Our Services
At Pearson Equine we’re dedicated to being the best coaches we can for our students, and pride ourselves on providing services that will enable people and horses to have a better connection.
The riders’ position and associated bio-mechanics is of paramount importance. A rider may be in a classically correct position, however, if muscles are used incorrectly, this will then translate to their riding and their influence on the horse. Identifying and correcting these postural issues will enable the rider to have a better connection with the horse – and the horse to have a clearer understanding of what is being asked of them.
Equine Training
If we think of stress levels as Green, Yellow, or Red zones, people and horses are most receptive to learning when in the green zone. The green zone is calm, relaxed and happy. The Yellow zone is wary, suspicious and alert. The red zone is Flight, Fight or Freeze.
Sometimes a particular exercise may stretch the horse into the yellow zone, but our aim is to keep the horse in the “green” zone. Our “bite sized” exercises achieve this by taking small steps, and the horse learns quicker than taking big ones.
Whatever training you wish to do with your horses, Pearson Equine is dedicated to working with you in achieving your goals.
Coaching The Rider
Let’s consider our brain for a minute. It’s instinctive and logical.
- Our Instinctive Brain (Brain A) is a rabbit. It’s all about jumping in, guns a blazin’. It’s reactive, fast and jumps to conclusions. It’s the king of Fight, Flight or Freeze.
- Our Logical Brain (Brain B) is a tortoise. It’s methodical, thoughtful and responsive. It likes to think things through before taking action.
When something unexpected happens, Brain A takes action to save us. Now sometimes this action helps us (get out of way of bolting horse), and sometimes this action doesn’t help us (freeze and fall off when horse shies). Brain B KNOWS the correct thing to do (if we’ve been taught), but is a little slow coming to the party. Hence when you’re lying on the ground watching your horse depart at speed and thinking, “why did I look down and grip with my knees when he shied at the puddle monster? I know I’m supposed to look forward and stay relaxed in my seat and legs to absorb the motion”. Brain B has (finally) arrived at the party to give sage advice….
Ideally, it’d be great if Brain B could take over from Brain A, however that’s not how our brain works. Brain A is our Instinctive Brain and has been doing an awesome job of keeping us alive for thousands of years – until we decided to grow frontal lobes, get all “special and smart” and decide to ride a horse! We’ve now confused Brain A. It doesn’t feel safe on a horse. Brain A knows the only thing we can control is ourselves – certainly not a large quadruped able to jump tall buildings in a single bound! So Brain A does what it does best and tries to keep us safe – such as use our opposable thumbs to “hang on!” Sadly, large quadrupeds usually don’t like this and their Brain A brains react by their own fight or flight response which leaves us lying on the ground wondering why we bother with this mental thing called horseriding!
So! Brain B is unable to speed up and arrive at the party in time, but what if we could teach Brain A to react differently to puddle monsters? Hmmm…
As the great George Morris says, “Practice doesn’t make perfect – Perfect practice makes perfect”. And he’s absolutely right. All the incorrect practice in the world will not achieve perfection. Only correct practice will attain lofty heights. So with this in mind, if the correct actions are practiced consistently, they become habit and this is what Brain A will deliver when puddle monsters are around.
Our “ten for ten” training videos provide short lessons that will help you improve your riding – and your response to puddle monsters!
Horsemanship
You can be an awesome rider, and have the best horse in the world, but if you don’t know how to connect, you’ll never succeed.
So much time is spent telling the horse what we want, but when was the last time we listened? Here’s an example:
I have a chestnut thoroughbred gelding called Trevor. Anyone who’s met “Trev” can attest he is a beautiful, hyper-sensitive, gentle, cheeky, bat-crap-crazy nutcase, who likes to squeal and will leap tall buildings in a single bound – regardless of whether the building is there or not! Makes for entertaining riding!
He also does not like surprises, and this includes early morning starts. Now Trev is usually the type of horse who is waiting at the gate to be ridden. He loves being ridden and you can literally “feel the joy” radiating off him when on his back. So imagine my surprise when I went to catch him for a (very) early competition start and watch him see the halter in my hand, wrinkle his nostrils, turn his ears out sideways (always a sign of pondering a situation), give an equine “nope” by turning and make tracks in the opposite direction! “Hmmm, unusual”, says the human standing at the gate with a halter – but really don’t have time for this today.
At this point I had choices (we always do). I could persist in chasing him around the paddock (vigorous, but not effective), I could plead and beg (amazing what you’ll do at 4.30am), I could get some food and try bribery (amazing what you’ll do at 4.30am), I could throw a tantrum (desirable, but not helpful), I could decide that the competition isn’t worth it and go back to bed (appealing, but regrettable), or, I could listen to him. What was Trev telling me?
“I don’t want to be caught…”
“It’s too early…”
“This is out of the ordinary…”
“You aren’t usually here at 4.30am…”
“This is a surprise and I don’t like surprises….”
Coolio, I respect that. Just cos I want to get up at stupid-O’clock for a competition, doesn’t mean that Trev shares that desire. So how can I work with this? After all, this is a reciprocal relationship I have with him isn’t it? A delicate balance of give and receive? Yes! So how can I minimise the surprise and get my “partner-in-crime” back?
I can feed him every day at 4.30am (possible, but not probable), or I could give him his feed now and go and do something else for 15min to give him time and space to adjust to the surprise. And this is the key word – space. Horsemanship is about giving the horse space and time to learn and absorb.
Apply pressure then apply release. Release = space/time. Humans learn the same way. Explain a concept, then give space/time for student to think, absorb and practice.
Here at Pearson Equine we know we can learn so much from listening to the horse and having a reciprocal relationship. We want you to have that also.
