Mistakes riders make with horses are sometimes not even known by the rider.
But when we want to do the very best for our horses, we don't really want to be making mistakes.
This is a perspective that will help you to look at things a bit differently to find mistakes riders make with horses and then make steady improvement with your horse.
In our Harmony For the Horse Program we help you to very precisely find your mistakes, fill in the gaps, so you can finally reach your highest intentions with your horse.
CLICK HERE to discover more about how we can help you to reach freedom, achievement, oneness and joy that you most seek with your horse.
Mistakes riders make with horses may be in the area of the kinesthetic, or mindset, or maybe it's to do with techniques or how to solve problems with your horse, or maybe in your horsemanship...
Filling in gaps and identifying mistakes is critical for you to advance and to make progress.
Here are five mistakes riders make with horses to have a look at:
#1 Body Language
This is when you lose focus on your body language.
Whatever you do with your horse, you are always working on some form of body language with your horse, either consciously or subconsciously.
Our horses pick up on the slightest of micro-movements or the minute body language.
We, as humans, we’re unable to train ourselves to that depth of subtlety that the horses have naturally.
Whenever you have a thought that comes into your mind or a word that you think about, then you’ll get a vision. You’ll get a picture of what you thought or your word.
It may be an interpretation of what your thought is, or what the word is, or even an anticipation of your thought.
And when you have that thought or that word that comes into your head there's a body movement behind it, or an action, and the horses pick up on this.
It can be a change in your breathing or a slight tension difference, a slight difference in muscle tone.
Horses pick up on this.
If we don't have a focus on this, if we are making the mistake of not putting enough attention to this, this will hold us back.
Here's an example of how our body language is connected to our thoughts...
I used to trim all of my herd of horses, barefoot trimming. And I then had a back injury. So I wasn't able to do the trimming myself, I had to hire someone else but I actually ended up teaching her and training her how to trim.
In this process when I'm training or teaching her how to trim or even when I'm just watching her, I noticed that my body is going through the motions of trimming subconsciously. I can't stop it. But I know this is happening because I feel it in my body.
#2 Lack Clarity
The second mistake riders make with horse is...
...they have lack of clarity in knowing their direction, knowing where they are going with their horse, and knowing the outcome that they seek.
When you have clarity that's when you can start to fine-tune by working on balance and working on your understanding of deeper concepts.
But there must not be fear involved. You cannot have fear.
f you have any fear-based issues we will work on this on a very deep level with you.
So, once your fear is cleared out, and you have clarity of where you're going and your outcome, that's when your communication can truly come from feeling, you can truly feel things. And this feeling can become an innate response in your body.
When we have this feeling, we would also like to have relaxation along with it. We would like to have balance and have self-carriage, without the collapse of our bodies don't collapse.
When our bodies don't collapse we can therefore help our horses to not collapse in their bodies.
Whether it's through the spine, the spinous processes collapsing to one side, or the shoulder, we can help our horses when we are in self-carriage.
Any outcome of good training in any equity pursuit is that your horse remains sound in his or her work and hopefully gets better...
...or even gets more balanced, and has more self-carriage.
So then you can work towards the collection and building a superb athlete and a willing partner.
When you can have purity of your paces and your gaits, which gives your horse the true movement that gives them comfort, you will have the connection to then entire horse's body through the proper use of the spine.
#3 Too fast or too slow
The symptoms of going too fast are probably that you're going to overface your horse, and yourself too.
If you're going too slow, then you're probably going to get frustrated.
There are three types of timing when you're dealing with your horse:
#4 Being versus Doing
This is where riders make the mistake of not balancing “the being and the doing”.
What I mean by that is you may be focusing too much on “being”. Riding too much on just being with your horse, hanging out, or doing bodywork. I'm not saying that these things are not good, they're all fantastic. All these are the things that you need to do, but we also want to balance the doing.
On the other hand, I also see some riders who are too much in the “doing” the end of things. Trying to get all the cues sorted out. Trying to get their aides clear. Trying to put their body here. And do this with the leg. Do that with the head. This with your horse's head. Doing all this stuff, and then they get so carried away with all of the doing.
You need to find the balance between the being and the doing.
It's a synchronicity of the two of them.
And when this is out of balance, that is a mistake that can hold you back quite seriously.
#5 Take things too seriously
The 5th mistake riders make with horse is they take things too seriously.
Work on your self-mastery. Drill that. Work on that every day.
I do that. And the riders in my program do that.
But then you need to take it and have fun, be curious!
Yes, you can always improve on your technique. But go out of the box, take the techniques that you have. And...
ask questions, experiment, play with it, play with your horse.
If you would like help finding the mistakes that are holding you back from riding your horse who wants to explode with excitement, joy, and power, but willingly contains for you, because he or she is your partner, then...
CLICK HERE to schedule a call with us!
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