Equus Enlightened

08/29/2026

The Hardest Part of Riding Isn't What You Think... 🐝

🐝 It's not fear of being stung usually either but, here we are 🫣

And yes... that's why my face and even my voice sound a little funny in this episode. 😅

Getting stung beside my eye turned into an unexpected reminder of something I tell my students all the time:

"The hardest part of riding is staying relaxed while you're doing it."

Not floppy.
Not passive.

Relaxed enough to think.
Relaxed enough to feel.
Relaxed enough to recover.

When our minds tense up with fear, overthinking, or "what if" scenarios, we stop receiving information from our horses—and they often start reacting to us.

What if confidence isn't about pushing through fear?

What if it's about learning to stay available when life (or a wasp 🐝) throws something unexpected your way?

Watch the full episode of The Thinking Horse & Rider for practical exercises to build confidence without forcing yourself through fear.

👇 What's the first thing your brain tells you before you ride?

08/29/2026

You can change the story in your head but your horse doesn’t 💙

The horse’s memory is based on encoded neural connections that can form across several areas of the brain. The equine memory is excellent and, in some respects, may be superior to human memory.

While human memory can be altered by recall, context, and reasoning abilities, the memory of the horse appears more stable, perhaps because it is not influenced by reflection or projection, or perhaps because methods have not yet been developed to demonstrate that horses are capable of these processes.

Horses can remember stimulus-categorisation tasks without practice for up to 10 years and can apply previously learned concepts immediately to new stimuli.

However, thinking, analysing, and reflecting can alter memory.
Humans continuously reflect on some memories, retrieving them from storage when thinking or telling a story and later storing them again.

After this reflection process, memories may be stored somewhat differently because they are altered by the physical, emotional, and perceptual context in which the reflection occurs.

The human prefrontal cortex is responsible for this reflective ability.

The absence of tissue with the distinctive cellular characteristics of the human prefrontal cortex in horses, together with the apparent stability of equine working memory, currently suggests that this type of reflection may not occur in horses.

An excerpt from the textbook Equitation Science, 2nd Edition by Andrew McLean, Paul McGreevy, Janne Whinther Christensen & Uta König von Borstel.

08/28/2026

Stop Letting People Tell You How to Sit on a Horse

"Heels down.""Shoulders back.""Look up."

Sound familiar?

Those cues aren't wrong... but they're often the result of good balance—not the cause of it.

When you discover your own center of gravity, your body naturally organizes itself. Your heels become heavier. Your shoulders soften and stack. Your head comes into balance. You stop gripping with your knees. You stop balancing off your reins.

Not because you're forcing yourself into a position, but because you've found one that actually works for your body. That's why I love this standing exercise. It doesn't teach you a manufactured position. It helps you discover your own.

And when you find your center, you stop relying on someone else's instructions and start trusting what your body is telling you.

💛 Your best position isn't the one that looks right—it's the one that lets you move, recover, and communicate with your horse.

👇 What's the riding cue you've heard a thousand times?

08/28/2026

Are you one of those people whose brain processes about six terrible outcomes to your ride before you even get on?

Some of my students tell me the stories their brains come up with before they even put a foot in the stirrup and I can't believe they still get on!

"What if he bolts?"
"What if she bucks?"
"What if I can't stop?"
"What if I fall off?"
"What if everyone watches?"
"What if today is the day everything goes wrong?"

Or maybe it isn't fear, it's just trying too hard. Maybe you find yourself holding your breath. Gripping with your legs. Clenching your jaw. Trying so hard to "do it right" that you can't actually feel what your horse is telling you.

Or maybe your horse tenses the moment you pick up the reins.
They rush.
They brace.
They refuse to go forward.
They speed up.
They slow down.

And you feel like you're both stuck in the same frustrating cycle. If any of that sounds familiar, here's something I want you to consider:

Maybe you don't have a confidence problem. Maybe you have a TENSION problem.

In this week's episode of The Thinking Horse & Rider, I talk about the four types of tension I see over and over again in horse and rider partnerships.

🐴 Physical tension– Your body doesn't quite trust its own balance, strength, or coordination yet.

🧠 Mental tension – Your mind is busy rehearsing everything that could go wrong instead of noticing what's happening right now.

❤️ Emotional tension – Old falls, embarrassing lessons, harsh coaching, or difficult experiences are still riding with you.

🤝 Relational tension – You don't completely trust your horse... and your horse isn't completely sure they can trust you either.

The important part is this:
Most of us try to solve the wrong problem. We tell ourselves to be braver when we really need to be stronger. We push harder when we really need better balance. We blame the horse when our own nervous system is screaming that something doesn't feel safe. Or we blame ourselves when our horse is simply communicating that they're struggling too.

Confidence isn't something you magically wake up with one morning. It's something you build. One successful repetition at a time.

That's why I end this week's episode with one of my favorite exercises. It starts at the halt, requires no fancy equipment, and is designed to help you build balance, body awareness, strength, and confidence—without asking you to push through fear.

Because the goal isn't to become fearless.

