MAY 2006 • VOLUME 9 • ©HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

his month in our "IN PRACTICE" series, we share an exercise on breathing from a horsewoman whose passion is jumping, but who also believes that dressage prepares the base for any rider and for any and all horse activities.

So how can breathing effect our seat?

There are different breathing techniques - in that the focus of our breathing can be in different areas, from the top of our chest to the bottom of our belly - or "belly breathing." Each can create different realities in our bodies and hence can perhaps enhance different abilities and different releases in our own bodies.

For example, when we focus on our breathing down to the bottom of our bellies and think about our pelvic floor all the time, we can almost feel how our breathing reaches down right into our pelvic floor. 

Here is one breathing technique ~ From Cathy Burrell.

"Ok, let's see if I can explain the breathing technique. I don't know who invented it, but I learned it from my riding instructor in about 1972. Yes, I am that old <lol>. I expect that it might be Pilates based, because when I took a Pilates course last year, I recognized the basic breathing technique.

"Anyway, what happens is if you take a deep breath and it goes all the way down to the bottom, and you are doing what is called by some a "deep abdominal breath," you can no longer control your core muscles as finely. Most people that do a deep breath into the abdominals usually don't expand the rib cage very much.

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