A leg on each side and your mind in the middle

Annual Trail Rides: 109/200 (Bareback 4/12)

In one of my latest Rashid books he mentions the old-timer saying "keep a leg on each side and your mind in the middle" and spoke on the challenge of riders to keep riding and not become a passenger, while we think of all the other things we have to do, or where we have to be. To stay focused on riding for the entire time is actually very difficult, and not at all natural. And yet, we sure don't like our horses minds to wander while we are riding.

I do see a tremendous amount of passenger riding happen, on trail and in the arena. I see a lot of horses that are trained to execute on specific cues, and riders that rely on those cues to perform. But ask them to stay focused for an entire hour or two? Probably not. Most experienced riders go into a passive intuitive state when they ride (me too! Im very guilty of this) and plan the pattern of their work, and then cue the horse to execute.

His suggestion is to focus on a quiet mind, removing any emotions from what you want to work on. Second, is to ensure we are breathing properly (like in yoga). Third is to find the connection between your centre and your horses.

The second I stopped pushing - trying to force the connection between the two of us - the door opened to me, and the connection was made. Then the information transferred, and the movement between us came through.

(Mark Rashid, Horsemanship through life)

So last week I decided to do a centered exercise to 2 inches below my belly button, focusing my "eye" at that point and riding. Um, something happened but I still think it might be a fluke. 

Finally, there is some interesting thinking about breathing, and that perhaps we aren't breathing as well as we think when we ride. Rashid suggests the book, and exercises, in the Breathing Book. Im waiting for my copy.

In the latest book I devoured, Mark Rashid speaks to the goal of pressure and how the horses can teach us the subtle art. I leave you with this last quote that reflects my personal goal with my horse, and myself.

The goal, when it comes to the use and understanding of pressure, is to one day to become as skillful with its application and release as the horse is. I'd like to be able to use just the right amount of pressure to get the desired response without troubling the horse too much and have the understanding for the application to come through to the horse quickly and without resentment. Perhaps if I can accomplish that, I will have not only have learned how to be a little better horseman, but hopefully in the process I will have learned a little something about how to become a better person as well.

(Mark Rashid, Nature in Horsemanship)