The Energy Balance
I took Fortuna out for another ride yesterday.
It was meant to be a relaxed, “clear my head before Christmas” kind of ride. But as we turned onto the dirt road to head home, the peace began to unravel.
It was one of those moments where everything happens at once. Barking dogs, running and lunging at our heels on one side. A hidden bonfire and the sharp thwack of someone chopping wood on the other.
Fortuna’s energy shifted instantly. (So did mine. I thought, I just posted about this, and now?!) Her pace stopped moving forward and started moving sort of up and down and sideways—that fidgety, tense energy that tells you a horse is looking for an exit.
In that moment, I felt the “new saddle” vulnerability. My old memories of being a beginner—of being afraid, not knowing how to handle the situation—started to bubble up.
But then I remembered—wait, I’m not a beginner. I do have some ‘tools’ in the toolkit. What came to mind was something I’ve learned along the journey from Mark Rashid: The Energy Balance.
He says that a rider and a horse need to keep their energy in balance. So, if a horse’s energy rises from a 5 to a 7, the rider’s energy needs to lower to bring the balance back.
In the middle of barking dogs and barbed wire fences, my job wasn’t to “control” Fortuna or “fight” the dogs. My job was to breathe. To try to lower to a 3 while she was rising to a 7. To be the calm presence she could anchor herself to.
It took everything I had to stay soft (mostly) while my instinct was to tighten.
But we handled a pretty dicey situation without incident. (Other than a bit of tarnish to my pride for allowing this vulnerability to be played out in such a public setting.) When we got back to the ranch, Fortuna stood perfectly still as I unsaddled her, looking at me as if to say, “See? We can do this.”
The thing is, being an “experienced rider”—in life or in the saddle—isn’t about never feeling the wobble. It’s about knowing how to navigate the situation. In this case, knowing how to lower your energy when the world starts barking at your heels.
As we head into the next few days of Christmas bustle, I’m trying to be mindful of carrying that “energy balance” with me.
How about you?
