Making the Wrong Thing Hard and the Right Thing Easy w/ Warwick Schiller @ Warwick Schiller Performance Horsemanship

Making the Wrong Thing Hard and the Right Thing Easy.

Understanding “making the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy”, is often hard for us as people, as it is all about allowing the horse to have control. In a sense, as people, we’re control freaks. We want to control the horse, but really in order to get along with horses really well, the first thing we’ve got to do and it’s hard a lot of the time is to give up that need to control the situation.

You don’t control the horse, the horse controls himself.

In all reality, this comes down to trust. We have to be in a place where our horses can trust us, as well as in a place where we trust our horses. Giving up the control is where that trust comes in.

Horses are very good at sensing in congruency within us, and what’s funny with this, is that this creates a whole other journey for our horses and for ourselves. We have to give our horse a voice. We have to listen to what our horses are saying. We often have to go down that skills path first, to really learn and set a foundation, but once we have that foundation, we can go down the other path, the relationship path, and this is where you see everything differently.

For example, Warwick shared with us this incredible story of when he was in Scotland doing a clinic. The guy that organized his clinic, was a black belt in karate. When the organizer was 12, he thought to himself that when he gets to be a black belt, he would know everything. Then, he went on to receive his black belt. Then he wanted to advance and get his second degree black belt thinking that he was going to learn new stuff. But this wasn’t the case. His instructor told him that no, no that’s not the case, you’re not going to learn anything new when you become a second degree black belt, you’re going to go back to the start, and see everything that you’ve learned before, but this time, with a black belt’s eyes. You will see it completely differently.

So what are 4 tips that you can practice if you own a horse, or are looking at owning a horse, or dreaming of owning a horse one day:

1. Approach your horse’s path with a black belt’s insight. Remember the story that Warwick shared. Learn the skills to be able to work with your horse, then come back and approach your relationship path with a black belt’s insight.
2. Be present. Be present without judgment when you’re with your horse, and it’s not always going to be easy, sometimes it’s really, really hard. Be mentally present, don’t let your thoughts wander to work, or your kids, or what you’re having for dinner.
3. Set a mental intention. It’s important to have a mental intention before asking your horse to do something. Get out of your head, and set that intention. It truly does play a significant role in taking your relationship with your horse to the next level. Read more about intention and the physical effects on the body here.
4. Consider the mental health of your horse. This is so significant because if you think about the physical issues that horses have, a lot of time they come from being ridden while having a brace in their body. They’re crooked, they’re stressed, they’re whatever, it’s just like us, we carry a lot of our stuff right in our shoulders. Horses do too. It’s paramount to understand that your horse’s mental health really depends on ours. Ours first.

Ready to open your mind and become the partner your horse has been waiting for?