I was hanging out with the horses while they were eating one evening and the wind blew a plastic bag into the pasture with them. That bag swirled around their legs and all around them and the three bay girls didn't even flick an ear toward it. I started to wonder if they spook when I am riding them because of my thoughts and energy instead of actually being afraid of the bag. I thought about being on one of them and I felt the terror of a bag blowing right at us just to see what would happen. I was shocked! They all three spooked! They had not moved for several minutes and I changed my thoughts and they spooked. We may be the ones spooking at stuff more than our horses and this is powerful knowledge.
Here are a few things we can do:
1. Learn to focus, no matter what is going on around you. Pick your favorite color, or a color that is all around you. FOCUS on that color. Fill up with that color. Share in your thoughts that color with your horse. By focusing on something simple, like a color, you can easily ignore everything else and help your horse ignore it all too.
2. There is power in words. Use that power for your advantage. Pick a word or phrase that brings you calm. Mine is "I am the eye of the storm". When I say that, I can feel calm wash over me, even when there is chaos all around me. This is a good one to practice when you are away from your horse. Traffic is a great place to practice! Make it so that you automatically start saying your phrase when you are chaotic situations and then it will be second nature when you ride.
3. Play the positive/negative game. Set a timer for one minute and just write down as many positive or negative words as you can. Count up each category and this is your starting score. Set the timer for minute every day for a month and try and see if you can increase your positive score and reduce your negative to zero. The key is to write down every word/phrase that comes into your head and don't "prescreen" them. That skews the score and reduces the value in the exercise. We want to have our first reaction starting to be more positive in how we think. Here are a few fun words to get you started: smile, laugh, joy, love, bouncy, giggles, excitement, powerful, amazing, sweet, etc.
0 Comments