Winter is a time to rest, recuperate, and rejuvenate to get ready for spring riding. I remember sitting there on the edge of the bed, struggling to put my socks on and it was like a slap in the face. I was becoming "that" person. The one that couldn't sit on the floor and play board games. The one that made the "oof" sound getting on my horse. The one that just didn't feel so good anymore, I was feeling old. Like many of you, this stuff creeps up slowly, inch by inch, to steel our joy.
I knew I wanted to go into my senior years enjoying riding and part of that was flexibility, balance, and energy but how?
I tried EVERYTHING. Some things helped, some things didn't help and some things were AMAZING.
Flexibility - this started with healthy eating. I got rid of grains and refined sugar and this helped some. I worked on doing things like lifting my knee to my chest, alternating this while I was doing dishes. I played with lunges and side lunges to stretch my inner thigh. I just played with flexibility and movement. I was actually shocked to find out that I could not move my arms like a bird flying but I could move them like a swimmer. It took me some time to get my bird flying shoulders going again. The more I moved, the more I could move.
Balance - this one again I play with. I will see how long I can stand on one leg (practicing with both legs) while brushing my teeth or folding clothes. Chores became a great time to play with balance. Could I load the dishwasher standing on one leg or the other without falling over. This also improved my strength.
Energy - this was by far the most challenging and the most recently solved. I didn't feel like working on balance, flexibility and riding again. It just seemed to take too much energy. The diet helped but wasn't the whole thing. I had to add in a coaching program (more information here if interested) that changed it all and put all the pieces together. The coaching linked the anti-inflammation, the dehydration, the energy, the brain fog, the balance, flexibility and boy do I feel AMAZING!!!! When all the pieces come together, just like a gorgeous jigsaw puzzle, You want to keep feeling better each day and the call to ride returns. It has been missing for me for a while. I love the horses but haven't been called to ride and now I am feeling like I want to get everything lined up and ready to start riding this spring.
I will be documenting my journey back to riding (I hope) with my new podcast starting episodes I am working on now. I will have more information coming soon!
I was climbing down from the step stool in the rabbit area and just as I was stepping off, I panicked! My subconscious realized I would be stepping onto a snake. In the blink of an eye, my body was able to redirect my step to miss the snake. This triggered a number of thoughts for me.
1. My fear was subconscious. I didn't "think" there is a snake and jump, my body just did it and my mind caught up after the fact.
2. The fear was not in my mind. It turned out it was just a skin the snake had shed so I was not in real danger but my subconscious didn't know that.
3.. Fear doesn't take a vacation. I am not afraid of snakes, but I did jump at this to keep me safe. It happened on Thanksgiving day. My fear didn't take the day off for the holiday.
4.. Fear can take place anywhere, anytime. Fear doesn't care if you are sitting on the couch thinking about something that happened, or that it is really happening. Even now as I write about the snake I thought I saw, my heart rate and breathing rate go up. I am sitting on my couch.
Fear takes place in our subconscious first. It might be triggered by our thoughts, like me sitting on the couch writing this or it may be triggered by our senses but we don't think "I am going to be scared" and then be scared. Our subconscious takes over and keeps us safe, whether perceived, imaginary, or real fear.
This give us POWER. We get to choose to think about amazing, positive things so that at least the perceived and imaginary fear can leave us alone. We do have control of our mind and we can practice. Just like putting training wheels on a bicycle, we can practice courage and joy. We can change it around so that fear only takes place when it is actually keeping us safe. We don't want to ignore fear, but honor it, act if necessary, and move into courage and calm if we don't need to react.
Let's practice together!
1. Find a place to sit comfortably.
2.Think of the last thing that scared you that wasn't a big deal, just a little scare.
3. Observe your mind and body: Feel your breathing and your heart rate. Did they increase with the recall of the memory? Notice if how you feel changed. Did your anxiety increase?
4. Now, think about something calming for you or play some calming music.
5. Observe your mind and body as before.
6. Repeat until you can easily bring your feelings back to calm and courage. Then, you can increase the pressure from your memories or the "what if's" from the future.
7. Get really good and feeling the anxiety and fear, and calming back down.
If you would like to read my journey from fear to courage that is filled with ways to help you find your courage, grab my book now! CLICK HERE!
To carry on with my thoughts from the other day, Fear to Courage FB Group Post!
It really got me thinking, how common are horse accidents? I did quite a bit of research and there are a lot of different ways to look at it. I like the study from OSU extension office. It was based on 1000 hours of participation in sports versus injury. I actually was a little shocked to see that riding was just ahead of cycling, swimming and golf, and behind everything else! Football was the worst, baseball and downhill skiing were more injuries than horseback riding.
Some of the things that I found really interesting in my research are that the oldest participants in most Olympics are the riders. This means that even at this level of competition, there is a lot of success as we age. When I was young, I had dreams of competing at the Olympics and I remember the Los Angeles games and my trainer got to be ring crew. I was so excited to watch the ground crew! I didn't have enough talent to get to that level of competition, but it sure did look amazing. I love that it is one of the few sports that men and women compete against each other, the horses are the equalizer.
