And here are WalkAbout Pictures...

Yoga with horses is certainly not about being on the mat. At least, not on the physical mat. It's more about taking the yoga of movement following breath into relationship with other beings. Gary gently encourages his students to walk with him - from the hip and stacking the bones.

Horse Yoga Walkabout: Walk and stack

There will be pictures.

In the meantime, we learned to walk from our four-legged horse yoga teacher today. And walk, and walk, and walk. Walk and stack, walk and stack.

Stack refers to our tadasana (mountain pose) yoga posture. Out in the round pen, we find our feet and we practice stacking our bones and feeling our bone stack as we hold the weight of our head (all 13 pounds of it). Gary isn't giving us a lot of time today as he does one of his famous drive-bys. He walks into our midst, which we take as encouragement to join him in movement.

So off we go, bringing awareness to the front of our hip joints and the base of the big toe, and we inhale or exhale and walk off. One of our friends is having some knee issues, so we set her up in a rhythm of walking for four breaths, stop and stack, first one leg and then the other, and walk off again.

Another of our friends keeps looking downward, so her walk stiffens up, so Gary does a gentle drive by and gives her a little bump.

Another friend is walking in a manner that is balanced, but her steps seem a little short to me. I ask her to walk it out more boldly and she swings into action and Gary falls in line right behind her. He licks and chews (translation: "I like it.") As they move, I have a little chat with our other friends.

It's time to learn the "Don't f&#* with me walk." Look straight ahead, take a wide stance, walk wide-hipped, with intention. (Many women walk with a narrow half-moon kind of walk, which is hard on the hip and knee, and stand with their knees locked, so we are getting into changing these habits with Walkabout.) Gary begin to follow this brisk and bold walk, licks and chews.

We take a break in the shade as we've been walking for over 30 minutes now. One of our friends mentions how as she walks, she has a tendency to track in the direction of whoever she's walking with, so it becomes practice time. Two at a time, walk in a line together. They set off, Gary follows and then it's 3 abreast - two humans and a horse.

The two humans take a break, the other human steps up, starts walking serpentines and figure-8's, Gary gets in line, leading by following. Then it's another human and then another, and it's a line dance in the round pen, walking with grace, intention, and the sheer joy of walking.

Hatha yoga on horseback

Put away any expectation of going riding, at least for now.

From the back of your horse, let go of any preconceived notion of riding alignment, just let the legs drape, soften, be supported by the barrel of your horse. Feel your breath, feel the breathing of your horse through your inner leg. Observe your thoughts. Notice how you feel, your emotion of the moment.

"Good horse training is boring to watch (unless you understand what you are seeing)".

I wish I could remember the exact quote by Ron Meredith of Meredith Manor but that's the essence of the quote. In lieu of having that exact quote at hand, check out the training articles over at the Meredith Manor website, or any of the articles over at Desert Horse Equestrian. Not flashy, just sound application of logic with compassion when it comes to working and playing with your horse. Being in this yoga of relationship with a horse, whether you are riding or being with the horse on the ground, doesn't look like much to the casual observer.

In yoga with your horse, we are including ourselves in this logic with compassion as means to explore what it means to be human, what it means to be human in relationship with horse.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali tell us that our posture should be 'sthira sukha' - stable and comfortable. So our yoga on horseback is finding that balance where both the rider and the horse are sthira sukha.

A good place to start is by releasing the agenda of riding, at least for awhile, and replacing it with the objective of simply finding stability and comfort while on the back of the horse. No place to go, nothing to do, but to feel your sit bones connecting with the back of your horse. From here, you can notice if there are areas of tension in thighs, back, shoulder, neck, jaw. Whose? Either. Engage your inner calf - what happens? Enter in to the exploration in a spirit of play, just for awhile.

Sure, we can do some pretty interesting and helpful hatha yoga postures while on our horse, but just as you would do in a yoga class, we start with finding out just where we are.

Sharing Prosperity Meditation

Exhale.

Inhale deeply and hold as you mentally recite:
"I am Bountiful, I am Blissful, I am Beautiful."

Exhale completely and hold the pause, mentally recite:
"Excel, Excel, Fearless."

Do for 3 minutes, 3 or 4 or more times a day.
Do for 40 days.

Notice if any of the words come hard for you. Just notice that, and just keep doing the meditation.

Bountiful, Beautiful Booty: Yoga Butt, Horse Wisdom Style

Meet Ms. B, our Yoga with Horse teacher for today.

Today our Yoga with Horses group moves into our Windhorse Warrior Vinyasa with a bit of a difference - moving only on the exhale. This should help us to moderate our internal heat, and we'll be playing with this more this summer. As we practice, we allow ourselves to enter into the gestalt of the herd, which horse or horses capture our attention, enters into our mind's eye?

Today it's the grey horses. Denali behind us, Bianca to the east, Zeus in front, Cherokee to the west. Bianca is one of the horses in our shared herd, so she'll be our teacher today.

Ms.B walks regally with me to the round pen, engaged and curious. I've worked with Bianca and her person before, so this isn't new, but this is the first time that she is taking on the teacher role in our yoga class. What comes up for us is her mare energy, and how different it is to work with this energy compared to the energy of 'the boys' who are our usual teachers. We are quickly drawn into those non-logical dimensions of the vjnanamaya and anandamaya, the deep mind and emotions, so words describing the difference in the energy come difficult for this articulate group.

Round. Maternal. Softer, yet edgier. Sharp, but round. Ms. B has a big, round, muscular and fluid set of hindquarters on her, and some of our pet names for her tend to involve 'big booty'.

Into the pen where we practice our 'beach grrl' walk with Bianca showing us how to really move those hips. Sacrum flows forward, hips open, sway, ground. It's a soft walk with determination underneath. We have places to go - inward.

Then we take a little up close time with Ms. B and that bountiful, beautiful booty. She stands quietly as we connect with that strength and softness with the palms of our hands. Ah ha! Sthira Sukha, that steady comfort that is the only goal of asana practice, right here, right now.

Her eyes soften as she graciously accepts our attentions. We finish with a short mandala meditation. We end, bowing to her with namaste. The White Queen is ready to back and munch some hay.

Namaste, Ms. B. Namaste.

Yoga with Horses, look closely

It's hard sometimes, when people ask me about what yoga with horses is all about.

If you look closely at these pictures of my friends and Gary's "students", you might be able to see the difference that being with Gary, the horse teacher, brings into the interactions. Compare what's happening in the top photo to the bottom photo.

So, one way to consider yoga with horses is that yoga with horses is the experience of that movement from the set of relationships seen in the top photo to what is seen in the lower photo.

What do you see?

I'd love to hear your comments.

Virabhadrasana: Warrior Spirit

I am your Warrior Spirit
name me
honor me

I am here
present
aware

I am in the world
of the world
for the world

I see with clarity
I act with love

red as Blood
bright as Sun
black as Night
light as Moon

I am your Warrior Spirit
name me
honor me


I found this old poem while working on clearing my studio. It was in a handout I used way back when I did a Warrior Woman workshop as part of the Women and Spirituality conference that takes place in Mankato, Minnesota.

I love warrior poses. Nearly all classes that I teach include at least one warrior vinyasa variation, from ultra gentle to my more vigorous Windhorse vinyasa classes.

My Warrior Spirit Name? I have several, including Walks with Horses and Jeneralissimo. What's yours?

(Please use the comment feature to reply).