Soft Feel Sundays

When we first begin our riding journey, everything seems to be black and white. Pull left to turn left, pull right to turn right, pull both to stop and kick to go.

As we master these big brushstrokes, we begin to layer in some additional supportive movements––pull left and look left, pull right and look right, pull both and lean back. As we begin to couple in these additions, we start to learn about refinement and making our cues smaller. Then we begin to ride with our body and focus before our reins and legs and so on.

Once we reach the level at which we feel we are pretty good horse riders and trainers, we can sometimes hit a big plateau. I see many riders struggle when they reach this point. It can often turn into a 'search for a coach' situation as they roll from one instructor to the next, looking for that single secret that will get them off the plateau, and back to the climb.

What it takes time to understand is that when we reach this point, where we can do most of what we want to do, our horse is a pretty nice partner, and we are just 'getting stuck' on some more advanced manoeuvres. it's not actually about finding the 'next best instructor', its about learning the nuance. I am not saying that you may not need a new instructor, but often we don't. What we do need is, to review everything we know with the new eyes we now have.

Nuance is the feel in which we present information and cues to the horse, nuance in the timing of when and how we reward our horse, nuance in understanding the way they are carrying themselves.
When we feel that it is time to "find the nuance" in our riding, that is when we get to review all of our tools, skills, knowledge and not just say "I know this" but ask ourselves "what can I learn about the nuance of this?"

Linda Sawrey and I recently presented a mini workshop where I did a demonstration with a horse on the Window of Tolerance, and the skills I was demonstrating are nothing new, but the power in watching a demonstration like that, when you have watched so many demonstrations before, is to find the nuance in what you are seeing, not to sit there and think "oh yes this is what I do".
Where will you find nuance this week?



T x

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