How Sherlock Holmes Can Help Improve Your Horse Time ...🕵️♂️
Equestrians are often on a quest to improve their horses and their riding abilities. They take countless lessons, go to clinics, and read as many ‘top ten tips’ blogs as their eyes can scan in one sitting.
Riding horses well requires more mental focus than most people realize. We become detective-like when it comes to how the tack should fit, what kind of food protocol your horse should be on, which lateral work to play with, or how often to go out on a hack.
The truly committed riders are always thinking, deciding on the best course of action, and are willing to make shifts accordingly.
Let’s allow one of the greatest (although fictional) detectives to give us some insights. And yes, this is another ‘top tips’ blog, but we'll just go with five today (not 10).
All quotes are of course by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:
- “It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most ”
When you focus on the tiniest details of your ride, you can discover the most subtle and amazing results. Your feel and timing will improve. You just have to get quiet enough to notice the little details.
- “Education never ends, It is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last.”
Any great detective knows that you must keep yourself on your A-game by continuing to learn and observe all the things at your disposal. Books, videos, clinics, and even online courses. They can all help. Yet remember to be discerning (see #5). What new things are you reaching for today? Don’t let your education stop. Ever!
- “Do you remember what Darwin says about music? He claims that the power of producing and appreciating it existed among the human race long before the power of speech was arrived at. Perhaps that is why we are so subtly influenced by it. There are vague memories in our souls of those misty centuries when the world was in its childhood.’ That’s a rather broad idea,’ I One’s ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature,’ he answered.”
How often do you include music with your riding? When you’ve found the perfect songs for both you and your horse to enjoy, the frequencies can influence your rides on a cellular level. Especially if you seek out music that’s set to the love frequency. Explore what music you want to ride to next!
- “The unexpected has happened so continually in my life that it has ceased to deserve the name.”
So many Equestrians can relate to this. Be prepared for the unexpected. Decide that you won’t be pushed off your course when bumps in the road come along. They will. Be the cork in the ocean that will always pop up to the surface, no matter how many waves it rides.
- “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these, he has a large assortment and all in the most perfect order… It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”
This is the Mind Palace concept that I love to use. Focus on what is absolutely necessary and allow the rest to fade away. Try this: write in a notebook all of your thoughts you have when you’re riding. Which thoughts are actually serving you?
Decide to discard any that aren’t assisting you and your horse. Simply allow the important facts and positive thoughts to remain. It’s quite the Experiment! “The game is afoot.”
Has Sherlock Holmes inspired you? Or perhaps another fictional character? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
May the horse be with you. Always. 
