Books with Spirit – Joyfulness between horses and people

When you read Zen Connection with Horses, you will understand why your horse needs to feel safe and secure, for you to feel safe and secure too.  Yes, you can read that again.  That is what I said – for you to feel safe and secure, your horse has to feel safe and secure.

And the degree that you feel unsafe and insecure will depend on a combination of how good a rider you are and how great your horse’s need is.  

So if I am right,what can you do to help your horse to feel confident, safe, and secure?

So, if you are one of those of us who experience any nervousness, anxiety, lack of confidence, feelings of not being safe or of insecurity when you are with your horse, then decide that you would like to notice “what it is that you can know or do” for your horse, to help them feel safe, secure and happy again.  Crikey that was a clumsy sentence.  I will need to get my editor to edit my blogs at this rate!

I promise you that it will work – taking any action that helps your horse feel more safe and secure, will have you feeling more confident, safe and secure too.  

If  you experience fear, nervousness, lack of confidence or insecurity around your horse, then have a bit of a go right now.  You can get the quiet mind that will give you answers to how you can help your horse feel more safe and secure with this simple little excercise here.

Close your eyes and notice your breath as you breathe in and out.   See if you can notice your heart beat.  The idea is to use this to find a quiet mind and the answer will drift in when you are ready, no matter how long it takes.  Just chill out and enjoy the quiet mind.

If you have a very busy mind, you may need to practice a quiet mind more often, before “what you can do to help your horse feel more safe and secure” drifts into your mind.  No matter, it will take the time it takes – but it will happen.

If you want to fast track it, the audio lessons attached to Zen Connection with Horses takes you step by step through noticing when your horse starts feeling not OK – and then figuring out what action to take to help them.

If you haven’t read this book yet, you are in for a treat.  It is completely unique and is getting rave reviews from all over the world.  You can read it with my personal “love this book or get your money back” guarantee.  Click here to go to the bookshop or see how extraordinarily different this book is from anything that you have read before by browsing around People’s Stories and Reader’s Letters or through the archives.

A horse is in self carriage when he is moving forward freely and rhythmically, when his feet hit the ground softly and his back is elevated to carry us comfortably and with strength – he is in effect, carrying his own body with grace and strength and happiness.

And he does all that, with no rein and no leg to frame him up.  It is truly the horse carrying himself - with no need for us to interfere.

I guess I can sit here at my computer and tell you that self carriage is an incredibly important foundation in any sort of riding.  I guess I can tell you that very specifically for good dressage, self carriage is an essential foundation before we can have real collection.   

But what’s that going to mean to you, the you that is sitting there on the computer reading this? 

In everything from pleasure riding to Grand Prix dressage, self carriage will give you a comfortable ride and a long lived, free from injury, happy horse.  It means that your horse is going to live longer, with healthier happier joints that mean a longer riding life and a comfortable old age for your friend when the time comes.

It will give you the kind of ride where you just pick up a slightly closer rein when you want to change something.

It will mean that when you are ready to start exploring collection – you will keep the same joyful, free, expressive movement of your horse as you start to collect them up.

And it’s seriously nice to ride!

When they are in self carriage, it is possible for our horse to carry our weight on their backs much, much more comfortably than otherwise.  I was re-assured when I put on heaps of weight when I stopped smoking, to realize that with my horse’s back elevated, he could carry me with ease.  Injuries and back problems are dramatically reduced, if not eliminated.  In fact, I have noticed that old injuries can actually heal when a horse is free from fear and in self carriage.

If you pick up two reins to ride close contact and your horse is not already in self carriage - then real collection just ran further away from you.  Yeah, I know… I thought that too.  I’ll bet most of you said to yourselves, “How the heck am I supposed to get it then?”   So how can we get it?

I promise you that it is a lot easier than you think!

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