I am reposting this blog by Mr. Borrelli with his permission. This article hit home for myself on many levels, but specifically since research the deep relationship between horses and Russian Cossacks.
Mr. Borrelli can be found on Facebook here and is head instructor and owner at Systema Colorado Springs. Enjoy!
By George Borrelli
Dated: 30 June 2015
Dated: 30 June 2015
Russian Systema and Horses
From my title, you are thinking, “What do horses have to do with Systema?” and maybe, “What the heck is Russian Systema anyway?”
Well I study martial arts and I live with horses where my wife trains and shows and competes. I am fortunate to help her. I've had the opportunity to handle horses under difficult circumstances.
I've experienced that animals are mirrors to your soul... and certainly to your tension or lack of it. Horses and probably all animals, are reflections of you and your tension.
It's more about you and your self control, your inner tension than anything else. The horse “leans” on you, even when you are standing by him. If you are not there for him to lean on, then there are problems. This is analogous to what we learn in Russian Systema about our interation with our partner/attacker/opponent.
Having been in many martial arts most of my long life, these last four years I had been exploring, studying, practicing, and teaching Russian Systema, a martial art that isn't all that well known but who's focus, much like Chinese QiGong is more about your inner state.
We have a young Arabian horse gelding, we call “Rebel”, who isn't used to the commotion of the horse show competition environment. Last year, at age 4, he went to a show at Estes Park, Colorado, where simultaneously was a bull riding rodeo and a car show. The place was hopping. And unfortunately for us, attendees don't understand that our horse can be easily startled.
My wife asked me last time to stabilize the young Rebel, while she washed him in the horse wash rack outdoors. Unfortunately they opened the gate close by behind and in the next building the car show took place. People were loud and coming and going right behind us, some approaching loudly. Rebel wanted nothing to do with all this madness!
Suddenly my wife said, “Don't let Rebel jump out of the wash rack!” That really got my attention and observed that he could leap up out of the rack and over the 4 foot bars, possibly injuring us all. I knew I had to do something.
What did I do? I “sunk my Qi (chi)”. This is a Chinese QiGong practice, that is exactly what I also do in Russian Systema for achieving a state in my body of calm, in spite of the external dangers, so that I am in my optimum state. In the Russian Systema practice, being in this state is at the center of the entire practice. To know yourself and to return to (natural) form, are expressions used in Systema. I sometimes call it a standing or moving Zen.
So, seeing the urgency of getting Rebel to settle down, I conducted an experiment. As Martin Wheeler had once said in a Russian Systema seminar I attended, that Mohammed Ali, in the middle of a championship fight, would sometimes relax his arms and sigh with his breath and his opponent would unconsciously mirror and lower his guard too. I thought I might try this Systema/Qigong approach, I decided to optimize my inner self and find inner peace and relaxation as a means of possibly helping our horse, Rebel find the same thing.
I was not touching him but I was in front of him with a loose rope. I shut my eyes briefly and imagined my energy “settling” and at the same time used Systema breathing. To my amazement Rebel, who before was nearly rearing up, dropped his head very low and went into a state approaching sleep!
Thinking this might be coincidence (as I do with much of the Systema), I repeated it four more times. Each time Rebel got over-excited, I used Systema breathing and sinking of the Qi, and his head would drop in an extremely relaxed state.
Last weekend, a year later, I got to repeat this experience. But this time I focused upon Systema breathing more than the energy. But the breathing leads the energy. I would breathe in through the nose then out through the mouth, Systema-style. But when I breathed outwards, I would let all my tension go out with it. When I did it, Rebel did that horse sigh that they do as he lowered his head, showing that he was following me in release of tension. I practiced this throughout the washing and Rebel was as relaxed as we could possibly get him. My breathing was leading the tension release in both of us.
I learned that Rebel was emotionally and spiritually leaning on me and he was reflecting my internal state. I had far more “control” over him by controlling myself than by tugging on his lead rope and fighting with him. Fighting a thousand plus pounds of muscle is futile anyway. As is fighting a person's strength futile.
Russian Systema has improved my life in many ways both in self defense and in my day-to-day life. Giving me this ability to manage a large animal is yet another illustration of the usefulness in all of life, of learning Russian Systema and Chinese Qigong as well.
George Borrelli teaches Russian Systema in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA.
