What Horses Can Tell You If You Just Listen

What a great weekend Sunny and I had!  We had two perfect rides, a lesson in lunging (it's been a long long time for me), a bath and some hand grazing.  He was just awesome, I wasn't anxious and the weekend was FABULOUS!

I had a great lesson yesterday, not with my trainer, but with my horse.  While riding in the ring, I noticed that Sunny was doing different "little things" ... not staying on the rail, being fidgetty, trying to turn, but not really going anywhere and I had to ask myself, "What am I doing that is confusing him?"  And then I had an epiphany:

I talk to much!

When I'm riding Sunny, I am constantly having a verbal dialog with him.  I'm asking him to walk, trot, canter, whoa ... but I'm also just talking:  Good boy, great job, you're such a good boy, you're fine, etc.  I'm pretty sure I'm talking non-stop to reassure myself that things are going well.  But what's really happening is Sunny's trying to figure out, "What is she asking me to do?"

I'm going to practice riding silently.  I'll still cluck for trot, kiss for canter and ask for a "whoa" ... but the rest of the "blah, blah, blah" has GOT TO GO!

When I admitted my amazing insight to my husband, he agreed ... HA!  Maybe I'll practice living silently from time to time, too!