Today I had the pleasure of giving lessons to three beautiful girls from a care home in Denmark. The girls had taken riding lessons in a school before but as most riding schools you do not learn much about horses. Most riding schools do not even teach the students how to say hello to a horse, and much less to enhance communication between horse and rider.

The horse is supposed to do what it’s told and the human is the boss. The girls told me they would like to ride, I could understand that, but then told them that it was important to get a good relationship with the horse, before we start riding.

So we headed exited off to the herd with halters in our hands to get to know each other better.

First we stood at a distance from the herd and I taught it was important to keep focus on being present with the horses and leave all troubles behind. Fill your minds with positive thoughts and think of all the reasons why you really like horses. We did that for five minutes or so, just stood still thinking of all the appreciation we have for horses. Then we started to walk around the herd, keeping a good distance. The girls learned the names of the horses to  see when the horse is ready to say hello.

Every one tried to say hello to all the members of the herd a few times and really enjoyed the interaction. If you have not tried this before I can tell you it’s a real heart warmer. You reach your hand out when the horse is ready towards it’s nose and the horse will smell your hand, it was the first real interaction with the  horses.

After the greeting ceremony the girls had already changed plans not to ride and instead take the horses to the beach. The horses just love to bathe in the river and eat at the river bank, this amused the girls very much and being with the horses became all they wanted to do that day.

We all enjoyed the moment together.

Kind regards Stina