Integrate… A verb and by definition is to make into a whole by bringing all parts together, to join as one, or the organization of organic, psychological or social traits and tendencies into harmonious unity. In layman horse training terms, it would be to combine what you are as a human collectively with what your horse is in a horse in a fashion that is beneficial to both of you. Whether your goal is to enjoy the mountain scenery on the trails or it’s in the arena in a performance aspect, good riding and good training does not matter what seat you ride or whether a ribbon and prestige hangs in the balance. So how does one accomplish this monstrous task of integrating themselves with their horses?

There are several factors that can help us on our journey to being unified with our equine partners. An Integrative Mind, or being present enough with one’s self to be able to communicate to the horse what we want from them, and being able to know what you horse might need from you in the sense of support, and knowing when to time your thought or intent, with the movement of your horse. Becoming an Integrated Rider, being able to maintain body awareness and control in the saddle or on the ground and carrying over that intent or thought to an aid such as your leg, seat, hand etc. while not interfering with the action of your horse. In this section I hope to introduce the subject of an Integrative Mind.

AN INTEGRATIVE MIND – Developing an Intuitive Rapport with your horse.
Horses are adept at reflecting back at us what our emotions may be at any given time. All of us have started a session with our horse, hit a wall so to speak and gotten scared or frustrated, the horse in turn will mirror that fear and frustration and a struggle has begun. As horse owners we have attempted to educate ourselves by watching masters of horsemanship demonstrating the maintenance of an emotional balance while a horse quite literally has a mental meltdown due to the horse’s lack of confidence and or history of abuse. It often appears as though this person is timing their cues before the horse realizes that they will react. However, what is left out of the program is how you as a horse owner can become that calm in the face of adversity. We learn the exercises, we practice the motions, but what we don’t learn is how to develop that socio-sensual side of our own minds enough to see the task through from start to finish with feel and understanding that creates that lasting partnership with your horse that goes beyond their interactions with you being an extrinsic reward and becoming an intrinsic part of their life and ultimately your partnership together.

Socio-sensual means instinctive, or the primal part of your psyche that communicates through reading body language, facial expression or energy balance, the part of us that is usually subjugated by the day to day activities of life. An example of socio-sensual communication in the animal world would be how a school of fish or herd of mustangs all can turn in unity to change directions. Horses understand this communication being flight animals; it comes natural to them in order to survive in the wild. Since we as humans use reason so much more in our decision making process, our rational thought generally overrules our feeling response. Horses learn reason in much the same manner as we do however they don’t have as much access to certain portions of the brain that program rational thought as we do.

To bridge the distance of human and equine learning, I will give a brief explanation of how both species learn. A great deal of a learned response from an experience stems from an emotional attachment to the experience itself, which we have seen in horses that have developed fear or anxiety of an object or exercise. The system in the brain that regulates this is the Limbic System, this portion of the brain is responsible for emotional tagging or coloring, bonding, receipt of smell, and ultimately any emotional attachment that you may have to a memory, lesson, or experience. Which is why it is believed that smell has such a profound impact on triggering a memory, it is the only sensory perception we have that is not filtered through the Thalamus first before it is coded into the brain. The Limbic portion of the brain also deals with “hard-wired” responses, such as fight or flight. Using this knowledge imagine setting up a lesson where your horse as a one time learner by nature; they have to be as in the wild since horses only get once chance to get it right or they are another animals meal, that your horse can have a positive response to a lesson or exercise. Therein is our end goal – to accomplish this positive emotional response each time you interact with your horse.

With the logical left-brain explanation out of the way let’s get down to the fluffy stuff that will help you develop an intuitive rapport with your horse. Intuition and rational intellect are often viewed as separate or even opposing mental modes. An alternate view is that they are two slightly different aspects of the same characteristic of mind. Most of what I teach people when it comes to working with their horses is self-awareness or intuition training, so that your “in-tune” and can develop a better feel. Since I don’t know you or your horse, so to be safe I’m going to build upon a few techniques that help me teach others but are somewhat general in nature.
Meditation is a good place to start and please accept this as a bare bones beginning to meditation, I mean no disrespect to anyone reading this who is practiced at the art of meditation, I’ve just found that this is a simple explanation that serves my program. Start by just sitting down and sensing your breath as it goes in and out. This is an ancient technique for centering and refining the mind. You may use other techniques, but this one is fairly well proven. As your mind centers on your breathing, you'll begin to notice how thoughts carry your attention away as one thought or feeling leads to another. When you realize that you're no longer paying attention to your breathing, just go back to paying attention to it again. Each time you see that your attention has wandered off into thoughts, simply return to your breathing again, without purposely trying to stop the thoughts. The point is to learn to gently become aware of how your thoughts come and go.

Fine-tuning your intuition is a bit like improving your listening skills with your body and mind, our bodies are set up with an awareness system of sorts – it responds to various stimuli with some sort of reaction. The language of intuition is made up of reading responses in your body, and being able to notice them in your horses’ body as well. Take a moment and center yourself, take a few deep breaths, relax as much as you can, and close your eyes, take note of how your body feels physically, notice your breathing patterns, then set up an event in your mind that causes distress to you or your horse, imagine the event taking place, add detail, and finally an outcome. How did your body change in breathing, tension, or do you have any places that feel restriction? Some may have even shifted your position; imagine how that shift in position affects your horse while riding.

While these exercises may seem simple and without a lot of purpose to some, it allows you remember the slight changes in your body and to control your thoughts in the process. A horse is incredibly sensitive; I work with a horse from time to time that is so sensitive a mere negative thought or lack of my intent and focus can cause her to lay her ears back while your riding her. While riding this horse is indeed a challenge – she is a splendid example of the sensitivity that our equine friends have. Performance horses are demanded to be light in their bodies, creating awareness in your own body and becoming light is a good place to start and controlling your thoughts while you ride is a good place to start in your horse training. Riding is a unique sport since rational thought and intuitive sensation must both flow equally, for many people quieting the chatter of thought is a good place to start with body awareness. Perhaps think of your thoughts almost like an itch, which is a localized nerve response, a thought or a feeling, is an arousal of the mind.

The next step would be to take this to the arena – set up an exercise with your horse, while you perform the steps of the exercise maintain the intuitive part of yourself by observing your horses reactions from ears to tail and even your own breathing and body relaxation. Also maintain your focus with the exercise as each step unfolds. Groundwork and riding is comparative to the martial combative arts as there is another animate involved that requires you to learn to intuitively think on your feet.

In the next edition I will share some exercises, which will tackle the Integrative Rider portion of my program. Winter is a perfect time to practice this as most of us are either cooped up in an indoor arena or the cold temperatures limit what we can do with our horses. As you may only have limited time or space to work your horse perhaps focus on the noticing more of your horses reactions to things and hopefully a new and wonderful Intuitive Rapport!