Haptotherapy & Equestrian Sports
Co-authored By: Bob Boot, Roel Klaassen (NED) & McKrell Baier (USA)
Riders are not thinking machines that feel, but feeling machines that think.
The aim of this article is to describe the collaboration between riding instructors and haptotherapists to help competition riders perform at their full potential. Training and coaching of riders is a matter of technique, skill and physical ability- but emotional, social and psychological aspects play a significant role as well. Personal development as a whole, is of major importance at every level of performance. Haptotherapy is a form of therapeutic guidance which stimulates personal growth, emphasizing the development of the individual’s natural ability to feel. Appreciation and development of the ability to feel, and to connect feelings to reasoning and behavior benefits personal growth in general, and growth as a rider in any discipline.
“When I knew I had the skills to win, but my body forgot how to perform under pressure… when I realized I needed help from outside myself to improve my performance, that’s when I found HAPTONOMY. It changed my riding & it changed my life.”
-Albert Voorn (Dutch show jumper and winner of Olympic individual silver medal in the 2000 Sydney Games)
Introduction
In March 2017, the Dutch haptotherapists, Roel Klaassen and Bob Boot, visited the USA by invitation from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri and Southern Blues Equestrian Center in Collierville, Tennessee. In both locations, clinics were conducted consisting of riding instruction, a plenary seminar with presentation, and individual haptotherapy sessions.
Students of Stephens College graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Equestrian Studies, specializing in either Business Management, Equestrian Education or Equine Science. Southern Blues Equestrian Center in Collierville, TN provides professional training and education for horse and rider. They believe that riding is more than instruction in technique and skills alone; it is about the person as a whole, his total personality and development- led by the unique partnership between human and horse.
Teaching riding is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to developing true horsemen. Southern Blues Equestrian Center believes great riding develops out of great horsemanship and our number one goal is to produce a thoughtful, educated horseman from every student that enters our program.’
It is exactly that point of view- personal development as a human and as a rider- that resulted in a collaboration between these riding instructors and haptotherapists. This article describes the collaboration during the March 2017 clinics and the observed results. It starts with a brief overview of the theory of haptotherapy and continues to the actual content of the clinics and the results as were noted by instructors, haptotherapists, and individual subjects.
Riding instructors, responsible foremost for their students’ safety and also for their effectiveness in communicating with the horse, are often faced with the task of somehow eliminating riders’ fear, anger, or sadness, and the resulting tensions in the body. What Haptonomy explains is that emotions are not under anyone’s control- they are physiological processes that stem from the most primitive part of the brain. Emotions happen to a rider as to any other human, and for a riding instructor to be able to control what the individual himself cannot, is impossible.
“Reaching out to haptotherapists that specialize in unlocking a human’s ability to feel, recognize, and deal with his emotions can potentially assist us as instructors, our riders, and ultimately, the horses.”
-McKrell Baier, professional rider, trainer and riding instructor, Collierville, TN
Haptotherapy
The aim of haptotherapy is to explore the individual’s natural ability to feel and to. explore the use of these feelings in life and in personal growth. The haptotherapist helps the subject to develop himself towards the person he potentially can be. Every human being is born with a personal constellation of DNA and is formed by the genes given by his parents. Those genes and DNA determine the abilities, qualities, possibilities and impossibilities or restrictions of each specific person. Under the right circumstances, these potential abilities can develop and grow, but obstacles for growth, life events or traumas, can occur throughout life. In haptotherapy these obstacles are addressed, recognized and processed. This process results in the possibility for the subject to develop to his full potential. As well, over-emphasis on rationality, common in our Western world, can also hinder psycho emotional development. Personal growth requires the development of an individual’s ability to feel.
A haptotherapist’s affirmative, affective human contact and touch confronts the subject with his body and his bodily signs. This renewed connection to the body provides the subject with his possibilities to feel. Emotions and feelings that become conscious in this way can be recognized, processed and discussed. This process provides the possibility to understand feelings in a realistic way and self-awareness and consciousness will grow. The possibility to make the right choices and decisions in life will increase, as will the. feeling of “basic trust” in oneself, essential for a joyful life. Such personal developments allow an individual to stay true to himself under various circumstances.
Haptotherapy guides individuals to grow as authentic, autonomous and responsible people, leading to physical and mental flexibility and the ability to react in a personal and elastic way to what life demands.
Websites for more infirmation:
www.haptotherapie-topprestaties.nl www.haptotherapy.com
The Clinics
What is it all about?
