Imagine you are with your horse, you could be walking next to him or sitting in the paddock with him, or even enjoying a gentle hack on a quiet stretch.
Your horse gets nervous because it hears or sees something unfamiliar. What do you do? Now be honest here.
You will spot that your horse is nervous and as you do you tense up, your body tenses, your hands clench, and your breathing changes and becomes rapid and shallow, and you enter the freeze, fight or flight mode just like your horse.
Now this is not good - you see your horse will see you as the leader in your partnership together, he will be relying on you to keep him safe and to be proactive, with clear presence and clarity.
Instead you have joined him in his tension, he is now mirroring your sensations and the energy and thoughts you are projecting and you are both stressed. Phew - and breathe.
This is where Breathwork-with-horses for self-regulation comes into play. And learning how to self regulate is important when you are with your horse, you see it's a form of communication when dealing with horses.
With self regulation you shift from a tense, stressed, shallow breathing state to a relaxed, calm, "I've got this" state of mind and being - which is being communicated to your horse through your breathing, your energy, your body, the lowering of your blood pressure and communicates to your horse that it is safe, and he can now relax with you, as he responds to what is going on inside of you.
Sounds easy doesn't it - and it is when you are in full awareness, in presence and concentrating on you and your horse - not on all the things you need to do that day, tomorrow etc.
Most humans are reactive, not proactive. Because we are either locked in the past or stressing about the future - we are not in the present which means we miss so much - particularly with our horses. This means when our horses react to something - we follow suit; and that is when the trouble really starts. We start overthinking and reacting, we get louder, shouting not just with our mouths but with our body, our energy, our thoughts and our shallow breathing.
This is when I teach the Woah Cue - not for the horse but for You - the human. Woah! And breathe - there's that term again - Breathe!!!!
It is the easiest, simplest and most useful cue there is in any given situation, whether you are driving your care and feel some road rage coming on, dealing with a difficult person in your life or being with your horse, in any given situation. Breathing is the language that the horse understands and your horse gains so much information from how you breathe.
Because you are in control of your breathing, you can always decide how to respond to changes in your horse. You can choose to go into fight-or-flight mode as well, like your horse does when it's scared or stressed.
Or you can choose a different response by changing your breathing, for example counting from 1 to 5 as you breathe in through your nose and counting from 5 to 1 as you breathe out through your mouth. This brings you back into the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for relaxation and healing, and allows you to think clearly again.
I discovered self-regulation from my horses, and the horses I work with, and now I self-regulate throughout the day whenever I feel tension/stress building inside me.
This allows me to think clearly and keeps my confidence at an even keel in stressful situations, my immune system strong and healthy, all of which are nice side effects of self-regulation.
If you need a hand in working with breath, with or without your horse - Get in touch and arrange a face to face or online appointment - Your horse will love you for it!
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