08.23.09

Aikido for Horsemen Workshop with Mark Rashid

Posted in Aikido, Horses, Life at 8:52 pm by Kara

Many thanks to Crissi McDonald for permission to use her photos.

Ah, what could be better than a long weekend combining Aikido, horses, good friends, great teachers, and the stellar setting of Estes Park, Colorado?

Not much!

All this and more was wrapped up into the first-ever “Aikido for Horsemen” workshop August 1-3. This weekend was such a success that more workshops have been planned for this fall and winter.

As you may know, Mark Rashid (www.markrashid.com) has been practicing the Japanese martial art of Aikido for several years and brings many of its tenets to his horsemanship, teaching, and life…it’s all related, after all.

Bless the Teachers
Before I share a little of what I learned, I want to give thanks for the great teachers in my life. Interesting thing about teachers…the good ones can affect you in more and deeper ways than just the subject matter they teach. I’ve had the honor of working with Mark for more than a decade, and it’s been a gift to see and feel his work transform over the years. Knowing him and working with him has changed my life for the better in so many ways. And now I’m blessed to have another great teacher in my life, Andrew Blevins, my Aikido teacher at Kiryu Aikido. Truly, I’m becoming a better person because of their help, their time, and what they’re teaching me.

Aikido and Horses: Strange Bedfellows?
So, how does Aikido relate to our work with horses? Before I left for the weekend, one of my Sempai (senior students in my dojo) was kidding with me. Would we be doing a Yonko on a hind leg? Perhaps an Irimi Nage around the horse’s neck? Or would we be practicing our ukemi skills from atop a cantering horse, launching into a lovely forward roll? I wasn’t exactly sure what Mark would cover, but I knew whatever it was would get me a little further on my path.

Thirteen students arrived at the Estes Park dojo Saturday afternoon for the inagural Aikido for Horsemen workshop. With name tags on t-shirts or gi tops, we introduced ourselves and got to work. In addition to Mark and Crissi, we were honored to be learning from Mark’s teacher, Shihan Adams, and Joel York Sensei. They were so kind to give us their time and their focus for the weekend. Shannon Brown, one of Mark’s student teachers, also helped out.

Because half of Aikido is ukemi — learning how to fall, roll, and protect oneself — we spent much of the next 4 hours doing back falls, side falls, forward and backward rolls, and of course slapping and tucking our chin. The benefit of this work for riders is that learning to fall and roll safely can help decrease the fear some riders have of falling off. If they can roll in the dojo and not get hurt, if they can learn to fall and slap and not get hurt, this will translate to their confidence in riding.

Between this first class and the end of the second day in the dojo, even students who had never practiced Aikido before were feeling much more confident in their abilities.

On the third day, we took these experiences to the barn to explore with Mark and Crissi’s wonderful four-legged teachers. Over the long weekend, I learned or became more deeply aware of a lot of life lessons. Here are just a few of my ruminations.

Fitness and Empathy
If we’re asking our horse to do physically difficult things, we should be able to do them as well. Or, at least, have empathy for what we’re asking our horse to do.

To help us with body awareness and to introduce a way to incorporate fitness into our lives, we did some CrossFit workouts and exercises, including pushups, pullups, squats, and a really fun one called the Hollow Rock — the perfect example of bringing a better balanced, more fit human body to our horse so he can better do what we’re asking.

The Hollow Rock starts with us lying on our back, arms stretched overhead and toes pointed. From there, we engage our abs and keep our back flat on the floor. Working from our center, we raise our head/arms/shoulders and feet off the floor. If we’re strong enough and correctly positioned, we can start rocking like a rounded rock, gently back and forth.

For most students, even lifting legs and shoulders was a challenge. For those of us who could rock, it was much less round than it should have been.

Mark walked by as we were exploring this and casually (yet not accidentally) mentioned, “This is what your horse is doing when you ask him to collect.”

The quiet in the dojo underscored what I think Mark intended. If we as riders can’t “collect” by using our abs and raising our arms and legs, thereby lengthening our topline, how dare we, really, ask our horses to do the same? It’s hard work, this. It takes a lot of conditioning, strength, and practice. And if we expect our horses to go around in self-collection without laying the groundwork and being fit enough to do it ourselves, well, that doesn’t seem entirely fair.

