The fitness of YOUR mind, body and soul is just as important as the fitness of your horse

When it comes to riding and working with horses, the fitness of YOUR mind, body and soul is just as important as the fitness of you horse

What I mean by fitness of mind body and soul is….

Mind - your confidence and your clarity. You are your horses herd leader - for them to feel confident, you need to be too. Clarity in what you ask of them, if you are unsure of what you are asking your horse to do, how are they meant to figure it out?

Body - balance, strength, proprioception, general fitness

Imagine a sack of potatoes bouncing around on your horses back - there’s no strength or balance to them, it wouldn’t feel very nice and it sure wouldn’t make life very easy for your horse.

Improving balance is not only going to help keep you in the saddle when shit goes wrong but it will help your horse be balanced, If you are off balance, then they will be too.

Balance also refers to the balance of left to right side strength - the more even you are the easier riding will be.

When I talk about strength I don’t mean arm strength to pull on the reins to stop a horse, that’s not my vibe but strength of your whole body to support your joints, keep them moving freely and allow you to sit tall and light on a horse.

Proprioception - being aware of where your body parts are and how they are moving. The stronger proprioception, the less you have to think about your body in space and the more focus you can put on other things.

General fitness - think back to time your fitness was at its lowest, how much harder was riding a horse?

Soul - presence, calm, energy.

The ability to be present with your horse in the moment, to let go of what happened in the past or what ‘might” happen in the future and focus on what’s happening right now, the horse you have today because just like humans, horses have different needs day to day depending on how they feel, what the weathers done, what they have eaten etc

Calmness is a key skill to working with a horse, not everything always goes to plan so having tools in place to stay calm when shit hits the fan so you can control the situation is important.

The energy frequency you vibrate at - everything in this world is energy, we are more energy than we are matter. The energy frequency you are operating will have a huge effect on your horses behaviour - ever had trouble catching your horse when you are in a bad mood? described your horse as “hot” when you are excited and/or nervous? or have you had a horse be super cuddly when you are feeling lonely? what about having a horse do everything “perfectly” on days where you just need to someone to listen?

It’s not coincidence, it’s your energy frequencies.

So the more you can learn to operate at levels that work for you horse the more success you will have.