To provide an adequate view on the collaboration between riding instructors and haptotherapists, the content of the clinics will be described in detail in the following paragraphs:
Each clinic consisted of a series of riding sessions over three days, (including a final test performance), a plenary seminar with presentation on haptonomy and haptotherapy for the entire group of participants, and two individual Haptotherapy sessions for each participant. A total of 22 subjects at Stephens & 24 subjects at SBEC participated.
The first clinic took place March 5–7, 2017 at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, USA. Participants were collegiate level students in Equestrian Studies as well as local amateur riders. Age range of participants ranged from 18–55 and level of riding ranged from novice to intermediate. Daily riding lessons were provided by McKrell and Christian Baier, professional riding instructors from Southern Blues Equestrian Center. All participants performed in a final show jumping competition course or dressage test on the last day of the clinic.
The theory of haptonomy as a philosophy, and haptotherapy as its therapeutical application, were presented in a seminar to all participants as a group on the first evening of the three day clinic. During these three days, all participants visited a haptotherapist twice. These sessions emphasized body awareness, mind-body connection, true consciousness and the obstacles limiting personal growth on a psycho-emotional level. Specifically, the haptotherapists examined the subject’s natural ability to open or to close himself to inner feelings (fighting them or accepting them), his ability to open and close to influences from outside himself, and the consequences of those inner movements in regards to physical and mental flexibility.
The second clinic was given March 9–12, 2017 at the Southern Blues Equestrian Center in Collierville, Tennessee. Again, riding instruction, a plenary seminar and presentation, and individual haptotherapy sessions were conducted. In this clinic, riders were both existing students of SBEC and also riders coming from other local stables and from several other states in the USA. Participants’ ages ranged from 14–63 years old and riding experience ranged from novice to professional.
What was the content of the clinics?
During both clinics, riders were active in and around the stable, receiving instruction and having individual conversations with other participants and their instructors about current progress, future development and the ideals involved in riding horses as an art and not solely an athletic pursuit.
The riding portion of the clinics was aimed at improving riders’ confidence, hence the title “Confidence in Riding Clinics.” The first day of the training focused intensively on the riders’ position and awareness of tension in the body that disrupts communication between horse and rider. The second day continued the work of helping riders find their comfortable position on the horses and added more complexity in both dressage and jumping exercises as riders demonstrated the ability to handle themselves and their horses with calmness through understanding how the horse and rider must function as a partnership. The third and final day, riders were tested under circumstances simulating a competition and were required to perform either a dressage test from memory or a full show jumping course. Scores were given and winners were determined in the friendly competition. The purpose of the third day was to test the riders’ progress under the stress of competition circumstances.
The individual haptotherapy sessions for each participant were provided by well trained and experienced Dutch haptotherapists. A session typically consisted first of a therapeutical conversation and secondly “working on the treatment table,” which entails the subject lying on the treatment table in order to experience the affirmative contact and touch from the therapist. This touch provides a safe climate to develop the necessary trusting relationship between subject and haptotherapist. Affirmative touch allows the client to feel that he can be who he really is, and is allowed to feel what he feels, but this therapeutical contact will also confront the client with his body and his bodily feelings as well. The aim of these sessions was to develop the subject’s ability to be aware of his patterns of dealing with feelings and emotions and awareness of the ability to use the body as a personal compass in life. Obstacles that hinder the possibility to grow were recognized, addressed and processed. This development provides self-awareness, true consciousness and self-confidence. Personal development as a human, as a whole, and the development of basic trust is the desired result of the haptotherapeutical sessions.
The results of the clinics
All participants experienced personal development as a rider and as an individual as a result of the clinics. Individual haptotherapy sessions resulted in:
Personal development in general: psycho emotional growth
Group processes: intensification in personal connections and group dynamics, openness towards each other
Coach-ability: (the way the rider reacts to influences from trainers and coaches) decreased frustration, improved concentration
Advances in riding: improved communication between horse and rider, improvement of riders’ position and flexibility, and increased enjoyment in riding
Personal development
Before, I could somewhat say I had emotions and feelings, but I now know how to open up and actually reach inside to FEEL and BE AWARE of them. The picture I had in my head all along was how it was supposed to be. It’s much more simple without having your mind and the world around you taking over. I realized that there’s no need to be afraid of life because it’s your life to live, and you can only get the full benefit through feeling every little thing and analyzing each situation.
