This lesson is a Quiet Mind exercise specifically designed for us to understand any kind of “problem” that our horse has while we are riding them.
BEing Present (which comes in layers) allows what you need to know or do to flow in the moment. No matter how good we are, there’s times when we need to back off and allow the answer to flow later. You can use the very powerful “decide” – “I decide to understand what’s really going on when my horse does this.” and get on with your day, knowing that the answer will flow when it’s ready. Or you can create opportunities for the answer to flow like in this specially designed Quiet Mind.
Maybe it’s your horse spooking, pulling on the reins (even out of your hands), maybe charging at a jump, taking off out of control, jigging out on the trail. Maybe you want to improve your piaffe or your spin or your responsiveness in chasing after a cow – whatever.
This lesson enables us to understand what our horse’s behaviour is telling us and even better, it enables us to have our bodies respond to that behaviour effectively for our horse and us and to help bring them out of it where appropriate.
So aren’t you the lucky one – you get to turn this lovely problem into an opportunity for a deeper bond with your horse – before you even get out of the chair!
Have a think about some kind of problem that you have with your horse when you are riding that you would like to work on today.
Maybe it’s something smaller like you feel that they are resisting you under certain circumstances. Maybe you want to be able to relax your horse more under saddle. Whatever it is – this is a Quiet Mind to solve your saddle stuff. And this lesson is designed to replay however many times you need to to get at all those different layers of your riding “problem” and/or other “problems” you may have.
Straddle the chair, facing the back of the chair. Get the height of the chair right for yourself with books under the legs if you need to. When you get on your horse after this lesson, be very aware of the height of your stirrups – so many people are riding way too long for the comfortable flexibility of their pelvis.
And if there is any discomfort when you ask your pelvis to flex, your body will tense up to defend itself against that discomfort and that is completely the opposite of what you want. There are many other ways to increase the flexion of your pelvis without trying to do it on your horse.
Riding is meant to be sweet and easy…
Wear clothes that are comfortable and get ready to ride!
You are getting well practised at listening inside yourself now – because of course, you practise it out with your horse as often as you can – so I am not taking you through that all over again in this lesson.
So, when I say listen inside yourself, if you need to deepen that listening inside yourself, notice what parts of your body move as you are breathing, then notice your heart beat and then notice the physical sensations of the energy moving throughout your body if you need to…
Click here for the alternate recording of this Fast Track Lesson
If you do not get the result that we are looking for from your lesson, it will be through NO FAULT OF YOUR OWN. It will just be something that you need some extra support with. Please feel free to contact me for a quick chat about how we might proceed in order to give you what you need in this instance.
Written Version of the Audio
Listen inside yourself.
Now… Every movement that I am going to ask you for – do it so very, very slowly – so slowly that I would barely be able to see you move, and…
… Very slowly and still listening inside yourself, arch your back on purpose and notice what that feels like – notice the feel of the energy in your body, notice your heart rate, notice what happened to your ability to breathe…
Now slide your tail bone closer to the ground, which has the effect of taking out the arch and making your back flat and notice what that feels like – feel the energy in your body, notice your breathing, notice your heart rate.
Slide that tailbone back down until you feel really good.
Slowly still, roll back onto your pockets deliberately, leaning backwards just a little. Feel what is happening to your energy when you do that – keeping your attention listening inside yourself. Notice what that feels like. Notice what happened to your seat bones. Notice what has happened to your ability to breathe. Notice what is happening to your heart beat. Notice what is happening to the energy in your body.
Now slowly allow that joint where your legs meet your pelvis, to slide or wriggle on the chair, so that it is just a little closer to your back. That has the effect of getting you off your pockets and sitting you back up straight again. Notice what your seat bones feel like. Notice what you feel like inside. Notice your heart and your breathing.
Listening inside yourself, just tilt your pelvis just a tiny bit so that your seat scoots forward a tiny fraction. Tilt yourself backwards and forwards, ever so slowly and find the place where your pelvis feels really good.
Listening inside yourself, slowly float forwards over the crease in your groin – not too far, just notice how that feels. Now lean backwards very slowly and notice how THAT feels. You can feel the two places that aren’t OK, can’t you – very clearly? Now float forwards again very slowly until you find the place where it feels really, really good. Sometimes you can almost feel it go snick into the right place and those core muscles those two muscles in your body line up parallel to each other and you just feel really really strong.
