Become A Superhero For Your Horse
Become a Superhero for Your Horse!
You’re on the most beautiful beach you’ve ever seen. You can hear the waves crashing on the sand. The air is fresh and cool. You feel energized by your surroundings.
Now imagine you’re on your horse, riding along with a few of your most favourite horse friends. You decide to race along the sand and feel the greatest rush of excitement, as you gallop ahead.
Your horses are all breathing quickly, in unison to their increasing tempo. You begin to collect bugs in your teeth from your enormous smile. You bring your horses back down to a trot and then walk into the water.
You all have a gorgeous swim, laughing and playing together.
Take a deep breath and feel how much joy and connection you just created from reading this little paragraph. Can you imagine bringing these feelings with you for each of your rides?
This is the beauty of visualisation.
You can take a few moments to let your imagination soar, in order to bring out the feelings you want to focus on that day. You can tap into this powerful tool within. This is what helps you become a superhero for your horse!
When you’re able to call in the emotions you want to feel when it comes time to be with your horse, you’ll notice how your confidence begins to grow.
You’ll also notice that others who might have annoyed you in the past, don’t seem to bother you as much, if at all.
The more you visualise and cultivate the exact feelings of connection, confidence, joy… you name it… your horse will take note of how you’re stepping into your ultimate dance partner role.
Your horse will feel proud of you. You will have more fun together!
Let’s take some of these visualisation tips into the saddle:
- The next time you’re ready to do something big with your horse (or pony), take ten seconds to imagine how it feels and what you want to look like. This can be done at the halt, or even while you’re walking or trotting on a circle, preparing for the movement.
- Be sure you’re not holding your breath. You can say: Breathe and Imagine.
- Once you’re ready to go for it, you can think in your mind (or say out loud to your horse), Are you ready? Notice how your horse responds. Horses think in pictures, so they will really appreciate your clarity with your visualisations.
- Once you’ve finished your big thing that you’ve imagined, be sure to praise your horse. That could be with a nice scratch, a little break with a loose rein, or a tiny treat. Whatever feels best for you and your horse!
- See if you can do this for most of your ride. Then don’t do it for the next ride. Notice the difference! The more you start to do this, and things click in, I’ll bet you’ll want to add this powerful tool to your rides all the time!
I truly hope that you experiment with this and become the best Superhero for your horse! I like to imagine I’m Wonder Woman! Who would you be?
May the horse be with you. Always.
If you’re keen on learning more about visualisation and even listen to some guided meditations that are designed to help you with your riding, the Inspired Riding™ Focus App will be an incredible resource! For more info, kindly visit: https://www.inspiredriding.com
Originally Written for HorseWyse Magazine: (Australia's #1 Magazine For Young Horse Lovers)
Beth Lauren Parrish is a Certified Level 3 CHA Riding Instructor and Level 1 Certified Equestrian Tai Chi Instructor. She has taught thousands of lessons for the past 21 years across the United States, and now teaches worldwide remotely.
With her business, Inspired Riding™, Beth has created online courses, meditations, the Focus App, and the Companion Journal for Inspired Riders.
All of the above help equestrians become more confident and connected with their horses.
Beth teaches you to trust your intuition and how to have conversations with your horses telepathically. This sets you and your horse up to have the best co-creative dances possible.
