22/09/2026
🐴 Sally Swift was seven years old when scoliosis arrived, and she spent years of her childhood in a back brace.
That is where the story of one of the most influential riding books ever written actually begins. Born in 1913, Swift grew up learning her own body the hard way. She studied body awareness with Mabel Todd, and later the Alexander Technique, and through that work she was eventually able to give the brace up altogether.
She did not set out to become famous. She retired in 1975, and then started teaching riders at ten dollars a lesson. Ten dollars. A woman in her sixties, explaining to people how to sit on a horse by first understanding how to sit inside themselves.
Centered Riding came out in 1985. By 2005 it had sold more than 800,000 copies in fifteen languages. The instructor programme she built between 1986 and 1991 is still certifying teachers around the world today, long after her death in 2009.
Soft eyes. Breathing. Building blocks. Growing roots. If you have ever had an instructor say any of those words to you, you have been touched by a girl in a back brace who decided to pay attention.
Which riding lesson has stayed with you longest?
