As many of you will know I am interested in aikido as a way to improve my horsemanship. At least that is how it started, but then I got hooked on aikido to add to my list of hobbies :roll:
It was Mark Rashid who introduced me to the idea, first through his book then during a clinic I watched where I had a chance to chat with him personally. After that I joined a local DoJo and got really really lucky. Both of the main instructors at the DoJo were interested in my reason for joining and did some research of their own to help me.
It then turned out that I had joined the only club in the UK which really concentrates on the internal form of aikido where the focus and intention are emphasised rather than just the mechanical movement of the technique. There are other clubs which do this but apparently none with emphasis of the one I attend.
After a year at the club I really began to see the benefits to my horsemanship, especially with soft feel, focus and intention. So the last time I was at JRFS I suggested that I invite my instructors down there for a "trial" day. Today it happened.
We started with Josh giving a great demo on his Mocho whilst he commented on the meaning of "follow a feel" to horsemen. He played in all four savvies including bridleless which really emphasised the power of focus. The instructors, Tony and David, seemed pretty impressed by all this and there was much nodding of heads in understanding and agreement at what Josh was showing and explaining. This was pretty remarkable in itself as neither Tony nor David have much experience with horses, limited to the odd ride on holiday I believe. For them to understand what many would describe as
advanced topics in horsemanship so readily showed how close the ideas in each discipline actually are.
Once Josh was finished it was their turn to have a little play with Mocho. We stuck to the real basics of hind quarter yield using intention, lower the head with porcupine and back up using porcupine off the halter. They then found that actually it was quite difficult !
The difference between a horse and human is that horses never lie. If they did not ask quite right they did not get the response. I know for a fact that when I am training in aikido at my low level my opponent will react correctly even if I don't get it quite right. This lets me practise and improve as they ask for more and more perfection before the react. But a horse is always a 5th dan black belt horse and will always act like one irrespective of your level of horsemanship.
They did both get the tasks completed and in the process gained an insight into the horsemanship world. David in particular really enjoyed it. He send it made him feel all tingly when he got it right.
After lunch it was their turn to show aikido to Vicky and Josh. They started with a demo of bokken (wooden sword) work to demonstrate contact in a very amplified way. In aikido we use the bokken in forms similar to the non-weapon work to be able to really see the movement.
From that they moved onto non-weapon work with the three of us. I could see that Vicky was a little sceptical at first as I suspect she thought it all looked very choreographed. Then she had some very gentle techniques applied to her :) Very soon both her and Josh began to see the parallels as the subtlest movement by Tony or David effected their balance, or made them follow a feel in a certain direction. The 45 minute session turned into 90 minutes as more and more ideas flowed and everyone became more engaged.
So passed a fascinating day. It was great to see what happens when expert proponents of two seemingly very different activities come together and find common ground from which both sides could take lessons. By the time we left Vicky was talking about having them down to JRFS again in the future to do a session at a weekend clinic with visiting riders. I really hope this can be made to happen sometime when the weather has warmed up a bit. It would be great to see how far we can take this marriage of aikido and horsemanship in the future.
It was Mark Rashid who introduced me to the idea, first through his book then during a clinic I watched where I had a chance to chat with him personally. After that I joined a local DoJo and got really really lucky. Both of the main instructors at the DoJo were interested in my reason for joining and did some research of their own to help me.
It then turned out that I had joined the only club in the UK which really concentrates on the internal form of aikido where the focus and intention are emphasised rather than just the mechanical movement of the technique. There are other clubs which do this but apparently none with emphasis of the one I attend.
After a year at the club I really began to see the benefits to my horsemanship, especially with soft feel, focus and intention. So the last time I was at JRFS I suggested that I invite my instructors down there for a "trial" day. Today it happened.
We started with Josh giving a great demo on his Mocho whilst he commented on the meaning of "follow a feel" to horsemen. He played in all four savvies including bridleless which really emphasised the power of focus. The instructors, Tony and David, seemed pretty impressed by all this and there was much nodding of heads in understanding and agreement at what Josh was showing and explaining. This was pretty remarkable in itself as neither Tony nor David have much experience with horses, limited to the odd ride on holiday I believe. For them to understand what many would describe as
advanced topics in horsemanship so readily showed how close the ideas in each discipline actually are.
Once Josh was finished it was their turn to have a little play with Mocho. We stuck to the real basics of hind quarter yield using intention, lower the head with porcupine and back up using porcupine off the halter. They then found that actually it was quite difficult !
The difference between a horse and human is that horses never lie. If they did not ask quite right they did not get the response. I know for a fact that when I am training in aikido at my low level my opponent will react correctly even if I don't get it quite right. This lets me practise and improve as they ask for more and more perfection before the react. But a horse is always a 5th dan black belt horse and will always act like one irrespective of your level of horsemanship.
They did both get the tasks completed and in the process gained an insight into the horsemanship world. David in particular really enjoyed it. He send it made him feel all tingly when he got it right.
After lunch it was their turn to show aikido to Vicky and Josh. They started with a demo of bokken (wooden sword) work to demonstrate contact in a very amplified way. In aikido we use the bokken in forms similar to the non-weapon work to be able to really see the movement.
From that they moved onto non-weapon work with the three of us. I could see that Vicky was a little sceptical at first as I suspect she thought it all looked very choreographed. Then she had some very gentle techniques applied to her :) Very soon both her and Josh began to see the parallels as the subtlest movement by Tony or David effected their balance, or made them follow a feel in a certain direction. The 45 minute session turned into 90 minutes as more and more ideas flowed and everyone became more engaged.
So passed a fascinating day. It was great to see what happens when expert proponents of two seemingly very different activities come together and find common ground from which both sides could take lessons. By the time we left Vicky was talking about having them down to JRFS again in the future to do a session at a weekend clinic with visiting riders. I really hope this can be made to happen sometime when the weather has warmed up a bit. It would be great to see how far we can take this marriage of aikido and horsemanship in the future.
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