Feldenkrais Sessions

We are pleased to be able to offer regular feldenkrais sessions at Barguse. For those who are not too sure what feldenkrais is and how it can help with your riding please read on for a brief description. For a more detailed explanation you can go to www.feldenkrais.co.uk. These sessions are dismounted and cost £40 for a 1 hour private session. Shelagh O’Neill travels up from Penzance to take them and Shelagh’s profile can be found at www.nicefeldenkrais.co.uk. Shelagh can only fit in five sessions in an afternoon/evening and these are proving very popular so please contact Lisa Todd as soon as possible to ensure a place.

We also offer mounted workshops through the year which are taken by practitioner Vreni Booth who specializes in riders. Vreni’s profile can be found on the feldenkrais guild’s website www.feldenkrais.co.uk. Please keep an eye on the events page for forthcoming workshops.

So what is feldenkrais?

Often, bad habits get in the way of progress. This includes physical habits, like always crossing the same leg over the top of the other, tilting your head to the same side or holding one shoulder higher than the other. You are probably oblivious to many of your own habits, precisely because they are …..habits! Your central nervous system stopped being interested (aware) of them years ago, but they are still there and one thing is for sure…. The horses you ride will be aware of them!!

For example, an inclination to habitually rotate your ribcage slightly more to the left than to the right will probably cause you no obvious problem in daily life but that small rotation is enough to get in the way of you and your horse doing good turns to the right, and enough to keep him constantly unbalanced laterally.

Our horses have no choice but to be influenced by the riders’ body habits, which can frequently and unknowingly, conflict with what the horse is being asked to do. Thus, the horse may appear to be disrespectful or disobedient, when he is, in fact being totally obedient to the influence of his riders body.

So, how can you address this problem, if you are not aware of the habit that is causing it? Good question, and one that will be answered on these sessions. You will learn how to identify patterns and habits and gain the knowledge to be able to rectify them.

These sessions are open to both riders and non-riders. Almost anyone can benefit from Feldenkrais. It can help people with a variety of conditions, from easing sports injuries, back and limb problems, shoulder, neck and back pain, to increasing mobility and flexibility. It can also help those who are fit and well to keep in prime condition and improve their sporting activities, by improving flexibility and co-ordination of movement.