My mother was an amazing cook and a wonderful baker. Every Saturday she would make a braided yeast bread filled with nuts and cinnamon, and this “Hefezopf” was for breakfast on Sunday mornings. She had learned how to make this and many other delicious meals from her mother at a very early age. Her mother died when she was 16 years old and she pretty much took over running the household. I am sure when she first started, she had to still look at the recipe book and get out the scale to measure the ingredients. She also had to make sure they were the right temperature and put into the dough mixture in the right sequence. Later in life, she neither needed a recipe book, nor a scale nor a thermometer and the result still would be amazing. This process didn’t happen overnight, but with many hours of repeating the same recipes over and over again until she had the right measure of everything by feel.
You have to look at riding the same way. Just like I have explained it already in my Learning – Knowing – Owning Blog article, in cooking you have to know exactly how many grams of flour, butter, sugar, eggs, baking powder, a pinch of salt, or whatever other ingredients you need for this particular recipe. So first you need the list of ingredients, then the quantity, then the sequence in which you need to add them, then the way you need to mix them. If you change any one of these things then whatever you are baking may not turn out the way you want it to.
This is exactly the same for riding a horse. So just like in baking a cake, it is very important that you understand the ingredient list you need for whatever you are trying to do (bake) on a horse. The sequence in which you add the ingredients has to be correct, if you get them mixed up the horse won’t give you the right answer. Finding the right feel, (in baking it would be the temperature of the ingredients, i.e., eggs at room temperature) is where it gets a bit harder. You cannot weigh, measure or quantify feel. It is very specific and individual to each horse and rider. My mother could just touch the butter, milk or egg and know it was the right temperature to go into the dough. In riding, just like in baking, this feel comes from doing it over and over again and being very correct with your list of ingredients.
I tell my students all the time, that I cannot teach them the last two pieces of my T-M-B Principles, those are between you and your horse. That feel (temperature) changes all the time depending on where the horse’s energy and alertness level is and how intentional, relaxed and focused the rider is. Remember to ride the horse you are on today. Bring the correct ingredient list from the recipe, a.k.a. my T-M-B Principles, with you every time you put your foot into the stirrup iron, and make sure you listen to your horse and choose the right feel to communicate with him in the moment.
If you find yourself stuck somewhere along the way and it is not working, go back to the walk, or even drop the reins for minute and take a deep breath, relax and then have a look at your ingredients (aids) and make sure you didn’t forget that little pinch of salt, even that makes a difference in the outcome of your ride or your cake.
Juliana Zunde 