Do the Tao Now: The Art of Being One with Horses

“First You Go with the Horse. Then the Horse Goes with You. Then you go together.” ~ Tom Dorrance

If you’re ready to change your relationship, and your riding, with your horse and in a way that creates the deepest connection, relationship, trust and safety, this podcast is for you. 

What I’m about to share will clearly defines the ingredients, give you an outline, of my way of Being, doing and riding with horses. If you’re ready to dive in and make the changes you need and want in your horsemanship, the roadmap and training is taught in both my in-person workshop and online Mastery Program. 

Click here for details and to join my Intuitive Workshop for Women & Horses February 22-24, 2023 https://www.taoofhorsemanship.com/intuitive-workshops-for-women-and-horses. 

Click here for the online course, Discovering the Spirituality of Horsemanship https://www.taoofhorsemanship.com/spirituality. 

Transcript

Caroline Beste (1m 4s):
You are listening to Everything, Horses & More! Podcast with me your host, Caroline Beste. I'm the founder of my Tao of Horsemanship method, a pioneer in horse training and development, and a true advocate of the horse. I bring an intuitive and educated eye along with an experienced and intelligent perspective to understanding both horse and human nature and behavior. My experience in skill sets are the cornerstone to my worldwide success in training methodology. My experience with horses as intelligent sentient beings is what inspired me to create my highly acclaimed and proven training method. consensual partnership training for horses and humans.

Caroline Beste (1m 44s):
A model I pioneered in 2008. Consensual partnership training provides a comprehensive and impressive curriculum teaching horse owners how to fully develop their horses using a holistic, empathetic, and natural process. My training system teaches you how to achieve true partnership with horses and without the use of pain, excessive pressure, dominance, force or coercion, In. addition to being a world class trainer for both horses and people. I'm an artist, author, entrepreneur, speaker, radio show host, licensed working equitation trainer and riding foundation specialist. I offer one of the largest and most comprehensive online educational platforms, the do of horsemanship, where I host a variety of courses produced and personally taught by me and my amazing school masters In.

Caroline Beste (2m 36s):
addition to sharing what I know in my in person training and online courses, I invite special guests and students each month to my radio show, everything, horses and More podcast. This platform allows us to engage with all of you and share our very personal and transformational journey with horses. I invite you to listen in and hope you find something that helps inspire you to reach your personal goals and aspirations with your horse. Thank you. And may you always be one with horses.

Caroline Beste (3m 32s):
Here we go. All right, welcome back everybody. Hi Lydia, my beautiful co-host. Doesn't she look gorgeous and red? I love it. You do. You look beautiful. Thank And your hair. Thank you. Your hair looks great. Pulled back and you've got your scarf on. So welcome back. Y'all know who I am. Caroline Beste of the Tao of Horsemanship, and this is Everything Horses & More! Podcast. Today we are going to be talking about do the Tao Now, The Art of Being One with Horses. And this phrase, do the Tao Now is something that we're going to continue to use as a slogan this year and hopefully forever.

Caroline Beste (4m 21s):
And more specifically, not only does it coincide with the Tao Horsemanship Do the Tao now it also coincides with one of our favorite authors, me and Lydia, and that is Dr. Wayne Dyer. And he is no longer with us. Unfortunately, he passed away, I'm not sure how many years ago, but he is a spiritual leader in a spiritual guru. I don't know how many of you've ever read any of his books, but his most popular book, and we did a book report or book review on this this past summer of 2 20 22, was, let me find this, Dr.

Caroline Beste (5m 6s):
Wayne Dyer wrote, change your Thoughts, change Your Life, living the Wisdom of the Tao. And I'll talk a little bit about that as we get into this podcast, because it's been a wonderful support for me personally to support the work that I do and tie it in on a very spiritual level. Tie in the Spirituality of the Tao, bringing it in or Daoism bringing it into training. And I don't like that word. Working with horses, developing Horses, developing ourselves, and developing our Horsemanship. So If, you are, or first let me start with a wonderful quote that Lydia found.

Caroline Beste (5m 52s):
I've used it before and we both have used it in our inspirational or motivational quotes on the Facebook page, but I love this by Tom Dorrance. He wrote, First You Go with the Horse Then, the Horse Goes with You Then. you go together and we all know Tom is responsible for the famous book, true Unity, true Partnership with horses. True unity. So I love that First You Go with the Horse Then, the Horse Goes with You Then. you go together. And that's really important to everything that I believe in and that I teach in Horsemanship.

