What happens when trying harder actually makes riding harder?
In this episode of The Thinking Horse & Rider, we’re digging into emotional tension—the pressure riders put on themselves to do everything correctly, remember every instruction, fix every mistake, and manage every part of the horse at once.
That tension doesn’t just make riding feel harder. It can also make your cues less clear, your body less sensitive, and your horse less certain about what you’re actually asking.
We’ll talk about:
- Why emotional tension often looks like overthinking instead of obvious fear
- How too many simultaneous cues can confuse the horse
- Why rewarding the right answer matters just as much as asking the question
- How pressure, release, repetition, and pauses affect learning
- Why “more” is not always better
- How tension narrows attention and reduces your ability to feel subtle information
- Why curiosity is more useful than immediately labeling something right or wrong
- How to stop correcting every little thing before your horse has a chance to respond
You’ll also get this week’s 10-Minute Experiment: a simple walking exercise where you count the horse’s footfalls, quiet the noise, and start developing better feel.
The goal isn’t to ride perfectly.
It’s to become quiet enough—physically, mentally, and emotionally—to actually hear what your horse is already telling you.
Sometimes your horse isn’t ignoring you. Sometimes they just can’t find the question in all of your noise.
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You can also view videos of the riding episodes or listen to all of them on YouTube under Come Ride with Me Riding Videos. My channel is https://www.youtube.com/@equusenlightened
Read blogs or find more links @ https://linktr.ee/equusenlightened
Articles:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1558787807001359
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1558787810000626
https://www.equitationscience.com/ises-training-principles?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Walk to Partnership Meditation
https://assets.cdn.filesafe.space/9ckgbm3alzfPQK2HDqho/media/6aac819d867721cb57117360.mp4
Email me at Anna@equusenlightened.com
Happy Riding!
