[Brief Rider] N°4

But what does it take to develop a skill?

While I was lucky enough to go skiing this year, which puts me in the position of learning a new sport, I find the parallel with horses interesting.

Last year, I did 3 days of skiing. So I'm a complete beginner, at 25 years old (do you see the problem coming?)

At that point, to say I struggled is an understatement.

I've been in great difficulty... the cause?

A very significant latent stress, no mental availability, no ability to regulate my emotions, a body that I did not control in these new movements,...

Finding myself in a rather unpleasant situation gave me the impetus to initiate change a few months later. Not that I didn't see the problem, but rather that in a long-standing routine, it didn't pose a very visible problem...

This year, back to skiing, for 3 days.

I've been much more comfortable, even though I'm still a beginner, obviously. When I'm having difficulties, or when I scare myself by accidentally finding myself in front of a red slope wall, I manage to regain a little lucidity. Even if it's very challenging... I manage to move my skis, something that would have been impossible a year earlier...

But what has changed?

I was able to reduce my anxiety level and improve my emotional regulation. While I was often in fight-flight or shut-down mode, I am now better able to identify my nervous state and regain calm, an essential condition for learning!

I am learning to use my body better, because I understand and identify my body schema.

Team Work Makes the Dream Work

Several people accompany me in this work.

When I was in the United States, Katherine Lowry helped me realize that I wasn't really functioning using my glutes, and that I wasn't able to properly engage my different muscle chains (among other great discoveries!). She coached me with gentle and progressive exercises, to raise awareness and then integrate these movements, both static and dynamic. Her famous "Pillars of the Rider", which I invite you to discover: EQUILibrium Biomechanics, LLC.

Furthermore, Céline Blondelot Eft, EFT therapist, helps me work on past and present events, on traumatic memory, etc. her approach, EFT, suits me perfectly in its way of relaying body and mind. It is by integrating sensation into memory that I have gained the most emotional regulation.

Now, do you see the parallel with our horses? For a horse to be capable of learning, it must be able to regulate its emotions, use its body in an appropriate and sustainable way,... even beyond simple repetition. And for that, you have to know how to identify what it is, and support it in its evolution.

How many horses are too stressed to retain anything, and yet it is not taken into account, or worse, identified? How many, before being ridden, do not carry themselves at all? And yet, they are worked like that, and we even expect performances from them. Maybe there are some (satisfactory ones?) but it is mainly physical and mental injuries that are harvested.

In short, horse training is an ability to identify the horse's emotional state, to meet them where they are, to adapt, to reinvent the approach as much as necessary,... and to show empathy for the individual in front of us, who is in the delicate learning situation... Where we too are constantly evolving & questioning ourselves. I am not saying that stress should not exist, but that it must remain tolerable & not harm the acquisition of knowledge.

Let's challenge ourselves and our horses with new activities, because the foundation is solid enough to move towards new things.

And you, what is your experience?

#horsetrainer #horsetraining #horse riding #loiretcher