B.C. Horse Vacations - Where Adventure & Luxury Meet

Lessons

“A horseman is one who not only rides… but also seeks to know the horse – it’s nature, needs and management – and feels a deep responsibility for his horses, the care they get, and the life they lead.” Susan Harris

 

Building a solid foundation:

The basic mechanics of riding develop a solid seat and gentle communication. Learn to use your body, legs and quiet hands in rhythm with the horse’s movement, bringing comfort and confidence for both horse and rider.

Skillfully guide your horse at the walk, trot and canter and discover how to ride safely on trails and in rough terrain. The emphasis in these lessons is on safety, technique, reading horses’ body language and what our own body language means to them.

 

The Philosophy: Fairness/Empathy/Discipline

The importance of cooperation vs. fear or pain based control - when an animal is stressed it stops thinking, stops learning and starts reacting by flight or fight. When forceful methods are used in training and riding, horses release adrenaline. They can feel trapped and go into self-preservation mode, losing the ability to think.

Horses learn by making mistakes, just as humans do, and it’s important to reward successes rather than punish mistakes. The results are horses that are willing, confident, and honest. They have all the try in the world.

A horse that wants to do as it’s asked is a horse you can trust. Riding an intelligent, thinking horse just might save your life someday.

 

Discipline:

Horses need to behave within appropriate boundaries. They like knowing what the rules are – life within the herd involves leaders and followers – this is comfortable for horses. As Ray Hunt said, “Discipline is what keeps people from becoming abusers and horses from being abused.” The key is in finding a balance between encouragement, empathy and discipline.

 

What’s the overall goal here?

The goal is to develop safe relationship and peaceful ways of interacting with horses. Learn to flow with your horse, to guide and help him, allowing your ideas to become his, in a quiet, conflict free way of riding. Practice visualization and recognize that a horse’s behavior is a clear mirror to you own. You slow down, using body awareness, body language, grounding, breathing, and energy to offer a respectful, two-way communication.

 

What’s passive leadership?

Passive Leadership is a phrase coined by trainer and author Mark Raschid. In any large herd of horses it’s easy to pick out the dominant, or alpha horse. Usually a mare, it’s standing off by itself, with access to the best graze and shady spots. All the other horses jump to the moment this horse takes a step near, and can’t wait to get out of her way. They’re afraid of her, don’t want to be around her.

The passive leader is also obvious. Wherever she goes, others follow. As she wanders into a nicer grazing patch, a virtual entourage joins her. She goes for water and calmly allows other horses to share in the trough. There’s peace and stability wherever she travels. Other horses choose to be near her – she’s smart, pays attention to the environment and doesn’t need to bully or be rude to stay on top. As long as they’re polite, she’ll share her hay with anyone.

Passive leadership is about finding the ways to emulate the horse the herd members want to be with. She’s fair, kind and consistent. She’s established clear boundaries, which are enforced with just enough power to make her point. She’s interested in getting along for the benefit of the entire herd. And while easy going, this horse is definitely not a doormat.

The question is, do you want to be an alpha leader, with horses scattering in your path, or a passive leader, where horses want to stay close to you? Each person has their own answer, for their own reasons.

 

Reflective round pen work:

Once physical technique is in place, taking your riding to the next level is a mental game. Watching all kinds of riders go out on the same core group of horses, it’s easy to see how much each individual affects the horse they are on.

Have you ever seen a trainer get on a horse and it just blooms under their skillful touch? It’s often more than the obvious riding ability – the best trainers are aware of how much their energy runs into the animal they’re on. A nervous rider creates a nervous horse. A high energy rider creates an energetic horse. A lazy rider wonders why their horse is trudging along…

You have a responsibility as the “smart” partner in the horse/human relationship to pay attention to the subliminal messages you’re sending. It’s a subtle and important point, and encourages you to stop blaming the horse for your inadvertent actions. Practice awareness in reflective round pen and arena work. It will take you a long ways in building safe, satisfying partnerships with the horses you spend time with, both on the ground and in the saddle.

 

And what’s intuitive riding?

Quite simply, intuitive riding means listening to your own gut feelings. As human beings we’re taught to use our rational mind and reason everything to death.

People also tend to be goal oriented. We can create bigger problems by not recognizing when to temporarily let go of a goal and come back to it a different way. A new building block may need to be put in place before that goal can be reached.

Sometimes, staying safe just means paying attention to that niggling little feeling that says, “get off” “don’t push” “push now”.

