EFT for Confidence

EFT for Confidence

It is common knowledge that nothing scares a horse or pony as much as an owner/rider who is scared. Horses are much more likely to be big and brave in scary situations, if the rider is confident and assertive.

Imagine walking through a spooky graveyard at night….its dark, the wind howls, blowing the trees into writhing ghostly shapes, there are creaking and scratching noises that could be graves opening……..but your dad is with you, his big warm hand holds yours tightly, he strides out confidently and tells you in a steady voice that all will be well, he will look after you.

Contrast this with being in the same situation with someone you have no faith in, who jumps at the noises and holds his breath, speeds up his walk and keeps looking behind him……

Is it any wonder that our horses need us to be the brave one, considering their nature? If we, as the ultimate predator, need someone to give us courage in scary situations, how much more does our horse, the ultimate prey animal?

However…….no matter how well we know this fact, most of us are unable to completely control our fear when a panic stricken horse begins to ‘misbehave’.

This is where EFT can really help! No matter how well we think we hide our fears around horses, if we act confidently but are, in truth, scared, then this incongruency between our behaviour and our true feelings can be utterly terrifying to some horses, when we almost appear to be insane!

EFT can focus on our deepest illogical fears and clear them, clean up past traumatic memories, old incidents that we think we should have put behind us, even clear fears that we are not aware we have!

EFT allows us to become congruent - ie, for our thoughts and actions to

co-incide which makes dealing with our horse a far simpler job, as we suddenly start to talk sense to them!

Marry this ability of EFT (the ability to clear the riders' fear) with the use of EFT directly to the horse and wonderous things occur! One of the most valuable uses of EFT is the way it uncovers what the horse is scared of (and why) bringing understanding, clarity and harmony to the horse/rider partnership. We all carry perceptions of 'how a situation is' but after a few rounds of EFT, these perceptions can radically change, making it easier to formulate a plan for improvement.

For example - After months of slow improvement, Ruby was coming along fine after a poor start. From being scared of just about anything, she was just about ready to be backed. Out of the blue, and to everyone's suprise, she began to go backwards in her training. After some tapping, it was discovered that a recent visit from the vet, with some restraint and loud voices, was enough to trigger an old trauma! Work progressed in leaps and bounds after realising Rubies fears and overcoming them.

Confidence is not purely an issue of how brave you feel. Confidence comes from having an effective, efficient riding position, a positive internal expectation of sucess and a calm and positive horse.

EFT can remove unrealistic and irrational fears from both you and your horse, but sometimes practical steps need to be taken to make your riding safe. EFT will not remove realistic fears, such as not having the skill needed to ride your present horse, not will it make calm and confident a horse who misbehaves because his saddle is hurting him.

EFT for Horse and Rider