The goal is to become so BALANCED, so AWARE, and so CAPABLE that fear no longer has to make every decision for you.

🎧 Listen to this week's episode of The Thinking Horse & Rider wherever you get your podcasts or watch on YouTube.

And then come back and tell me...
Which type of tension shows up most often for you?

Physical? Mental? Emotional? Or relational?

You might be surprised how simply naming it changes the way you approach your riding.

08/28/2026

Your Horse Isn't the Problem... Your Busy Mind Might Be

One of the biggest obstacles to better riding isn't your position. It isn't your horse.

Sometimes...
It's your mind.

When your brain is busy running through every possible disaster...

❓ "What if my horse spooks?"
❓ "What if I fall off?"❓
"What if I mess this up?"
..you're no longer available to receive information.

Not from your trainer. Not from your body. And not from your horse. A tense mind is a lot like tense hands. Instead of listening and feeling, it only reacts.

The goal isn't to have no thoughts. The goal is to create enough mental space that you can notice what's actually happening instead of reacting to what might happen.

Your horse can only communicate with the rider who's present—not the one who's already imagining the worst.

💛 What distracts your mind the most when you ride: fear, overthinking, or trying to do everything "right"?

Watch the full episode on Spotify and YouTube. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
The Thinking Horse and Rider Episode 75: The Hardest Part of Riding | Staying Relaxed While You're Doing It

08/27/2026

Absolutely! When you know where problems really start you can become aware & curious about the solutions.

In this video you will see how Karen plays with Teo in order for him to feel comfortable in the grooming stall and on the cross ties. You will see subtle (and not-so-subtle) changes in his mental-emotional state and Karen will narrate her intention in each moment. He tends to go introverted when ...

08/27/2026

08/27/2026

10-Minute Tuesday... on a Thursday. 😅 Better late than never!

This Simple Exercise Will Instantly Improve Your Balance

This week's experiment is one of my favorites because it teaches so many skills at once.

At the halt, with a trusted helper holding your horse:

✅ Stand straight up in your stirrups.
✅ Use the pommel for balance if you need to.
✅ Work toward taking your hands off the saddle and stretching them out like airplane wings.
✅ Then slowly lower yourself back into the saddle with control.

The goal is to stand, find your balance, and then be able to lower yourself down SMOOTHLY.

The second part is learning to sit down before you fall down. This trains your brain to recover and adapt rather than just REACT to falling backwards or forwards.

This simple exercise develops:🐴 Better balance💪 Core strength🧠 Proprioception (your body's awareness of where it is in space)✨ Confidence through recovery instead of gripping

The better you know where your center of gravity is, the less your brain has to panic when something unexpected happens.

Give it a try this week and let me know what you notice. I think you'll be surprised how much this one simple exercise improves your riding.

👇 Have you ever practiced standing straight up in your stirrups—not in two-point, but all the way up?

08/27/2026

Confidence Doesn't Come Before Action

One of the biggest myths in the horse world is that you have to be confident before you do the thing.

I don't believe that's true.

Action creates confidence... but only if the action stays below your panic threshold. That's the part traditional advice often leaves out.

If cantering makes you or your horse anxious, don't force yourself to "ride through it." Canter for one stride. Maybe three. Then come back to the trot before the fear, buck, bolt, or tension starts.

You're not quitting. You're not teaching your horse to break. You're teaching both nervous systems that cantering doesn't have to end in survival mode.

I call it:
"Learn to sit down before you fall down."
And we start to practice it in this episode's 10 minute experiment. It's a simple exercise that you can do at a halt on your horse (you can even have someone hold your horse). This simple exercise explores your balance, center of gravity, and gently builds confidence. The best part, it grows with you. You can learn to do it in every gait!

Sometimes the bravest thing you can do isn't push harder.

It's stop while everyone still feels successful.

💛 Have you ever been told to "just keep going" when something didn't feel right? How did that work out?

08/26/2026

🐝🐝 Now that I'm listening to these clips, I think I sound funny. Probably becasue of the wasp venom! My cheek was swollen, restricting my mouth ROM. I think I still got the point across and the steroids should have my next episode sounding normal 😉

My Dad Kept Telling Me to Smile... I Finally Understand Why

For years, my dad stood outside the arena with the same advice:

"Smile!"

And if I'm honest... there were times I wanted to punch him in the mouth for saying it. 😂

Now I finally understand.
When my horse stumbles, spooks, or something doesn't go according to plan, I smile. Sometimes I even laugh.
Not because I'm pretending everything is perfect.
Because smiling changes me.

It interrupts the fear.
It helps regulate my nervous system.
It reminds my body that I don't have to panic.

And here's what's interesting...
I've had judges positively comment on it.
Never once has a judge criticized me for smiling after a mistake.

Your horse isn't looking for perfection and the judges aren't expecting it (really).
They're both looking for information.
Sometimes the best thing you can communicate is:

"We're okay. Let's keep going."🐴💛

👇 Has anyone ever told you to smile while you ride? Did it help—or did it make you want to roll your eyes? 😄