The key tool in riding is our self - our body and our mind. We can’t go out and buy a new self, because you and I are unique!
We all have the potential for more, but we often spend valuable time lamenting what we are, using negative energy, rather than slowly but surely building what we want to be using positive energy – teaspoonful by teaspoonful.
The television is full of programmes about “make-overs” - cosmetics, hairdos, clothes, surgery, diets and so on. Appearances are relatively easy to change! Fortunately for we riders our horse doesn’t care about the way we look. He doesn’t notice our greasy unfashionable hair; our podgy tummy, our unfashionable clothes…only in so far as they affect our attitude – how we feel inside!
How many programmes do we see on television about what’s on the inside? Not many! Why? It takes a long time to change the inside – be it the inside of our mind or our body. But this is what will make the real difference to our riding and to our lives.
Many riding books focus on the way the rider looks on the outside – her position. But for me the most important thing is how it feels on the inside. When it feels right it will look right – believe me. Working purely on the outside just plasters over the cracks. It will never completely correct what is on the inside…and it will appear on the outside again.
It will feel right when you are balanced; relaxed and following the horse’s movement (Museler (15)). So stop trying to make it look right and go for making it feel right.
It is the same with our horse. When we try to make it look right (ie we only change the outside) it will not be sustainable. Once again, for sustainable results we must forget the outside and work on the inside – the horse’s balance, his relaxation and his attentiveness to our aids. When we have these three things his outline will be right. Don’t believe me. Try it and see for yourself.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating abandoning mirrors, video cameras and eyes on the ground. They are an invaluable form of feedback from a different perspective. They help us to calibrate look and feel so that we can build trust in our feel. They are especially important whilst we are learning to improve our feel as our own internal feel system is often distorted by years of habitual poor body use.