The Consulting Rooms.......because it makes sense

Email Link: sue@theconsultingrooms.co.uk

Private Practice of Susan B McIntyre
Qualifications: Adv.Dip.Hip., Dip.Pers.Dev., Cert.Couns. M.N.C.H, M.I.S.M.A., M.A.P.H.P.

Telephone Burnham-on-Sea 01278 784490

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Site last updated July 2007

Article 6 - A Mind to Ride - Resourceful Riding by Sue McIntyre Published in The Hypnotherapy Journal - click here

I started riding horses sixteen years ago at about the same time that I started training to be a hypnotherapist. I thought that it would be a good thing to have a hobby that got me exercising outside since I rather planned to spend my working life sitting still inside. I expected that the learning processes would run parallel. I didn’t expect that I would end up specialising in using my training in hypnotherapy, counselling and personal development to help riders deal with the challenges of riding – but that’s exactly what has happened! A Mind to Ride is the result.

Horses are not motorbikes

It would be a big mistake to think that riding a horse is just about climbing on, sitting and steering. Horses are not motorbikes – they have a mind of their own! Mostly they are generous and indulge their riders by responding predictably to tension on a rein or the squeeze of a leg or a shift of weight in the saddle. Sometimes they ignore all of that and do pretty much as they please or their natural survival instincts take over and they respond just as their untamed ancestors would have done hundreds of years ago. Horses are physically and mentally adapted for life as a browser/grazer on an open plain or mountain. They do not eat meat and are not hunters – on the contrary, they are almost totally defenceless and are designed for flight rather than fight. This is probably the single most important influence in their psychological make-up. A horse must be constantly alert to danger and will run away first and think about it later.

Relationships

Riding a horse then is also about relationships. The importance of the quality of the partnership between horse and rider probably makes equitation unique amongst sports. Footballers and hockey players may have all sorts of relationships with their colleagues but I presume they don’t have quite the same sort of relationship with a ball or a stick. (At least I hope not!) Like any relationship, the one between horse and rider involves things like mutual trust, commitment, compromise, communication, tact, respect and a hefty dose of goodwill. Any client who has difficulties with these issues, will inevitably find it in their equestrian as well as in their human relationships, so that work in one area will have a knock-on effect in another. The rider who blames all her problems on her horse for example, is quite likely to abdicate similar responsibilities in her other relationships. I sometimes hear things like “O my horse doesn’t do rainy days” or “my horse stops at a fence if he sees another horse stop at it first” and have found that getting the rider to own at least some of the responsibility for the difficulty can have quite profound results.

When winning is a problem

Surprisingly perhaps, this abdication of responsibility doesn’t just happen with difficulties. It can happen with successes too. The idea that winning is somehow vulgar and ‘not nice’ and can only be achieved at the expense of popularity, can cause all sorts of conflicts in a competitive environment and sometimes the solution is to blame the horse, or luck or virtually anything else other than the skill and competency of the rider. Subconsciously or consciously, some riders even go as far as to sabotage their chances of success rather than struggle with the conflicts of winning. No doubt there are many therapeutic approaches that can help resolve these types of conflict. My own experience is that transactional analysis is often helpful and working through a client’s ‘script’, exploring ‘permissions’, ‘injunctions’ and ‘drivers’ will facilitate sufficient insight to allow a change to take place. It is not unusual for there to be some sort of ‘game’ or ‘racket’ being played out as well, with the horse being projected into a role in the drama triangle so that he may unwittingly at times become ‘victim’, ‘rescuer’ or ‘persecutor’ depending on the neurotic needs of his rider/owner.

The Horse as a Therapist

I don’t suppose it is at all unusual for an animal or pet to fulfil a role similar to that of a therapist on occasions. In many ways they are ideally suited to it in as much as they generally welcome their owner with unconditional regard, listen non-judgementally to their problems, are open and honest in their feedback, provide a vehicle for transference and possibly a safe place in which to explore emotions and experiment with changes. I’m one of those people who find it difficult to say ‘no’ – even to my horse! (sad – I know). As you can imagine, this caused me all sorts of problems in all areas of my life. I am the rider who couldn’t quite bring herself to stop her horse eating whenever he felt like it (internal dialogue along the lines of “its his natural behaviour, who am I to stop him from doing that?”) and hence the rider catapulted down her horse’s neck whilst cantering along a track because he has suddenly seen something tasty and stopped abruptly for an unscheduled lunch break. Practicing saying “No” to him and working through all the emotions that generated (fear of loss of affection, difficulties with self belief etc.), whilst experiencing the improvements in the relationship created by a greater respect, has given me the confidence to be more assertive.

