Emotion! Should we ride with or without???

​So often riders are told to leave their emotions at the gate with regards to riding. What does this mean and do you think it is a good idea? Does this idea resonate with you?

I believe that for sure, you do need to be able to control your emotions and clear them before working with horses, or any animals in that case. If you have had a bad day, are tired, stressed, possibly grumpy you will not be the same partner for your horse as if you were happy and carefree. It is important for us to acknowledge when we are not at our best emotionally and perhaps alter what we do with our horses accordingly. Perhaps a better option than a flat training session would be some pole work exercises or a trail ride.

I think another good reason for the advice to train in a non-emotional manner is so that riders do not take any of the horse’s responses personally. Horses never, ever do something to make the rider angry on purpose. It just isn’t in their make-up/dna. They just respond to the questions asked of them in the way they understand and find possible. It should never be a us and them relationship but a partnership developed from trust and understanding. Understand and accept your horse’s limitations and the difficulties he/she has with particular movements and don’t become frustrated when they do not progress as you feel they should.

BUT – here are two reasons I feel emotions have a very big role to play when riding and training horses.
Number one – Horses know when we are happy, pleased or excited! When new progress is made become excited and let your horse feel how you feel! Make it all fun for them and find out what rewards they really like and use them.

Number two (and this is a big one) – we can and do link certain postures and movement patterns to emotions and by doing this can use a different part of your brain to the analytical part that is telling you how to do a particular movement. So if you always slouch when sitting trot, rather than telling yourself to sit up, shoulders back and down or whatever else you tell yourself (often resulting in increased stiffness) you can just remind yourself to be proud and happy or whatever other words resonate with you and then continue on your merry way talking yourself through a test or movement such as shoulder in! Don’t believe me? Try it now. Wherever you are sitting. Think hard about of one of your greatest achievements and notice how your posture changes! It doesn’t have to be a riding moment. Anything that will elicit that feeling and then done often enough you can link this to a cue word. Incredible isn’t it!
I love the use of cue words and neurolinguistic programming and cover a lot of this in the Equest Connect Rider Program. This allow riders to make rapid, long-lasting change to their positions. Exercises are done on and off the horse to develop body awareness, flexibility and stability and these new feelings are linked to powerful imagery and self-selected cue words, ensuring riders can recall them during future rides. I run these as individual or shared sessions, tailored to your own specific needs. Best of all, these complement what you do with your coach and are by no means designed to replace or interfere with your current training.