Integrity, assumptions & Trust , Why they are important when communicating with horses.

Today some very important lessons were themed into one of my morning equine facilitated learning sessions. These were based on the principals of "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz. When communicating with horses these fundamentals are important and helped in a lot of  areas within today's workshop. Firstly  agreement 1 - Be Impeccable with your word , speak with integrity. Applying this when communicating especially with a horse is imperative , say only what you mean. If you avoid confusing the message with all sorts of  "white noise" or irrelevant misleading information, we get our intention across much easier. When a horse sees and feels congruence, or everything seems to be in alignment,  it will be more accepting and trusting of our requests. Basically you need to not just say and show what you mean , you must also feel it. Your intention needs to match your actions. Build trust by showing you are capable, dependable and fair. "Use the power of your word in the direction of of truth and love". This ties very closely with number 3 - Don't make assumptions . If you express what you really want,  and communicate clearly, you are better able to avoid misunderstandings . 2 -Not taking anything personally is another extremely important one when interacting with horses , they do not hold a grudge nor have an ego . This is why we need to ensure we do not let our emotions take control of our actions. If this happens and we let our fear, aggression, or frustration project onto the horse, we will only receive the same back. It will also destroy any trust that has been established. Self awareness and regulation of emotions are key to building a relationship and communicating successfully with a horse. 4 - Always doing your best is the most important approach here, if you are always doing your best in the moment and you remain flexible chances are you will succeed. Today was a very windy morning and this contributed to the challenge we undertook with the ponies. The wind added many elements to our fun session,  and required us to pay extra attention not only to self awareness, but our communication methods. In order to do this we needed to raise our consciousness in relation to our personal physiology , focus and language. We wanted to give not only ourselves but the horses the best chance of succeeding after all this was a first time attempt at trying to drive the horse from the ground.