Being free and egoless like a kid accelerates learning like that so well. Learning to ride as an adult means un-learning the fear we acquired along the way, whi

Being free and egoless like a kid accelerates learning like that so well. Learning to ride as an adult means un-learning the fear we acquired along the way, which is often a big transformation for them, and learning things as an adult is hampered by the need to reconcile the new thing with what we already believe. It's a huge lift. I think mastery is achievable at any age, but the price is almost always "everything," because mastery is not technique, it really is a becoming. While I was never pro, I still ride more days than not, and what I've arrived at from it is posture is the effect other people observe, but to your excellent point, only after we have polished a free and fearless foundation that comes from that time in the saddle, where everything just becomes natural. If we try to affect the posture without that foundation, we get heavy german seats and hands and floppy dressage legs. That affected rigid looking seat is about submitting the horse to our aids, whereas a seat that is the effect of the free foundation you can learn more easily as a kid is about releasing the horse's willingness from our need. The posture that is the polished effect of that freedom has more grace, like a dancer or a matador instead of that of a performer or a soldier. The lightness that is the result of it is the effect of a rider's patient posture, which to an observer, looks straight, but they can't see the underlying suppleness of it unless they are at that level themseves. If you ever see any old videos of Nuno Oliviera (the last riding master of the 20th century), I would say that his posture is an expression of this patience, which comes from his first hand knowledge of what is possible, and the horse is responding willingly because it is being met with the confidence of his knowing, and so when it moves, it is following him, but following at his leg, and really, through his body it is reading the intent of his mind. In this sense, the key to mastery is learning patience, and knowing when to be impatient. Anyway, way to trigger a dressage bro, not a lot of opportunities for that on this site. :)