I See You
I See YOU
So often when we are interacting with our horses, we are thinking about what needs to be done at work or at home later, that we often forget to just “be”. I used to spend the majority of my rides or even ground sessions dissecting my day or planning new adventures. I would use that time to sort through my emotions and thoughts.
“Wouldn’t it be cool to go riding in Fish Lake National forest, or wow I really messed up at work today.” Inevitably, my horse stops and in annoyance, I ask again for a forward trot.
I never stopped to think about the horses that had to deal with me as I pushed through whatever feelings of anxiety or stress I was working on. It wasn’t until years later that I realized how much of an injustice to my horses this was. Here I was, asking them to focus and commit to me when I was off somewhere else. It was like trying to have a serious conversation with a friend while simultaneously browsing through Facebook. I was there but I was not fully committed to them, it was incredibly selfish of me and I am grateful that the horses I worked with were able to connect and learn with me regardless of what my mentally was at the time.
It is never a good idea to try and hide your emotions from the horses you are working with, they will pick up on the suppressed emotion and be worried that you are hiding something, making them more anxious and learning and teaching more frustrating for the both of you.
Nowadays, I practice mindfulness and I am so much more self aware, I can track my emotions and instead of trying to hide or push them away, I acknowledge them and let them float away when working with horses. I like to start each training session with the verbal expression of “I see you”, to me this means I will forget my other concerns, put them away for an hour or two and just be with my horse.
