Question: I recently read Linda’s blog entry entitled “Be prepared for the unthinkable by thinking about it.” It makes a lot of sense, but I am a bit confused. I recently spent a month at the Parelli Center with my horse. While there, I was told that I needed to try to “live in the moment more” and that a lot of the issues I was having with my horse had to do with the “baggage” I was bringing to each session, namely all the “what if” scenarios running through my mind. I was trying to be prepared for problems by thinking ahead of time what I would do in each instance so that I could be prepared with a response or a plan B. It was explained to me that because I was already preparing for something bad to happen, that my horse was reacting off of my energy negatively. So my question is: how can you prepare for the unthinkable and live in the moment at the same time? -Shannon P.

Answer:Great question! I can understand why you are confused because it’s hard to be present and think about the “what if’s” at the same time. The best time to prepare is before you are with your horse, even the night before! Make your plan and mentally explore what could go wrong and what you would do about it. This is mental preparation. Then when you are with your horse, play out your plan – don’t go in expecting to have problems or you cannot function as a leader. You have to go in with a plan of what you’re going to accomplish with your horse today and do everything you can to set yourself and your horse up for success to achieve your goals.  

By being prepared for the unthinkable the idea is to automatically do the right thing in an unexpected situation because although it may be a surprise in the moment, it should not be something you don’t know how to handle. Does that make sense? In that way you can feel more confident because knowledge is confidence. As an example, when I took Allure on tour a few years ago I had to think ahead about everything that could go wrong so I was mentally and subconsciously prepared. I also had to prepare the horse care crew because I knew handling him would not be easy after he’d been cooped up in a stall all night! I knew he was going to be a handful in front of a crowd so I thought about how I was going to manage that:

1.  For sure he would leap in the air and try to break free. So to avoid a rope burn I decided I would quickly turn him loose so there wouldn’t be a fight for control. Then I could talk about him and demonstrate how I would get him to catch me which is an important principle in our program anyway!

2.  When he was ready for me to play On Line, I would use a 22′ or 45′ line to give him more drift. And I would use a Pattern to focus him. If I’d done the right thing in getting him to catch me, and was sure he wanted to be with me before I put a line on him, I was setting it up for success. Probability was high that he wouldn’t try to pull away again, but if something startled him and broke the connection between us I knew exactly what I was going to do – let go! That way I was subconsciously prepared to respond in the right way rather than grab tight and jerk on him in a right brain reaction.

3.  Riding was going to be high risk, especially in front of a crowd. I went over in my head what he was apt to do – he could spook, buck, leap in the air at any given moment and especially if there was a sudden noise or movement in the audience. So I prepared strongly. Towards the end of our play on the ground, I would try to blow him up by doing things such as suddenly asking him for more energy or hitting a barrel to surprise him, and when he showed me that I couldn’t bother him, that’s when I would get on. But if he didn’t get calm enough, I wasn’t going to ride and that didn’t bother me. It was not about the ride, it was about teaching and walking the talk. I had already told everyone at the beginning of the session that I didn’t know if he was going to be rideable or not, that we would see, and I would point out what I was reading in the horse and share that SAVVY with them.  

I then knew I had about 5 minutes of trouble free riding. Yes, only 5! Mainly because I was not savvy or skilled enough to keep his attention while riding for much longer than that in front of a crowd! At home I could ride for 30 minutes or more, but not in this situation. So after bending him and moving his hindquarters (checking the brakes!), I would ride him to one song and then quit on a good note. I didn’t wait for it to get worse, I knew it would! So I stopped when the going was good. I’d get off and then everyone could clap and if Allure was going to have trouble in that moment, I was safely on the ground and that would be better for both of us.

I was also mentally prepared for if something did go wrong and he’d spook or buck. I knew how he spooked, I knew how he bucked, so I knew what I would need to do in my body to follow that movement rather than be dislodged by it. I also knew how to quickly reach down one rein and bend him to get control. So even though I knew how to do all that, I didn’t go into the situation thinking about it. I knew it. And I trusted myself to do what I know in the moment I needed to, in that way I could use my brain to communicate effectively with Allure and go through all the steps to set us up for a successful session.

Yours Naturally,
Linda