Steve was a 4 Star, 3 Day Event rider who competed at world level and had lessons here, at the same time helping me with my beautiful hearted giant Warmblood Oliver. We were on… hmmm… I think it was about his second lesson when he said to me with a smile “I have to tell you Jen, that there is no such thing as a fast track. I’ve been riding and learning non stop for 60 years and there’s nothing fast about that.”
I just smiled at him with a “We’ll see…” look on my face.
Release Re-Learn and Re-Program
It was no more than a few weeks later that he said “Oh wow… there really IS a fast track”. He had RELEASED stress and tension from old falls off horses (many old falls off horses, some of them with big injuries) and experienced phenomenal healing from that – he no longer carries those injuries. He had RE-LEARNED a stress free and useful way for his body to respond and he had RE-PROGRAMMED that into his muscle memory and his riding seat was back to the ease of his childhood. All of these lessons are in the Fast Track program.
Let’s pause for a minute and reflect on what exactly that means. I remember watching them riding in the paddock one day and Oliver was seriously full of himself. He did a playful kind of a buck and spin around – it was a really joyful kind of playing up, but it was a BIG play up – at 18 hands he’s a BIG horse. Steve’s hands flowed forward to give to the reins and his body flowed with him and one step later they were both in absolute sync together in the canter in this huge open space, both of them with big smiles on their faces and Steve laughing with the joy of it. THAT’s because of a lesson at the end of the course called “Re-programming your own oh shit reactions” that you won’t find ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD. Re-programming his own oh shit reactions to be able to flow with Oliver’s body and enjoy that playfulness was EXACTLY what Steve had programmed his mind body and spirit to do in that lesson. Far out, it’s big hey?
In the past, specially because of being bucked off so often, his hands had been auto pilot pulling back to keep the horse’s head up. That would have added leveraged power to the buck, that would have hurt the horse (specially their mouth in a bridle) – caused all kinds of tension and reactions and maybe even triggered the crap to hit the fan. He tells me he’d had over 100 falls in that long career, many of them with his difficult but very talented Olympic horse and some of them with whopping injuries, so I imagine that was a lot of times with the crap hitting the fan. Steve was quite rightly thrilled with his new and improved auto pilot reactions.
This auto pilot reaction was possible because of the Release Re-Learn and Re-Program formula that I’ve come up with, that is a cross between sports psychology and alternative therapy. It combines healing techniques with training techniques. Our new skills become EFFORTLESSLY automatic.
Now can you see how I can call this a Fast Track to Brilliant Riding?
Did I tell you that we slow things down on Fast Track and actually teach you HOW to enjoy the journey to whatever you are looking for from your relationship with your horse?
“What?” I hear some of you say. “First you say fast, then slow? How can you slow things down and call it Fast?”
We slow things down in some key areas, to where both horse and rider can enjoy the whole process – and yes it also dramatically speeds up both training and healing. How long, if ever, would it take for someone to re-program their body to react like Steve did pushing his hands forwards and flowing with the explosion of joy? Check it out for yourself and slow down some videos – it’s an instinctive reaction for riders to pull their hands back when their horses played up and it always ended in something worse happening – and that includes most riders on the world stage.
The RELEASE, RE-LEARN & RE-PROGRAM formula is just one of my secret ingredients that speeds things up and is the core of what makes Fast Track truly a fast track to brilliant riding and a key to world class horsemanship.
And I can’t wait to share it with you!
Oliver too…
Oliver too, had been RELEASING his fears, anxieties and tensions, RE-LEARNING a relaxed way of being with people happily and RE-PROGRAMMING that relaxation as a new normal way of being with people.
What did that mean? It meant that the ball of tension that had been in Oliver too, dissolved and he transformed from dangerous horse to giant teddy bear. Just thinking about him makes me smile!
It means that they both became SAFE. It’s not just words when I tell you that you deserve to not only BE safe, but to FEEL safe.
You’re on fire already? Here’s what you get on Fast Track
OR – go back to the Fast Track page and get excited about all the other ways you can reach your dream with Fast Track.
The Fast Track to Brilliant Riding