Steering your horse can be just as challenging as figuring out what direction to go in life. It can be a total mess and completely confusing.
The key to greater control of your direction is to start simple and easy one straight line at a time.
Thing you will need to control your direction:
1. A focal point, goal or outcome 2. Commitment and focus 3. Gratitude and acknowledgement
Lesson for horse: Riding a straight line (Focus Riding Exercise)
Before you should start telling/forcing your horse to turn left or right up and down, consider being able to make his/her brain go the direction you choose before to effect his/her feet. Horses are masters of body language and are capable of picking up on the most subtle of body movements. Tuning into you and becoming willing to follow your guidance the horse learns to focus on your body language to steer him/her in the direction of your chosen point. Starting with a simple straight line and then building on that and adding another line and another and another to create a whole path. Your horse will tune into your cues more and be more willing to be guided where you decide for the both of you to go.
1. Pick a point in front of you, not too far away, keep it easy and achievable. This point can be a an arena fence post or a tree etc. (Preferably not a gate or another horse). 2. Set your hands wide and your fingers facing the ground. Place your focal point between your hands dead centre. 3. Begin riding to your point. Never look away from your point and try to keep your focal point centred between your hands. In keeping your eye and hands on the post or point, your body will give subtle cues to block or encourage horse in the direction of your point. If the horse peels away or ignores you, let him/her make the mistake. Do not try to pull or force the horse back into line. Instead, push the hind quarters away and around until you are facing your point again. This makes the horses choice of going in another direction harder than if he/she were to follow your guidance and aim on the straight line. Once facing your point again, re-focus and ride towards your point once again. 4. Try to stay in the moment and make corrections as you need to. It may be ugly at first and your horse may try to weave away many times. Just make your corrections patiently and then re-focus back onto your point. It doesn’t matter how long it takes or how far you end up away from your point, stay in the moment and embrace the mistakes as these are opportunities to teach your horse right and wrong, giving him/her contrast as to what is easy and correct to what is hard and incorrect. It’s not about doing it perfectly first time, it’s about teaching your horse. 5. Finally when you reach your point, you will reward your horse by letting him park at the point. Congratulations! Take some time to reflect and revel in your success of reaching your point. Giving the horse a rest and pat (reward) at the point shows him that if he follows your guidance it will eventually end in a nice situation where the horse gets the pressure released and the work stopped. 6. You can do this over again until you feel like the horse is understanding the concept and more willing to follow your guidance from point to point. Make sure to stop for a least 1 minute at each point as to give the horse enough of a reward to want to reach each point. If your horse makes a nice improvement. STOP! Leave him/her for the day and try again tomorrow.
Lesson for human: Staying on track
Staying focused, motivated, committed and on track can be challenging. That’s why you need to slowly teach yourself that you can achieve small outcomes first and then gradually build your confidence in order to believe in yourself enough to stay committed on bigger tasks/goals. Knowing that you can achieve goals, and acknowledging yourself for these milestones is what gives you the confidence to preserve on the harder ones, just like with our horses, and build a path and direction in life one straight line or goal at a time.
1.Pick a simple goal. Just as with the starting out exercise, you’ll need to pick an achievable goal. If you’re out of practice and have lost your confidence, then start with things that you know you can achieve. ie. Climb to the top of a hill. Take up a new hobby. Walk to the letter box. Etc 2. Write it down. Unless you have chosen to walk to the letterbox as your goal, you probably won’t have a visual object to focus on and move towards like with our horse exercise, so in writing your goal down it gives you your constant point to keep focusing back on when you begin to stray. 3. Put your goal somewhere accessible and read it regularly. A wallet or phone is a good place to keep it anywhere that you can reach it at any moment. You might even put it on your bathroom mirror so that you see it everyday. You will use this little reminder when you begin to loose your way. It might be might be as simple as a rock that gets in your way, it might be a negative thought or a difficult life event, you may begin to think of things in the past or future that take you down some other path. Whatever the obstacle, know that this is an opportunity to acknowledge grow and learn. Just like our horses. The trick here is not to beat yourself up. Like with horses, Don’t punish the horse for making a mistake, just casually make a correction and ‘choose” to re-focus back in the direction of your goal. One way to bring yourself back to the moment is literally focusing on your surroundings and acknowledging where you are. Look at the sky, trees, grass, bird. Once you’re able to focus on the things directly around you, take out your goal and re-focus on it. Lots of small steps build confidence and give you the practice you need to take on bigger challenges/goals. 4. Once you’ve reached your goal, it is crucial that you acknowledge your arrival and REWARD yourself! No matter how trivial your goal, this is the time to feel good about your success and progress. Look back at your path and the obstacles that you’ve overcome and feel gratitude for the lessons/ growth and pride in your achievement. 5. Do it all over again. One straight line at a time. Practice and experience equal knowledge and confidence.
Please comment if you have any questions regarding these exercises or exercise requests!
Leah x
Comments