Books with Spirit – Joyfulness between horses and people

In “ Bobby’s Diaries – Straight From the Horse’s Mouth to You” and again in “Zen Connection with Horses”, we (yes the royal “we” of my horse Bobby and myself!) wrote about how there was a simple way to get leadership with horses.  You get it given to you by your horse when you  ”control speed and direction with the right attitude”.

I thought that I knew what the right attitude was, but I have discovered that it is an ever unfolding and wonderfully complex part of leadership.  

Us humans generally and even  me specifically, have still had way too much emphasis on gaining leadership, which is often confused with the alpha horse (who is dominant and not the actual leader). 

But here is a thought.  Just like many horses, some people are never going to have leadership over their horses.   Not every horse wants or is even capable of being the herd leader and there is nothing in the slightest bit wrong about  that.  Some, maybe even many, humans will never be leaders of their horses and there is nothing wrong with that either.  

So here is a bunch of questions that are much more important than leadership.   

• “How do we get the consistent co-operation of our horses when we are not the leader?”
• “How do we get consistent co-operation from our horses while we are working to become the leader if leadership is what we choose to work on?”
• “Who are we now and who do we want to be with our horses?” (I have noticed that the answer to that question is constantly growing.)
• “How can we be safe with our horses?”
• “How can we enjoy our horses while all this other stuff is going on?” 

Answering all of those questions at the same time, over time, may become leadership … or not. 

But the leadership won’t matter if we are enjoying that journey.  And enjoying the journey for me is happening as I think about those questions above and make conscious decisions about them.  Enjoying that journey is happening as my horses generally turn themselves inside out to give me what it is that I am asking for.

And of course, the answers are unique to that horse and that rider.

I watch with pleasure, readers and students of all different levels of skill, enjoying their journey with their horses in ways that they never believed were possible, in ways that were so simple when they got given the keys.  You can have the keys too.  Click here for the bookshop for Bobby’s Diaries or Zen Connection with Horses. where all my books have my personal  “love this book or get your money back” guarantee  or click here to have a look at the beautiful clinics that we run based around the insights in those books.