Today, we have the privilege of sharing the reflections of Karen Jones of Motivational Horsemanship. Shreyasi crossed paths with Karen when they connected over their Lipizzan Rescue Foundation rescue Lipizzans, Arya and Rhett. Karen has a wonderful Facebook page, website and blog devoted to her principles of motivational horsemanship, and to her specific experiences connecting with Rhett. We came across this article in our email inbox today and she kindly provided us permission to re-post it below.
In this article, Karen talks about setting aside time in a special way for you and your horse, rather than using the clock to define the time you spend together. She calls this way of spending time HORSE TIME. When we read her words, they resonated deeply and reminded us of the attitudes of being mindfully aware. We think that the invitation to drop into HORSE TIME also creates space for you to be mindfully aware when with your horses. It is a way to show respect and to honor your horses. Just as we set aside time to practice self-care, we can choose to set aside such time for others in our lives, including our four-legged companions, so that they receive our full presence and attention.
This is an interesting conversation for horse owners and equestrians. This makes sense intuitively; however, it can be easy to become so focused and task-oriented that we lose sight of what we are hoping to gain by spending time with our horses. We work on goals to better ourselves as riders or equestrians. So much of one’s time is spent in DOING with horses. Setting an intention to BE with horses requires us to have a willingness to try something brand new.
You are invited to embody this approach at least once as an experiment and to notice whether, if at all, it makes a difference. We suspect that it will! Perhaps just as you set aside time for other things during the day, you can set aside time for your horses but in a different way- by dropping into HORSE TIME. Please enjoy Karen’s article below. If you enjoyed this article, please also visit her website and subscribe to her posts.
“HORSE TIME”
What do the words “Horse Time” mean to you ??
For me, ‘Horse Time’, is MY sacred time with my own horses!!
I’m sure for my horses, ‘Horse Time’ is THEIR sacred time. With and without me. With and without each other. Their sacred time. To do as they please.
If I chose to spend my ‘horse time’ with my horses and it’s also their ‘horse time’, we bring more of our authentic selves to our interactions.
Any ‘time’ and every ‘time’ we spend interacting with our horses is training time. Our training them, them training us! It’s a little bit like that in human to human relationships too!
When interacting and training your horse, always go slow. Because slow is always faster! It sounds weird, but it is true! If you go too fast when training your horse for either of your comfort levels, you make more mistakes and you often forget certain foundational steps.
Do your best to train without ‘time’ pressure. If you take the time needed, it will eventually go faster because you hardly ever have to take a step back. You give the horse all the time he/she needs to understand and learn the required task/objective/exercise step by step. Only in this way, will it be confirmed for the better!
So no clock watching when you are with your horse!