Caroline Beste (6m 36s):
And then we're gonna dive into it. We're gonna dive in pretty deep today. First You, Go with the Horse though. So If, you are ready to change your relationship and your riding this year with your horse, of course. And in a way that creates the deepest connection, best relationship, deepest trust and safety. This podcast is for you. So What, I'm about to share with you guys today will clearly define the ingredients, give you an outline of my way of Being, my beingness in my work with within and with horses, as well as how I, I do and how I work with horses.

Caroline Beste (7m 20s):
So there is a bean nest. This is the glue that I talk about in my, my teachings that binds everything. And again, it, it goes with do the Tao, now it goes with First, You, Go with the Horse. It has to it, it deals with us. Everything begins with you, begins with us. It doesn't begin with the horse, it begins with us. So if you're ready to dive in and make the changes you need and want in your horsemanship, the roadmap and the training in both, you'll find the roadmap and the training, my teachings and in-person work with me.

Caroline Beste (8m 0s):
Whether it's the intuitive workshop for women and Horses that's coming up in February in person private work with me. And of course in the Spirituality course in the Mastery membership program, which has the Spirituality course. So like I said, today we're gonna be giving you guys, I'm gonna be giving you an an outline for the first time. And I call it the ingredients, the essence of my way of Being and teaching, my way of being and working with horses. Today's gonna be the first time. And I thank Lydia so much for this because this is something that she and I have been talking about for well over a year, maybe two years.

Caroline Beste (8m 44s):
But then when I created the ambassador group, a select group of students, including Lydia to help support the work, you know, in the podcast, support the work in the Facebook posts and so on, this has been something that Lydia and I Lydia and I have really been going back and forth about. And anyway, so it's, I can't thank you enough Lydia for inspiring me and helping me get back to, and I know I've been making this pledge to myself since last year.

Caroline Beste (9m 28s):
Get getting back to me and what's important, you know, where I began, all of this work, why I began it, how I began it, because I've spent so many years as so many of us in this profession, and I, and you've had your own business too. You can get consumed in doing the work and you lose a lot of your creativity, your own personal inspiration and making the bills and and and so forth and so on. So you get just really consumed. And I've wanted to make it a priority since last year, this time last year to get back to my essence, to get back to what inspired me to do this work.

Caroline Beste (10m 11s):
And because you get burnt out, you know, you can get burnout, we can all get burnout. And so you guys are gonna hear that later. I just wanted to give a bit of a preface though. And so I wanna talk a little bit about Horsemanship and because it's very important to all of us in my work. It's not one or the other. Meaning I don't just talk about Spirituality, I don't just talk about the journey of Spirituality and I don't just talk about Horsemanship, I talk about both of them as being one process, as being a journey, a journey into Spirituality and a journey into Horsemanship and, and so often in Horsemanship in my industry as a professional in the world of equestrian sport, it's, it's really about Horsemanship, isn't it?

Caroline Beste (11m 12s):
You guys, you know, very little. Do we talk about having this way of being, this presence, this attunement with horses. I know it's getting better. Meaning there are a lot more of us out there as leading professionals that are bringing this mindset into Horsemanship. And that's beautiful. I think the key thing is, it's one thing to talk about it and it's another thing to do it. And how do you do it in a way? Meaning how do you bring the process and the journey of Spirituality into your Horsemanship?

Caroline Beste (11m 56s):
How do you do it? And today I'm gonna talk about how to do it and give you an outline of how it can be done and how it is done in the Tao of Horsemanship. So Horsemanship means the art or practice of riding Horses. That's a general definition. The art or practice of riding Horses, that's Horsemanship. Some might say it is the art of riding, handling and training of Horses good Horsemanship requires that a rider control the animal's direction, gate and speed with maximum effectiveness and minimum effort.

Caroline Beste (12m 37s):
I'm bringing this up because we all want to achieve that. I do minimum effort, right? We want it to look effortless, we want it to look like it flows. We want our Horses, we wanna be in harmony with our horse no matter what Horsemanship, what level of horsemanship. It can be trail riding, it can be obstacle course training, it can be liberty work, it can be the art of lunging. It can, it can include any sport, any discipline in riding. It doesn't matter, it's all Horsemanship. So it doesn't matter how, which discipline. Okay guys, it's, it's how we wanna go about it. And too often our idea of control, cuz that's what Horsemanship is all about, right?

