The name of the game

When I got back into horse riding after 25 years I did not want to go back in to formal dressage, it´s just not me, so I looked around for a place where they taught Western riding. While strolling through the internet I came across all kinds of new and interesting new things about horses, I had kept myself away from horses for a long time and had not kept up with new developments at all. Of course I had heard about the great shift in thinking brought on by Monty Roberts and I did see the Horse Whisperer movie but that was about it. So seeing all these articles about Natural Horsemanship and Centered Riding wetted my appetite for horses even more. I knew that was my path, after training Aikido for some twenty years I found great similarities is this new way of being with horses.

But first I had to find a place to ride again and be among horses and I was lucky to find a place nearby. The teacher was not at all what I remembered from horse girly girls, she was short, like me, looked more like a boy, like me and was a little on the heavy side, like me so we hit it of well. My first lesson was on a big Friesian named Henk and if she would have said all you can do today is groom I would have been in heaven too. The feeling of being near a horse again, the warmth and strength of horses body, the subtle movements of ears, the instant connection you have through touch and the smell made me hungry for more.

After bouncing around for an hour on his big black back made me realize two things:

1. I need to know more about this path through books and video
2. My bum has forgotten how to relax on a horses back while we trot

The second realization was the start of a whole new journey in discovering my body and blockage.

The first lead me to a book on which I base the title of the blog, a book by  Gawani Pony Boy, Horse follow closely. Besides having the most beautiful photo’s that made you wish you could step into them and be as free, he said somewhere, just watch your horse for a day, without interfering, watch how it interacts with the world, with other horses, just watch and do nothing but absorb. That made so much sense to me and it became the basis of the journey with my horse from the moment she came into my live.