Now that fall is turning into winter, I am usually alone when I go to the barn to ride. My trainer is in her house, painting her family room, so there is someone on the property, but in the barn Lily and I are alone.
I had forgotten how much I like to ride by myself, undistracted by others. I am intensely verbal and analytical, and easily distracted as well. When others are around, it is hard for me to forget about onlookers and focus on myself and my horse. However, my best riding happens when I shut down my self consciousness and inner critic, and enter a non-verbal state in which I participate rather instead of observe. When I make this shift, I feel as though I ride with my body rather than my mind.
It is not necessarily difficult to make the shift: what is difficult is remembering to do so. Schooling is hard, because I have to listen to my trainer, and try not to lose the shift. When I first started clicker-training Hap, my trainer remarked that she felt superfluous because my riding was so much better when I rode alone than when I schooled with her. I explained that it seemed as though I could only manage two of three things at once: listening, making the shift, and the mechanics of clicker training. During lessons, I learned what I needed to do, and then worked on them in private.
What I call the shift is the state of “flow,” as described in “Creativity and Flow Psychology”:http://www.talentdevelop.com/Page8.html. I enjoy riding a lot even when I don’t achieve “flow,” but when I do achieve it I feel as though I have become one with the horse.