Learning how to be an emotional anchor. The practice of emotional agility means that we need to become adept at emotional transitions, the crossover where one mood state is allowed to pass through and another allowed to rise up in its place. In order for us to effectively navigate these hinge points, we need skills of emotional recognition and understanding (the ability to recognize the messages behind emotions and deal with them accordingly) followed by the means to channel and process the energy created so that we can move forward in a way that is constructive and beneficial for both ourselves and our horses. Generally speaking, we are taught to value intellectual and logical thought over everything else. As a consequence, many of us overlook or ignore gut feelings and deem our emotions untrustworthy, cultivating a façade that is opposes the emotional currents that run beneath the surface.

Learn techniques that you will be able to use on any horse you come across - become a true horse person with empathy and skills.

Horses sense emotional congruence, to tell whether your feelings, action and intentions are in alignment is one of their greatest skills. It’s not a party trick but an essentials skill for survival; understanding subtle changes in body language, breath and heart rate and even hormone levels is part of their extra-sensory defense system that alerts them to possible danger and keeps them safe.

Transfer this to a domestic situation, and a lack of congruence between how you feel and what you emanate and project makes you untrustworthy. Misalignment does not foster feelings of safety and instead creates an atmosphere of defensiveness and concern.

Consequently, the onus of responsibility lies with us, firstly, in ensuring that we are not using our horses or training as an outlet to release built up emotional residue, and secondly, to do the internal work needed for thought, feeling, action and intention to line up.

Allowing for an emotional transition at the start of every session is a valuable practice to get into. Checking in, doing what is needed to ground and anchor yourself and establish your intention allows for a conscious start point.

Replacing judgement with curiosity. We set goals and listen to what the horse wants to address along the way to support their human partner to be their very best.

Trying to have a conversation with horsepeople about riding bitless versus bitted can bring out some very strong opinions on both sides. But as we all know, no two horses are the same.

Going bitless for even a short period, no matter what discipline you are in, can be like hitting the refresh button on your computer. For some horses, it can be life-changing. Yes – going bitless can change the rest of your horse’s life and riding career in a positive way! The mouth is one of the most sensitive parts of the horse’s anatomy. When a bit is used, even if you’re gentle with your hands, your horse will feel it immediately. This can affect performance and cause a horse to fall far short of his potential. On the other hand, many horses will immediately relax and enjoy their jobs without the distraction of a bit.

Riding bitless will give your horse nothing to pull against. Teaching a horse to bend and become supple is much easier bitless, as it alleviates his first response of tossing his head and resisting your command.

Some very accomplished riders have had great success riding bitless. Dressage rider Alizel Froment of France, for instance, has performed bitless Grand Prix Dressage demonstrations. Horses riding in advanced three-day events, Grand Prix jumping courses and barrel races have all gone bitless with great success.

Remember, you’re essentially going from “yelling” at your horse with a bit, to suddenly having a nice calm conversation with him. The switch may come as a surprise to him – but it’ll be a pleasant one!

Going bitless is all about communication and trust between the horse and human partnership.

Should you choose to ride with us and our herd, we specialise in several techniques.

Rider / Horse Biomechanics.

Biomechanics encompasses most aspects of riding and training. It is the science behind how a saddle interacts with the horse's back, how a horse compensates for an unbalanced rider, what a rider feels with a lameness and more.

Dressage riders require strength and stamina that is subtle to the unknown eye. Every single movement of a rider affects the way in which a horse carries itself and how it moves. To be great at riding it requires the rider to be in the right position for the horse to express themselves. If you were to get two horses of the same breeding and put a top rider on one and an unfit, unstable rider on the other, the picture would be very different.

In order for a horse to be able to become elastic, round, expressive, relaxed and forward it needs to be able to move without tension and without stress. As a rider, we want to ensure our riding isn’t negatively affecting the way in which the horse moves. You want your riding to bring out the best in your horse.

“Biomechanics in sports, can be stated as the muscular, joint and skeletal actions of the body during the execution of a given task, skill and/or technique. Proper understanding of biomechanics relating to sports skill has the greatest implications on: sport’s performance, rehabilitation and injury prevention, along with sport mastery,” Wikipedia

Dressage riders require a unique amount of strength and suppleness in order to stay in balance and positively affect the horse. Poor biomechanics will create a poor result in the horse and run the risk of pain and injury to the rider. Great biomechanics will create the opposite.

