The River Tiger Podcast from Dynamics Coaching - Biotensegrity and the horse-human partnership: a conversation with authors Dr Susan Lowell de Solorzano and Maren Diehl. Part 1.

Biotensegrity and the horse-human partnership: a conversation with authors Dr Susan Lowell de Solorzano and Maren Diehl. Part 1.

11/08/22 • 61 min

The River Tiger Podcast from Dynamics Coaching

In this episode I am joined by two more fabulous guests to explore a topic that has fascinated me since I came across it in my research into haptic perception. Biotensegrity.
The paper that is referenced in the podcast is my PhD concept paper https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/17479541221107379
To give you an overview of biotensegrity check out this short Youtube video https://youtu.be/MfBuDci3GlM
This was such a wonderful conversation and went on for two hours so I have decided to split this episode into two parts. I would like to thank both my guests for joining me in this conversation from different parts of the world.
In part 1 we start with an exploration of what both tensegrity (including the humble pop-up tent) and biotensegrity are before going on a journey around many topics including;

What biotensegrity means to our understanding of functional movement.
How this can inform our horse training and equestrian coaching.
Haptic perception (sense of touch, pressure, including the ability to actively perceive surfaces and grasp objects).
Positive and negative moment patterns.
We touch on many subjects from previous episodes including flow and anti-fragility.
The links to a constraints led approach to coaching.

About my guests.
Susan Lowell de Solorzano has an MA in Human Development and Education with a focus on kinesthetic learning and is a certified level III T-ai Chi instructor.
Resources & Links
Book 'Everything Moves: How Biotensegrity Informs Human Movement'

My instructions for making a collapsible tensegrity using common household materials: https://youtu.be/RuEjQ228sy0
I can best be reached through: BiotensegrityArchive.org or my twitter account: @1Biotensegrity

TensegrityInBiology.co.uk

Colloquy on Biotensegrity and Equine Health

BiotensegriTea Party w Veterinary Pathologist Dr. Elizabeth Uhl

The North Face Tent Design innovations, Bruce Hamilton & Buckminster Fuller

Maren Diehl is sort of a field researcher in biotensegrity since 2015, probably the first one in equitation and for sure the first one without any ties to riding styles and training systems.

After many years as a rider, trainer and instructor with more questions than answers, Maren Diehl found biotensegrity to be a good explanatory model for living beings in motion, and things started to make sense. In her online courses she teaches what biotensegrity is all about, what it is good for and how it differs from what we know as biomechanics.
For her biotensegrity gives a new insight into perceived problems and solutions in the world of horses and equitation and provides a theoretical foundation on which to build, a new way of looking at things - a paradigm shift.
Homepage

https://www.die-pferde-sind-nicht-das-problem.de/
YouTube channel
https://youtube.com/channel/UCL7K6Wlbi33X3kSR74414eA
Book "Beyond Biomechanics - Biotensegrity"
English (choose your country bottom right)
https://shop.tredition.com/booktitle/Beyond_Biomechanics_-_Biotensegrity/W-85_1495

What biotensegrity means to our understanding of functional movement.
How this can inform our horse training and equestrian coaching.
Haptic perception (sense of touch, pressure, including the ability to actively perceive surfaces and grasp objects).
Positive and negative moment patterns.
We touch on many subjects from previous episodes including flow and anti-fragility.
The links to a constraints led approach to coaching.

TensegrityInBiology.co.uk

Colloquy on Biotensegrity and Equine Health

BiotensegriTea Party w Veterinary Pathologist Dr. Elizabeth Uhl

The North Face Tent Design innovations, Bruce Hamilton & Buckminster Fuller

Maren Diehl is sort of a field researcher in biotensegrity since 2015, probably the first one in equitation and for sure the first one without any ties to riding styles and training systems.

Previous Episode

All things Flow! Exploring flow states with David Farrokh and Equestrian coach Maddi Burchell.

Flow State is described as being fully immersed and absorbed in an activity in a way that leads to optimal positive states of experience.
In this conversation we cover the background of flow states, including why we would want to seek flow, how it is defined and how it could be measured. The term flow was named by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who identified six factors that encompass an experience of flow.
1. Intense concentration in the moment.
2. Merging of action and awareness.
3. A loss of reflective self-consciousness.
4. A sense of personal control or agency.
5. A change in how time is experienced.
6. Experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding.
Among the flow themes of this conversation we discuss:
- The role of intrinsic and extrinsic reward.
- The interaction of perceiving and moving and the link to perception-action coupling.
- Flow in relationships, including horses and competitive sports.
- How humility, trust and curiosity link to the experiences of flow.
- Finding our 'edges' and the importance of adaptive competence.
- Nested anticipation.
- The long term benefits of flow states.
More about my guests on this episode.
David Farrokh is a PhD candidate at Sheffield Hallam University (with Prof Keith Davids, Dr Joe Stone, and Dr James Rumbold) researching flow from an ecological dynamics perspective.
Find David on FaceBook and Twitter @bigpicsoccer
Maddi Burchell is a British Dressage and British Horse Society Accredited Coach who trains all levels of horse and rider. She is also a British Dressage Youth Coach and Assessor.

In 2021, Maddi was given a space on the British Equestrian National Development Programme for Coaching Excellence, which she has successfully completed. Maddie is also a Centre 10 Advanced Coach, holds an applied psychology certificate, and qualifications in both Rider Biomechanics and the correct use of Franklin Balls.

This means that Maddi can support riders to develop both from a psychological and movement skills perspective. With her friendly, encouraging, and motivational style, Maddi’s has a skill for finding just the right way to coach the rider in front of her! Throughout her career, Maddi has helped riders successfully overcome a whole host of challenges, problems, and confidence. Having been trained by Classical Masters abroad and by Olympic Gold Medallist’s here in the UK, you can be sure you are receiving the very best coaching.
Maddi is on Facebook, and has her own website Maddi Burchell Dressage.

Next Episode

Part 2. Biotensegrity and the horse-human partnership: a conversation with authors Dr Susan Lowell de Solorzano and Maren Diehl.

In part 2 of this episode I am joined again by my two more fabulous guests from part 1 to explore a topic that has fascinated me since I came across it in my research into haptic perception. Biotensegrity.
To give you an overview of biotensegrity check out this short Youtube videohttps://youtu.be/MfBuDci3GlM
The paper that is referenced in the podcast is my PhD concept paper https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/17479541221107379
This was such a wonderful conversation and went on for two hours so I have decided to split this episode into two parts. I would like to thank both my guests for joining me in this conversation from different parts of the world.
In part 2 we delve further into understanding the practical implications of tensegrity (including the humble pop-up tent) and biotensegrity are before going on a journey around many topics including;

Biotensegrity, expansion, contraction and our understanding of functional movement.
Shear forces.
How training can actually prevent horses using their bodies in a tensegrity way.
When to start a horse under saddle.
Behavioural and emotional regulation.
Weak ankles, lameness and movement compensations.

TensegrityInBiology.co.uk

Colloquy on Biotensegrity and Equine Health

BiotensegriTea Party w Veterinary Pathologist Dr. Elizabeth Uhl

The North Face Tent Design innovations, Bruce Hamilton & Buckminster Fuller

Maren Diehl is sort of a field researcher in biotensegrity since 2015, probably the first one in equitation and for sure the first one without any ties to riding styles and training systems.