Take your yoga practice off the mat this Summer and try something new! It's a great way to bond with friends and enjoy the warm summer temps and sunshine.

Here are our Top 4 Outdoor Yoga Practices of 2014:

1) Slackline yoga (or slackasana) has been described as "distilling the art of yogic concentration." To balance on a 1" piece of webbing lightly tensioned between two trees is not easy, and doing yoga poses on it is even more challenging. Yet despite the seemingly impossible nature of the act, it is achievable by almost anyone with a little bit of perseverance and patience. Check out our Ambassador, Kirk Lautensleger practicing his crescent lunge on a slackline. For more info and for great workshops coming your way, visit YogaSlackers.

 2) SUP (standup paddle board) Yoga is asana practiced on 10- to 12-foot-long boards in the most serene of settings: an ocean bay, a glassy lake, even a slow-moving river. In recent years, water-loving yogis have embraced SUP yoga as a practice that brings a sense of joyful freedom to an otherwise earth-bound yoga practice. For more, check out this great article on SUP Yoga from Yoga Journaland keep your eyes peeled for SUP yoga classes and workshops in your area, especially if you live close to the ocean, or local lakes and ponds.

3) Horseback Yoga

"At first glance, yoga on horseback may seem like an unlikely merging of opposites. However, we see that the core principles of yoga - cultivating union, oneness, and wholeness - are the very qualities that make an equine-rider partnership great." ~Jessie Tierney, RYT.

Horseback Yoga teaches you how to unite with your equine partner in a meaningful way, through calming your mind, conscious breathing, heightening awareness, and gently opening tight spaces in the body. Jessie (quoted above) teachesHorseback Yoga classes in WA but we've also heard of classes in Stowe, VT and in other farming communities. What an amazing practice!