Books with Spirit – Joyfulness between horses and people

Replying to the question on the home page blog.

Yes Debra, you are absolutely right about the passenger lesson by itself giving leadership to your horse - good instincts. 

But it depends on what you and your horse are looking for from each other.  ‘Cos the other side of that is that leadership is not the most important thing to me…..Living and communicating together without any kind of fear, establishing and then using a communication that brings comfort and joy to both of us, co-operation – all these things are much, much more important to me than leadership, which can and does start to happen quite simply when these other things are in place. 

I am not keen on the passenger game just going on and on for 30 minutes.  (Even with breaks every ten minutes as Debra described in a later email.) It only takes two minutes of tension to create a habit of tension.) From my experience ( and I did mega miles at it) and what I’ve seen of its results, the horses are most often not using their bodies properly, i.e. not in self carriage and they are at least a little bogged down in the front end and most importantly of all – very often not in their comfort zones.  And then again, practising crap just makes for perfect crap. 

It’s like… if you go on and on, repeating the same thing often enough for long enough, then yes, our horse will get used to it.  We and they can get used to just about anything.  But from what I see, there is a difference between “being used to it” and actually being happy about it.  

I like Philip Nye’s version of the passenger game much better and Bobby asked for it with even deeper comfort than Phil’s version.  It’s described in Bobby’s Diaries in great detail.  If you haven’t got Bobby’s Diaries, then let me know and I’ll send you an extract. Click here if you would like more details about Bobby’s Diaries and the newer book and audio lesson set, Zen Connection with Horses.

When people do Bobby’s version of the passenger game in clinics, the horse is in self carriage on a long rein very quickly (that’s an elevated strong back for carrying their person comfortably and a strong, rhythmic, soft stride that is yummy to ride) – it’s awesome to watch working the comfort zone get results so fast! 

This self carriage is a fabulous base for everything, no matter what type of riding you do.  And if you are into dressage, it is such a short step from self carriage to powerful, joyful and incredibly well balanced collection. 

I hope this helps, Cheers,  jenny

P.S. Do you mind if I put your question and my answer on the website?  It’s an interesting one.