In her youth, Sally took lessons from some famous instructors of the day, including Vladimir Littauer and Col. Guirey of the Boots and Saddles School. Decades later, after she retired from work, she once again became active in the equestrian world.

keep my back straight, eyes up, heels

down and legs on. And, amid all of

that, I was told to relax!

Some riders are gifted “naturals”---

they don’t know how they do what they

do, but it comes easily to them (and

many of them don’t understand why

the rest of us mortals have such trou-

ble with the skills that come naturally

to them). That’s where Sally was so

different. She taught us how to get the

rider’s body to achieve those things,

how the rider’s state of mind affects

the body, and how both interact with

the horse. It won’t make the average

rider into Charlotte Dujardin or Beezie

Madden, but it can help riders of any

level of skill or experience be the best

they can be.

Another pow-

erful aspect of

that first clinic

with Sally was

her positive atti-

tude in teaching,

and the affirm-

ing learning

environment she

created. I had attended many clinics in

which I’d heard not only negative com-

ments from the clinician but a chorus

of snarky comments from the specta-

tors; you have to put on your mental

armor to ride in such a situation. In

Sally’s clinic, she modeled a clear

and supportive teaching style, so that

by the first morning, when someone

got something right or showed even

a small improvement, the audience

broke into spontaneous applause. I

wanted more of that!

Who was this remarkable lady and

how did she become one of the most

influential riding teachers in world?

Sally would tell a little of her story at

every clinic, and I still do, too, so here

it is, as she told it to me and others.

IN THE BEGINNING

Sally Swift developed what came to

be called Centered Riding because she

had a disability. She had severe scolio-

sis as a young girl (possibly from an un-

diagnosed case of polio), and if you saw

her walking, you might think, “What a

crooked back that woman has.” In the

l920s, she was in danger of living with a

heavy back brace and possibly a wheel-

chair. Her parents sent her to a pioneer-

ing physical therapist and bodyworker,

Miss Mabel Todd, who wrote a book

The Thinking Body. Miss Todd taught Sally about functional anatomy,

called

and she introduced her to “ideokinesis,”

which means “the picture you hold in

your mind moves your body.”