Yoga’nna wish you had!

The Event: Yoga with Will Coleman and Boyd Martin at The Fork to benefit Area II Young Riders presented by Theault of America

Where: The Fork, NC. To be more specific – probably either on the lawn right outside the main barn by the flags, or in between Rebecca’s old house and the ring, but it will be somewhere fairly quiet, and this is a closed event. In case of bad weather it will either take place in the main barn, or one of two available tents. More details will be available next week.

What time: 6pm, but plan on arriving a little early to get situated. After introductions and a brief chat, the actual class will probably take about 45 minutes, but you may be there for up to an hour or even longer.

Meet your instructors, above: Ryan Stone, in the middle, has been teaching yoga in the Charlotte, NC area for some time.  Will, on the left, and Boyd, on the right – the less said the better!  Ryan will be leading the class, but Boyd and Will will also be mic’d up and I’m sure providing helpful hints and a running commentary!

How much does it cost? $30 and you can sign up here. 

Do you need to have had experience? All levels are welcome. Meg Kepferle, one of the joint-organisers, and founders of Howdaa along with Dana Romano told me that Ryan will cater the class for beginners and more experienced and flexible people alike, and they are expecting a mixture of both to attend.

What do I need to bring? If you’d like to bring your own mat, then by all means do; if not, Ryan will have some available.

 What do you wear? Again, according to Meg – “Typically comfortable cotton clothing, not too loose because you are upside-down a lot of the time!  I usually wear spandex capris and a t-shirt, some people like to wear more clothes than that which is fine, some people like to wear less which is fine also! Yoga is a place that you go to be in your own space and your own time, and it’s a very judgement-free zone; that being said I’m definitely going to be judging Boyd and Will!”
Time out  – is Meg a secret yoga expert? Turns out she might be….”I did my first yoga class when I was a nanny in college, and I was definitely ‘college-fit’ meaning I drank and ate all the time! The woman that I worked for had five kids and was super-fit and kept telling me how awesome yoga was and encouraging me to try it. The first class that I did was hot yoga which is when they turn up the heat, literally, in the room, and you sweat, a lot, and I was not ready for that. I had no idea what I was getting into – I didn’t take the beginner class, I signed up for an intermediate one because I thought I was so flexible I’d be able to do it and I was the youngest one in there by about twenty years and there were like fifty year old men that were bendier than Gumby, and I was sweating, probably hungover, it was just a horrible experience! I’m pretty competitive though so then I wanted to learn more about it and I realized hot yoga is probably not the best place to start. I’ve been doing it for about six or seven years now; from a riding perspective it’s really helps, we use the same kind of muscles every day when we’re riding and they get tighter and tighter, and I don’t know about anyone else but my hip flexors are unbelievably tight. It’s gentle stretching consistently over a long period of time, it really helps loosen you up and prevent injury and makes you more even on a horse, so I highly recommend yoga as a normal practice.”
wowza!
What if I am really shy and don’t want to do the class, but still want to watch? You can sign up to audit for just $10, or sign up for a video of the class for $25.
What if I’m not into Boyd or Will?  The howdaa yoga class list is pretty discreet but if you run your eyes down The Fork CCI*** entry list you might get lucky with any one of those riders turning up to join in. Indeed, Meg’s boss Sinead will be performing the test ride on Manoir de Carneville and I asked Meg if she would be doing some downward dog to calm her nerves? “She’d better sign up for the class, she’s never done yoga before but she really needs to do it!  She’s been working on her flexibility – she’s the archetypal skinny fit girl who’s not flexible but she’s been practicing.  Tik has been helping her, he got her a BOSU ball for Christmas and I think she’d really like yoga actually.”
Why should I go? All the reasons above, and don’t forget, you’re also helping Area II Young Riders – win win!
What happens after the class? Everyone is invited to the world famous annual cross country course builders’ pig roast hosted by Travers, Joe, and Josh, aka Cross Country Hardware – don’t you want to feel like you’ve earned it?

Who should I thank? Theault of America for being the title sponsor, and then of course Meg Kep and Dana Romano, the brains behind the operation. Of course it’s always polite to thank your instructors after a lesson – and if you’d like to stay longer and chat about it for an EN review, well….!

Thanks to Meg Kepferle for giving us a little preview of what to expect, and I can’t wait to sit in and observe, all in a hard day’s work! Please sign up to attend if you can, or for the video if you can’t, and we’ll bring you a report next week. Thank you as always for reading,  Namaste and Go Eventing!

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