Riding from the Core

After a few years of working every day on building my strength and confidence, I am beginning a new journey. Every day I start out with yoga stretches and some core strengthening exercises. Some days are very hard to stay motivated but I remind myself that every day is a new day to be better than the day before. So for over a year now I have added one more rep to one of the moves or lengthened the time in holding the position.

Some started out with two reps and less than a count of 5 seconds. Now I am at 20 plus in my reps and holding positions for up to 60 seconds or a few are longer. As I start to shake, I am reminded that this is building my strength and improving my confidence. I finally am reaching the point where I am motivated to keep going to see how far I can go. I feel energized and a calm that is building inside. How does this relate to riding from the core you ask? Well, I am able to relax and have the strength to really sit in the saddle, feel the horses energy and ride from the hips and core not my head and shoulders. Transferring my energy has been a long process for me as I work in computers a great deal now, which is using the head and shoulders. Learning ways to open the muscles to allow them to breathe and do their work have given me a power from with in that I feel more centered and strong than ever before. The journey continues.