What is the most important aid you can choose to use while riding?
The leg? Your seat? The whip?…Or maybe your voice?
While the above aids are very important and highly effective, there is another, more important aid, that many riders overlook.
Attitude
Yes, your attitude really is an aid, and quite possibly, it’s the most important one.
You see, horses are experts at reading humans, and whatever they are reading from you will ultimately influence the outcome of the time you spend with them.
For example, if you’ve had a rough day and you are in the worst mood possible, your horse will pick up on that and act accordingly. Every horse has a different personality, just like people, and will react to your bad mood differently. Maybe your horse will shut down and be less responsive, or maybe your horse will throw some bad attitude right back at you.
The manner in which your horse reacts to your sour attitude will then impact everything else you try to do with him thereafter.
So if your horse’s feathers are ruffled because your own feathers are ruffled, your ability to influence your horse under saddle and accomplish your goals is greatly diminished. That is why your attitude is the most important of all the aids.
Your attitude has the power to set the stage and either make or break your training and effectiveness with your horse.
Leave Your Baggage at Home
Though every horse will react differently when faced with different attitudes from different people, the point is this: when you come into your horse’s presence with a negative attitude, you are giving the horse a situation that he must react to.
So leave whatever baggage your are carrying at home. Once you take it with you to the barn, it is basically aired like dirty laundry. You cannot hide it from the horse. Your horse can read you better than most humans, so don’t come into their space with a bad attitude. You’d only be giving him an invitation to react to your bad attitude, which will then cast a shadow over and positive things you are trying to accomplish during your time with your horse.
Keep Emotions Neutral
Just like your attitude, your emotions will play an important role during your time with your horse. Keeping things neutral is best, because your horse will likely mirror your emotions.
Even if you are in a great mood and have an excellent attitude, this can also have a negative impact on your horse.
For example, say you just won the lottery and you are super excited and amped up with joy. Your horse will read this and likely mirror it. If your horse is normally lazy, your joy and excitement would actually be a good thing. Your horse will go forward without constant kicking, and the ride will be a joy.
But if your horse is normally hot and spicy already, if you bring all that excitement into the ring, your horse will get even hotter, and you may not like the result. Your horse would be highly sensitive, too much for you to handle, and possibly dangerous.
So it’s best to try to turn off your emotions unless they have a specific purpose for your training.
Stay in the Moment
Horses are always in the moment, at every moment, for all moments. You should be there too.
When you are with your horse, the horse is not thinking about his afternoon plans or how he got in a fight with his neighbor two hours ago. Your horse is 100% with you, in the moment. It’s how their brains work. And it’s only fair that you be in the moment with your horse as well.
When you are able to really live in the moment, it’s easier to shut off your emotions, come to neutral, and thus, address your horse with the best possible attitude that will be conducive for the time you are about to spend working with your horse.
Don’t Let Your Attitude Go South in the Middle of Your Ride
You might start your ride off with a great attitude, only to let it boil over once your training doesn’t go to plan. And this is probably one of the hardest parts about keeping a good attitude.
For example, you are trotting along happily and you ask your horse for a leg yield. The ‘leg yield’ turns out horrible, and you get a little upset. So you try again, and the horse does it even worse the second time. And now you are frustrated. So you try a third time with the same poor result and you become really upset.
You see, the more frustrated you get, the harder you try, and the horse doesn’t do it any better because he is now really tense himself because of the negative attitude that you are displaying. It’s a viscous cycle that is hard to get out of.
So when things don’t go as planned, it’s far better to quit than to keep hammering. You can try again if both you and the horse are calm and neutral. But quit and move on to something else before your attitude takes over.
Learn how to read your horse from the saddle
Attitude is Key
So think about how you want to set the stage for your session with your horse. Your attitude has the power to either support your training by enhancing your communication with your horse, or hinder it by rendering all of your other aids useless.
Attitude is everything!
Keep Riding, Keep Refining
The Refined Rider
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