Caroline Beste (13m 23s):
Controlling the horse effortlessly. Too often our idea of control is more than any horse can bear and it unfortunately breaks them down spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically. It breaks them down. I cannot emphasize enough about going bitless and the pain that a bit, I don't care what level of experience you are as a rider, that is why I have never joined or asked to join any of these light hands groups.

Caroline Beste (14m 4s):
And I in Jack Brainard who was one of my mentors who was in cowboy dressage and then western dressage in part of the light hands movement in riding. I don't wanna belong to any of that because they all use bits. And it doesn't matter how light you are in your hands, the bit is there to exert a pain. There's just no two ways about it. You guys do the research and I just threw an article up there by one of our students, one of my ambassador team students. Amy sent me a link and I just put it up on Facebook yesterday about bits and I was pretty, wasn't I Lydia, I was pretty straightforward about how I feel.

Caroline Beste (14m 50s):
If you don't agree with it are, yeah, it just, just, there's no reason you, you can train any level of dressage raining, you can train any horse to do anything without a bed guys. So that's What. I mean by breaking the horse down too is there's just, it's, you know, I have these conversations with, with fans and followers all the time who want a a call. You know, they wanna, they wanna set up a call, whether it's a coaching call or a free call to talk about my program and is it right for them? And I emphasize they're fine with bitless but a lot of them are nervous or unsure about riding in and bareback pad.

Caroline Beste (15m 33s):
And I can't emphasize enough how slow we go and that you have to get permission and everything is very slow and thoughtful and methodical and progressive. Meaning it goes in stages and steps so that you feel confident, your horse feels confident and you're growing and evolving together without a saddle. So it's not that I'm against saddles, but the reality is most of us cannot afford a $5,000 custom made saddle to fit both our horse and our seat. And that's what it costs. And so If, you don't get a custom made saddle that fits both you and your horse.

Caroline Beste (16m 15s):
One saddle can be designed to fit both of you If. you don't, you're doing a huge disservice to your horse regardless. Okay? I don't care. I've been around and I've experienced and tried out so many of these different types of saddles and you know, when you look at the history of the saddle, the saddle was designed for the rider and it was designed to give you the feeling of safety and security and confidence when you rode. And then later in time people were interested in how it fit the horse. But you can't learn how to ride in a saddle. You can't.

Caroline Beste (16m 55s):
You really can't. And that's a whole nother conversation. So all you need

Lydia (17m 1s):
Bareback, McPherson and some sweat and you got a good saddle

Caroline Beste (17m 7s):
And yeah, I mean there's, it's, I'm bringing all of the yes thank you Lydia. I'm bringing all of this up because we need to really think about these things and shift our paradigm and our mindset about what's in the best interest of the horse, not us, the horse. And that's where I'm coming from. I've never had a horse with a sore back with a bear Nick pon and bareback pad I never have. Now If, you ride bareback. Yes, your seat bones, your sit bones can definitely, and if your horse isn't muscled on their top line, then you're gonna be sitting, depending on your pelvis and how you're built and how much muscle fat, how lean you are, all those things have to be taken into consideration.

Caroline Beste (17m 53s):
But your sit bones can be sitting on their tendons cuz you have the spine, then you have tendons and then you have muscle. And so the bridge of the sat, the tree of the saddle is supposed to fit on the muscle, but so often the tree isn't wide enough and it sits on their tendons. And that is a reality. So yes, if you're riding truly bareback, it can be harmful to your horse. Absolutely. So what if, and you know I'm gonna tell you this. So what If you could achieve the level of potential and success with your horse that you want, your own personal potential, you and your horse and your own personal level of success, whatever you determine that to be.

Caroline Beste (18m 38s):
What If you could achieve that without compromising you or your horse, your values, what's important to your horse and what's important to you? You can do it that I'm here to tell you. You've got to be able to combine a level of Spirituality and y with your Horsemanship. It can't be one or the other. Not really, no. There's gotta be a balance and you can carefully weave them together so they support each other every step of the way. And that's What I've done with the do of horsemanship. So If you, you can learn a way of training Horses that combines a way of being and working that works best for them and feels right and leaves lasting change.

