What goes on in there?!?!?

I am learning more about horses, and more about myself...

I think it is true, through a persons horses you can tell alot about them.

Who they are as people, what they are like at their worst, or their best...

Horses are mirrors to our souls... yes very true...

I love it when someone hands me the lead rope to their horse... In less then 15 minutes I can tell alot about that horse and the relationship it has with its people..

I can tell how it has been handled, how it thinks...

Yet what about my own horses..

Still reflecting the other day while on a trial ride with Kristi and Jennifer I reflected on how Phooka was doing. I am proud of the big guy, he is pretty solid. Yet there was a point on the trail we came across something he had not seen..

Well he got a little upright... a little cautious and I let him take his time figuring things out.

I did not ride him up to the scary thing and say "Hey you got to get over that scary thing!"

Since I figure he may not even know what was bothering him...

So I let him move away from the problem but continue to follow my arms and legs.. and I did not focus on the scary thing, but a point on the trail away from it. I put us there in my energy and my mind.

Well he was fine..

At one point on the trail ride there we a bunch of paths that separated and I didn't know which one to take. We were in the lead and I felt Phooka sense I was unsure, I felt his feet slow down and felt him prick up his ears a bit. Once I got figured which trail I was supposed to be on he settled with me. But he sensed that I was no longer sure... Once my courage faltered a bit, so did he...

Interesting..

While in my lesson, She who cannot be named told me to slow the feet down... Well I had not asked for the feet to be slowed down and then SWCNBN said release.. Well I said I had not asked for it.. well then SWCNBN said I must have thunk it..

So next time she asked me to slow the feet down, I tried thinking it.. And she said, well do it, and I said I was thinking it and the horse had not picked it up.

Yes how to win friends... LOL...

So two things.. You can be thinking of alot of things, but unless it translates down to your seat, your motion, your hands, the horse will not pick it up.. But sometimes we can be unaware this is happening.. Unaware that we are "preparing" without knowing we are giving the horse cues.

You see I got to thinking about this after my issue with Marshal. Because he had been so brave and courageous. Well now I have to work on his bravery again, his courage, his ability to trust me when his instincts tell him to check out. And I have to be more diligent with him even on the subtle cues because he is already suspicious... You see...

Do you really see?

Hi Ho

LW