I was listening to a podcast about Yoga this week, and the Yogi in question talked about how Yoga isn’t necessarily about Yoga, it’s about allowing and controlling movement through your body. It’s about connecting with how it feels, focusing your brain and fully immersing in the practice. And then being able to carry that flow state throughout your daily life. Flow State is when you effortlessly focus on what you’re doing, sort of like meditating with movement.

This can be said of other forms of movement too. Any high level athlete of any sport will tell you that in the moment they are fully immersed in their body in tune with it’s movement and how it feels. This then transfers to other areas of life or indeed other sports.

This is why I think different forms of exercise can be beneficial to your riding.

Taking part in exercise that encourages you to become fully immersed in your body whether that is Yoga, Dance, Weight lifting, Boxing or whatever else you fancy will help you to become more aware of your body in general. Being able to do this without the extra distraction of the horse with you allows you to fully immerse and find your flow state.

Once you’ve got a little more mastery of your body, you’ll be able to transfer that awareness and control to your riding and maybe all the stars will align and you’ll find your flow state there too. When you do it's Magic!