Tai Chi For Equestrians With James Shaw
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Witten by: Cynthia McFarland
“‘Head up!’ ‘Heels down!’ ‘Shoulders back!’ ‘Drop your hands!’ ‘Don’t look down!’ ‘Relax!’ Your trainer’s words ring in your head as you strive to perfect your form. Yet somehow the harder you try, the more tense you feel. Make no mistake, your horse feels the tension, too, and it hinders his freedom of movement.
If this is how you typically feel when riding, particularly when working towards a specific training goal, you are not alone. Many riders “ride from the outside in,” trying to force their body into a form without regard to what’s going on from the inside.
James Shaw, the Lakewood, California-based Tai Chi instructor behind Tai Chi for Equestrians takes the principles of this remarkable 4000-year-old healing and martial art, and applies them to riding. The result is a gentler, softer, more relaxed and effective way of riding, whatever your discipline.
Through Tai Chi for Equestrians, instructor James Shaw is teaching riders how to “ride from the inside out.” Proper breathing, and understanding how to breathe properly, is the foundation for riding from the inside out. Shaw explains that mastering this simple technique can begin to totally change the way you ride…and the way your horse responds.”