Now lift hands up to rein height, and imagine, just systematically imagine, starting at the top of your head and scanning your way down your body, imagine that every joint in your body was moving. One by one, not all at the same time. You are only imagining the movement, not actually moving. Notice what is happening to your seat on your imaginary horse while you are imagining the movement of those joints.
Hmm there’s a bit of a wow there isn’t there?
Now push on the chair in front of you with the backs of your hands, and feel how strong those core muscles feel. Feel how they… let the pressure off and put it on and feel how the core tightens up as you press on the back of the chair in the front of you – as your horse pulls on you.
That kind of feels a bit stiff though. So now I want you to add letting all those joints imagine that they were moving again. So as you push on the chair in front of you with the backs of your hands, let all those joints imagine that they were moving again.
And take the pressure off…
Now do it again…
Now pull on the chair, put the tips of your fingers on the other side of the back of the chair and pull on the chair gently as if your horse was pulling the rein out of your hand or moving a little bit or whatever and notice what happens. Notice that every joint in your body is compensating for that pull that’s in your hands. There is this beautiful spongy feeling as every joint in your body compensates for that pull.
Notice that it has got nothing to do with your hands… but everything to do with the availability of the movement in your joints.
Here’s the next piece – soften your eyes, while you are doing that pushing and pulling with your fingers gently – and exploring what that feels like and what the energy feels like in your body and if there is anything else that you need to move to feel really good.
I want you to soften your eyes and smile. And feel the change of the energy moving around your body and the feeling of your heart beating and the feeling of your breath and your breathing when you soften your eyes and smile…
Pushing… pulling… feeling the spongy place… feeling those joints compensating for everything that is happening in your hands…
Now you are sitting on your horse and he or she is doing whatever this thing is that bothers you, that you have some kind of tension about riding.
I want you to find where in your body is the communication problem. Scan your body and find where the communication problem lies. It will be the place that feels tense or tight or uncomfortable.
When you find where in your body that problem is, make the soft eyes that you make at your baby horses, you go ahhh aren’t they just perfect? Do whatever you do that makes your eyes soften.
Now the soft eyes are just a physical trigger. What are your eyes softening about?
And this is the big part.
When your horse is shying or spooking or charging uncontrollably at a jump or taking off or reefing the reins out of your hands or whatever the problem is that you experiencing today – it is clearly not perfect. It would be ridiculous to suggest that that behaviour is perfect.
But what your horse is trying to tell you IS perfect. Does that make sense? The message in their behaviour IS perfect. And when you understand that message – then the possibility exists for real change.
So when you make soft eyes it is a physical trigger to you knowing the perfection of that message. And when you really get that… then you allow room for the real understanding to flow.
So when you feel yourself squinting a little, you are just trying too hard – so make the soft ahhh eyes, smile a little, keep listening inside yourself, pay gentle attention to what is going on inside yourself, notice the energy moving around your body, notice how you feel.
Melt off if the feelings are uncomfortable if you need to, melt off just a tiny bit and allow room for the understanding to flow…
Take your time with that.
Now, imagine that you horse is underneath you doing whatever this behaviour that is that you wanted to work on today. Feel how your body can respond differently now, more effectively now to whatever this wonderful problem is that is really an opportunity to deepen the bond with your horse.
Keep your awareness listening inside yourself and allow the parts of your body to flex and move and deal with whatever is happening with your horse in this behaviour, in the most effective way possible.
Really notice how your body feels and really allow it to move and flex in the best and most effective way possible for both you and your horse.
You may need to bring your legs back a little bit more underneath you. You may need to shorten your stirrups.
And if you could feel that if your horse was underneath you at the moment, he would just melt underneath you and come back to you.
I would like some feedback please from everyone about whether you have or have not experienced the beautiful flexibility in your body as you release everything that was in the way and find this magical magnetic seat that I call heaven and earth meeting in the saddle.
Sometimes the things that we have to release or the things that we are helping our horses to release are so big that we do the releasing in layers and sometimes there are multiple things to re-program for ourselves in the way our bodies respond to a behaviour in our horse that we don’t like or don’t want.
This lesson is designed to replay however many times as you need, to get at all those different layers of your own riding reactions and to help you understand what your horse is trying to tell you with their behaviour.
Enjoy the fruits of this lesson, I have a feeling that it could be big!