Caroline Beste (19m 25s):
Because the level of education and the progress progressive system that I've created, meaning you create a foundation so that you don't regress every time we regress. We, it's a sign that tells us when we regress with our Horses, meaning you can't move forward. And it doesn't mean that you're stuck. It means you keep having bad days every time you have bad days or you can't stop riding for months at a time and get back on and pick up right where you left off months to even years. You can't pick right back up. You do not have a foundation If.

Caroline Beste (20m 7s):
you just put the foundation in. Think, think about all the magic. Think about putting in all that time just like going to school, learning a trade, learning a craft, learning a specialty. It's no different. It's going to school and learning a way of being and working with horses that creates lasting change. Change that lasts forever. Forever. So in this podcast I'm going to explain and share with you how you can do this and how the dove Horsemanship can teach you how to be and work with horses and in a way that feels amazing for both of you so that your Horses wanna be with you. I've been posting recently uploading new video to my YouTube channel and sometimes I share it with Facebook because I can't stream live easily with my phone because of my internet service.

Caroline Beste (20m 60s):
So I've been attaching my GoPro and I have a couple of more videos that I have not uploaded cause I haven't had the time, but you guys are seeing me getting back into working with my Horses on a consistent, not daily, but on a consistent, in a consistent manner. And I have not, I say this all the times, I've not worked with my Horses or schooled my Horses in years. You guys see sporadic stuff that I've done for YouTube or for Facebook, but I have not had them in a a school, you know, a progressive system in years.

Caroline Beste (21m 40s):
And yet, especially with the foundation with Lovey or Zor or Joey, I can pick up right where I've left off. And that's because a foundation is there not to bless you, not to mention the relationship is there. So that just continues to flourish and continues to evolve. And I, I'm showing that in these videos that I've been posting recently this year you see my whole herd stay with me freely while I'm working with the baby and helping to give support. They're offering support to me and Blue, they're all over me. They take their turns, they come together as a group, they come by themselves.

Caroline Beste (22m 24s):
They, they have something to say either to me or Blue. It's amazing. You see Lovey go to the bareback pad, she wants me, she's impatient, she wants me to get on. It's there's, it's just amazing to have this, these types of moments and experiences all the time. This is What I refer to as magic all the time. And this is What I want all of you to be able to, to have to experience. So the do of horsemanship teachings are a roadmap. They are a roadmap.

Caroline Beste (23m 4s):
They are your guide. They are my life's learning rolled into one amazingly rewarding training system that has been specifically designed to guide you and your horse as you develop the relationship and ride of your dreams, whatever they are, you can personally design it. You're taking my and Lydia's one of the students, you're taking my my program like everybody else. You're taking the same program but you're learning how to personally design it so it meets you and your horse. And that's what we're talking about today. We're gonna dive in even deeper. So with the focus on developing relationship trust and choice with horses, my program teaches you first how to develop train Horses, develop and train Horses through a heart, mind and body centered training system.

Caroline Beste (24m 5s):
That's the doll Horsemanship, it combines all of this. It's not just about Horsemanship, it's not just about technique, it's not just about mechanics. There's plenty of that, especially when we get into the art of lunging and the art of riding in my program. But If, you don't have the approach and the mindset, it means nothing to the horse then you're just mechanics. You're just mechanical and robotic, which we see all too often in so much of our Horsemanship. I pioneered this incorporated the Do Horsemanship in 2008 and that's when I developed the first draft of my apprenticeship program, which is my Mastery program.

Caroline Beste (24m 55s):
So this is a magical experience that creates a way of being and doing together for both of you. That is easy. Doesn't mean conflict doesn't happen, conflict within you, conflict within the horse, the Horses challenged, they bring challenges. This is a given and the program is designed to teach you how to go about helping your horse with their specific challenges and creating a whole new way of being for the horse, perceiving experiences and learning.

Caroline Beste (25m 39s):
So the success of my program lies in the level also, not just in the way that it's designed spiritually for you and your horse but also academically. And so when you follow the great masters of classical dressage and everyone I follow is no longer here. So it's all been through books and then I'm self-taught, self-study and and then applying that when I'm learning and figuring it out with my own Horses, they all have a systematic training, training system and there's a reason for it.

Caroline Beste (26m 20s):
It works. So when you have the level of academics in your training system, progressive step by step education of learning for the horse and teaching you how to provide that learning so you don't over face the horse, you create a well-rounded horse, a versatile horse, a confident horse. Now What, I bring into it with of horsemanship is holism. So you have a level of holistic practices, holistic approaches.

