It was quite a long time ago. \u00a0This might have been five or six years ago. \u00a0There was this horse, a fruit loop horse. \u00a0She is a sensitive horse and the wrong people bought her. \u00a0After six months, she was scared of anything human. \u00a0If anything human moved, she was scared of it. She is what Pat Parelli calls a “Hey Bob! Horse. \u00a0You are riding this horse. \u00a0You wave your arm to say hi to Bob and the horse bolts. Human arms to this horse are things that beat you. \u00a0Arms beat you.<\/p>\n
I bought this horse after she was ruined.<\/p>\n
The Hey Bob horse teaches you not to pick your nose, point at anything or wave at anyone. \u00a0Your horse bolts when people near you pick up their arm. \u00a0You learn to yell at your friends. \u00a0“Do not pick up your arm when you are near me! Do not flick your reins at your horse!\u00a0Do not wave at flies on your horse! \u00a0Good God, do you want me to die?” \u00a0The horse was also claustrophobic around other horses. \u00a0We can not get too near other horses. \u00a0Soon she taught me to be scared of other horses. \u00a0They might kick me.<\/p>\n
I rode the Claustrophobic-Hey-Bob-Horse for quite a while until the fear of arms finally got to me. \u00a0The bolting was not bad. \u00a0The horse bolted and was easily stopped with the reins. \u00a0Only once did she bolt out on a gravel road with me. \u00a0Hey, it was just once. \u00a0When you ride with loose reins and the horse bolts, it takes about a year to pick up the reins and pull back.<\/p>\n
Finally when I was good and trained to be afraid of arms, I paid Nichole Hack for her to be trained to not be afraid of arms. \u00a0i got her back and the world was good, except any movement on her part caused me to tighten up as a reflective action. \u00a0It was OK when I thought about it. \u00a0Self, you are not going to haul back on the reins when the horse flinches. \u00a0Just let her flinch. \u00a0Self, you can now raise your arm. \u00a0The horse will not bolt. \u00a0Self, if your horse does take a couple forward steps, just know that the stop is just milliseconds away, don’t grab the reins.The horse will stop on her own. \u00a0You do not have to haul back on the reins to stop.<\/p>\n
Looking at the stories of this horse, her journey back to being a relaxed horse took about three years. \u00a0She was totally ruined in six months. \u00a0I couldn’t 100% fix her. \u00a0I fixed a lot of things, but not the bolting and in the end, I was just as scared of people’s arms as she was!<\/p>\n
So when you have this bolting fear, the human body does something that is called cradle reflex. \u00a0Your upper body tries to fold into a ball. \u00a0Your body leans forward and your legs go back. \u00a0In the horse world, this is called “the fall off position”. \u00a0One sideways step from the horse and you are in the falling off position..on the way to the nasty ground.<\/p>\n
The next horse to come into my life was the Horse of No, Lucky Star. \u00a0The Horse of No did not have very many bolting episodes. \u00a0But there were some short episodes and I went into my cradle position. \u00a0I got to ride a lot without the cradle position happening to me and that was a good thing.<\/p>\n
Next in my life is Cisco. \u00a0I don’t remember that he did any bolting actions that caused me to go into the cradle position. \u00a0But for the first couple of years I had him, I was ready to fold into the cradle position when i saw something that I thought he might spook at. \u00a0And he never spooked.<\/p>\n
I am quite upset with myself about tensing up and preparing to go into the cradle position. \u00a0Stop it! \u00a0Why can’t I get over being afraid? \u00a0Cisco is not going to spook. \u00a0I can trust him.<\/p>\n
I came up with the idea that I am not trusting Cisco. \u00a0I am not trusting Cisco to take care of me. \u00a0Cisco is taking care of me quite wonderfully. \u00a0I believe it is time to let this fear go. \u00a0I am going to trust Cisco. \u00a0I’m not going to gather up my reins when I see something scary. I’m not going to tense my body. \u00a0I’m going to keep the reins slack and keep relaxed. \u00a0I am going to trust Cisco.<\/p>\n
And that was the answer! \u00a0You need to realize that you can trust your horse. \u00a0You need to ride a horse that you can trust. \u00a0I believe that I am over the cradle-fear now. \u00a0Thank God. \u00a0It took a long long time and two horses to get me over it.<\/p>\n