The emotional dimension in horse riding: learning of skills
In correlation with the evolution of society, and particularly since the revision of the riding exams in 2012 by the French federation which places this aspect at the heart of teaching horse riding, affective, emotional and interpersonal dimensions have assumed a place in all our pony clubs. During their training, riding teachers and instructors are made aware of this and even equestrian center managers have integrated this dimension into their pedagogical project.
In this sheet we’ll try to determine the key points of this psychological dimension and will try to understand how to deal with this essential aspect of the learning process. This fact sheet suggests breaking away from normal codes and will not linger on the definition of the aspects and sub-aspects that come from the federal training plan, but rather suggest reading based on my teaching experiences in equestrian centers and as a trainer of instructors and trainers.
The three psychological elements that have an impact on the physical behavior of the rider will be developed here around two main axes:
• Feelings and emotions / relationships
• The trainer and the rider must learn to identify and differentiate what stems from one or the other.
Emotions and feelings
How do they show?
These two physical sensations become apparent in different ways:
- Increase and more specifically instability of the heartbeat.
- Muscular weakness. Hypertonia that can lead to seizing up or spasms, and hypotonia or even flaccid paralysis.
- Sweating unrelated to a physical effort is also a physical expression of emotions and feelings.
- Irritability, inward-looking attitudes or hyper-expressiveness can also be linked to stress generated by emotions or feelings.
Emotions can be distinguished from feelings only by the suddenness of their onslaught. Thus, an emotion appears suddenly and is brief but more intense and is linked to punctual stimuli whereas a feeling is more durable and due to root causes.
It is therefore easier to recognize emotions felt by the rider than to detect a feeling.
What are they used for?
Emotions and feelings give information on our interior state but also on our environment. They are both natural radars that will allow us to understand others and situations, but will also be motors that will allow us to focus on the necessary energy to solve a problem.
There are no good or bad feelings. Feelings can be positive! Of course, they can! Because they will allow us to solve a situation, they can also be negative if they create an inhibition in the management of the crisis.
Fear – Anger – Sadness – Joy – How to spot them?
In order to simplify, a first classification of our impressions, commonly accepted by analysts, is organized around four basic feelings:
- Fear
- Anger
- Sadness
- Joy
This first classification is very useful as it allows us to react adequately regarding the feeling expressed.
We come across these feelings at various occasions and they are often mixed.
Fear
Fear is the first stress factor, whether regarding the height, the speed of the horse or related to the fact that there can be a lack of control of the animal. Young children will often associate sadness or anger to demonstrate fear. However, it is really important to correctly identify the first emotion or first feeling in order to react properly. Fear can only be fought by satisfying the essential need for safety as Maslow reminds us. Children as well as adults will need protection in order to overcome fear and thus be able to stimulate their motor gestures and perform the appropriate gesture in the situation proposed by the teacher. The rider will accept his limits and will be able to integrate and stimulate a new behavior in a given situation.
The most notable example will be learning how to canter. The rider needs to feel safe on his horse in order to accept and confront the pace.
The fear of doing something wrong is the second fear encountered. Once the rider is confident and feels safe when on horseback, he can feel this kind of fear. But is it really the root of the problem? Probably not, the real underlying feeling is anger.
Anger
It’s more a feeling than an emotion. It appears after a cognitive process which refers to the meaning given to the situation.
In the rider’s case and in the given example, it’s self-criticism of his own behavior on his horse. Thus it’s useless and even counterproductive to reassure someone who is angry. It’s more efficient to change one’s approach angle and suggest another way of doing or seeing the situation. This change will allow the rider to accept outside limits, those of the system, of his horse or even those of the teacher.
It’s important to focus on the cognitive process that made the rider angry. Sometimes re-wording will be enough. But most of the time it’s necessary to propose a more radical change like offering him another way to access the desired behavior.
Sadness
Regarding sadness it’s much more difficult to identify as it is often hidden. Physical pain leads to sadness. It can also appear if a rider did not get his favorite pony or if he can’t manage an exercise. It can be referred to as frustration.
Comfort will be needed. The solution will be to propose a learning situation by positive reinforcement. The rider will accept that changes take time.
Let’s finish with the emotion or feeling that seems more positive, joy.
Joy
This feeling is the most externalized, it is often demonstrated to excess. However it’s also a stress. The rider has to learn how to channel this feeling so that his metabolism remains permeable to learning. In order to avoid frustration and make the rider go from joy to sadness it is imperative to welcome this joy. This feeling or emotion therefore requires being shared. The rider learns how to handle learning time calmly as he does for sadness.
Thus going from laughter to tears actually does make sense!.
Definition of stress - extract from Wikipedia definition
Stress is, in biology, an organism’s response to a stressful factor such as an environmental condition. Responses will always depend on the way the human perceives the pressure he feels. By extension all these events are also qualified as stress. Commonly, we talk about positive stress or negative stress.
Relationships in equestrian sports
In teaching the rider, the teacher can choose to go for a one horse progression and change horses when a new learning level is reached (same horse until the first level is reached, then another horse for second level…) or choose to have the pupil ride different horses throughout the learning process.
Similarly, the rider can himself choose to evolve in a unique way with one teacher, one horse or he can alternate.
Relationships
Relationships that are established are then different:
1 rider – 1 teacher – 1 horse
Advantages | Disadvantages |
Trust and even complicity settles within the trio. Benchmarks are quickly taken from one session to another. Progression is crystal clear because goals are easier to set. | Learning situations are less varied. Redundancy settles in. Achievements lack of any challenges |
1 rider – 1 teacher – several horses
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
Situations are more varied The challenges are more regular The teacher adapts the horse to the progress of the rider. | Benchmarks are shaken at each session. The rider wonders about objectives and goals to achieve. Complicity with the horse is less developed. |
1 rider – several teachers – several horses
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
Very varied situations Continuous challenges | No track of progress Teachers and rider will not define the objectives properly |
1 rider – several teachers – several horses
Advantages | Disadvantages |
Very varied situations Constantly questions the idea of a horse-rider partnership Development of the horse-rider combination | Difficulty to define objectives Contradictory speeches are hard to synthesize Monitoring of progression will be on the rider’s head only |
These different interactions will lead to the following layout:
Finally, each relies on his own interpretation of the horse, either to meet the teacher’s expectations, or to adapt and propose the right learning situation. It’s therefore essential to constantly put in words your own perception of the horse and listen to the perception of the other. This helps to streamline the learning curve. Is not the horse a wonderful conversation subject connecting men?
Know more about our authors
- Nicolas MABIRE Ingénieur de projets et développement - Ifce
- Translated from french by : Karen DUFFY Translator
