Another 1 in 5 Blog: This is such a picture of how our sub-conscious plays into everything we do, so, so strongly! I hope you enjoy this lesson recap and know that you and your horse can also gain the victory (whatever that may look like), without resistance, without fighting and without strife! <3

1. Sub-Conscious Sabotage Part 1 – Raising the Bar: The more I dive into Mind Change, the more I am absolutely stunned and excited about the future of using this knowledge. Last week I had another lesson with my awesome student on Dean. Together, they have far surpassed my expectations and we are rolling right along into higher pace patterns. We started out our lesson envisioning how she wanted to feel when it was over and then what got her to that “end goal feeling.” She kept picking out trotting the pattern united and perfectly, which is all fine and well, but a little boring at this point for her coach (haha!). What I really wanted her to want to do is lope the pattern (saying a lot for me, who LOVES to take things painfully slow for most people!). I gently guided her to this idea, and she happily accepted raising the bar. 
2. Sub-Conscious Sabotage Part 2 – Identifying Holdbacks: We went to work on the pattern. Their second and third barrels were literally flawless, but something was off about the first. As a coach, I noticed her body was tense on the first barrel whereas it wasn’t anywhere else in the pattern. I mentioned this and she wasn’t sure why, but she took some time and explored it in her mind. A few seconds later, she realized her gelding would cut in on that barrel and she carried a lot of frustration about it (even though she was on a different horse, in a totally different place.) “Excellent,” I said, “Let’s fix that.” We worked through it for about a minute or two in her mind, and then she went off and trotted a perfect first barrel. This is incredible, I thought! 
3. Sub-Conscious Sabotage Part 3 – The Shift: What’s odd, was her second barrel was now off. Third still flawless. “Hmm. Interesting,” I thought.  To check and see if might be a fluke, I had her go through the pattern and make sure she had room on her second this time. The same pattern happened: flawless 1^st and  3^rd barrels, off 2^nd. I asked her to dive deep in her mind again to see if she knew where it was coming from and she realized, “It’s like it just shifted from my first barrel to the second.” “Aha,” I said. “That’s resistance coming up. Okay, no problem. Let’s just recognize it and try again and see if that nips it in the bud. If not, I have another idea.” So she acknowledged the resistance, and off she went, only this time she slams the second barrel down. I had to laugh, obviously her subconscious said “nice try” and was communicating that there was something bigger going on. 
4. Sub-Conscious Sabotage Part 4 – Secondary Gains: This time, I asked her the question: “What is the safety or benefit in not making all 3 barrels just right? Why would your body not want that?” She thought awhile, and then said “Because then I’d have to go faster.” Bingo! I had already figured out by then that was the answer, but I really hoped she would find it herself and I was so excited that she did. Consciously, she wanted to go faster and was excited about the idea, but the data her sub-conscious was gathering up about moving up in speed was not in line with her conscious thoughts about it. So, in order to keep her “safe,” her sub-conscious made sure that she wouldn’t be in a place to move forward. Isn’t the mind incredible???! We worked through that sub-conscious fear for a minute, and she finished out the pattern at the walk to process. 
5. Sub-Conscious Sabotage Part 5 – The Victory: After the walk through, she came back and trotted through a flawless pattern, all 3 barrels were the best I’ve ever seen on Dean (myself as rider included). I suggested that we let her subconscious process the loping and resolution a bit more and pick up where we leave off next lesson. She agreed, so we said let’s do one more trot through to end on. I watched her master two perfect turns yet again, and then to both of our surprises she popped  right up in to a lope on the way to the third barrel. It was beautiful. Effortless. Calm. Controlled. Everything you could ever want in that kind of step up and transition. She brought Dean back down gently to a trot right before the third barrel and had another perfect turn. I was doing somersaults in amazement at what a simple unlocking / freeing of the mind can do for a horse and rider. This is beyond a passion for me I plan to pursue! Stay tuned for more! 

5 Steps Closer, thank you for coming along.  

Nicole & The Team,
Uriah, Kadima, Birdie, Blondie, Dean, Grace, Rocki, Salily, Shasta & Shmini