Living In A World of Words

A big obstacle for developing quality horsemanship is our desire to talk that takes us out of our ability to observe. To really guide and interact with a horse, we need to be here right where our feet are, noticing the needs of the horse and responding. This allows us to create smooth conversations with our horse and avoid unnecessary corrections.

Many people often complain that their horse isn’t attentive to them, or is tuning them out, but what I find is quite frequently people tune their horse out until the horse does something they don’t like. It’s easy to get caught up in talking about a problem, especially telling stories about what we’ve done to fix it or what the problem is rooted in, instead of really feeling where that problem begins and heading it off. Many times when someone tells me about a problem, they’re so busy talking about it that I have to interrupt to point out what can be done to fix it right NOW. It’s also easy to get caught up in talking about what we do or want to do, instead of really doing it in the moment.

There is nothing wrong with talking, but for many people, talking interrupts their ability to feel and notice. From the moment you step out to halter your horse, each step belongs to you - you are building patterns of awareness and connection, or teaching your horse there is nothing to tune in to by being tuned out yourself.