Affirmations for Horsepeople: Live In The Present Moment & Stay Out of Your Horse’s Way
09. Feb, 2010 
9 Comments
The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.
– Buddha
It has long been known that living in the present moment is the key to contentment. It is more than that, more than a way to live life to its fullest. It is an opportunity to participate directly in reality as it is created.
Often we bumble through it. We think we are paying attention, but really we are not.
I can’t tell you how many times I would lose focus simply trying to execute a simple 20 meter circle or serpentine. Or to get over a series of low jumps in a straight line.
“No Kim–were you paying attention? You lost it in the same spot as last time! Try it again!”
My horse was on point. No loss of attention there, because animals don’t indulge in that inner dialog that distracts us from participation in the present moment. I was intent on not making the same mistake I made last time. Like not thinking of the elephant in the room, we think of the elephant in the room. The mistake we made last time is in the consciousness if we are trying to avoid it. Better to eliminate it from the mind and focus only on current reality. Right now, it’s not there. Even better, holding the intention that things will go well increases the chances that they will.
But planning for the future, even a second or two into it, has its own disadvantages, as riders know. Your body does what your mind tells it, sometimes without your permission or knowledge. Better not to anticipate.
We hear it all the time, no matter the discipline: “Stay out of your horse’s way.” It’s hard to stay out of the horse’s way if you are a novice, and sometimes hard to do it as an advanced rider, too, if you are accustomed to over riding. For human beings, each stimulus prompts its own cascade of inner dialog or opportunity for spacing out. Like the half halt or the rein back, staying present is a skill that must be practiced. The key as both novices and advanced riders to staying out of the horse’s way and maintaining focus is living in the present moment.
As in riding, so in life. Or vice versa: stay out of life’s way. Don’t over-live and don’t go through blindly. Most folks move back and forth between these two modes automatically, moment by moment, without awareness of it. Can we take hold of the reins and greet each new stimulus as it comes? Not as easy as it sounds.
I’d love to hear your tips and tricks for mental presence and focus as you ride.
Life is available only in the present moment. If you abandon the present moment you cannot live the moments of your daily life deeply.
–Thich Nhat Hanh
Many thanks to Beliefnet for the idea for this series of posts and for the quotes used in it. Interpretations are mine.
© 2010, hurric@nekim. All rights reserved.
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I am going to use something Karen Rohlf says in her Dressage,Naturally workbook — regarding how to go straight — she says you find what’s straight by playing with both sides of straight until you feel into the “sweet” spot which is neither — I think that is how you find balance — not by aiming for it, but by playfully exploring both sides/ boundaries, and relaxing into the center.
.-= Bonnitta Roy´s last blog ..~ To Know the Horse is to Recognize the Self ~ =-.
Bonnie
Nothing better for living in the now than experimentation! I love the Taoist and Shambhala concept of playful/experiential living.
I like how Bonnitta put it. I shoot for that, but tend to over think even “playing” the sides to find the middle. It’s a problem for me. I find the thing that inevitably cements me to the very moment is listening. Listening to the horse. Listening to the part of myself that is quiet. Nothing gets me quite so present as active listening. I can’t over respond if I’m really listening. If I’m really listening, I’m not thinking about me, or that line, or that last lovely 20 M octagon I did. I’m just listening. Present. Open.
There is something about being freed from figuring out how I’m going to respond if this happens, or that happens, or I make this mistake or that mistake (or success!). I’m not saying it makes me a technically better rider, it doesn’t. It does make me a rider that is present and accounted for, and that’s a start a least. If I’m not really home, I can’t get the technical stuff anyway, it doesn’t ‘stick’.
20 meter octagon! :0 I thought I had the patent on those. When you do them, you have to give me credit. I invented them, and perfected them. Ask Wizard Liz.
I love how you related being present, open, and listening. Can you tell me how the horse, no matter which horse you are riding, responds to this?
Good question. Now that I think about it, they don’t all respond the same. Tiny gets relaxed and totally focused on our connection, enough that we both blow things from time to time, because we’re so busy being present with each other. What a contradiction, huh?
Hudson, ratchets up – “You’re listening? Okay. Here’s the plan. I’m thinking first we’ll….” but he never stops listening back, and it feels like electricity in the reins.
Pops would also relax, but listening closely to him made him a little anxious and wonder why I’m paying such close attention…what did he do wrong now? What was he going to do wrong? I had to be careful to listen closely without *intensity* with him.
Mel immediately responded to listening by sitting up and paying close attention…it is a cue for him. He waits. I’m not sure what he’s waiting for. But he didn’t get frustrated.
Sunshine responded with “Okay, you see me! Please hold me. Will you sing me to sleep too? Sure, whatever you want.”
“You see me” seems to be the common characteristic. What the horse does with that depends on personality and training? Hm.
While I know I try to “fix” too much instead of listening to my horse, it is still very much an experience in the moment.
I believe that’s why dressage is so intriguing to me.
It is a constant communication with the horse, where you so absolutely have to concentrate.
That gives me a kind of yoga-feeling.
I have to get rid of all other thoughts in my mind, and just concentrate on my horse.
People who go jogging as an example can still mull over other problems when jogging.
You can’t on a horse.
At least if you are to have anything productive out of it!
.-= HorseOfCourse´s last blog ..Finally Friday =-.
Horse of Course,
The difference between jogging and riding is striking. I have been thinking about that a lot recently–as I jog! Boy, it’s all in that one sentence, isn’t it?
Running, for me, is a different story, and running cross-country renders thinking impossible. You have that same “no mind” state doing that. Same for me for anything on the water–paddleboarding, sailing (my all-time favorite), and sometimes, if the conditions are not like glass, kayaking. But in those cases, there isn’t another living being to coordinate with, to communicate with, and so in a way they are, from a rider’s perspective, lacking.