A couple of days ago, I was listening to Fresh Air on NPR when they discussed a new book on Mindfulness Meditation. It addressed how the brain's response to the release of dopamine is hard wired (humans need to continue to eat food and procreate if the species is to survive, being rewarded by feeling good ensures that we go back to do it again), but it also fuels our addictions (whether it's smart phone usage or drugs...or riding horses). Mindfulness can be a powerful tool in addressing addiction, but also pain and other emotional challenges by focusing on them without judging them or wishing them away. I've wanted to learn this, but my Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction class is literally the only class I ever dropped out of... (Long story, but walking home after the first class, my perception was extraordinarily clear, I noticed so much more detail in the world around me, it was fascinating. During the following classes I never got anywhere near an extraordinary experience, so I asked the teacher what I should do. I forget what his actual answer was, but it was so unsatisfactory that I never came back to class.)
I wonder if anyone has ever measured the dopamine response in a rider's brain when things are going exceptionally well. I can only imagine what that would look like on a graph. Clearly, riding is addictive, there are plenty of jokes about this floating around social media. And I don't think anyone would stick around long enough to learn riding properly if it wasn't for those YES!!!-moments, however few and far in between they might be at first.
And I believe that it's those riders who can connect the dopamine-response to they way their body felt to elicit the correct answer from the horse, who will continue to make progress. Of course that needs visual feedback, either from a ground person or by looking in the mirror, as sometimes things will feel good that are incorrect. A horse might feel nice and soft in the contact when it is actually too deep and avoiding contact. And from my experience, anything that is achieved properly, i.e. through aligning the horse's body rather than pulling its head in a quasi-desired position, elicits the greatest joy, because it also is by far the most beautiful.
When I teach, I ask many times in a lesson: Did you feel that? And I equally as often stop a student when things are falling apart to address the body part(s) that are causing the issue. So that when things are going well next time, they can connect the two. For example, I have a student whose horse has a tendency to fall in quite dramatically in the left lead canter. The student is still working on not inadvertently opening her left knee and taking her thigh off entirely. She tried to fix it by pulling on the right rein which made matters even worse. But once we addressed separately her left leg and its job, she managed a significantly better canter. I could see the dopamine flowing on her face.
Now I don't know if a dopamine response has been studied in horses. But I find that when they are consistently allowed to work correctly over a relaxed back and in good alignment, they tend to come out and offer more the next time. So I suppose as a teacher and trainer, I consider it my job to facilitate good feelings, for both the horse and the rider. Isn't that the coolest job ever?
Oh, how does that relate to mindfulness? I suppose if you wanted to quit riding, you should start meditating.
