James Shaw Tai Chi REPORT

[rambling]

Firstly apologies to the Natural Horsemanship peeps this doesn't really belong here but I have put it here as it's an alternative approach.

Its not Natural Horsemanship as there is no focus on the Horse or its behaviour just on the Rider. The aim is to put the rider in balance and by doing so allow the horse to do what you're asking him to do.

I have done some ordinary Tai Chi and really loved it so that's what attracted me in the beginning. I have done 5 or 6 of these now and have enjoyed them all. His particular skill lies in seeing exactly where the rider is out of balance and blocking the horse and helping the rider to change that.
Oh I forgot BREATHING I keep forgetting that!

I opted to do the whole day and brought my horse but for the first time it might be better to just pay for the ground work and see if it suits you.

After coffee, tea, herbal teas and bikkies when we arrived we did two and a half hours of groundwork (dismounted) with plenty of chatting and a short break.
This early work focuses on finding a balance where you don't have to use muscle or strength to keep yourself upright. He uses a mix of traditional Laing Gong forms and his own exercises to loosen rusty hinges and create an awareness of the movements our bodies could make if only we would let them.
A lot of this is done in pairs and my personal observation is that people who work out and are fit can find this particularly hard because when they are trying a new movement they naturally use muscle power rather than balance and skeleton support.
If any of you have done any of the Chinese martial arts you will have an idea of what I mean. If you haven't just think of a tall tower of childs building blocks it doesn't use strength to stay up just balance and support of all the blocks beneath it.
Just going to post this much up, there's more but I will shut up if at least two people ask me to :nod:

[Niamhy]

Interesting.. keep going..

[Tulla]

:sheep: i echo Niamhy, would love to hear about more and what you have to do on the horse?

[rambling]

Ok so I'll start part two again:rant:

We did the mounted part in pairs on Sat .

To start James asked me to be come aware of my breathing..... oops .... immediately I became aware of it Bobby's walk improved. Then I had to count the length of the in and out breaths, 4 in 5 out , is a good tempo for us.

Other horses need different counts and longer counts will give a slower walk.
Next was to become aware of what he calls my sitbones then breathing into the "mung ming" or expanding the small of the back. He got me to move my balance fractionally to the front of the sitbones and the forwardness improved again. I saw this myself in other horses one lovely big young horse showed a huge improvement.

This is probably as far as most people get on their first session it sounds easy but its actually quite hard.

Next was turning, swivelling the upper body around on the spine and my ribs are still aching from trying to get this. When I did this without lifting my shoulder or taking my sitbone off the saddle Bobby stepped the inside hind right under and didn't fall out through the shoulder.

The next day we had the same groundwork in the morning with more emphasis on balance when walking, using the Tai Chi walk if anyone is familiar with it and some backwards walking which loosened the rusty joints in my hips.

I had an individual mounted lesson and we did breathing, sitbones and turning as before and used the rotation of the femur bones in the trot to control speed.

I dispensed with my stirrups at the beginning and then he asked me to do rising trot without them and to let the horse push me up with the femur acting as a sort of lever and letting gravity bring me down.

I really went into the zone for this and can put my hand on my heart and say that I didn't use any muscles to do the trot rising without stirrups. I know its true 'cause my thighs and calves are painfree.

However when my weight shifted off my outside sitbone on the turns I became unstable for a sec until I brought it back.

Any of you who rode as children are probably doing this naturally but most people on the clinic didn't and the difference in the horses when they did was incredible.

[intouch]

Thanks for that Rambling, I think it's perfectly suited to horse man ship!

[poi-chick]

Very interesting read, thank you!

[Tulla]

Ya it sounds great, some tips there that are helpful, when does he have another clinic?

[High_Stepper]

You have me fascinated now. Do you do it regularly?

[Red Rosette]

That is really interesting Rambling and made perfectly good sense. It is great to see an improvement in the horse from slight adjustments in our sitbones or breathing - when I say slight I dont mean in the effort it takes us humans!!
Is he organising other clinics? If you hear of any could you post it up please? Thanks :clap::clap:

[bob1984]

Really interesting Rambling - thanks for posting! :clap:

[Little-Miss-Muppet]

rambling brilliant report thanks so much for tellling us about it!. I think it sounds really interesting id love to give it a go.

Recently I have started to do some work on my horse without reins on the flat. mainly because I want to make sure I am balancing myself from my seat and leg not my hand but also because I am trying to learn more about how my body's position influences my horse, and to strengthen the weaker areas of my body.
The other day siog was trotting, so without reins to make her walk I grabbed the pommel made myself relax and sit deep for a bit- and she walked! Now I havent mastered change the rein yet without reins or anything but still I think its made me more aware of how I need to move my body to influence her.

I also did some jumping without reins which was so much fun and it meant I could not rely on my hands for balance at all :) I do loads without stirrups, I actually ride better without stirrups on siog on the flat! (if only you could do dressage without them lol)

How much do they charge for the sessions rambling? It sounds really good and id imagine it gives you loads to work on afterwards?

[Niamhy]

Wow that really sounds great!! Brilliant report! Its fascinating!

[magoozee]

Sounds brilliant. Would love to try it too. How often does he have clinics and where are they held? Does he have a website?

[rambling]

http://twitter.com/jamesrshaw

Thank you all for your kind words.

If any of you have the patience there is a report on the clinic in the Carlow Nationalist with a really lovely pic of Bobby.
You will need to go to page 34 and there we are in the middle of the page.
There is a zoom if you want to read it.

[Niamhy]

Lovely photo, you look great!!

[rambling]

You have me fascinated now. Do you do it regularly?

:blushing: Yes have to admit I do it whenever he's over, about twice a year . Its gone quite dear but I manage to justify it to myself :sniggers:.

I loved Tai Chi from the first time I did it but not everyone does, some people find it boring and it seems as if nothing is happening.

James is the first to admit hes not a riding teacher he is only adjusting the rider.
He has a wonderful eye for imbalance and where the rider is blocking the horse.
The first lesson you won't get out of walk, so you have to be prepared for that.