Caroline Beste (27m 1s):
I'm teaching you to be holistic, to think about the spiritual, emotional, mental and physical welfare of you and your horse during this process of learning the technique and the mechanics. So do the Tao now how do we become one with horses? It starts with us. The training starts with us. It doesn't start with your horse. My program starts with you in Discovering, the Spirituality of Horsemanship. It starts with you. And so the development of you is what makes or breaks a positive experience for the horse.

Caroline Beste (27m 43s):
Your mindset, your attitude, your perception, what you bring, your energy, your intention is energy, your thoughts, your feelings, what you bring into the space that you share with your horse can make or break any situation. I think we can all agree on that. And I say what you bring into the space because it could be grooming, feeding, it doesn't have to be handling per se that is handling, but it could, it doesn't have to be training, it's the space that you're sharing. So an example would be if, and we're gonna see this in a couple of weeks when I do my symposium and I'm working with new Horses for the first time, an example is taking someone like me with my level of experience and expertise and I go and meet a horse for the first time.

Caroline Beste (28m 48s):
I'm gonna be able to make significant changes. Whereas you might not be able to. And it's not about technique or skill, it's not because I have more technique and skill than you. It's because it starts with What. I bring into that space what my body as a container of emotions and feelings and thoughts and intention, What, I bring into that space is gonna make or break that situation. So often we get caught up in these quick fixes, we go, we have a problem, we talk to somebody, we see a YouTube video, we do our research and we think we can just latch on to three different trainers explaining the s the same problem and offering different techniques for the same problem.

Caroline Beste (29m 41s):
And we think, oh do technique. If I just get my horse to do this, it's gonna change everything. Oh hell no. How many times does that backfire? If not make it worse? And it gets worse because we get confused, we get frustrated, we feel less confident in our ability to understand what's going on or change what's going on. Just in that level of frustration and confusion that we have within ourselves. It creates a shit show. If, you don't have a confident horse that horse is gonna feel that and own it just like us.

Caroline Beste (30m 29s):
So what's the difference of a confident person and an unconfident person? Let's take me. I'm pretty confident I have my insecurities, believe me, I have my self-doubt like everyone else, but I'm pretty confident overall put me in a situation where, and I'm gonna just put me in a situation where I am experienced. So put me in a situation with a, a large group of people I don't know and I'm comfortable in that. That's a given. But let's change that dynamic and say that now I'm in a, a large group of people that I'm comfortable in large groups but the energy is negative.

Caroline Beste (31m 20s):
Whether that large group is doesn't share the same values or mindset is me, whatever the negativity is, the difference is because I'm confident, I am aware, I'm aware of my strengths and weaknesses. I am aware of boundaries, I'm aware of a lot of things that are important to keeping my wellbeing in a situation like that. And a confident person is and should remove themself from that situation.

Caroline Beste (31m 60s):
Common sense is, I don't like What I feel, I don't like What I. See this isn't healthy, I'm not gonna change it. I'm gonna change me and leave that situation an confident person. The opposite. And let's say that they are comfortable and confident person however is comfortable in a large group of people but isn't comfortable with their own decisions or interpretations or boundaries and they feel negativity in that room and they take it on and they own it and they make it personal and it becomes a trigger.

Caroline Beste (32m 41s):
And then they either react or respond negatively to that environment. I mean this stuff's pretty deep. If you're not confident you're gonna be affected by everything. It doesn't mean you don't feel anything. It means you own it. You take it on If, you are not confident with your horse within yourself. When you're with your horse then everything your horse does, you're gonna take personal and make personal and make judgements that aren't clear and aren't accurate because you're triggered developing.

Caroline Beste (33m 20s):
You needs to happen for you to make correct assessments and judgements in that situation to assess that situation correctly and not give that negativity back to the horse who truly could be having a negative moment. Our Horses are sentient beans, they have challenges, they are challenged because we've created them unfortunately and then we add to it because we make it worse by being triggered by them. Does that make sense? Is that, am I getting too complicated?

Caroline Beste (34m 1s):
Lydia?

