Are you a perfectionist?
How hard are you on yourself?
One of the hardest and most important lessons I’ve had to learn over and over again is to change my pattern of self talk. When you are too hard on yourself, you will inadvertently be too hard on your horse. You might not mean to, and you may not realize it, but it happens.
When you are trapped in your head, in a cycle of self doubt, you aren’t helping your horse. When you make yourself repeat something over and over because you’re frustrated you didn’t get it yet, you over school your horse. When you have negative feelings about yourself and your ability, you aren’t guiding your horse.
Being in the moment and developing a more positive inner dialogue matters. It helps you learn, and it benefits your horse too.
You can give up on being perfect, because it will never happen: but you can achieve better than that – true partnership through feeling in the moment.