Horses are herd animals and their love of company has led to a sensitive and complicated use of body language. This means that they also have the ability to provide immediate feedback in response to our own, often unconscious, messages. Tensions and anxiety in a rider/owner for example, will soon manifest as tension and anxiety in their horse. This ‘mirroring’ can be used to good therapeutic effect. Any resolution of conflicts, improvements in congruity, confidence, sense of purpose and direction and most especially improvements in the ability to access and ride in that state of heightened awareness accompanied by calm relaxation that many may consider to be part of ‘trance’, will be reflected and magnified in the equestrian mirror.

Ancestral Memories

‘A Mind to Ride’ has been greatly influenced by the work of Terence Watts, which I came across via his ‘LifeMapper’ training. This incorporates a user-friendly re-working of the rather more conventional ‘pre-genital anal’, ‘pre-genital oral’ and ‘genital’ personality types by using the concept of ancestral memory to redefine them as ‘Warriors, Settlers & Nomads’ (explained in some detail in his book of the same name). The majority of equestrians seem to find it easy to embrace the concept of ancestral memory, due in part perhaps by their experience of how horses, despite hundreds of years of domestication, have retained their ancestral memories. One of the reasons that riding is an exceptionally demanding skill, I think, is that our own ancestral memories dictate that practically everything we want to do reflexly on a horse is unhelpful. In her book ‘Ride with your Mind’, Mary Wanless describes how
“The rider who doubts her ability (quite justifiably, as she has no right brain information to tell her how to respond effectively to horses) is left at the mercy of survival mechanisms as old as man himself, and which are housed in the lower brain centres. As an involuntary reflex, she adopts at least some aspects of the ‘foetal crouch’: she curls up her body to protect her chest and belly, which, as her ape-ancestors knew, are her most vulnerable parts”

LifeMapping and ‘A Mind to Ride’

Terence’s LifeMapper concept is based in part around a computer programme, which means that it is possible to work with clients via email, fax and telephone. ‘A Mind to Ride’ combines an adaptation of ‘LifeMapper’ to make it especially relevant for riders, with an audio CD (called ‘Equinimity’) so that it is still possible to work effectively (if necessary) with the minimum of face-to-face contact. Bearing in mind that even the least dedicated of riders spends an hour a day (every day!) looking after her horse and probably five hours a week riding it and that very many also work full time to finance their ‘hobby’, it is easy to see how the flexibility this approach offers is particularly attractive. From a therapist’s point of view, the archetypes provide a wonderful opportunity for interventions incorporating parts work, metaphors and anchoring techniques. In addition, the Life Map generated by the programme is in fact a very accessible treatment plan co-operatively created and mutually agreed with the client.

Horses for Courses

Although I appreciate that many might argue that it is inappropriate to use personality profiling because it can be seen as an attempt to stereotype a client, in my experience it is actually an extremely practical method of targeting interventions accurately. It is useful to understand for example, when working with a predominantly ‘Nomad type’ equestrian that it is more important for him/her to look good than to get results. Any attempt at an intervention motivated by results where it may be at the expense of image, will probably fall on deaf ears. On the other hand, results are likely to be highly prized by the predominantly ‘Warrior type’ rider who can be driven by the challenge of pursuing perfection and measuring her/himself competitively against others. Riding is also a very social occupation, often used to make and keep friends. The predominantly ‘Nomad type’ rider will like to be seen in the ‘right places’ and gain prestige through their riding, whilst the predominantly ‘Settler type’ rider will predictably prefer to be ‘one of the gang’ and would rather not stand out in any way. It is the ‘Settler type’ equestrian therefore who is most likely to suffer from the ‘problem’ of winning described earlier and also the ‘Settler type’ rider who struggles with a surfeit of negative projections. Try the NLP ‘Swish’ technique if this is a difficulty – I find it works well for clients who tend to use their imaginations in this unhelpful way.

