Allison Faso brings Cornerstone of Germany’s Rider Education System to Oakcrest Farms, Home of Top Canadian Dressage Rider
Belinda Trussell

By Karen Trimble

Allison Faso, a certified core trainer of Eckart Meyners’ Balimo™ Equestrian Training Program, conducted a clinic at Oakcrest Farms, near Toronto, Ontario, Canada, November 11-13, 2005.   As a former student of Allison’s, I had always appreciated her classic approach to teaching riders and training horses.  I was interested to see firsthand the expertise she had developed in Germany since I left Atlanta and moved to Toronto in 2003.

Prior to the clinic, I reviewed Eckart Meyners’ website, www.equestrianeducation.org.  I learned that Eckart Meyners is a Professor of Sports Physiology and Body Movement at the University in Luneburg in Germany.   For over 25 years he has researched how people learn movement in riding.  (Learning – and teaching – movement or “feel” is one of the greatest challenges riders and instructors face.)  He has developed training programs for the German National Federation which are used in multiple equine disciplines for professional and amateur riders, trainers, instructors, and judges across Germany.   Meyners has summarized the results of his extensive research in an exercise and education program for riders and instructors called the Balimo Equestrian Training Program.

The program utilizes simple exercises, some similar to yoga, which are relative easy, never stressful, to perform. The goal is to help balance riders’ musculatures by stretching, relaxing and strengthening muscles. When a rider is more balanced, relaxed and supple, she can move more harmoniously with her horse.  This allows her to find her own correct, comfortable seat as she abandons a tight, pinched, or forced position in the saddle.

The Balimo™ training goals sound wonderful and the process to get there logical but can it really work?  And, if so, in what timeframe?  The participants at the Oakcrest clinic were all advanced to world-class riders, Belinda herself being an Olympian.  How realistic is it to expect 30 or so minutes of exercise to materially change the riding capability of someone who has trained extensively for, possibly, 20+ years?  The answer is that, with exercises targeted to an individual’s specific problem areas, improvement can be seen by spectators and felt by riders.  It is amazing to witness. 

Allison started each lesson by asking the rider what specific problems he would like to work on.  After a few minutes of watching the rider work his horse, Allison asked him to dismount and had him perform exercises which would address his issues.  The rider might get on and off his horse 3 or 4 times in a 45 minute lesson. 

Some exercises were performed on a yoga mat in the riding arena.  For others a special stool, the Balimo™ Chair, which tilts freely in three directions, was used. The chair is a unique tool to teach riders to follow the movement of a horse and constantly remain in balance.

The appreciative crowd that topped 30 riders, trainers and spectators at the Oakcrest clinic were treated again and again to significant improvements in participants’ positions and their horses’ performances.  As riders released tension in their bodies and more fluidly followed the motion of their horses, the animals stepped more extravagantly and correctly.  One woman, in the space of 45 minutes, transformed herself from a rider with pinched knee, shortened leg and raised heel (who was, to quote her, “working far too hard”), to a relaxed rider whose horse’s movement flowed through her while she sat calmly and beautifully.  Her horse rewarded her with elastic gaits her fellow students had never seen from him before.

Clinic participants can most eloquently express the value they received from Allison and the Balimo™ techniques:

"I felt my position improved immensely and I became more aware of where my body was.  My horse moved much more freely as a result and was happier.  For these reasons I feel like I had a breakthrough in my position that I have been struggling with for years!" 

"A wonderful clinic to teach the feel of what your body parts are doing."   

"This clinic removes all excuses for the horse going badly.  As soon as the riders removed their tensions, the horses moved more freely through their backs and became more forward and supple!" 

Before Allison had even finished the November clinic, plans were already underway for another to follow soon.  For more information on upcoming clinics in Atlanta and elsewhere, check out Allison’s web site www.dressageconnections.net.  The Balimo  Equestrian Training Program is unique, and uniquely effective.