Horsemanship Observations - Part 1
Now this my first attempt at writing a blog of this nature, so bare with me. I was doing some thinking yesterday about how the world has gotten. To where expectations are so high, a world where everything needs to look and feel perfect, right away, NOW! And how because of this we micro manage every situation, petrified that something might go wrong.
I love my job, it's the whole reason we started The Print Locker and TPL Equestrian. But everyone has their bad days, their down days, their lack lustre days right? And yet we leave work at 5pm and off we head to over to our horses, and we expect them to behave the same everyday, to perform to their maximum capabilities, no matter what, we want more from them, we want them to be able to do what we want them to do NOW! And yet we don't trust them to do it by themselves, we micro manage them, using our bodies to get them to do what we want them to do, often even when they might be more capable of managing themselves if we just got out of their way!
So last night I went to my horse, I tacked her up and decided we would go for a ride with absolutely no expectations. I would ride her as if I was riding a horse I had never met before, with no assumptions about how she was going to be. I was going to stay out of her way and see what happened.
I chose a route I love, with beautiful scenery, and decided I would take as long as we needed (I usually like to cover as many miles as possible in the time I have) and see how the evening took us.
We left the yard at a steady trot and soon reached the common which is pretty waterlogged at the moment. I made no assumptions about how she would react to the change of ground, and we continued our steady trot right to the top of the common. Usually I would anticipate that my mare would get a little silly with the wet muddy ground underfoot, and then she would start to pull and run half way up as she anticipated that we would canter to the top. I guess this then makes me a little tight in my body which transfers over to her and makes her tight too. But by 'pretending' I wasn't expecting her to do what she normally does, and by letting her get on with what she needed to do to negotiate the wet slippy ground, the 'sillyness', it didn't happen. Hmmm, that was interesting.
Then when we reach the top of the common we have to negotiate a ditch to get back to the road. Usually I hold her together and slow her feet for her as she often stumbles over this terrain. But this time I 'pretended' we had never negotiated this ditch before and just kept a soft hold of the reins and let her handle it by herself, and guess what, no stumbling or rushing!
On the way back we have to come through a rather springy gate off of the bridle way and the gate will usually swing and shut behind us with a bang. When we came to the gate I 'pretended' I had never taken her through a gate before and I did not know if the gate would bang or not, I did not expect her to spook at the gate as she has done so many times. I opened the gate and rode through, then stood and waited while the gate swang shut next to us and guess what - she didn't spook!
It soon became clear that most of the expectations I have of my horse are negative, and well that just made me feel awful. I always expect that she will do something 'bad' and she needs me to 'hold her together'.
And do you know what, the ride took us no longer than it has done on other days when I have put us under pressure to be out and back for a certain time.
This has given me a lot to think about, and not just in my relationship with my horse. I always thought I was positive and trusting. But I don't think I have been giving that impression to my horse!
Definitely something to think on - and certainly something to work on!
Jess | Founder | TPL Equestrian
Please let me know if you found this blog useful in anyway, as I would like to share some more thoughts if people would like to read it?
Please also note that I am not a horse expert or professional trainer, these are simply observations I have had