Finding Neutral-Course Pre-Sale!

When I began teaching school horse lessons on horses who are empowered to have autonomy, one thing became abundantly clear: How the riders show up has tremendous impact on how the horses show up. The inner-life of the rider creates behaviors in the horses that influence the baseline starting point for the training. A nervous or insecure handler may produce a horse that constantly dives for grass and creates a tug of war scenario, while a high-energy rider with a “hot seat” might have a much easier time riding a mellow horse, and struggle to contain a high-energy horse.

This is quite logical when we consider that horses are prey animals and highly sensitive to energy. In order to survive in the wild they have to determine the intention of the predators around them from far away so that they determine if they need to flee. Humans are predators, and horses can “read” us very well from a distance. “Fake it ‘till you make it” isn’t super helpful with horses, as they are excellent at hearing everything we don’t know we’re saying.

We all show up with our individual temperaments, personalities, fears, beliefs, insecurities, confidence (sometimes over-confidence) and all of that is just fine. We don’t need to judge how we are, but we do need to be aware of it. 

People in modern society are often conditioned to ignore the signals our bodies are giving us. We are frequently told we’re OK, even when our body is screaming that we’re not. This can lead to us judging our emotions, suppressing them, and hoping that the people around us can’t tell what we’re really feeling. 

I always say that I wish I had studied psychology in school in order to prepare for my teaching career, but in all honesty, I think the horses have taught me more about people than any person could. Listening to the horses about how the riders’ mind, emotions and related physical actions were impacting them forced me into a choice: Either learn to support the riders in dissecting and shifting their mental, emotional and physical states, or teach the horses to ignore the riders. That choice was easy, and I began to develop tools to support the riders and run interference for the horses.

I don’t for one moment think I’m the expert at this. Many, many people have dedicated their lives to this sort of process. That said, in the realm of training and riding horses for sport, I do find that this piece of the puzzle is commonly ignored. What I observe as the result is a perpetual struggle where the rider is working to remediate a behavior in the horse which they themselves are unintentionally producing. Not only is that frustrating for the rider, it’s confusing for the horse. The end result is commonly coercion, or violence, and the horse is always on the losing end of that scenario. Education is the remedy, and while it was never my intention to teach this sort of thing, the path showed up and I can’t ethically discuss horse training without addressing this component.

In my experience, if we take the time to help people address their own baseline starting point, we can smooth the path to training. I refer to this process as finding neutral, which is a mental, emotional and physical state where we as the riders and handlers are not unintentionally creating a problem which then we have to add influence over the horse to solve.

For the New Year, I’m launching my fundamental course on Finding Neutral. This will include both unmounted and mounted exercises to support the handler and rider, and is a baseline for future courses. You can expect tools, scripts, video, and step-by-step processes that I use with all of my students to help them find and re-find that sweet spot that allows them to grow a safe, healthy, confident, and truly enjoyable relationship with their horses.

You can order the course here, and expect delivery in February, 2025! Start your new year off right with this excellent course! Finding Neutral: Tools for Riders to Optimize Your Experience with Your Horse — Katie Ebbage Equestrian, LLC