Analysis
Without even knowing it, we often ride in uncentered or unbalanced positions that have come to be habitual. And frequently, the “problems” we work on with our hand or foot positions, or our horses’ reluctance to work a particular direction or at a particular gait, are really problems that originate from our lack of balance or centering. Our brief explanation of biomechanics here explains why and how our positions as riders impact our horses and make them struggle in ways that, in turn, impact us — with the result that a widening spiral of imbalance becomes entrenched over time. This is the sort of problem that leads to chronic inflammation in both horses and riders, and that can even cause injuries and accidents. The philosophy page makes it clear that top horse professionals know the importance of balance and centering to the riding experience.
But how can we tell if we’re riding centered and balanced? We hardly ever catch a glimpse of ourselves riding. Arena mirrors distract our concentration. Videos are tedious to examine for clues to “what might be wrong.” And even the best trainers and teachers are seldom able to assess details of balance or centering in a high-quality way while they’re trying to keep an eye on where our heels are or whether or not our horse has taken the correct lead. There’s too much to see, and it happens too quickly.
But an even bigger issue is that proper assessment of balance and centering requires significant training. Though we all know that posture is critical to a rider’s seat, it’s not always easy to tell precisely what’s “off” about a given person’s posture and what kind of change will really correct it instead of simply cover it up. That’s because many of the most essential principles of biomechanics are counter-intuitive to the layperson. For instance, our sample analysis depicts a rider who knew her left leg was often “longer” in the stirrup than her right, and who thought this meant she put more weight through her left hip than her right one. The opposite turned out to be true. The more she’d thought she needed to “get more on her right hip” to make her right side sit deeper in the saddle, the more she actually made her problem worse. Biomechanical analysis permitted her to find out what was really going on and then start to correct it. The change this made in her horse’s ability to stretch out and move properly showed up after only 20 minutes of directed feedback to help her learn a new posture.
Until now, biomechanical analysis has only been readily available to professional or Olympic equestrians who can afford the four- and five-figure fees of sports laboratories with high-tech and high-speed computerized systems. But Tapestry staff member Dr. Dawn Adrian is a scientific expert in large mammal locomotion with years of research experience in the field, and we’ve found a way to use her skills to make practical biomechanical analysis available to horsewomen and -men everywhere. You can have an analysis done no matter where you live, as long as you have access to a camera that will record digital video clips.
Two types of analysis are available.
- The FIT analysis identifies and reports on the one, single most “Fundamentally Important Thing” in your riding — a point of imbalance due to a postural habit, for instance — that is likely the single most important factor you can address to cause across-the-board improvement in your riding experience. Such an analysis and report costs $99 and is limited to the rider only.
- The Full analysis is a more detailed report that assesses one primary and up to two secondary points of imbalance, lack of centeredness, or poor mechanical advantage in the horse and in the rider (each one). It is therefore more expensive, costing $299. Our analysis of the horse is limited to its balance and centeredness only, not its conformation.
Neither analysis assesses discipline-related “horsemanship” (in terms of what is rated in a show ring) because that simply isn’t what we do. Our organization’s mission is to help people know, learn about, and respond to nature (including human bodies and horses!) using different ways of knowing and learning. Helping you balance and center better accomplishes this goal. But it may surprise you to discover how much improving your balance and centeredness automatically improves your show ring “horsemanship” as well as your horse’s willingness and form! That’s because, as explained on the philosophy page, centeredness and balance are essential components of all riding experiences.
So if you’re taking lessons in eventing or dressage, or training with a top cutting horse expert, keep doing it. Getting this analysis, and even getting a period of feedback from us while you’re trying to learn new habits of posture or balance, won’t interfere with your usual training. Think of the biomechanical analysis we offer you as a supplement — a vitamin for your riding experience that enhances and amplifies all the training work you and your horse are doing otherwise.
To get a biomechanical analysis of your riding, prepare a set of video clips as outlined on our special page of instructions and either mail us a DVD containing them or put them online at a site like YouTube. Complete instructions are here. Dr. Adrian will then provide you with a detailed written report, complete with marked screenshots from your video that show what you can work on to achieve better balance and centeredness. Click here to read a short sample analysis to see what your report will look like. (The sample is much smaller in scope than Dr. Adrian’s full analysis for this rider was). If you live in the Front Range area of Colorado (from Fort Collins south to Colorado Springs), you have the additional option of joining our Balance-Center-Connect Riding Program instead. In that case, Anne Belasco will come out to videotape you as part of the program. Either way, Dr. Adrian will analyze your video materials and write a formal report that will be emailed or surface-mailed back to you. If you are a local participant in the Balance-Center-Connect Riding Program, she will give you an in-person explanation of your analysis along with the written report.
Space is limited for biomechanical analyses each week, so email Program Director Anne Belasco, Esq. or call 719-347-3090 to tell us you are submitting materials. If we are temporarily booked up, you can ask to be placed on a waiting list. Payment is expected at the time you submit your materials for analysis.
Please note that we cannot offer detailed assessment of potential problems that lie beyond the range of balance and centeredness, though we can report data that suggest there may be problems in the areas we can’t assess well from the videos alone. For example, we may tell you that the data suggest there is a potential problem with your saddle’s tree, but we can’t provide more precise information than that; you would have to take your saddle to a saddle expert to learn more. Or we might tell you that your horse appears to have a problem in its right hindquarters that could be related to injury, but you would have to have the horse assessed by an equine health professional to learn more. The information in the videos and the type of analysis we’re doing simply do not provide data that would permit us to evaluate whether a saddle’s tree was cracked or crooked, or whether a horse had arthritis in a lumber vertebra or tight lumbar fasciae instead. To learn more about what we do and do not do in our analysis, see our FAQs pages.