I got home from yoga last night feeling life in my hips. We spent the entire session — almost two hours — on pelvic exercises, and as I drove home, I danced in my seat to the music on the radio.
This is only my second yoga session since I broke my back in June, and it was interesting to observe where I am. I no longer have the rotational flexibility I had before, but I am happy to feel spirit where there was static.
It made me think about how easy it is for us to get stuck, in our bodies and in our minds, and how easy it is for our horses to get stuck in the same places.
So if we want our horse’s backs to swing, we have to let our bodies swing a little, too. Or “shwung.”
“Schwung” was so important to Reiner Klimke that it forms the title of the ninth chapter in his book, “Basic Training of the Young Horse“: Working Towards the Development of “Schwung.” If you want to see what a horse with “schwung” looks like in action, watch the horses in Klimke’s video of the same name.
Whether you do yoga or zumba, the horizontal mambo, the hula hoop, or just dance in the middle of your kitchen floor or even down the barn aisle, bring some “schwung” into your own hips and watch your horse get some “schwung” of his own.
Reflections on Riding 
Reiner Klimke another amazing horseman. Men like him, Steinkraus, and jimmy Williams just aren’t coming up in the next generation. I worry is it soon to be a lost art.
When I visit the race tracks now I see the same loss. The greats are almost all gone, whittingham, shoemaker,woody Stephens, jack van berg, Johnny Clements. Cutting world same the bobby ingersalls. Arabian worlds, Bruce Howard. More than any breed the Saddlebreds & great walking horses, wonderful horsemen/ women Helen Crabtree, Harry Smith. It has been so many years since I’ve had the pleasure of watching the junior division perfectly outfitted , with the ability to drop and pick up four reins and correctly mount.
America’s finest art seems to be disappearing, maybe I don’t hang in the right circles any more.
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Hi Debra — I’m afraid that the love of money is taking precedence over the love of the horse, the mastery of horsemanship and the desire to achieve excellence in the sport. There are still some of the old timers around, and when you talk with them, you’ll find out that you’re on the same page. Some of them are still out there teaching the art and tradition — Buddy Brown and Joe Fargis and Anne Kursinski come to mind, as well as Colonel Carde — but it’s often the basics, even for some of today’s “advanced” riders, which is a shame. All you can do is try to make a difference with every horse and rider you have a chance to work with.
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