Better than yesterday

Courtney and I had a very monumental lesson tonight. The arena was loud and creaky, the wind was howling and her mare, Ellie, was rather jumpy and tense in the beginning. They had experienced a difficult patch in their relationship, developing trust and compassion, and working on establishing an open line of communication between one another. Today’s session was a huge test to see how much their relationship has grown and how well they could continue to communicate. 

Instead of fixating on having Ellie focusing on Courtney and micromanaging, we started playing with leg yields, shoulder-in and lateral games. These are all movements that I find to be extremely intrinsically motivating when done correctly, meaning they feel powerful, comfortable and fun for the horse to do, so naturally they want to do more of it. 

Just by working on sideways movement and coordination, Ellie started to feel more confident, relaxed and slowly started stopping instinctually reacting to the noises. Courtney started to feel like she was in better control and let go of the feeling that she needed to grab her reins to be safe. Instead she learnt how to move Ellie’s feet and set a consistent pace and rhythm. 

Together they passed the test. They left the arena feeling relaxed and proud of what they accomplished, as they should.