Beginning riders rightly look to their instructors for the answers. There comes a time when you’ve developed the seat, practiced safety and learned to listen to your horse. You also need to be self-reliant and listen to your own inner voice. Doing so in a supportive environment can help you find the next level of connection with your horse.

 

Confidence Building

All riders have had communication breakdowns and made mistakes with horses – it’s part of learning. Sometimes an accident begins to erode your self-assurance; confidence is the key in helping you to enjoy the most out of your time spent with horses.

As the manager of “the team”, your attitudes and tension flow straight through you and into your mount. Learning to ride with emotional steadiness is a big step required to ride safely and competently. It’s as important as the physical aspects of guiding a powerful horse through trails, over jumps or along an arena rail.

Who you are in the animal world is energy; it’s how all animals read each other. You can’t fake it; you’re relaxed and confident or you’re not.  You have to believe in your power.

Much of our worries and fears are about things that might happen, rather than the things that are happening.

Controlling your own thoughts – and therefore the tension or energy you emit - is a miraculous tool with all sorts of applications – riding past scary objects, getting the wormer in, giving shots. It’s only limited by your imagination.

Horsemanship starts with you; it’s your responsibility to take it to your horse. He’ll develop and improve as you do, not the other way around.

 

What if I’ve become fearful?

If you’ve come to the point where fear is affecting your relationship with horses, there are gentle steps to feeling safe again. You’ll spend time with the horse on the ground and in the saddle, calmly stretching your comfort zone until you feel ready for each next stage.

The secret weapon in gaining more confidence is through your psychology. BCHV offers PSYCH – K confidence building sessions, which begin out of the saddle. They’re layered onto your skills like a delicious icing on a well-constructed cake.

It starts with your beliefs. As Henry Ford so wisely said, “If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

Working with an Advanced PSYCH – K facilitator, you’ll start out by exploring a fascinating series of exercises to see what you really believe about your riding abilities and fears. It’s painless, simple and confidential.

Easy balances are used to incorporate new, positive ways of thinking deep into your subconscious. You’re in control of the process, and only agreeable, useful affirmations specific to you can be utilized.

PSYCH - K is an extraordinary tool in mind/body work, gaining momentum in many areas during corporate retreats, with clinical counselors, even in cancer treatment.

BCHV is one of the few places worldwide to incorporate PSYCH-K into horsemanship.

It starts with you - your confidence, your beliefs. Your horse will be happy to come along for the ride.

 

PSYCH – K & Horsemanship: Helping Horses One Human At A Time

Riding Lessons: $25 per hour on your horse, $35 on ours

PSYCH – K & Horsemanship: $60 per session

PSYCH – K sessions: $50 per hour

Epona/Workshops

Vacation Retreats also available, please enquire for rates.

 

More about PSYCH – K:

We’re all the product of our own personal history and beliefs, often beliefs that have been instilled early in childhood. As we move through life, experiences sock themselves away into our subconscious – and the more emotion or trauma involved, the more deeply ingrained these experiences become, affecting reactions, behaviors and perceptions of our world.

Your beliefs, whether you think you’re worthy or worthless, powerful or powerless, trusting or suspicious… create the foundation of your personality.

Your basic beliefs have positive and negative consequences, affecting moods, relationships, job performance, self-esteem and physical health.

PSYCH – K takes you beyond affirmations, will power and positive thinking. It helps replace limiting beliefs that may be sabotaging your life with new, positive ways of thinking that support you as the best person you’d like to be.

It’s an outstanding tool for delving into the secrets of your own restricting thought cycles, clearing the way for the life you dream of and yet can’t quite reach.

You direct the balances, in order to work on the areas that you feel are most important to develop or change. Facilitated by an advanced practitioner, you’ll work through a series of simple balances, tailored to your own personal needs.

Unlike simply reciting affirmations, PSYCH – K pushes right past the conscious mind deep into your subconscious, where positive, lasting change can finally happen.

 

 

CONTACT US TODAY TO LEARN MORE

AND FOR AVAILABLE DATES AND RESERVATIONS.

We'd love to hear from you!

 

BC Horse Vacations                           (250) 295-7432

124 Pinewood Crescent                                    (250) 295-7429 fax

RR#1, Site 19, Compartment 19

Princeton, B.C., Canada

V0X 1W0                                                                       psych-k@bchorsevacations.ca

 

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