RIDE FROM THE HEART

Early days with my technique of riding

This fundamental lesson for me, in communicating with horses, began on a very windy day whilst riding on Exmoor in the south west of England. The mares in the adjoining field were galloping and creating havoc causing Delfin, my Andalusian stallion, to become totally distracted from his work.  His head was in the air and he strutted around like a peacock! 

My seat, leg aids and voice commands were useless and my stress levels rose. My frustration increased and this just added to the electrical currents of energy flowing through Delfin’s mind and body. The fine tuning and telepathy, which I sought, had totally disappeared. Have you ever tried to tune a radio into a station with no aerial!!  This was my dilemma. I halted and felt his quivering energy which was ready to launch anywhere.

Almost without a thought I took a deep breath inwards, I suppose in exasperation as my communications were having no impact on Delfin! Slowly, I remember breathing quite strongly outwards and I began to feel a more attentive response. The air released, with the outward breath, caused a flow of relaxation and energy through my body. My seat relaxed and my legs became lighter around his rib cage. Delfin responded immediately. I felt a slight lifting and loosening of his back. He began to concentrate and walk forwards more calmly. I leant forward, stroked his neck and took a breath inwards, Delfin came back to halt. I had not planned this and felt it happen as an instinctive response.

I was extremely curious about the effect of my breathing on Delfin, and so I began to repeat these exercises over and over again. He would move from halt to walk or walk to trot with every deep breath out and then respond by coming back down the transitions, with my deeper inward breath. I was amazed. He was concentrating much more on my breathing and not so much on the mares and the other external influences.

Could these techniques work again? The following day I was eager to repeat these techniques with him to see if I could gain a similar response. Yes, I was delighted, as the lessons were repeated, remembered and understood.

 Could they help me to communicate with any other horses, or was it just between Delfin and myself? He is an extremely sensitive horse and maybe other horses would not pick up such subtle changes in the breathing patterns of the rider.

BE PREPARED TO LEARN SOMETHING NEW

I wanted to explore further, so I used these techniques with my bay stallion, Maestu. He has a totally different outlook on life, being very laid back but quite assertive and dominant in nature. He can be quite grumpy if he is not the first horse to be worked each day!

Although Maestu is so very different in his nature from Delfin, he quickly understood and responded to the same breathing patterns. This was a breakthrough in my communications. I had realized the significance of the rider’s seat, but I had not thought deeply about the importance of breathing. I now realize that our understanding of breathing is fundamental to control and balance of both our body and seat!