HEAD FIRST

Did you know that your head weighs about a stone, or 6k? That it balances on top of your spine on 2 little areas no bigger than your finger tips?

Excessive tension at the back of the neck pulls that weight into the spine, causing it to compress and shorten - the same as in a horse.

As a rider, you will strive to get your horse to be free at the poll so that its back can lengthen.

As a teacher of riders, I get my pupils to be free in the atlanto-occipital joint so their back can lengthen.

We may be organised vertically rather than horizontally but we need the same thing - to literally free up, head first.

When we're shown how to do that it feels light and amazing. And when we can do it ourselves, it's much easier to get our horses to do it too :)