Warmblood Whispers WHAT YOUR HORSE IS TRYING TOTELL YOU Before You Mount: A Checklist E
very airplane flight requires that its pilots con- duct a pre-flight check. This necessary and potentially life-saving procedure consists of a thorough and rather monotonous review of
flight systems before take-off. Presented below are seven steps that you can apply as an everyday pre- ride checklist before mounting your own horse, someone else’s horse or before you are about to plunge into a trail ride in unfamiliar territory. Consider that getting on a horse takes courage, skill and tact since these animals have one of the largest amygdalae of all mam- mals. In other words, your horse has an innate heightened flight response. This checklist is so obvious
that we oftentimes overlook these simple but vital factors. Ask yourself if you are really using these checkpoints every single day, every single ride? It’s one thing to believe in it, another to apply it. There are some definite factors you would want to consider, at minimum, before you put on your helmet and step in the stirrup.
The Trust Factor Ask yourself, ‘do I feel safe here?’ Our instincts were meant to protect us. Learning to honor that little voice in your head that tells you whether to go to- wards something or away from it is invaluable. Much of our socialization tends to muffle that instinct. An early example is seen in young children who may be forced to eat—to finish their plate of food—when they say they are full. Early on the lesson learned is to ignore our bodily sensations of fullness. So it is no wonder then that, as an adult, one may question that still voice in one’s head. We are conditioned to silence it and defer to compliance. Learning to be honest
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about your sense of a particular horse or situation is the first step.
The Togetherness Factor Are we together? Are we one? Generally, if you have to ask this question it means you don’t have it. But being honest about that is a good start. General signs that there is a lack of togetherness in- clude a loss of rhythm and distractability, among others. Sad, but much too commonly found, is the use of contrap- tions that keep the horse’s head set and artificially give the false picture of focus. This masks the underlying rea- son of why the togetherness factor is suffering. Have you ever been on a horse but had the feeling that no one was home? It can be a terrifying and disconnecting feeling to sit atop an animal and feel that she or he is not with you. Cultivating a respect for primi- tive instincts can warn and protect you. But people toler-
ate lack of togetherness because they don’t know what it feels like when it really exists. And that is sometimes not just with horses.
“We need to be in a simple, more innocent, ‘childlike’
space with our horses—a place so clear and so beautiful that just being there with them offers us purity.”
The Soundness Factor One of the best investments one can make in his or her journey to develop horsemanship skills is to continu- ally learn about the horse’s locomotion and physiology. Subtle suggestions of soundness issues are commonly never detected because the person atop the horse or on the end of the lunge line has not developed an eye
Dr. Maria Katsamanis
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