Ep. 24 Why do some people learn and improve much faster than others?
The patterns in the pupil’s body are part of this, and we have both the ‘foetal crouch’ and the much more common ‘Landau response’, where the rider pushes down into the stirrups, hollows her back, stretches up and stops breathing (like a horse in ‘arrest’). But in addition, is the rider’s mental/emotional state more ‘fight or flight-ish’ or ‘freeze and fold-ish’?. The latter riders, who are disengaged, and a bit floppy, are lacking authority and boundaries. Teaching authority is the hardest task: The rider has to believe that she has the right to be up there, and instead of fading into the wall paper she has to find a more ‘Me Tarzan, you horse’ way of being. ‘Come along horsey, come along horsey’ is a much more busy (and flighty) way to interact, but horses rarely believe this either. When you can be present, and able to look, listen and feel, you will learn much more easily - and a good coach teaches you how to become this more embodied version of yourself.