We often associate negativity with obligation. When we feel like we are ‘obligated’ to do things it feels like pressure, and that can cause us to want to push back on it. Kind of like “No one is going to tell me what to do” style.
I’m participating in my TKH100 challenge - a 100 day challenge where you commit to doing something with your horse every day, other than just feeding. You can do as little as picking out their feet, a full training session, but you must do more than just feed them. The point being that all the small things make a huge difference. I am only home for a month, so I elected to do 30 days. Im halfway through, and being home there is lots of work to be done, but it is unstructured, as opposed to when I am away teaching clinics each week. A few things that have happened over the past 2 weeks - dogs had an altercation with a deadly brown snake (both are fine), Gallie hurt her eye (she is fine) both of which required vet visits and, in Gallie’s case, treatment multiple times per day. In any case, there have been multiple days that I haven’t wanted to do the challenge. The only thing that got me through was obligation. Knowing that I had committed to myself, my horses and the public that I was going to do it. And you know what ? That’s OK! Sometimes Obligation is the only motivation that you have, so use it! Its not negative, unless we want it to be - I consider it a safety net. My brain can justify anything when it wants to, but when I have the safety net of obligation, It is simple for me. If you are doing something out of obligation every day for weeks, months or years, then yes you may consider if you even want to be doing it at all. For me obligation will get me through those days when I'm too tired or too wired until I get back to doing it because I want to. Look at it this way - many of us have heard of an ‘accountability buddy’ - someone to book in with to go exercise for example. We see this as a positive thing - its just about our attachment or feeling that is generated with the word. Flip the switch on our feelings on obligation, and think of it as the right thing to do.
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For years our intuition has been suppressed and ignored, leading to not only a reduced sensitivity to our intuition, but a lack of ability in interpretation. Intuition keeps us safe, helps us to move through our day with a little more ease, and, when it comes to our horses, provides us with a deeper level of communication. Intuition doesn’t need to be a mystical experience left for witches and warlocks, though it can be deep and unexplainable. Often it’s simply pause and reflect long enough to figure out what feels right. I heard a story recently about a fellow who was out in the paddock, and his best horse walked up and touched / bumped him with this nose. It was uncharacteristic behaviour. But, as our modern training is apt to do, he disciplined the horse, and went in for the night. The next day they found the horse with colic, and despite significant efforts to save him, the horse died. Intuition would cause a pause and reflect “this is my best horse, he doesn’t do this, something must be wrong” instead of a “get out of that you bugger”. Intuition is a muscle. Intuition is about feel. You can strengthen your intuition muscle by slowing down, paying attention, and allowing your body to tell you what your next move should be. You can try it next time you are brushing your horse. Observe him, and feel your body to be guided on where to brush, how hard, and for how long. Trust yourself. My new book - Lessons from Horses, Enlightenment is available to purchase and gives insight into how our horses think, learn and process information. Head to our website horsemanshipforperformance to purchase. Both will get you hurt. Doing our utmost to prevent horse and rider incidents and accidents is the foundation of our foundation training. There are several elements that factor in when it comes to being safe with your horse. 1. Observation of body language, so we can see when our horse begins to get worried. Often it takes the ‘spook’ for us to feel like something is ‘off’. 2. Part 2 is interpretation of our horses body language. Is he elevated in general. Or is there a specific thing that is bothering him. 3. Often the most overlooked - action. It is our job to take action before our horse escalates further. I see a lot of incidents where the person can clearly see that the horse is bothered, but then they don’t do anything about it. This could be because they have become complacent — “this is my old horse, he never spooks” or because they are simply ignorant / uneducated “he’s worried but he will come down”. Intervention is us taking responsibility for our, and our horses safety. Horses don’t apply a logical thought pattern to ‘coming down’ from being elevated. Horses naturally have a process to ‘come down’ which is “run first, think later”. Newsflash — you probably don’t want them to run! So intervening is what helps keep everyone safe. Create distance. Move their feet. Humans get hurt because they apply human logic to situations. A horse will spook at something and the human will say “but he’s seen it before” or “but he wanted to go up to it” — this is one of the biggest issues I see. The horse is curious and wants to approach something, and the rider lets them. Then the horse spooks and bolts, and the rider says “but he wanted to go up to it”. Horses don’t think “oh I’ll go up and if I’m worried I’ll casually walk away” horses think “what’s that ?” Followed by “I’m out of here!” When you see your horse is worried about something, work at a safe distance to create confidence and a calm approach. If you can’t tell when he’s worried, spend time observing him so you can better understand him. |