photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash
Stories & Inspiration
Aristotle was wrong…
“Aristotle was wrong…” That’s how Scott McCredie begins the Prologue of his highly interesting book: Balance – In Search Of The Lost Sense
Balance is such an underestimated sense – and we need it so badly in everyday life, and even more in riding horses. McCredie describes why balance is so important, and how we lose this sense when we are ageing – unless we do something about it. And you can do something about it!
But back to Scott McCredie:
“Aristotle was wrong. Often credited as the first to catalog the human body’s primary senses, he neglected to mention one of our most important: the sense of balance, that intricate orchestration of nerve impulses that allows us to dance with gravity. His oversight, however, is understandable. While it’s easy to detect the role of the eyes, nose, skin, tongue, and ears, the receptors of balance are hidden from view and don’t easily give up their secrets. Because the equilibrium sense is mostly autonomic, working below the level of consciousness, like breathing or the beating of a heart, the great philosopher apparently was unable to sense its subtle operation.
….
But among those who have studied the balance sense in depth—specialists in scientific research, physical therapy, and clinical medicine—many would argue that without it we might not have much use for the other senses. Not only is the primary balance organ, called the vestibular apparatus, older than most of the other sense organs on an evolutionary scale—an indication of its importance to the survival of our primordial ancestors—but balance is as vital to our existence today as it ever was. Without balance, many of the things we take for granted would be impossible. We could not stand on two legs, never mind walk or run. We couldn’t see images in sharp detail as we move, or navigate without visual landmarks, or perhaps even think clearly.
…
One thing I learned is that balance, like all the other senses, begins to degrade after you reach your thirties—unless the process is forestalled by techniques I’ll talk about later.”*
Do you want to learn techniques to forestall the process? Let me show you a set of extremely easy to do exercises that will instantly improve your balance OFF the horse for better balance ON the horse. The techniques you are going to learn from me are based on my Neuro-Rider training, which will help you get your brain on board to improve balance and movement. 🙂
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