"If we communicate with all the sensitivity we are capable of, then the horse will understand."
- Nuno Oliveira

You know it´s impossible to achieve great riding success with a horse that´s stiff, crooked, weak and unbalanced, but have you ever stopped to think that a horse has just as difficult a time achieving great success with a rider who´s stiff, crooked, weak and unbalanced?

A good "seat" is the basis of horsemanship. The rider, by getting a good "seat", aims to interfere with the horse’s movement as little as possible.

The principles of the Alexander Technique are fundamentally the same as those of classical equitation. Both focus on achieving integrated and supple movement, without the use of force, through the delicate exploration of balance. Through the study of the Alexander Technique, a rider can increase his kinesthetic awareness of lightness and understand how to quiet his nervous system in order to meet the sensitivity of the horse's. Riding can become a dialogue about balance and mobility and the delicate play between these two things.

Posture, as defined in the Alexander Technique, is not about holding one's body in a specific shape. Rather, it is about balance, which, by its nature, is ever-fluctuating.

To attain balance, a person needs to be taught to "release superfluous muscular tension and return to a resting state in which the muscles are lengthening"

The task of the rider is to become aware of how his or her own actions cause reactions in the horse. The rider needs to discover a neutral place where she or he is not interfering with or disrupting the horse's balance. This is what a good seat is. If you act with the right hand and you don't know what the left is doing, you could be involuntarily asking for what you don't want. A horse cannot make these distinctions. A horse can only respond to your actions or not respond to your actions (the former being the most desirable, because that is where training begins). The more conscious each action becomes and the less a rider interferes, the more brilliantly the horse will move.

Both the Alexander teacher and the rider communicate through the use of their hands. A beginner learns not to pull. An intermediate rider learns to leave his hands alone. An advanced rider learns to give with his hands. "Between fixed and pulling, there is a world" Nuno Oliveira). If I am not moving my hands in space, but I am still tensing every muscle in my forearm, it is still a pull. In describing the Alexander Technique's use of hands-on manipulations, Frank Pierce Jones, an early practitioner, said, "One of the basic principles of the technique seems to be that the amount of kinesthetic information conveyed is in indirect proportion to the force used in conveying it" This statement parallels Nuno Oliveira's description of using the hands in riding: "To fix is not pulled. It is adjusted. It remains tranquil. The hand has to be a filter, not a cork or an open faucet." Learning to give with the hands is a lifelong pursuit.

The Alexander Technique is not a method for learning to ride, but it is an invaluable preparation for doing so. It is a basis for all the skills needed in equitation, as for other activities in life. It is a mind-body technique, i. e. it is concerned equally with physical aptitude and mental attitude, the two being inseparable.