I went to a demo clinic last night about riding with feel. Interesting thought – feel. In our human world we often see a situation and say it doesn’t “feel” right; we meet someone and later declare that we didn’t have a good “feel” about that person. But, how does this fit in with horses? Is it the same kind of “feel”?
Being prey animals, I know my horses are on the watch and aware of their surroundings. But what about the people they interact with on a regular basis? Through my studies, I know that horses mirror the rider or handler. How many times do we go to the barn after a bad day at work only to find that our horses does not listen or obey our commands. Still in a bad mood, we place the blame of the bad ride on the horse – it has an attitude today, not even considering that the horse was playing off our “feelings” that evening.
When performing therapeutic riding, our horses are interfacing with both a rider and a leader. I know that they will often tune into the rider and adjust their gate accordingly. But what about the leader? I have seen horses that were very edgy in one class and calm in the next. Was it the leader, the rider, or a combinaiton of the two that cuased the horse to react? Did the leader in the second class have a different aura or feel and the horse, “feeling” the calmness became calm as well?
I am considering purchasing the book and maybe the CDs on this topic to see what insight they might give me when working with our horses. I’ll post the results when I see them.
May 3, 2009 at 4:52 am
wow…really helpful post, thanks for sharing.
May 4, 2009 at 8:27 am
Hi, interesting post. I have been thinking about this issue,so thanks for writing. I’ll definitely be coming back to your site.
May 19, 2009 at 11:14 am
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