Staying Focused
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"Love your horse enough to stay focused in only the exact moment"
Sometimes when perusing my Kindle, the right book at the right time emerges. Zen Mind Zen Horse popped up on my feed and I said ok, ill bite, and the quote above is from that book. I polished it off in one night, and the parts I needed to read were very clear. I have a horrible habit of "what if-ing" myself to death and riding (or driving!) 5 steps, days or years ahead of my horse, trying to will or beg or head off any problem at the pass. Has it ever worked, well, maybe a little when driving, but I owe this horse to not focus on what he's done, but what he's doing right in this moment.
"My goal with the horses is not to beat someone; it’s to win within myself. To do the best job I can do and tomorrow to try to do better. You’ll be working on yourself to accomplish this, not your horse." - Ray Hunt
I never expected working with Finn to be so transcendental for the both of us. I have faced my life crippling functional anxiety head on and learned how to focus on my feet touching the earth, ground my energy and be a better partner for him. Im not clenching, holding, or not breathing. Im breathing with purpose now, with laser focus on my Chi. Ive noticed all my animals being more relaxed and content around me more often through this conscious "unclenching" process I've been going through.
Todays lesson was all about relaxation. Scary things? Drop your head and relax. Things flying over head? drop your head and relax. Petting in strange areas? drop your head and relax. He was doing so well with this lesson and really responding to the relaxation "think" tools we were giving him that we decided to just see if momentarily we could transfer this lesson to relax with someone on board. And he did. Well done pony. He's sleeping on that idea tonight.
Of course, Ive finally found a great boarding situation that I'm only going to be a part of for a couple more weeks. They've really rallied around Finn and stop by and give him cookies and positive human interaction all day long. Thats my second favorite thing about this barn is the positive love he gets! They're so supportive of our plight and are very encouraging. Too bad they're way over my price range and an hour and a half away- but its been fun to have a barn to escape to. They wanted to know about todays session so we were standing in the aisle talking about todays lesson on relaxation when he knocked my helmet off my head and it clamored royally to the ground. Two weeks ago he probably would have done more than slightly lean away from me, snort and... drop his head and relax.