The riders leg

Warning! I have thought a lot about this topic so this is a long post about the ideal riding leg. First I had to find the ideal, then how the heck to achieve it. I have found the answer and it is fairly simple but obviously it is not easy. My Alexander teacher, Robyn Avalon has taught me that falling through myself to the ground allows gravity to bounce me back up, if my alignment and relaxation allows it. Robyn is brilliant at finding ease in movement regardless of what the movement is. So when she was without a solution to the conundrum presented by the necessary width of the riders feet, I started looking for the answer. Many years later, after a total realignment of my body, I believe that I have found the answer. A human is designed to balance over their feet through correct vertical stacking allowing the body to fall "though" supple ankles. to acheive this one needs a "neutral spine" to be falling into a "level pelvis", then falling through the legs and into the ankles. The challenge in maintaining this "throughness" when riding a horse is that the feet are too far apart (horse in between) to allow an optimal "fall" through the legs and ankles. To find that "fall" into a springy elastic ankle which allows the heel to fall (or "heels down"). The goal then isn't "heels crammed down", any more than the horses neck can be forced down to acheive the soft "falling down neck" that is the holy grail of dressage. Both must find vertical/horizontal alignment and both lateral and vertical elasticity/suppleness. It is this elasticicity of the entire spine that allows a very subtle weight shift from foot to foot. Just as the horse must shift his weight from foot to foot. This is the how the rider can "sit still" and still be at ease with gravity when their legs are too far apart. fortunately the horses back "rolls" with each stride and if we are laterally supple we can simply follow and fall through our seats and into our feet resulting in the perfectly elastic sinking heel. Stephan is usually a good model for this. The lateral suppleness must go all the way though the riders head for maximum ease. Sarah Baily, longtime student of mine describes the sense of having a bubble fountain for a spine and that there are little hands patting it very slightly back and forth causing a sense of a vertical and lateral shimmering allowing her to have a lovely sinking heel.