A Discussion about Commitment, Conviction, and Follow Through
/How committed are you to the Horse? Are you willing to test your physical, mental, and spiritual selves in pursuit of your passion? On a concept level, it’s easy to say yes. On a very real, present moment physical micro action level, it’s much harder. I’ve noticed a recurring theme in my lessons over the past couple of years, and that is figuring out how to constructively teach about the concepts of commitment and conviction and ‘joining the mind to the muscle’ so to speak.
These concepts are absolutely necessary in any dealing with large animals, particularly horses, and super important life lessons. I’ve noticed these concepts are lacking towards the sport of horseback riding and Horsemanship as a whole. You can have fun and enjoy horses, and be serious about it, in fact your safety and success depend on it, as we are dealing with very large sentient beings, not a tennis ball! I mean to say this dedication looks like putting at least one day a week towards riding. Much less and the concepts WILL STRUGGLE TO MESH into mind-body connection, at any age. You can’t get good at any task ‘casually’.
Commitment is defined as: a state of being dedicated to a cause or action, according to Google. The key here is it’s a ‘state’ of ‘being’. Your mental state, your bodily state, and spiritual state need to be aligned toward accomplishing an action, a communication, a union state with a horse. From tasks as simple as leading a horse toward the arena to ride, or keeping your muscles constantly engaged in the fine balance of staying on top of a moving horse, your commitment is key.
Sometimes commitment is confused with want. If you ‘want’ your horse to move forward and not eat grass, you are placing your wants and desires over the horse. ‘Cueing’ the horse to move forward like the push of a gas pedal or button (note: this is something we are ALL being conditioned to with technology!), will give way to frustration and exhaustion that leads to more and more FORCE, as the beginning goal of moving together is sacrificed for your wants. If the horse has other ideas, his want to eat grass will trump yours because he is bigger than you, and his conviction is his own.
How to change ‘wants’ into a commitment of moving forward then? This is where our human brain can really add to the partnership of horse/human interaction. Horses view the world in the present, and deal with actions. Their language of communication is based on the BODY. We humans can look into the near future and see a short-term goal of mutual benefit.
‘Hey, horse, let’s go see that fence line over there at this speed, it looks interesting/safe/better grass, etc.’. Using that short-term goal, we can now PUT the goal and actions of achieving it into our body and communicate that to the horse. Using our upright posture, energy vibration, muscle tone and expression of release, our physical focus of eyes, hips, legs and anchor points, our idea is brought to the horse’s attention without tipping over into ‘dominance’. The horse will either pay attention or ignore you. If he pays attention, he'll pick his head up and go to the goal. Once in motion you can start shifting your goals around the arena and go from one mini goal to another in flow state, offering mini releases and rewards along the way, in union, and take joy in feeling the motion and movement and success of action. These mini goals can start to join together in accomplishing more complicated tasks, then you The Rider can refine and expand, without giving in to the ‘wants’ of looking pretty on the pony. The commitment lies at the core, of getting one little task done and going to the next, making it an art form of accomplishment that FULLY involves your every muscle, brain cell, and ability to relinquish yourself to union state.
Of course, if the horse ignores you and keeps eating, you need to understand about Conviction: Which is the firmly held belief in what one does or says (according to Google). Your Resolve, your Holding Power in the moment to sustain the effort, to get the task done. Not a contest of wills, again that path leads to extreme dominance. Your interaction with a horse is not about winning or losing, it’s about what is SAFE for both parties, and what is for mutual benefit.
The horse eating grass must be convinced that moving forward will be more interesting, more enjoyable, or safer than continuing to ignore you. Again, this power and holding must be firmly communicated by your muscles, tendons, mental focus, and ‘cheerleading’ efforts. Think of the way a lead mare or stallion in a wild band takes charge to influence the herd when to eat, to walk to the watering hole, to get to safety. It takes time and practice, and focus on the goals, and the willingness to adapt! Holding Power isn’t a static state, it’s a dynamic adjustment to constantly adapt yourself to your partner’s needs, and to be a convincing Leader of Goals.
I’ll give you a personal example from earlier this spring, that is the kind of discussion that happens often in the sport of endurance riding. Glory, my steady steed, kept trying to turn around on the trail at an endurance competition. He was convinced he needed to go back to camp by something I didn’t understand. (See the blog from April ’23 to get the whole picture). I needed to use MY commitment to be getting the race done, my knowledge that going the way HE wanted to would be MORE dangerous (cutting trail is always bad news!), and empathy to gracefully keep him on course. What this looked like physically was me verbally and using my physical posture to say ‘Sorry we can’t go that way, it’s dangerous/unknown, we have to stay on this path’. I also used my tools (Bit and reins) and physical ability to use my reins, my tone of muscles and body, no matter how tired they were after riding 40 miles in the rain, to turn him back to the proper trail, and my mental focus to stay sharp and HOLD to the course that was marked with ribbons so as to not get lost. I needed to adapt my body tone, my attitude, my conviction that we were on the right trail in constant micro movements, and one major firm moment of using the tools available to me (reins) to stay safe. I followed through with my commitment to finish the race, knowing that if he continued to refuse to go down the right trail, I would need to get off and walk him in on foot (further decision making and adaptation). My leadership in this matter was resolute, knowing if he tried to cut trail and cross a road, he might get hit by a car, that was the FOCUS, on staying safe, not on ‘making him do it because I’m the boss’. And we did all stay SAFE! (barely, turns out there was a tornado coming)…
This is an extreme example, but this is exactly what needs to happen constantly on a micro level to get a horse around an arena, to teach a horse to carry someone in balance, to enjoy movement for its own sake, to achieve higher levels of ability and refinement, and most importantly KEEP EACH OTHER IN SAFETY. Your commitment to self-knowledge, of your own muscles, and engagement, to the release and timing, to figuring it out, is what makes riding a horse SO POWERFUL and yet so hard, especially in our modern-day standards when we are surrounded by EASE. I could have written this blog with a chat bot for heaven’s sake! But I didn’t take that shortcut, I want to commit to teaching you with my conviction and passion!
So, ask yourself, where else in life, in horses and otherwise, is a place you can study this art of commitment and conviction! The littlest things of physical care like eating well, not procrastinating so much (this is a poke at myself right here), like walking the dog that extra block, doing the physical work, not slouching at the computer (another poke to myself, because I know slouching at the computer leads to slouching in the saddle!) Connect the mental concepts to your physical body and the world will tremble at your feet!
In archery, this is the only way to hit a target consistently. Commitment to the draw, strength and focus coming together in mind and body, conviction on the release of the arrow, and follow through of form to the bullseye. Goals are targets, start stringing them together!