When you feel the tension, your horse feels the tension ten-fold. You know this and try to relax. Breathe in……breathe out. Nothing is working, your horse is wound as tight as a spring, and you know he is about to explode at any minute. Standing bug-eyed, you can literally feel his heart hammering against your legs…….
THINK BUTTERFLIES, RAINBOWS AND WATERFALLS….
You are heading for home, your horse is snatching at the bit, trying to tow you along, pulling your arms out of their sockets. Jogging, bouncing around, ready to leap into a flat-out gallop at the drop of a pin.
THINK BUTTERFLIES, RAINBOWS AND WATERFALLS….
You are in the round pen – or lunge ring. Your horse is galloping around like a maniac. He will not settle and will not respond to your soothing, ‘settle down voice’. Drop your eyes, relax your shoulders, and
THINK BUTTERFLIES, RAINBOWS AND WATERFALLS.
Horses are master mind readers. This is hard to believe, and even harder to do, and I think there are times when we are all beyond the point of no return. When one is hanging on for dear life, or if your horse is just a cloud of dust in the distance, then I am afraid the butterflies have flown with him, the rainbows have turned into a raging thunderstorm and the waterfalls have dried up.
Prevention is always better than cure. Try this to prevent getting to that point.
My horse Pops. Beautiful stable manners, a wonderful horse to call friend. Kind, pleasing, and very intelligent, but he could get himself (and me) into all sorts of trouble. He had very weird opinions about how things should be and got himself into the right tizzy if things were not going the way he expected. Thinking back, I wonder if he was slightly autistic.
Riding out on Pops, whenever we got into ‘silly mode’ and start feeding off each other’s tension, my son would remind me, “Mom, think ‘butterflies, rainbows and waterfalls.”
Taking a deep breath, I would picture a scene of peace and tranquility, butterflies floating through rainbows made from tinkling waterfalls. Immediately I would feel Pops relax under me, he would drop his head and sigh, then walk forward as if the out of place rock on the side of the road had suddenly changed from a crouching lion to just a rock on the side of the road – covered with butterflies and rainbows.
Knowing it is possible for you to project images and thoughts to your horse, it is a good idea to keep thoughts of falling off, crashing through fences, refusals to load onto trailers, and other negative, scary thoughts from your mind. Project instead, thoughts of a good outcome, see the positive in all things you are about to attempt, and if you can’t envision the results you want, you can always think instead of butterflies, rainbows and waterfalls.
Dwelling on negative outcomes, and dark thoughts will hinder us in all kinds of life situations. Thinking and talking about your ideal scenario will help bring it to be. Remaining positive in situations is not always easy, but remember, there is just as much power in the negative as there is in the positive. They are superpowers that affect our lives. Which power would you rather have?
Sharlene Frances 