Science and meditative traditions tells us that practicing gratitude goes a long way in increasing our happiness. Since our brains are evolutionary hardwired to pay more attention to negative things (with the consequence of possibly killing you), it is important to recall and appreciate all the good things in your life. Research (by Dacher Keltner, PhD, of UC Berkeley) shows that spending 15 minutes every day writing down three things you are grateful for that day can significantly increase your feeling of happiness and satisfaction. You're rewiring your brain.
I get a lot of little happy impulses every day that are worth another reflection. Here are my recent top 10 most gratifying horse-related moments, not necessarily in this order.
10) Noticing the improved topline of one of my charges, thinking how much more handsome that makes him look
9) Glancing in the mirror for a trot/halt transition on a horse I've been working with for a while and getting a textbook square halt in which he stepped nicely under his body.
8) Going totally and absolutely straight down the long side
7) Correcting a slight crookedness down the next long side in one stride (and not five or ten)
6) A student telling me how she's implemented the previous lesson in how she rides and how she's been working on herself
5) Putting my inside leg on and feeling the horse melting around it
4) A horse making that "there you are face!!" of familiarity and joy for the first time when she saw me coming to tack her up
3) Seeing a student starting to sit well enough that the horse is starting to reach for the contact
2) The exact moment a very stiff horse started using her back and chewing on the bit
1) That feeling of exquisite contact, that soft up and out reach, connected directly to the haunches, nose in front of vertical
Let's all practice a bit more gratitude. Our horses deserve happier riders. And appreciation for their willingness to cooperate with our odd requests day in and day out.
