Focusing on the “space between”

The “space between” is the space the horse needs to process, understand and choose how to respond.

The “space between” is the difference between a response and a reaction.

Without that space, we are activating a nervous system response which is a defensive mechanism (fight/ flight/ freeze/ fawn), and then trying to control that behaviour. 

We, as riders, need that “space between” too.

A great trick when you can feel your horse tense and it makes you nervous about the coming implosion is to hum.

Humming is an easy and quick way to hack our nervous system by stimulating the vagus nerve and down-regulating without trying to control our fear. And when we down-regulate our nervous system response, our horse will respond in kind.

A note on riding with fear:

Fear locks down on our sacro-lumbar area and hollows our back into an anterior pelvic tilt. The same happens with the horse. 

Just relaxing and softening your lower back, especially with an out breath, you can stimulate the tension to drop out of the horse's back. So just relaxing and softening the lower back can relax a hot anxious horse but a tense hollow lower back can escalate an already hot anxious horse. 

Are you riding with fear?