I know for a long time, I wasn't sure if it was me or the horse that spooked. I never really believed that horses could feel my fear. You have probably heard that a hundred times, horses feel your fear. I thought I believed it, but did I really believe?
There are two things that have convinced me this is true and that is powerful. If they feel us, we can become better riders with that knowledge.
The first thing was hearing about the zebra herds in Africa. They are all grazing, not a care in the world and a lioness walks right through to the watering hole, and then back to snooze in the shade. The herd just keeps right on grazing. The lioness wakes up from her snooze and decides to hunt and immediately, the first zebra that feels her energy sounds the alarm and, in that instant, THEY ALL RUN. They could feel the energy of the lioness. We are chump change compared to that so we must be much easier to read, we are not even trying to hide our emotions.
The second thing that changed my belief was the windy day I was near the horses while they were eating. I watched a plastic bag blow off the porch and all the way into the pasture, around the horses' legs, under them, around them, and not a single horse even flicked an ear. I decided to be fearful of the bag, really terrified. As soon as I had the thought, the horse jumped and ran with their tails up and snorting at the bag. It was eye opening, and it gave me power.
We can work on our focus, our energy, our emotions. We can become better. We can leave the mind chatter at home. We are empowered to make different choices. Especially riding, we can stay focused on where we are going and what we are doing, and we can ignore everything else. This is assuming well broke horses and not greenies but even with horses that are learning, the more we have consistent, confident emotions, the more they will rely on us as leaders.
My latest blog I share about the plastic bag incident and my insights. If you would like to check it out, you can listen on most podcast platforms or click here to watch on Rumble.
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