The BecomeOne Method
The Magic of Connecting with the Horse in True BalanceWhether you are passionate about dressage, improving your horse’s way of going in general, or you just want to enjoy the experience of being in the saddle to the max, it all comes down to one thing: connecting with the horse in a way that creates balance.
The Trouble With Riding
Whether or not you are aware of this fact, every time you get on a horse you immediately become a passenger to his or her natural balance.
Of course you can control basic factors like direction and speed, or much more more complex reactions from the horse that can be achieved with training (right up to Grand Prix level training if you like!).
But the fact remains: if you do not set about to profoundly influence the horse’s natural balance through a postural, body-to-body connection, then both of you are inevitably out of balance. That’s because the horse’s natural balance is not suitable for carrying a rider, it’s as simple as that. Why would it be after all?
With time and experience of riding, we get so used to this lack of balance that we don’t even notice it, but it is the root cause of almost all the difficulties we encounter in riding, for example:
- the resistances we often feel in the rein contact
- feeling insecure, unstable or out of control
- the need to hold onto the reins for security and balance
- the horse feeling heavy on the forehand
- difficulty with bending and straightening
- feeling like the horse doesn’t listen to your aids
- the horse rushing or being sluggish
- many so-called behavioral problems
- bridle-lamenesses
- wear-and-tear on the limbs and spine causing increasing stiffness over time
These are only a handful of the problems that are caused by a fundamental lack of balance between horse and rider.
Unfortunately, most traditional riding or dressage methods only treat the symptoms of imbalance not the underlying source.
You may know of widespread techniques like, for example, ‘inside leg to outside rein’, blocking your hands in half-halts, ‘playing’ with the reins to ask the horse to come round and soften onto the bit, or worse, resorting to strong bits or gadgets to get the right ‘outline’ or to get the horse ‘under control’.
ALL of these are compensations that paper over the cracks, not real solutions to creating balance and unity with the horse.
The Real Solution
When you feel true balance on top of a horse, it is something magical and totally unmistakable.
You may well have experienced glimpses of this feeling already – if you’ve had a moment where everything just felt so right and you felt like you became part of your horse.
That’s what riding feels like all the time when we transform the horse’s natural balance. It’s an incredible sensation of both weightlessness and channelled power – as if we became part of a powerful engine. There is a wonderful feeling of potential in every stride, as both you and the horse break free from the heavy chains of imbalance and compensation.
This is what the BecomeOne method is about: helping riders to achieve this state by giving them both the skills and the support over a long enough period of time to make a real transformation in the way people connect with their horse.
It is a clear step-by-step system for bringing your center of control and communication with the horse out of your reins and anchoring it solidly into your body-to-body connection.
The difference between this method and traditional dressage is that it’s not about controlling the horse’s responses to the rider’s signals in order to achieve performance based on conditioning.
What I teach is how to connect to the horse and influence his way of moving with your whole-body posture. That’s why this method is the real solution to rein dependence and forceful dressage techniques.
The posture is a wonderfully powerful thing when we know how to develop it.
Indeed it is the only way we stand a chance of truly changing the horse’s natural balance, considering their power and strength compared to our own.
Through a specific development of our body, we can create postural leverage. This is the unique tool that enables us to make a real transformation in the biomechanics of the horse’s movement.
This postural development takes time and an understanding of each step involved. Very few riders have access to the kind of support it takes to follow through with the process. It is not something that is in any way obvious, and certain stages of the process actually require the rider to break the traditional rules of riding.
This is why the personal support of coaching is absolutely ideal for any rider who would like to achieve this beautiful connection with their horse.
Riding in balanced unity with the horse is a deeply good feeling in itself, for both horse and rider, but it actually has a wide array of holistic benefits beyond the joy of the experience in itself.
What I refer to as postural engagement – when the horse’s power is channeled through the aligned connection between horse and rider – acts like a combination of yoga, pilates and physiotherapy for both parties.
It supples all the joints, strengthens the core and stretches and aligns the spine. Engagement also profoundly relaxes the diaphragm, stimulating the vagus nerve to release hidden tension and bring a deep state of relaxation. As a rider, the calming effect of postural engagement on the horse is very tangible, and becomes a wonderful tool for building a relationship of mutual trust with the horse.
The benefits don’t stop at the body, but include a journey of mind and spirit also, as we acquire many attributes along the road to unity with the horse.
Developing heightened awareness, self-discipline, compassion, patience, concentration, an ability to be in the present moment and to remain centered, calm and confident – these are only some of the ways we grow when we become an engaged rider.
Each individual makes their own unique journey in building this extraordinary connection with the horse, but even if you know the right techniques, you may well get stuck at the first obstacle without support and guidance.
My mission with BecomeOne Rider Coaching is to make sure that more people break through to discovering how amazing the unity between horse and rider can really be.
