March 2026
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Wexford Training Newsletter
Finding Balance from the Inside Out
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Dear Friends,
This month I added my first rough draft segment for the new book, Accidental Therapy: The Side Effect of Loving Horses. The normal lesson under “Thoughts to Ponder” remains the same, the updates on business and the clinic schedule also remain the same. The new segment I am adding, just for you as a newsletter subscriber, is at the very bottom of the newsletter just in case you want to scroll down. I hope you enjoy all of it.
Kirsten
kirsten.wexford@gmail.com
P.S.
As a subscriber, please feel free to share this or any of my newsletters with other horse lovers! If you have not signed up yet, just click the link to get on the mailing list: https://kirstennelsen.com/#newsletter
"The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
- Thomas Edison
Basic Balance, Continued...
Developing Basic Balance provides athletic advantages and feels amazing because it is a physically balanced coordination of the body. The feeling of balance is really the reason I love to ride. Balance is the feeling of controlled power and agility, even if we just want to mosey around an arena or trail ride. Developing Basic Balance means we and horses have to become aware of, then overcome dysfunctional habits of coordination more than anything else.
The main reason I teach Basic Balance is because it is the minimum requirement for sustainable, healthy use of the body. Poor coordination can be the root cause of behavior issues, performance challenges, and breakdowns that lead to pain or safety issues. While developing a more balanced coordination those problems tend to fall away without extra effort.
Basic Balance is a consciously learned skill for all bodies. We are not born knowing how to best use our own bodies or ride a horse. We figure out how to function as we go, but may have no idea if we or our horse are functioning in the best use of our mechanical bodies or in a way that is causing stress. Our balance is challenged as soon as we are in the saddle or cart and we have to learn how to navigate more force than what we cope with on the ground. As soon as a horse carries a rider or driver, the challenge to their balance begins. Adding mass and weight to a horse can be extremely beneficial or just as detrimental, but it is never neutral.
Observing spontaneous changes in posture and refining our awareness of what motion feels like are the two ways we can easily navigate complex changes in coordination and develop the coordination of Basic Balance. These are the easy, practical ways to develop a very complex use of the body.
Bio-mechanics is complicated. Trying to organize a mechanical body into balance by adjusting body parts, influencing leg placement or leveraging postural changes always fails to achieve balance because bodies are just too complex. When these tactics are applied, to us as riders or to horses, the body itself finds more subtle ways to compensate. In other words, manual manipulation of the body most often results in more complicated dysfunction instead of balance.
This is why the invisible is more important than the visible. This is why understanding the physics related to balance is more practical than understanding the bio-mechanics. The thought of trying to understand physics or bio-mechanics sounds daunting, but both are very normal and ordinary parts of riding horses, whether we are aware of them or not.
When we encourage our horse to curve the spine on a circular path, when we move the ribcage, bend the neck or use ground poles to flex the leg joints we are monkeying with bio-mechanics. When we try to drive our horse energetically forward into bit resistance in order to lift the back, we are trying to simplify a mechanical coordination that is just not that simple.
When we describe horses as lazy with little desire to go forward, or hot with little desire to slow down we are feeling the physics that result from a mechanical coordination. We describe horses as big movers, choppy, stiff, wiggly, smooth and easy to ride or bumpy with jarring gaits. Again, we are already aware of the physics related to balance.
Perceiving invisible forces is something we already do. We can’t help but notice changes in temperature, humidity, wind speed or sounds. The invisible force of gravity directly affects everything we do. When we tune into the forces of motion that are generated by our horse, instead of the body parts, then we can channel invisible forces into equilibrium and allow room for the complex body to adapt organically into mechanical balance.
Every single invisible change in coordination that happens internally always generates an invisible force of motion that we can perceive externally. Forces of motion always have a direction and magnitude, or amount. What we see regarding spontaneous changes in posture and feel during motion both reflect a complex chain of events that already happened internally, in us or in our horse.
Forces of motion are what we feel change moment to moment. I like to think of a horse’s movement like a river that begins behind the saddle and flows forward out through the neck and head. The rate of flow, direction, current and waves all provide information about the horse’s internal coordination, how balanced or unbalanced a horse is right now.
What we do with these forces of motion is channel them, just like a river. We can soften the waves, resist dissipation and channel all the forces into stable, equal lines of force through the midline of the body. Organizing all the chaotic forces into stable lines of force that flow in three specific directions is how we guide our body and a horse’s body into a three dimensional balance without having to monkey with the mechanics.
My balance as a rider means I have to adjust in order to remain stable. I have to ride the current and navigate the waves no matter how the river flows, like a good kayaker or paddle boarder. If I don’t feel ready to shoot the rapids, then I might opt for a bit more groundwork that can help a horse reduce the force of the river before I ride.
Dysfunctional coordinations always generate forces of motion that feel like a natural river, raging or trickling. A balanced coordination always generates forces of motion that feel like a man-made lazy river, with a steady rate of flow, gentle currents and almost no waves. The invisible forces tell us whether the mechanical body is compensating dysfunctionally, starting to find better use or is finally coming into balance, being used according to the design.
As the forces of motion begin organizing into stable lines that flow in specific directions, the mechanical coordination is also changing. An accumulation of changes internally finally result in a spontaneous change of posture, that we can see from the outside. Shifting between postures simply means that the changes of coordination have not yet stabilized. A new posture that is sustained will alter muscle development, improving both strength and appearance over time once better posture is stable.
Working with the forces of motion instead of trying to manipulate body parts, allows each unique body to find its own best use through thoughtful exploration. Managing forces of motion perfectly does not require a perfect body. Each unique body can improve use and find balance despite old injuries, poor conformation or other mechanical issues when there is room to explore.
By focusing only on the forces of motion, the invisible that we feel, we indirectly guide better mechanical coordination, with spontaneous changes in posture and ease of motion developing along the way. Better mechanical use for each unique body happens with the least amount of stress, resistance or effort along the way.
I am finally getting organized on a new platform where everything I offer - both free and paid stuff - is all together in one place. This new platform is also where my upcoming online courses will be hosted and they are starting to come together!
Please have a look around my new MemberVault page and let me know what you think. Eventually this landing page will be mostly replacing my website store. Right now it is still under construction to some degree but you may find it easier to navigate than my website. From this page you can link to all of my free stuff on various social media platforms and sign up for any of the educational materials that I offer.
https://kirstenwexfordtraining.mvsite.app/
To join a scheduled clinic, please contact the coordinator directly. To book a clinic, please contact me directly at kirsten.wexford@gmail.com
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Lake Wales, Florida
March 28-29
May 2-3
Coordinator: Nancy 863-528-2570
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Baltimore, Maryland
April 11-12
June 20-21
August 15-16
October 17-18
Coordinator: Ginny 443-250-8017 or hqueen13@gmail.com
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