Why do I feel this needs to be shared?
Over the years of watching people ride, observing them as well as training them things started to become apparent to me.
And as I had the thoughts of why do horses behave in a certain way to me and not in that way to others this got me delving deeper into understanding horse behaviour.
But one day whilst schooling my horse I realised it wasn’t just about horse behaviour it was about human behaviour too, and the realisation that we are not always 100% present whilst handling or riding our horses.
Whilst studying mindfulness and yoga my awareness of my own body was heightened and things that I did without thought usually were brought into my knowledge, as well as imbalances and tightnesses I had running throughout my body.
Habits of body movement that had formed over the years of my life without awareness suddenly became really obvious and so the horses response to these and when I changed them also started to show.
This self discovery was compounded whilst training others to ride, the repetition of try not to let your leg bounce and the puzzled look from the rider as they were convinced their leg was still, and a million other corrections that the rider had no idea they were doing.
I truly believe no rider gets on a horse to ride in a way that makes it uncomfortable for that horse, we all try our best, but when we’re not consciously aware of what our body is doing this doesn’t always make it easy for the horse.
But there’s even more to it, we also have the ability to drift off, to start thinking about other things, especially when doing the less complicated exercises or whilst hacking, or when we’re nervous, this is when not only are we not consciously aware of our own bodies but also we loose connection to the horse, this is where things can start to go wrong.
So getting people to think about themselves, their horses and how they interact isn’t a new thing, but bringing the two together may just open your mind on why you’re struggling with a certain exercise or why your horse has a certain reaction.
