
I came across it some time ago when reading Mary Wanless's books but didn't really research it any further then. Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is an interpersonal communication model and an alternative approach to psychoteraphy based on the subjective study of language, communication and personal change.

On Sunday during my lunch hour I spotted a book in the office and decided to borrow it and am reading it this week.

The book:



The content is very interesting to read and all the concepts are simplified and made easily digestible. I started digging a little on the subject and I must say I was surprised to find quite a well of information.
If you would like to have a browse through the book click HERE.
What I found especially engaging was how NLP enhances sports performances. Click at the image below and have a read; who knows, you may benefit from the NLP :)

Reading This Week

Some time ago I asked my friend who lives in the US to buy me something I have spotted on the Internet. It was a programme of Pilates based exercises but designed specifically for the equestrian use. The programme is called Equilates Stretch Workout and although I haven't been very thorough when doing the exercises (read: I was too lazy to do it regularly) I must say it made me feel very supple and flexible once I did!
Pilates helped me enormously when battling with weakness in my leg due to the injured knee many years ago so I am familiar with the concept and benefits.

EQUILATES STRETCH WORKOUT

A stretch workout designed by Betsy Steiner specifically for riders, focusing not only on flexibility but also on core strength & stability. Includes Equilates tips from Betsy. Easy to incorporate into your daily routine at home or at the barn. The kit comes with an EquiStretch band, detailed descriptions & stick figures of each exercise.

Also available with Teaching Guide (In the Teaching Guide, Betsy gives additional tips about how to teach & perform the stretching exercises to achieve the maximum benefit for riders.)

As I am on my quest for better dressage riding I am pretty determined to do the exercises throughout the winter and hopefully see some improvement in my posture and later, the way of going of the horses.

This week I am reading Betsy Steiner's book: 'A Gymnastic Riding System Using Mind, Body and Spirit - A Progressive Training For the Horse and Rider'.
Link above allows you to browse the book.