Riding using breath work

We breathe more than 20,000 times a day. Most of the time, we don’t give it much thought, since we do it automatically and all seems to go well… except when it doesn’t.

Why should you become an expert breather?

You will have more stamina. In the sporting world, energy is the gas that drives all performances. Unfortunately, stress and excess tension can zap a rider of this much-needed resource. Have you ever noticed how tiring it is to be nervous and anxious? That’s because when in this high state of alert your body uses a lot of energy. All of your resources go toward dealing with the stressor, and your performance comes second. If you reset your breathing a few wonderful things will happen. You will replenish your oxygen stores and you will be telling your brain that things are under control, you can handle this. Your mind will settle and clear, making it easier for you to make decisions. Your body will regain its power, thereby improving your riding potential.

Your body is one big riding aid. If your body becomes impacted by stress, it will change how you communicate with your teammate, and these changes are usually not positive. When your stress response kicks in, it means more rapid breathing and increased muscle tension. Your thinking can become frenzied and distorted. Your horse, being a seasoned prey animal, will surely notice this transformation in you and wonder what’s up. Now you’re both nervous.

Learning to breathe correctly and invoking a relaxation response are powerful tools in regulating stress and intensity levels. Being able to effectively calm yourself means sending a message of calm to your horse. When you reverse out of the fight-or-flight alarm, you regain control over your muscles and your aids. The purpose of your ride becomes clearer and your horse, now able to turn off his own fight-or-flight alarm, can get his attention focused back on you.

Using a breathing halt is like hitting the reset button on a computer. It allows the rider's body to relax from stiffness, and it gives the horse a moment to calm down, come back to earth, and stop and think.

Breath is, as Peter Matthiessen wrote, “the secret that all great teachers try to teach us.” And horses are great teachers.

The horse is trying to sense what our body language and posture are telling him, the amount of energy stored in our body as tension is an important cue to him. Being mindful of our seat and body language supports the horse to be successful in translating our requests. They can feel a fly on one single hair - they can feel where your hands are and when you have requested something 10 times in a row. Speaking louder and slower as though speaking to a foreigner won’t support them to feel successful so our job is to support you to be soft, empathetic and very clear when communicating with a horse as well as set them up for success every time in order to nurture the relationship.

Beginner riders say a million things to their horses at the same time. Their seat bounces all around in the saddle while they pull, grab, grip and slap with their hands and legs. At this point in a rider's education a goldie oldie school horse that ignores these beginners' mistakes and just keeps traveling along the rail in a nice rhythm really is truly priceless. Once you can follow the motion, your body understands the basic feel of your seat aids. Now you can practice applying them in ways that feel clear and meaningful to the horse - that’s where we come in with our herd of schoolmasters.

We ride our horses with our seat and reins/legs/etc are additional aids when required.

When you want the horse to halt, you take in a deep breath. As you let your breath out, sink into your seat bones, stop following with your hips, stop pulsing with your legs and stop following with your hands. Without any dramatic gestures on your part, your horse will feel the cessation of following movement and he will halt.

To walk, we breath in grow tall and on the exhale our horses will walk on. Following the horse's motion at the walk, trot, and canter enables riders to coordinate their aids and take communication with their horses to new levels. When you have a solid foundation for your seat aids, you can then become more conscious of what you are actually saying to your horse with your rein or leg aids and of how the horse is responding to subtle adjustments in any aid. As you learn to coordinate your seat aids with leg and rein aids, your communication with your horse will take a quantum leap.

By using these techniques, we minimise pulling on the reins or pulsing legs and seat unnecessarily and thus become mindful of when we make a request and when we have delegated something to our horse partner and enjoy their company: working in tandem instead of against each other.

We support you to build balance, relaxation, passive/driving/stilled seat at the appropriate times, subtle aids, and much more. t’s only through the development of a good seat that the rider can use a combination of the most subtle aids to guide the horse through the movements of the dressage test, seemingly by telepathy.

Our unique programs offer you the opportunity to connect and work with horses to become more aware of yourself and the impact you have upon others in relationship. Horses value and respond to authentic connections, so we are encouraged to feel safe and embrace all of who we are in their presence. Horses are naturally grounded, aware, and connected; being around them encourages us to be the same. They value trusting relationships with their herd, which can include the people around them. They are exceptionally perceptive of people’s feelings and use that information in order to decide how to behave.

