Balance

[Cinch]

If you read very many discussions about balance, there are as many explanations as there are people doing the discussing. I've heard some of the better horsemen talk about the balance between the left side & the right side of the horse, mostly stating that they want both sides equal in ability. Most people when discussing balance go on & on about the rider's balance on the horse or the horse's ability to balance with the rider. But I never thot that was the kind of balance he was talking about when he mentioned feeling, timing & balance.

I never had the words to explain it, but here are Tom's exact words in the DVD "Feel, Timing & Balance": "It takes a little practice to get the feel and timing and the balance and the results of the... The better the feel, the better chances of the timing being right on or close. And the results of the feel and the timing makes it how it comes out… makes the difference in the balance. The balance is the results of the other two." This clarified a few things for me & hopefully for some others.

[KpH]

something has to be going on, the horse has to have something to 'feel', with that feel , some static, or friction or motion comes into play. Add the correct timing, (or even not so correct timing), giving a 'feel' back , results in balance.
A balance of give and take, feel and feel back.
I think that is the bare bones of feel timing and balance. Those bare bones can be taken into any aspect of horsemanship, be it riding, leading, or just standing there trying to see if you can get your horse to move forward with the hind foot first.
(i spent hours watching Tom do that with horses).
Cool post Cinch...
karen

[Cinch]

That being aware of if a horse is initiating a move from a standstill with his hind foot first is a very important thing to be aware of. Horses don't do this unless they are soft & relaxed & there is some balance between your timing & feel.

[WashoeKat]

Reata on Kats puter.....
Feel, timing and balance, three little words with such BIG meanings and WOW! they sure do change !!! The more you know about feel the more meaning that word has, and the more you know about timing the more meaning that word has, and that balance word has changed somewhat for me over the years. I know a lot of people took it to mean the balance of the rider or the horse and I thought about that but never really felt it could be that simple..The balance, getting each side of the horse equal.. yeah that could be it.. but I wasn't convinced. The balance between the timing and the feel.. Yep, thats what it means to me ..and more too..The balance between the feel and the timing and how the horse feels about it too..that nice place when you and the horse feel for each other, that balance word comes in there too..
LOL I wonder if in a year or twos time time I won't have some other meaning for those little words??
Great topic Cinchy!!

[FrancaV]

That being aware of if a horse is initiating a move from a standstill with his hind foot first is a very important thing to be aware of. Horses don't do this unless they are soft & relaxed & there is some balance between your timing & feel.Yes, we covered this some at the most recent Peter Campbell clinic. One of the riders there is an excellent hand; she restarted a horse last year who had had some serious bad handling before she acquired him. He has come along amazingly well in the past 8 months or so but is still having some issues. Peter was helping her to figure out how to help him "leave early behind" at the walk - apparently more difficult for horses to do than when going from halt to trot - and the horse was having a tough time with it.

[Mares Tales]

This is a neat topic because it seems as though there are so many differing ideas from people of what Tom meant when he said "balance". Lots to think about. I might be way off here or like Reata said, I wonder if in a year or two I might have a DIFFERENT or DEEPER idea of what Tom meant but thats ok because it means I have thought a lot about it.

I used to think of the "balance" part of "feel, timing and balance" as being something with the body and it is, but it`s not nearly the whole deal, in fact, his ability to balance his body is a symptom of what`s going on in the horses mind....such as; if a horse is sure within himself then he is less likely to have braces, and then "his body" is going to be more balanced when asked to do something. I now put much more emphasis on the "mind" part. "From the feet, THROUGH THE BODY, to the mind". Braced or fluid movement, (depending on the horses confidence) goes... "From the mind, through the body, to the feet." I think of this as a circle of life energy, how well it flows depends on how at ease the horse feels about himself, his handler/rider.
__________________________________________________ ___
From the FEET
through the BODY

to the MIND
back through the BODY

to the FEET
on up through the BODY

to the MIND
back down through the BODY

to the FEET and on and on.
__________________________________________________ _____

A brace shows up in a horses mind first, then through the body as crookedness, not being forward, onesidedness etc. which includes how he is able to use his feet.

How to change a horses mind is through the feet.

For example, if a horse isn`t braced against the riders hand, then when the rider asks for an up or down transition, the movement is going to be less on the forehand; smoother, more collected and thus "more balanced".

Another example might be when a rider asks his horse to do a circle and the horse protects himself on that side by stiffening his jaw, poll and ribcage and does not bend as nicely or he slows down because he can`t bring his hindleg under as well as he could. The circle then does not end up round, smooth, forward and "balanced".

So, to throw a stick in the spoke, I`m going to have to say that balance begins in the mind of the horse..... because suredness and the way to help a horse be more balanced and feeling ok is to be proper and aware of your feel and timing. If one can get those first two going for them, the horse will feel more confident in himself and his person and let go of those things (braces and reactive tendancies)) that might be getting in the way of him being fluid in his movements. In other words, in order for a horse to be balanced physically, he has to be balanced mentally and to help him be balanced mentally it would help if we had the proper feel and timing to convince him that "we know"

...... and we do that by getting to his feet, so as to get his mind, so as to get all the way down to his feet, because the way to his mind is through his feet. All this takes timing.....timing to stay in time with the horses feet, timing with our releases. Of course what encompasses all is how you FEEL for your horse, reaching something inside of him, from inside of you........we can`t really seperate any of those words from the others, they are all connected (which makes this so darn difficult to write about) .....feel, timing and the result, but also part of the whole........: "BALANCE".

FROM THE FEET, through the body, TO THE MIND, through the body, TO THE FEET, though the body.........the circle continues.

A glitch in the circle of energy means there is likely going to be a problem with the fluidity and balance in the horses movement. We see the problems in the part where it`s obvious...in the body of the horse through his actions, but, where the problems and the lack of balance really started was in his mind, with a thought, a perception of his safety. (which to most people isn`t all that obvious).

[reata]

LOLOLOLOL Mares the Thread killer !!! LOLOLOL
Love ya girl!!! LOL :-)

[Bill I.]

Having read what Cinch and Mares Tails wrote, they say about the same thing except MT used a lot more words which is fine. I'll have to look into this starting with the back foot, should be fun. Bill I