Ultimately most clients welcome the opportunity to learn more about themselves and soon appreciate the wisdom of using their personality to its best advantage rather than struggling to be something they are not. This is congruity at its best.

The archetypal ‘Warrior’ equestrian

These riders tend to have a preference for large, powerful horses – perhaps a bit like the old ‘destrier’ warhorses. Often competitive, with a good appreciation of ‘rules’ and ‘territory’ (boundaries), they ride with determination and courage and are particularly at home on the hunting field. Problems could arise when any lack of control of the horse may become evident – i.e. the horse bolts or sometimes an unexpected loss of control in their personal life (such as ill health) can also impact on and undermine their confidence when riding. Equitation is not called a ‘discipline’ for nothing and this is where this personality type really comes into its own – problems are met with true ‘fighting spirit’ so they tend not to give up easily and can cope with the hard, demanding and often routine work involved in this sport.

The archetypal ‘Settler’ equestrian

These are the ‘natural’ horsepersons of the world who prefer to work with the horse than to ‘break’ it. Gentle and intuitive, they are good with animals in general and like to care for them. Here you will also find the ‘rescuers’ who may well own or look after a horse not necessarily because it suits them but because for some reason or another, nobody else wanted it! This could well incur some conflict because these are generally sensible and practical people but the heart will ultimately rule the head and their adaptability will enable them to make the best of what might otherwise have been a bad job. Appearance is not of primary importance except of course that the horse should look (and be) well cared for; much more important to the ‘Settler type’ equestrian, is the ability to form a real partnership with his/her horsey friend. Rarely confident riders (full of self-doubt), problems arise for this group when the imagination begins to run riot and they are beset with ‘what if’ projections (like ‘what if he bucks’, ‘what if I fall off’ etc.). They are also likely to ‘freeze’ when they get into difficulties which can be both debilitating and dangerous.

The archetypal ‘Nomad’ equestrian

Here we are most likely to find the owners of the ‘showy’ Arabs and Thoroughbreds. Not for the ‘Nomad type’ equestrian is the discipline of riding and they are far more likely to pay someone else to do all the hard and ‘boring’ stuff. This is the rider perched on the prancing stallion enjoying all the attention s/he is attracting whilst paying scant thought to the havoc created by his/her exhibitionism. At the other extreme is the archetypal gypsy horse dealer – scruffy, probably unreliable but equally dramatic in his claims for his or his animal’s prowess. The most infuriating thing about these equestrians (at least for the other personality types) is that they are often gifted riders who just seem to be able to get on and ride with ease. In fact, if they couldn’t do it with ease, they probably wouldn’t do it at all! Whereas the ‘Warrior type’ will fight against his difficulties and the ‘Settler type’ will tend to freeze in the face of a perceived threat, these ‘Nomadic types’ are inclined to flee – in equestrian terms basically just give up, get bored with it and move on to something more exciting. However, the ‘Nomad type’ thrives on danger and the adrenaline rush and whilst they tend not to be considerate or safe riders, they can be extravagant and skilled ones.

Riders are not like other clients

Of course they are! This means that all the standard hypnotherapeutic interventions and the traditional sports psychology approaches will work just as well with equestrians as they do with anyone else. I have not referred to them in any depth here for the simple reason that this information is readily available elsewhere. What I have sought to do here is outline some of the things that I think are unique about ‘Mind to Ride’. My hope is that this may give you some ideas for developing your own practice.

Links to Articles:

1. Stress Management Skills by Sue McIntyre - click here.

2. A Mind to Ride - for Stress-free Competitions by Sue McIntyre- click here.

3. A Mind to Ride - In Search of Magic by Sue McIntyre - click here.

4. World Cup Show Jumping - Bordeaux February 2005 - click here.

5. A Mind to Ride – Mind over Matter by Sue McIntyre MNCH (Acc); MISMA - click here.