I'm working on a Centaur Course, even though I know just knowledge without modeling and embodiment is not great....but hopefully it will help people get started and if they want more support, I'll offer that too. I'm almost done with the writing, then need to make videos for each concept. The idea is that the textbook and prompts are the Rider/Mind, the videos and community interaction will be the Bond/Heart, the students will take action from the prompts as the Horse/Body pillar, and if they actually upload the videos I will provide feedback (and unlock access to the next concept) as the Arena/CLA part of the Centaur. :) It not only teaches the Centaur model, but uses it! :) So that part is fun. The actual slog of making all of this? Not as fun but I still enjoy getting the thoughts and ideas and stories out there. If I can get a community going I think it will be much more fun for everyone.

Riding horses and teaching them, overall teaching leadership (parenting/coaching/management/riding) through attunement - most riding instruction is instructors giving instructional commands. There's a lot of talk about "feel" but no clear path to get there, and the instructional commands just make riders more and more tense and people quit. There's a terrible stereotype of instructors just ending up yelling at students in frustration after demanding the same body mechanics for years. Now, add the fact that there is another creature, one you cannot talk to you, that you as the rider are supposed to guide in its movement. Complex! I'm always trying to improve my riding and designing games to teach feel to riding students.

@Austin Campbell I try to make the games about an external feel rather than tell riders what to do with their bodies. 1. The most obvious example is stirrup stands - most people on a horse kind of "sit back" behind the center of mass, which feels safer than having both bodies balanced together, but is not efficient and leads to a lot of bouncing and tension in the rider. And if you are a prey animal primed to flight, with a tense predator on your back (in the exact spot where a lion or bear or wolf would jump on a horse), it creates a downward spiral. So a stirrup stand is when a person balances in the stirrups only to learn how to match both bodies' center of mass together - the rider MUST be balanced to do this. I don't have to give them ANY instruction except "balance in your stirrups". The movement itself is the goal and the body self organizes. It is not easy. Everyone thinks "balance" is nice and airy, but try to do a cartwheel on a balance beam - it usually takes a lot of falling and mistakes until a body can balance correctly, and a lot of development of strength and coordination up to that point. Usually the game is to amass 25 or 50 stirrup stands, and over time the rider can hold the stirrup stand for longer and longer. When they can do it at the walk, they are allowed to trot, so there is some incentive there. Similarly, when they can do a variety of stirrup stand exercises at the trot, then they can canter. 2. Riding on the longe with no reins or stirrups is an exercise in balance. The longe is just a long line attached to the bridle which the handler or instructor uses to guide the horse from the middle of a large circle: the rider does not have the reins. 99% of the time, humans will use their hands to balance on a horse. I do not want that on a horse - it invariably leads to bracing on the metal bit in the horse's mouth (or just a rope around the cartilage parts of their lower face, which is also sensitive even if no bit is in their mouth), which causes a chain reaction of tension in the horse as they protect their mouth, jaw, and neck from being dragged on and jabbed. We want the hands to be literally talking to the horse's neck and jaw to encourage *relaxation*, NOT bracing in defense. The bit should be like bubble gum, not a forceful demand from In order to do that the rider cannot balance with the reins. And even a rider in a Western saddle should not touch the horn - the balance of the rider's body is drastically different if they must balance with their hands. So I teach riders on the longe line, which over time teaches their body to self organize in balance. It is not quick, it is not easy, but once a rider develops a firm "seat" with no bouncing at the walk, trot, canter...I let them have reins. It is appalling to me how people teach riding, when the horse itself is an athlete carrying weight and their feelings are often completely disregarded. There are many many exercises on the longe line that encourage an independent seat, and I like to set them to a sequence in a song (so the rider also has to breathe since a lot of people hold their breath at threshold), or play Simon Says, etc. 3. The Tall Game is where I will ask the horse to walk-stop or trot-halt and the goal is for the rider to stay tall - most people tip forward. If the rider tips, the horse gets a point. If the rider stays tall, they get a point. Little kids love this game and it has helped their seat FAR more than me ever saying to them, "sit tall!". If you watch an English jumping show, you will hear instructors at the in-gate yelling the same things over and over - "heels down, chest out, look at the jump, ride the corner, use the outside rein" - which just shows me those skills are fragile. Or a Dressage show - soooo much tension and pulling and kicking and blaming the horse, but similar strings of instructors at the sidelines on microphones giving instructions to riders in the warmup wearing earpieces so they can hear the instructor - "outside rein, sit deep, get the hind legs engaged, encourage the stretch". The rider does not perceive the need for these actions as their feel is dependent on the instructor's feedback, not perceiving the horse's movement. I know this well as I was stuck there for years. Riders are taught mechanical forms, not the outcome of the horse's movement. And that's a different conversation about the goal of riding - most people just want to ride on trails, some want to go fast, some want to jump, some want to run barrel races. None of that interested me once I could see the pain and discomfort in a horse's facial expressions - my perception changed! I do think actual working horses on cattle ranches have amazing intrinsic motivation and their movement is astonishing for those goals, and the riders stay out of the horses' way very well, but that is another world and I only meet recreational riders. Ultimately I want to be the coach for the horse to move in a beautiful and balanced way so that my extra weight isn't a hindrance, and the best riders can improve and hold the horse the way a great dance leader can help a dance follower feel amazing. When your horse literally just listens to your weight and seat bones, you feel like their legs are yours. It's incredible. But as I know how amazing it is to be a dance follower to a good leader in partner dancing, I think the horse is getting a good deal too. Oh man, this is a long reply sorry!

@Sam Elsner EXACTLY. When you renamed this space Attunement it put the biggest smile on my face!!

@Piotr Rudnicki yes! That's the theme that showed up in all these fascinations...spontaneously ;) Even the definition of spontaneous order uses the term "self-organizing systems".