And if riders don’t have the fitness to do several reps of pushups, squats, and assisted pullups, we can’t very well ask our horses in good conscience to do the equine equivalents. Can we? We all can improve, no matter what level we’re at right now, and that’s another message from Mark and Shihan Adams

Keep Learning, Keep Working
As riders and Aikido students, Shihan Adams and Mark both emphasized that our work is never done. Life isn’t about doing what’s easy. It’s about doing what’s difficult so it becomes easier. Otherwise we just keep improving what we’re already pretty good at and ignore all the other stuff that we really need to work on. Learning and growing isn’t about being comfortable.

My Aikido teacher Blevins Sensei has shared the same thing. If we want to improve in our Aikido practice, we need to push ourselves and that means choosing to get out of our comfort zone, every class. For me, it means never being very comfortable for very long. And that’s a good thing. And sometimes it’s a little daunting. And that’s a good thing.

A good teacher, again, is priceless, because they know how far they can push us. With a good teacher, you”ll stretch farther than you ever thought you could on your own.

Connection and Presence
Connection was another element we explored a lot. In Aikido, the word Zanshin means, as far as I understand it, continuing awareness. It’s the presence we bring to our practice, from the moment we bow onto the mat to when we bow off a couple hours later. It’s staying present and in the moment, which is important to our safety and other’s safety as we practice. And it extends an energy, an intent, to our partner that we are connected and we are in control.

Talented and experienced martial artists extend this presence and you absolutely feel it. Shihan Adams gave a great example of this working with York Sensei. In working with our horses, we need to have presence as well. It starts from the moment we enter the paddock or stall and continues the entire time we’re with our horse. It’s not a negative or domineering energy, but rather it’s in control and confident. It gives our horses the confidence that we’ll make decisions that will keep them safe.

Breathing
Something Mark has been teaching for many years is the importance of breathing. “In and out,” he says. Because while many people may breathe in, they’ll hold their breath and only partially exhale. I recently started studying with a meditation teacher, and something he suggests is to try to not miss a breath during our day. By that he means keep a slight awareness of every breath we take, because when we do that, we’ll be much better connected to the present and the moment at hand. Oh, yes, this is a life-long goal. It’s so easy to let ourselves get attracted by bright, shiny objects of thought or whatever and pretty soon we’re well down a bunny trail. If we can catch those sooner, and bring ourselves back to the present, we have a better chance of practicing the mindfulness many of us seek.

It’s the same while working with our horses (or sitting in our cubicles, or driving the car, or shopping for groceries). But with horses, attention to breathing can positively influence both our more simple interactions — picking up a foot via an exhale and an intent rather than using muscle to physically pick up the leg — and more tenuous moments such as when our horse is startled or frightened. In those few moments, our reaction can change the outcome. If we hold our breath, tense up, and shut down, our horse reads those as clear and alarming signals that this situation is as scary and dangerous as they think it is! Woohoo, and that’s when you can find yourself in the next county within seconds, or on the ground if you’re not in balance. But if we relax, breathe, and have the intent that nothing bad is happening, our horse will usually get over his fright in a couple seconds.

Breathing and relaxing go hand in hand with Aikido. If I’m not breathing, my center is usually in my forehead and I’m resorting to using muscle instead of my hips. Or I’m fearful and tensing up. Whatever is happening, not breathing is not a good thing.

Taking it Forward
Aikido/horsemanship/life are intertwined for me. So I wasn’t surprised, but I did smile, as I was back at work following the workshop. Walking down the long hall to the office, I was mentally practicing my forward and backward rolls. (That’s an interesting feeling…walking forward while practicing a back roll in my head). And when things were getting a little tense with a project our team was working on, I was consciously staying with my breath and extending presence in hopes of offering a little calming, in-control energy. While walking through a crowded store, I tapped into the spatial awareness we’d explored in the dojo with the three-person weave…and later the three-horse weave.

Cool stuff, this is. And even more rewarding are all the interrelationships I can find if I just take a second to be aware of them.

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