Horses provide space for us to be in line with our true natures and allow us to try new things without incurring judgment. They offer unbiased, effective, and immediate feedback to us in response to our behaviours and our choices.

Horses are experts at reading body language and perceiving human emotions and, therefore, respond to each of us as unique individuals. This special relationship provides an opportune setting for people to learn more about themselves and their patterns in the relationships they form.

The gentle, nonverbal character of horses means that working with them is experiential, creative, and necessarily genuine.

Assertiveness

Confidence

Developing and maintaining relationships

Emotional awareness

Empathy

Impulse control

Problem-solving skills

Social skills

Trust in others

Trust in self

Adaptability

Distress tolerance

Emotional awareness

Independence

Impulse control

Self-esteem

Social awareness

Social relationships

Scientific research has revealed that over 90% of language is non-verbal. Horses don't judge, fix or teach. Perfect for stress, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, ADHD, post-traumatic stress disorder, sexual/physical/emotional abuse. Our success rates are outstanding. NDIS options available.

Non judgmental and unbiased. Our herd only react to a client’s behaviour and emotions with no threat of bias or any judgment of their emotional experience.

Feedback and mirroring. Horses are keen observers and are vigilant and sensitive to movement and emotion. They mirror a client’s behaviour or emotions, conveying understanding and connection that allows the client to feel safe. This also allows for clients to maintain a sense of self-awareness, using the horse’s behaviour and interactions for feedback and opportunities to check in and process what is happening in the moment.

Managing vulnerability. As processing can be painful, aligning these with the horse’s experience in the moment allows for things to be easier to approach and process through.

Staying present. Many people who struggle with anxiety find themselves stuck in worry about their past and fear about their future. Our herd create the opportunity for clients to stay present and focused on the task at hand. Since our horses are vigilant and sensitive to behaviour and emotions, they can sense danger and respond with a heightened awareness, which typically leads to a change in their behaviour. We teach clients to read these and respond to this.

Bonding. Following trauma it is often thought by clients that they won’t be able to bond with someone again and feel that personal connection. But with their horse, they feel that connection. They are then able to take that into the rest of their lives and into their relationships.

Focus. Presence, attention, mindfulness, boundaries, social cues and much more.

Would you like to connect on a deeper level with the sentient beings around you? Use reward focused techniques whilst honoring your horse’s subtle calming signals. Horses are individuals and so are you. Our approach to Equine Therapy is unique and multidimensional.

There are so many types of horsemanship around and you need to find the one that resonates with you. At EquiTune, we strive towards building real connections and honour every being involved. Boundaries are our yes and our no. Do you know what your yes or your no is? How does it feel? Do you honour it? Do you know what a horse’s is? Do you honour it? Do you know how to compromise when necessary? Horses express their boundaries within their herd. Just like us, they all have different tolerance levels. Horses are majestic and intelligent - we strive for a community of like minded beings that truely love interacting with our herd. The relationship between the Horse and Humans grows through patience, trust and a sense of shared presence. Horses at Liberty perceive humans as members of their herd in a role that resembles the Lead Mare, one who is the heart and mind of the herd. Experience being seen, being heard, feeling felt and getting gotten. Experience attunement with horsemanship: a kinesthetic and sensing of others knowing their rhythm and going beyond empathy to create a two person experience of unbroken connected feeling.

Our horses have gone through years and years of training to get to the grounded and happy place that they are in now. We have a lot of off the tracks and all are athletes. They are chosen to support you and are supported by a highly experienced medical, spiritual and horse expert team to be at the top of their game in order to do their job to the best of their ability.

You have been drawn to us for an unexplained reason. There is a saying: “You can’t pour from an empty cup…” If you are a healer or helper and you constantly GIVE – now it is your time to TAKE and refill your cup.

This experience is bespoke to your needs and will be completely private for you. We will take as long as you need with the herd but allow for 2 hours at least for the cost of $500. This works on a high energetic /spiritual level and adapts to the energies that you are fluent in - the herd and Nathalie will need a day or two afterwards to self care so only available on certain Sunday afternoons to correspond with their weekend.

Send us an email and we will send you date options.