 |
to HEAR Michele discuss her methods with Jane Savoie.
Click here
To read Michele's Articles
Click here |
Certified Feldenkrais®
Centered Riding® Instructor Level 1
Living In A Body Certified
Commit
yourself to riding
with
control, ease & power.
It’s not as hard as you may think!
VIDEO LESSONS AVAILABLE!
Michele,
the video lesson I did has been, hands down, the best thing I’ve
ever done for my riding. I recommend a video lesson to anyone interested
in learning to sit the trot, correct their position, deepen their seat,
and develop as a rider. The expense and effort are well worth the
results! ~ Helen Hutchinson
Want to automatically receive my
newsletter? Please send an email and we'll get you on our list.
Read Michele's riding articles written on
e-zine. Click on icon below.
In
those moments when awareness succeeds in being one with feeling, senses,
movement, and thought…then man can make discoveries, invent, create,
innovate, and “know.” He grasps that his small world and the great
world around are but one and that in this unity he is no longer alone.
Moshe Feldenkrais, 1972
|
| |
|
Michele Morseth,
MA has been riding, training and showing her own horses since
she was nine years old. Motivated to become a better dressage
rider she studied under Jeff Haller, a renowned educator of the
Feldenkrais Method® of body awareness and movement. Michele’s
clinics are evolved from her love of riding and her training in
horse and human movement, biomechanics, and communication.
Realizing she had a gift to share—she began to help other riders
feel the keen grace of moving in unity and communicating clearly
with their horse.
Michele began her
dressage career in 1980 working for a student of Chuck Grant.
She honed her riding and teaching skills in Germany at Etoile,
where they taught seat lessons based on Eckert Meyners work as
well as attending Murdoch Method and other seat clinics in the
US. Interested in many aspects of horses, she has ridden cutting
horses and reiners, worked on ranches, jumped, driven, and loves
to trail ride. Currently she rides with Dieter Riedinger a
classical dressage trainer currently residing in North
Carolina. As a movement educator she focuses on helping riders
with position, balance, and awareness, so they sit better and
are effective communicators (i.e. they begin to ride like a
pro!). |
 |
Michele and friend, "Bugs". |
|
Michele’s story:
In the early ‘80s I rode
for a man who trained a horse for the Pan Am games and the Olympic
Trials. In my 20s it seemed easy to ride the movements. The
coordination, strength, and balance was mine. I could fly across the
diagonal, negotiate the corner, float into passage, nail the changes.
Then I returned to school, moved to the arctic and quit riding. 5 years
later, vacationing in Portugal I visited the national stud. I was asked
if I’d like to ride and for one day I rode magnificent horses, doing
effortless tempe changes, piaffe & passage, pirouettes. I rode Lusitanos
slated for the bull fighting ring and for European dressage
competitions. For a day I was transported to heaven.
A decade later, after
finishing grad school, mushing sled dogs, and guiding climbers on high
peaks, I was back in the saddle. This time I had a hard time posting
much less sitting the trot. I knew the feeling of riding in seemingly
effortless harmony, yet, even thought I was strong and flexible I
couldn’t relax and was often in pain.
Still, I knew that no
matter what my history of injury and activity was, I would become an
accomplished, effective rider. I would ride in unity, giving aids
without interfering with the movement of my horse. I knew this was
possible. I began to study movement and how thoughts and emotions affect
our capacity at the Feldenkrais Institute of Bend, OR. Combining my
background in sports and riding with movement studies, I found the way
to change the habits and patterns of movement and thoughts that kept me
from reaching my goals. When I could flow with my horse and had control
of my body I was finally able to ask and receive those magical movements
that make dressage, reining and riding in general so much fun….
I also knew that in the
1980s my trainer expected that all his riders ride well and the horses,
all breeds, could do the movements. After 15 years away from dressage
things seemed different. Too many riders were stuck at training and
first level. I wondered why. After studying movement, body awareness,
emotional patterns that affect movement, I again found the fluent,
effective rider I used to be. And because I now knew how to improve
anyone’s awareness, balance, and movement capability, I want to share
that knowledge. I didn’t want to see other riders stuck at lower levels
or not doing as well as they could because they didn’t know how to
control their body and mind to get the results they dreamed of. I
decided I wanted to not only help others fulfill their dreams but also
to help them realize they could become a more accomplished rider than
they believed. |
|
