Balimo™ Seat Symposiums

New Mexico Seat Symposium - Pinon Farm, Santa Fe, NM
In the Land of Enchantment
July 29-30, 2006
Reported by Nancy Fram

This was truly an enchanting Symposium. To beat the 100+ degree heat, I have been getting up each day before five a.m. to ride and I was more than ready to travel north to cooler Santa Fe to attend the Seat Symposium with Eckart Meyners held at Pinon Farms. Pinon Farms is just north of Santa Fe in the foothills of the Santa de Cristo Mountains and is an enchanting place at anytime of the year. Many thanks to the Bershad family for allowing us to use this beautiful private facility with a much coveted indoor arena. For this Symposium the weather was very mild and comfortable for horses, riders, and Eckart Meyners alike.

Saturday morning began with Vicky Busch, EES Event Organizer, and Lisa Avaloz, Sales Director, hard at work greeting and checking in auditors and riders ready to attend the Seat Symposium. We started right on time and everyone was ready to learn more about how to improve their riding. Mr. Meyners is a wonderful speaker and puts everyone at ease with his philosophy of "Let's learn, but let's do it in a fun way." We had handouts in our packets that went along with Mr. Meyners' overheads. He was more than happy to answer all questions and to demonstrate his Six Point Structure on volunteers. During the lunch break Christiane Meyners demonstrated exercises on the Balimo™ Chair. Janie Lowe had her Body Blade for all to try as well, plus Karin Lencyk had her Flexi-bar with her, so people had many chances to try new things and become more aware of their bodies. In the afternoon we had four demo riders. Karen Bahnhoff on Atticus, and Rebecca Thompson riding Farentino both started riding as adults. We had one 16 year old, Sylvie Neal, on In Zinga, and then Jane Bagwell rode Pan-Am, her very impressive DWB. All were looking to improve their seats and become more effective at communicating with their horses. Each had a one-hour private session with Mr. Meyners. The riders were asked to show their walk, trot and canter work in both directions. Then Mr. Meyners explained what he saw in these riders and their positions on their horses. He then worked with the riders using un-mounted exercises and explaining to all what he was doing and why. Initially he had the riders walk around and notice how they felt and then he worked on them using the 6 Point Structure. After a few exercises he asked the rider to walk again (the test) and the rider would say if they felt any difference. Mr. Meyners would then have riders remount and resume riding. After a while they were asked if they could feel any difference. It was an amazing experience for the riders to feel and then express their different feelings, as well as having the auditors being able to see the difference. Some people saw the difference in the horse's movement, while others could see that the rider was moving more in rhythm with the horse.

Sunday morning began with a 30 minute exercise class led by Vicky and Christiane. Then we were treated to our demo riders again with Mr. Meyners using a different set of cross coordination exercises, and of course the Balimo™ Chair. Once again the auditors could see and riders could feel more freedom within themselves. Some riders commented that they felt lighter and more with the horse's movements. It was just a wonderful time for all and I think everybody would be ready anytime to be enchanted with Mr. Meyners' work again.