So back to how common are horse accidents. More research showed that with the safety measures that are now in place, the MIPS helmets, vests, etc, the severity of the injuries has been reduced. This is great news. I know I love my MIPS helmet! It fits amazing. This is the one I have and love! Click here to check it out!
What about compared to other things, not sports related? It was a lot harder to find research, so I am just going with my experience. I have had 5 or 6 concussions. None of these were riding. One was horse related when I was picking out feet and stood up under the cross bar in the cross ties and knocked myself out and gave myself a concussion. I have not had any broken bones (knock on wood) but if I had, it would have been from a number of things not horse related. Skiing has been my biggest downfall. I had to have surgery on my knee and had my neck severely damaged from being hit by a snowmobile.
I am going to share more on my thoughts on how all of these ties into our fear and why horses cause us anxiety when the other stuff may or may not have the same impact. I still ski after my accidents. I still pick out feet after my accident (and even learned to trim). I still drive after my accidents that were not my fault.
This is a very interesting question, and I am sure there are a million answers. Just as with all life, the most critical fear is dying. In a lot of ways, they are blessed. They don't have to be afraid of losing their job, losing their money, IRS tax audit, or any of the other fears and stresses that humans put on themselves. They have one mission, to live through the day.
Their fears stem from anything that is new, that they need to figure out if it is going to kill them. I was standing near the horses one day in the pasture, when a plastic bag went blowing on the wind, all around them and under their legs. They didn't move. When I saw it coming, my fear level went up, and they all started to react, but when I saw this, I just completely relaxed, and they did too. They were not afraid of the bag. They were afraid that I might be afraid of the bag.
Horses survival depends on not being the horse that is most afraid, but they need to not be the slowest to react. The horse that is not in tune to the rest of the herd and danger vibes, will be the horse that doesn't make it, that is food for the predator.
Are they afraid of the predator? No. This shocked me. A friend of mine was working Africa and had the great opportunity to observe lions and the herds. The lions would walk right through the herds to the water and back and nobody would even raise their head. They were not afraid of the lions. Then, when the lioness would start to hunt, at the moment that the first herd animal felt that energy, the warning would go out, and they would all run.
They were not afraid of the predator; they were afraid of the energy of being hunted. This is useful information. We can be that calm leader, that doesn't jump at every little thing, and our horses will start to see us as leader and trust us to keep them safe. The more our energy is calm and aware, the more the horse can relax and let us lead. Wishy washy, anxiety, and fear are not the energies of a leader.
If you enjoyed this, I talk a little more about my journey out of fear and back to courage in my book, would love to have you check it out! Click here!
How often do people get hurt riding horses is such an interesting question. There is so much fear and anxiety around getting hurt riding horses, but I wonder, if the hours spent worrying are more than the hours spent actually recovering from an injury. I am just going to go with my experience and share with you.
My first pony, an unbroke 2-year-old Shetland pony stallion, that we gelded, and I trained to trail ride, when I was 5, I fell off once. I had probably an hour a day with him, for a year and a half, so let's go conservative and say 300 hours. The one time I fell off, he had just had his feet trimmed and he jumped over me to keep from stepping on me and clipped the back of my head. It was 5 stitches and no recovery time. So let's say 5 hours of injury recovery.
My second pony, also a 2-year-old unbroke, but this time, POA filly. When I was about 9, I actually had to stop counting because I had been bucked off over 480 times. Having her for 3 years, and hundreds of hours of riding, and 480 times hitting the dirt, I had no injuries, just depressed from not being able to stay on her. We even had a mountain lion attack us once and we both made it home without her bucking me off! No injuries.
I think my next 6 or 7 horses, from when I was 10 until I was 24 or 25, I didn't have any falls or accidents. I competed in hunters, equitation, worked on a ranch riding their horses, trail riding, etc. and would have added up to 1000's of hours of riding. I then had a fall in a jumper class, no injuries, got back on and competed in the next class. I had a few more falls here and there but no injuries. Then, I had my major accident which I talk about in my book. That one still didn't have any injuries other than bruising, to my physical body but it was the start of the emotional battle.
So here are my thoughts. The more time spent in the saddle, the less chance of getting injured. You get more in tune with your horse, with you, and with your reactions. So, if getting back into riding, start out slow, and build on the riding. Accidents do happen. So prepare your body the best that you can. I take care of my health. My skin was getting thin, I fixed it. My body was getting stiff and sore, I fixed it. I was gaining a little weight, I fixed it. I have a passion to ride. I want to ride. I love to ride. The thousands of hours of joy are worth the chance of getting hurt, but I also do everything in my power to eliminate the risks.
If you are intersted in hearing more about how I have improved my health, here is a link to the amazing coaching program and support group that I am part of. Would love to have you join us! Get Healthy Now!
