Be careful what you call your horse… Ever remember being told that the horse mirrors us as riders? It isn’t fictious or simply some casual reference to be thrown around in jest. The horse really does mirror us, but maybe not in the way you think.

It is really easy to believe that the horse mirrors us on a superficial level. For example, when we are out of balance in the saddle, naturally we cannot expect to have a balanced horse underneath us. But deeper than that, there are things which we are riders, and individuals, may not be eager to take a close look at. When my horse is lazy, am I the same? When my horse refuses to communicate with me without exploding or reacting excessively, where in my life am I responding that same way with those I’m communicating with? Or my spooky horse… is he showing me that I too have fears that I am not facing but instead am trying to run away from and avoid?

[warning : minor exploitive plug for Awareness In Riding ]
This is exactly why I work with riders in conjuction with a Life Coach… because horsemanship is super simple – rediculously so! That isn’t why we struggle as riders, we struggle because that is how we are running the rest of our life, and when we gain clarity, honesty (real honesty!) and awareness with ourselves, it carries over to every aspect – including horses. Life gets simpler, and so do horses.

Every time I go out to work with horses, I don’t go out to train them or teach them. I go out to communicate with them, to experience the interaction with a conversation rather than a one-sided lecture or decision making. I want to one day see this be the norm among riders. Sadly, as I see it right now, it is not the common method of interacting with horses – but then again it is only a barometer of our ability, as a society, to communicate with one another and be self-aware in general.

I hear that tomorrow it is supposed to be a beautiful day… go out and try having a conversation with your horse!

Achievements and success seem to be the expectation of every person living today, young and old. The old we ask what they have achieved in their lifetime, and the young we ask what they will achieve in their lifetime. All the people in between we press for information; in what way are they achieving their successes?

When did human-kind become a sort of super machine? Something to be directed and steered towards a measurable goal; leaving behind all thought of their simple being? It is no wonder that we then project this same idealist mindset on our horses.

It is rare to hear someone acknowledge a horse for simply being a horse. Actually, the horses who are most connected with simply being are often written off as being difficult, useless, of limited purpose and potential; Mustangs. We ask what the horse has accomplished, what their show record is, what level of training they have been brought to, whether the horse accels at their competition or sport.

It is understandable, when we are used to seeing the horse as a commodity; we then have to look at the pros and cons of their so-far-achievements. We have been doing this for thousands of years. The horse has always been a vehicle of betterment for ourselves. They have been used for transportation, entertainment, gambling, trading/bartering, even food. People who simply allow their horses to be without expectation are looked down upon; although often that is due to a lack of time, confidence, knowledge or motivation rather than a conscious purpose.

It would seem that with so much of ourselves wrapped up in the achieving, in the end goal, we would come to such a high plane of understanding and ability. It would spring forth from every equestrian and every horse; would be a normal everyday occurance and would cease to be an achievement afterall. But instead we are still fighting and struggling and not getting anywhere. There are great mysteries surrounding the accomplishment of Grand Prix Dressage, when it was not so long ago a fairly normal accomplishment. If you had enough time you could reach it. Now it is not even time, it is natural talent and ability; it is the cost of a world-class competition quality horse. It is outside of the reach of the average rider and therefore we’ve made it a mystery. When things are common, everyday, always within sight and reach, they are no longer difficult, they are no longer frightening – to achieve or fail at. They simply are. Do we concern ourselves to obsession over whether we can fold a paper airplane and fly it successfully? No, because the paper will always be there for us to try and the only requirement is time. If paper were scarce and we made it about something far more complicated than just the paper and the time involved perhaps we would see a similar change in paper airplane making.

We want what is not readily available to us. The funny thing is that horsemanship has been made far more difficult and complicated than it really is. Life has turned in general in the same direction. We are surrounding ourselves by things that really do not matter. We make ourselves busy to distract our mind, to convince ourselves that we are reaching towards something purposeful, all the while believing that frustration, difficulty, unhappiness and sickness is just a way of life and perfectly normal. We’ve convinced ourselves that a horse being stubborn or hyper-sensitive, bucking when we ride him, pulling at the bit, avoiding being caught, being unhappy when we ask for something, are all part and parcel and cannot be avoided.

Do our competitive achievements outshine the difficulties it took to get there?

Competition itself is not bad, neither is working towards a goal. It is when the entire interaction with our horse becomes about reaching that goal or winning the competition that we lose sight of the horse, and often ourselves. The competition only lasts a moment and then what? The goal is reached and what do we have left afterwards? We keep reaching, we keep replacing one goal with another, one competition after another… but do the individial ones make us happier after the fact? Or do we find that we need another achievement to bring us a shimmer of happiness and contentment?

On the contrary, when we are able to be in the moment always with the horse and not focus on the individual achievements and goals there is a feeling of satisfaction, happiness, contentment; all the time. Then those superficial achievements – competition and big goals – simply provide speed bumps with which we are jarred into the momentary knowing that they have come along. And, we are more likely to achieve success when we are not focused on that alone but on development of our interior – the things we cannot measure with a tape or see with our eyes, or even describe simply with words.

The importance of the half halt is considered bar-none to correct riding, however I think little is emphasized in the use of lateral suppling and it’s effect on the half halt. In my observations of riding, the presence of lateral suppleness maximizes the use of the half halt, while minimizing the pressure needed in the action of the aid. The horse’s balance is easier to influence and mold to our liking. Lateral movements find ease and fluidity.

Lateral suppleness is not gotten with gadgets and gimmicks.. or I should say “correct” lateral suppleness. When we use tools of force and leverage we lose the horse’s mind – which is the most important element. It takes instead, soft hands, consistent and smooth actions, and above all else, a conscious mind.