How SENSE Helps

SENSE work relieves muscular tension and stress

SENSE Method has helped horses:

• Engage their hind ends and round their backs
• Move with elegance, suppleness and coordination
• Be balanced and comfortable whiles hooves are cleaned or trimmed
• Be physically able to respond to the rider’s aids
• Eliminate stiffness, sore backs and other discomforts
• Reduce anxiety and diminish spookiness
• Make tacking up a pleasant experience for even “cinchy” horses
• Lessen muscular and emotional tension
• Increase relaxation and improve performance
• Improve stamina and long-term soundness by reducing strain
• Experience joy in the horse-human partnership

Just like humans, horses develop inefficient habits of moving, with some of the joints and muscles doing more than their share of the work. Soreness, fatigue and degenerative changes such as arthritis can be the result. The SENSE Method can be a way out of this vicious cycle.

SENSE uses gentle, precise touch and movements to remind the horse how all his parts can work together harmoniously, improving body awareness, athletic performance and confidence.

Feldenkrais Method® for Riders

Fine-tuning a rider's position

As a life-long horsewoman and Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner, Mary has helped riders:

• Replace force with “feel”
• Eliminate back, neck and knee pain
• Improve posture, flexibility and coordination
• Feel their seat bones evenly and be able to use this essential weight aid
• Return joy to the horse-human partnership
• Ride in a manner that encourages relaxation and suppleness in the horse

The Feldenkrais Method teaches riders how to stop interfering with themselves, taking the struggle out of riding. Years of sitting behind a desk, driving a car, dealing with stress and nursing old injuries often leads to the development of unhealthy and restrictive movement patterns which overuse parts of the body and lead to pain and stiffness. These habitual patterns become so ingrained that they are lost from our awareness. The restrictions feel familiar and thus seem “normal.” We no longer realize that we have the potential to be flexible, coordinated and graceful. The freedom of movement we had as children seems a distant memory. Feldenkrais® can help you recover it.

Horses appreciate the hands-on SENSE work

What is so extraordinary about the Feldenkrais Method is that it does not attempt to correct or manipulate. Rather, it is an educational approach that is relaxing, pleasurable, and supportive. Using noninvasive touch and movement, a Feldenkrais practitioner clarifies for the client what he is really doing and helps him explore more effective movement options. This sensory learning approach is in contrast to attempting to make postural changes through force of will. The familiar refrains of “Sit up straight, pull your shoulders back, sit evenly,” etc. often fall short of their goal as they can create even more tension in the rider.

When muscles remain habitually contracted and tense, they are weaker than softer, supple muscles. Chronic muscular contractions also interfere with free movement and can lead to pain, stiffness and joint difficulties. They also inhibit “feel.”

Feldenkrais helps give riders an increased awareness of their movement, allowing them to be more aware of their horses’ movement. This can significantly improve a rider’s timing and coordination of the aids. As riders gain independent use of each hip, seat bone, leg, shoulder, hand, etc., they can match their action with their intention. Balance improves, confidence soars and riding becomes a true pleasure.

Mary helps equestrians learn how to move in balance

Many people believe that a supposed weakness or bad habit must be “overcome” through some rigorous, forceful routine. One of the most rewarding benefits of Feldenkrais is the realization that improvements in ease of movement can be learned in a pleasurable instant. Flexibility, coordination, and power then increase automatically. Feldenkrais-inspired riders understand that the same principles apply to their horses. They realize that a horse’s difficulty in responding to their aids is not usually a result of disobedience, but often stems from confusion or pain. And these riders first look to themselves as a possible cause.

This understanding leads to more harmonious partnerships with horses as well as a desire to help horses learn how to move with ease and elegance, rather than riding with force and gadgets. As is true with people, improvements in equine movement prevent wear and tear on joints and increase strength and stamina.

Over the years I have helped many riders whose problems included: rounded shoulders, swinging legs, tight shoulders and hands, errant heels, stiffness, poor balance, aching backs and necks, sore knees, collapsed hips or carpal tunnel syndrome. While Feldenkrais does not take the place of riding instruction, it can be a remarkably effective tool for maximizing the potential of both horses and riders.

Please visit our Humans page for more information on how the Feldenkrais Method can help you!