-T. H., junior show jumper, Collierville, TN
Haptotherapy generally provides the possibility to get in touch with your natural ability to feel and the potential you are born with. The riders realized that they were able to connect (again) to their feelings and emotions where these had became disconnected. A major and basic result, mentioned by the participants, was increased body awareness. Body awareness implies the connection with the body as an instrument to feel. Riders became aware when and where they block their feelings or when and where they withdraw from feelings and emotions. All participants mentioned that they learned to accept feelings instead of fighting them. The riders realized that their body provides signs and signals as an inner compass. They learned to listen to their bodily feelings without judging, and to appreciate and validate them in the right way. They became more and more sensitive to listening to themselves, their possibilities and impossibilities. Riders learned to trust what they feel in order to be honest and true to themselves. The better you feel, and the better you can connect feelings to reasoning, the better you know who you are, what your patterns are, and the better you are able to make the right choices in life. Feelings that were stuck were released. Released feelings and emotions were addressed, recognized, and processed and therefore did not hinder the subject anymore in daily life and functioning. Newly recognized feelings could be integrated by the subjects, resulting in an increase in self-awareness, and eventually, through continued practice in haptonomy, basic trust, authenticity, and autonomy.
The riding instructors noticed that increased self-awareness, consciousness and basic trust resulted immediately in an increased frustration tolerance. Participants handled disappointments, mistakes and criticism in a more adequate way. This benefit will be discussed later in detail.
Group processes
… I noticed the clinic was an amazing opportunity for our friendship connections with everyone in the barn. I feel like our therapy sessions helped us all open up and be closer as a barn family.’
-C.K., female rider from Columbia
It was striking that all participants felt more open not only towards their inner world, their feelings, but also more open towards the surrounding world and the people therein, their colleague riders, the staff of the stable, and the coaches as well. An increased need and desire to share things with each other was noticeably felt, and participants trusted each other in that openly vulnerable state. More openness resulted in a safer environment in which personal connections were established and deepened. These connections were experienced as supportive, and resulted in strong feelings of basic trust and the belief in further possibilities as well.
Coachability
The most notable change in the riders, resulting from the collaboration between the riding instructors and haptotherapists, was the increase in patience of every student. Riding instruction requires repetition and also calmness even during mistakes in the training, due to the partnership between the rider and the animal (which relies completely on its rider for direction from the simplest to the most complex of tasks). Both riders and instructors felt less pressure to make things happen within a certain time frame, taking the time and feeling safe to recognize and face the details of riding and instruction that we often feel compelled to rush through. Every rider was able to feel pleasure in his accomplishment over the three day course. There was no disappointment, only pleasure in the progress, no matter how small or significant.
As a lifelong driven over-achiever, the realization that whatever I was able to achieve on each day of my riding was enough gave me permission to just do the best I could on any given day…The day after my first session I had one of the best rides I can remember. I was able to allow myself to simply experience the sheer joy that riding brings to my life.
-J.S., adult amateur dressage rider, Jackson, MS
Advances in Riding
What is evident in equestrianism is that it is absolutely unique in the world of sporting. The only possibility for communication between horse and rider is through touch. This is not a communication that can be falsified. The horse is by nature so sensitive that he feels a fly landing anywhere on his body. It is therefore necessary for a successful two-way communication between horse and rider, that the horse is relaxed beneath his rider and attentive to his fine aids. To feel and react to the horse beneath him, a rider must sit so that he does not physically disturb his horse and with minimal tension so that the rider’s body has the capacity to receive information from his horse. Tight muscles and rigidity in the rider limit this feeling. The calmness and precision that all riders demonstrated after their haptotherapy sessions in conjunction with three days of intensive riding instruction was, across the entire group of 46 participants, immensely improved.
I felt so proud of so many moments in my round on the final day, which rarely happens because I’m too hard on myself… it was a life-changing weekend for me in a lot of ways.”
-L.M., adult amateur jumping rider, Collierville, TN
Conclusion
From the 46 participants observed during the week long period in March 2017, Haptotherapy would appear to be a very useful practice for equestrians interested in improving their performances. Certainly, becoming a completely autonomous and self-trusting individual requires more practice in haptonomy, self-reflection, and personal growth than just the two Haptotherapy sessions could provide to participants in these first trials of the Confidence in Riding Clinics. However, across the various spectra of age, riding experience and riding goals, each of the 46 participants demonstrated increased openness toward coaching, increased patience in the training, increased calmness in decision making, and increased precision in performance over a three day period. The positive effect of these clinics is evident in many of the participants even six weeks later and will hopefully continue to help them improve in their riding and in their personal development.
This collaboration, between the two professions of riding instruction and Haptotherapy, has made it evident that the need for further study is indeed necessary to collect empirical quantitative and qualitative data for determining the actual effect of Haptotherapy for riders in training and competition. Having access to a therapy for riders that allows them to be simultaneously calm and alert, better pilots and partners for their horses, could be a huge step forward for the sport and for the art of riding.
