Tales from the Mat: Sasha and Mooky
Sasha Melia with her Arab stallion Mukhtar Ibn Eternity
Being a yoga teacher means that I get to meet incredible people, all on their own yoga journey and all with a story to tell. So I decided to shine the spotlight on just some of these lovely folk in my new column ‘Tales from the Mat’. You can also read these in Oxfordshire’s most glamorous glossy, OX Magazine. Welcome to the June issue, featuring Sasha Melia and her Arab stallion Mooky..
At the age of four, Sasha Melia was too young for riding lessons. So, she found a “naughty Shetland pony” to ride around Oxford’s Port Meadow. It was the start of a lifelong love affair with horses, and particularly “magical” Arabs.
She bought her beloved stallion Mukhtar Ibn Eternity (Mooky for short) as a foal in 2004 and raised him to excel not just in the show world but at serious performance sport. He’s been a Horse of the Year Show finalist for three years running, a multi-champion in jumping, eventing and dressage and is the highest performance graded Arab stallion in the UK. He was awarded AHS Premium Sire status by the Arab Horse Society, and in 2018 was the winner of the coveted WAHO World Arabian Horse Organisation Trophy, which is only awarded to ambassadors of the breed.
Sasha and Mooky receiving their WAHO trophy from HRH Princess Alia Al Hussein of Jordan
Such are his impressive credentials, Mooky is in hot demand as a breeding stallion and currently has over 25 fabulous offspring. For the best part of 20 years, Mooky and Sasha have taken each other to the highest levels of international horse society and even to the gates of Buckingham Palace as part of two London New Year Day Parades.
With decades of riding, training and caring for horses under her belt, Sasha’s fitness levels have always been good. Plenty of fresh air, the manual labour of mucking out stables and the exertions of horseback have kept her well. But when Mooky had to be relocated to a Devonshire stud farm at the start of the Covid 19 pandemic and as lockdown stresses took their toll, Sasha started to feel her wellness levels plummet. She explained “It wasn’t just the physical side like lockdown weight gain. When I’m apart from my horses – it’s like a light goes out. I’ve been here before in periods of separation from my horses and I knew I had to find something to help me feel better”. Sasha signed up with David Lloyd Oxford in October 2021 and started to do group exercise classes. “To be honest, I thought it wouldn’t last. I’ve had a few brushes with organised classes before and I wasn’t holding out much hope. I generally have to force myself to go to ‘normal’ classes and it’s too easy to find an excuse.”
But then she found yoga. At first, Sasha was attending one yoga class a week. Eighteen months down the line, she’s swapped all her other activities for yoga and does a class most days – at the club whenever possible or online. She now says that she has found her “thing” and feels that she’ll never stop. She finds the benefits, not just to her physical fitness, but to her mental and emotional wellbeing, immense.
“I’ve always had a washing machine mind – thoughts spinning around, over-thinking and anxious. Until now, I’d say that riding a horse alone through a forest was the closest I’ve come to feeling absolute calm and peace. I can now get to that state with yoga. For the hour that I’m on the mat, in that class, I completely forget about my worries. I’m focussed and relaxed and I generally leave the class feeling like I’m floating!”
Sasha has taken yogic principles off the mat and back home with her, to keep calming tools close to hand. “I practise breath work whenever I feel my anxiety levels rising – techniques that I’ve learnt in class. And I’ve got a meditation app which I also use at bedtime. It’s all helping me feel much more in control. I’m a lot more Zen!”
On the physical side, she says her legs are more muscled now than they’ve ever been riding horses “which is weird!” and she feels fitter than she has since she was in her twenties. “I love the feeling of getting stronger, seeing myself wobbling less on the mat, twisting more, going deeper into poses and my balance improving. I’d say that yoga has made me stronger and more confident on so many levels. All in all – It has been life changing!”
You can follow Sasha and Mooky on ‘his’ Facebook page – search Mukhtar Ibn Eternity.