Humans and Horses The Nervous Rider

Humans and Horses - The Nervous Rider by Sue McIntyre  Dip Adv.Hyp.  Acc.Hyp.Sup.  Dip.Pers.Dev.  Cert. Couns A client once told me "Just a horse" is the thing that keeps me from being "just a human" and I've been thinking about that ever since!  What is so seductive about horses that we happily invest our time, money, energy and emotions to a level that non-horsey humans often find difficult to comprehend? I'd guess that perhaps it's because they offer us an opportunity to reach out, to extend and challenge ourselves; to be more than ‘just a human', to be extra-ordinary in fact. Our basic human instinct to be at least wary of something that has the potential to hurt us is quite normal and has ensured our survival as a species.   There's nothing intrinsically wrong with being nervous on (or around) horses except that it can be unpleasant and unhelpful if you want to ride.  The first challenge for horse riding humans then, is to overcome the conflicts caused by our natural human instincts. A primitive human survival mechanism means that when fear alerts us to potential danger, we respond with our own particular version of ‘fight', ‘flight' ‘freeze' or ‘foetal crouch'.  Whilst this was crucial for our caveman ancestors, it doesn't do much for us when our nerves cause us to

• ‘fight' our horse (and ourselves) resulting in a cycle of tension and anxiety.  We exert even more willpower and determination but a bit like getting to sleep, the harder we try the harder it is!  Horse and rider get frustrated and annoyed.  Our horse becomes resistant and ‘spooks', ‘shies' or ‘refuses'.  We each lose confidence in the other and the rider loses the ability to respond rather than react to challenges.
• ‘freeze' - so that parts of our body just won't do what they're supposed to do!  We simply can't seem to ‘give' the rein or release our back or our shoulders for example.  Even worse, our mind ‘freezes' too and we forget to breathe, or forget which jump comes next or what's supposed to happen after we've entered the arena at ‘A'
• ‘foetal crouch' curling up our body to protect the chest and stomach, which as our ape-ancestors knew, are our most vulnerable parts.  Unfortunately in the crazy process of attempting to adopt this position on horseback, we lean forward, pulling our hands and elbows in to our chest and raising our knees and heels in a direct contradiction of everything our riding instructors ever taught us.
• ‘flight' - as in wanting to give up and run away.  We make excuses to avoid riding (its too wet or windy) and pretend that competitions and fun rides just don't do it for us anymore.  Our rides get slower and shorter and the routes get more and more restricted.
   

Humans - Our Struggle to be Extra-Ordinary

Human beings have not survived so long by giving up easily.  Most riders struggle with nerves and conflicts, sometimes unsure if we want to continue riding but not quite bringing ourselves to hang up our hats either.  We optimistically enter ourselves into dressage or jumping classes when they're several weeks away and then on the morning of the event wonder what on earth possessed us.  Even if we do manage to get ourselves into the arena or jumping ring, only part of us wants to be there while the other part wishes we were somewhere (anywhere!) else.  We'd love to be in the ribbons but deep down we're afraid that it might affect our relationships with our friends or our family (or even with ourselves and our riding).

Conflicts like these waste a lot of energy and result in a loss of motivation and commitment.  They can also cause a lot of damage to our confidence and self-esteem because we focus on the miss-match between what we (or others) think we ought to be able to do and what we find we actually can do.  We begin to value ourselves for what we can (or cannot!) do, rather than for who we are and then get caught up in a cycle of negative thinking, negative self-talk and anxieties.

Humans and Hypnosis - A Natural Solution

Humans have an entirely natural ability to use hypnosis.  Like the flight, fight or freeze response it's part of our human inheritance. Although we must have always utilised trance states, the first records of humans deliberately using hypnotic phenomena date back about 4000 years to the Egyptian priest, Imhotep who used hypnosis in his ‘Sleep Temples' and to the ancient Greeks who dedicated their ‘Sleep Temples' to the healing god Æsclepius.

In spite of its early associations with sleep, hypnosis is not sleep - it's a natural suspension of awareness somewhere on a continuum between wide-awake and fast asleep.  Modern biofeedback methods show that when we use hypnosis, we slow our brainwaves from mostly beta to alpha and theta.  The advantage of this, as the ancient civilisations discovered, is that the slower brainwaves create physiological and psychological changes that enhance our natural human resources.  Alpha brain patterns for example are associated with an increase in the production of serotonin (the ‘molecule of happiness') and theta brainwaves offer us potential for behavioural change along with heightened levels of learning, memory and creativity.

Hypnosis for Horse Riders - Realising our Human Potential

I wrote my self-hypnosis audio CD, Hypnosis for Horseriders to help horse riders make the most of their human potential to overcome difficulties.  Self-hypnosis is the ultimate self-help tool. It's versatile, safe, fast, simple, pleasant, effective, non-invasive and non-addictive. Nearly everyone can do it and it's stood the test of time - humans have been doing it for thousands of years! Best of all, it encourages self-sufficiency because it empowers us to use our own resources to help ourselves.

Hypnosis for Horseriders will help you manage your horse riding experiences positively by better managing yourself and your emotions.  It utilises the advantages of our natural trance state in two ways

1.      It will help you to access your creative ability to find solutions to problems so that ideas, insights and constructive information become more readily available.

2.      It will create an environment where you are able to accept positive and helpful suggestions without the restrictions ordinarily imposed by your conscious abilities and responses (as in "yeah but - it won't work for me, I don't think I'm ever going to be able to ......." for example!).

The effect is compounded because as you transform your cycle of negative thinking into a positive cycle

• Your positive beliefs give birth to a more positive attitude that in turn leads to more positive expectations.
• This expectation means that you start noticing when you behave differently and more positively and so you start to notice the small improvements
• The positive cycle continues because as you notice these improvements, so more positive beliefs will grow.
  

About Sue Sue has more than twenty years' experience as a hypnotherapist and horse rider.  She started training in both activities when her daughter went to school and is still learning! Her qualifications include a Diploma in Advanced Hypnotherapy, a Diploma in Personal Development, a Certificate in Hypnotherapeutic Supervision and a Certificate in Counselling Skills.  She is a Supervisory Member of both the Association for Professional Hypnosis and Psychotherapy and The National Council for Hypnotherapy.  She is also registered with the UK Confederation of Hypnotherapy Organisations, which ensures that all hypnotherapists are safe and competent to practice and that they adhere to national standards of ethics and training. Sue spends much of her leisure time with her horse, ‘Sid'. For more information please go to: Hypnosis for Horseriders

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