A Talk with Angela Collis

Angela Collis is a trainer of Dressage for many years and practices yoga as well. What is Dressage? It describes the training of the horse to become better balanced through certain exercises. "We try to bring the horse's center of balance off the forehand toward the backend, where they achieve a powerful, pushing way of moving. This allows more freedom in the forehand of a horse, making it much easier to support the weight of the rider", said Angela.

If you equate that with humans it's the difference between someone moving slouched over, leading with the weight of the head, versus standing up tall, open, pushing forward with movement from the pelvis and legs.

We try and achieve lightness and balance in horses, as well as in people, through Yoga. By using lateral bends, we open ourselves and take control over the way we move. Whether in animals or humans, and open back and heart is the first step to staying healthy and happy.

It's been a very interesting 5 year journey into yoga that's shown me how to use my own body strength, but always with inner softness, to take that same journey when training with a horse to help him be soft, open and flexible. I want the horse to work within its natural boundaries physically, but paradoxically using softness to find that inner strength to push that bit further and bring out its true talent without force or tension.

My dream is to have a training center combining dressage schoolmasters to show people how it should feel, and a yoga space to show riders how it can help them to ride in harmony with their horse -- I think I need to win the lottery first!