Lydia (34m 2s):
No, it makes sense as a student because I have a couple examples this week of what that means, but for somebody who's maybe not studying the Mastery membership and how deep we can go, but I do think it's, yeah, I do think it's conceivable for most people because most people run into the end of themselves with their horse at one point or another. And the horse it's beautifully, yeah, the horse becomes the teacher and you're not gonna take on your 2000 pound animal or whatever, you know, even a small horse can kick the shit out of us. So

Caroline Beste (34m 38s):
Yeah, I mean I've been, I've been there, you guys, you know, I, I'm not saying I don't go there, it's just different. But you know, my trinity what, and I talk about the honoring, how grateful I am and honor how much I honor my, my first three Horses, when I got back into Horses Legends, smoking and Sundance, they taught me so much about this, you know, and I talk often about, you know, I wasn't this self-aware that I am, I'm, I wasn't as self-aware as I am today. I thought I was self-aware back then, but I wasn't. And it took Legends strong sense of himself and Will to break me.

Caroline Beste (35m 18s):
He broke me down it and I allowed it. I gave him the trust and the responsibility to to to break a lot of my old habits and mindsets and to help me become who I am today. And I know what it's like to, to get stuck like that in yourself and, and go to all of these trainers. And I did it and I spent the money and that's why I created What, I created cuz I'm like, holy crap, this is a mind F u c k here, you know, you're getting, I got caught up in all the smoke and mirrors and the marketing and it sounded great and it looked great.

Caroline Beste (36m 1s):
And when I got there I was like, where is it? What you're teaching me isn't anything like what you promised and either you're withholding or you don't know. And so, you know, I'm here to, to alleviate that, to help everybody realize that if we just do the work on ourselves, what we bring to our Horsemanship will change. Like you can't even imagine the level of connection and, and, and ability to have a conversation with your horse is just mind blowing. I just hope you guys can see some of that in the videos I've uploaded recently to YouTube.

Caroline Beste (36m 45s):
I mean there's this conversation going on constantly. Your my Horses are constantly talking to me and ha and wanting to help me or Blue and it is so freaking beautiful.

Lydia (36m 59s):
Well, in the foundation that you, the building block foundation that you present, you know, you were talking about your horse going backwards or regressing and like prophet, he's just going to be seven I think in April. And we just got through, we just got to a standstill where I'd be like back up, he'd back up and I'd be like, send, and he'd be like, no. And he'd be like, no send. And he is like, no. And I'm like, no, I mean it send. And he is like, no.

Lydia (37m 39s):
And I'm like, well what the fuck you know is going on? You, you were doing this a year ago.

Caroline Beste (37m 45s):
What's What?

Lydia (37m 45s):
I? Yeah. And I'm looking at me and I'm looking at him and I'm trying to figure it out and there's nothing to figure out. So I just went, okay, let's do something else. Let's play a mind game, something you're familiar with. Let's go back to one of those little pieces. And he, he was willing to do that. But What I realized from watching the other Horses you were talking about the whole herd and how they help was that all of a sudden he did not wanna be sent or driven because he's learned how to follow. He told me, no mom, I follow right now. Cochise has taught me to follow and he is not driving me as much. And I had to watch that between the two of them to kind of realize something different is happening to this baby.

Lydia (38m 31s):
He's not biting as much, he's being obedient, he's getting disciplined and he wants to be at the

Caroline Beste (38m 38s):
Respectful, he's being respectful

Lydia (38m 40s):
And he always wants to be at the rear right now. And so I'm like, why fight that? Let's do things that make him feel good about that. So we went to the round pin yesterday and it completely changed, or day before yesterday completely changed in there because I said, you don't have to go, I'm, I'm gonna let you follow. And then I brought Cochise in and it was true. He was like, as soon as we all went, when I'm behind me and follow and I was like, okay, there's my answer. Yeah. And I wouldn't have gotten there unless I would've known how he looked at each foundational building block, right?

Caroline Beste (39m 20s):
Yeah. And it's stepping outside of, of what you expect to happen and what you want to happen and what we think should happen in going, but what's happening to the horse right now? And so often we overlook maturity levels in young Horses. We aren't taught that like young children and even puppies, but they mature a lot faster than a horse. We, we forget that seven is still really immature and they're still cognitively, mentally, emotionally and God knows physically developing. And so what o what often happens with young Horses is, you know, they, they'll get stagnant, they'll get kind of stuck in their learning and that is great awareness on your part that you s that you stopped and go wait, you know, it doesn't mean he, we can't come back to this sometime later, but right now it's not working.

Caroline Beste (40m 21s):
And there's other things that we can do, but we, we so often grab that and go, no, you've gotta do it If, you don't do it then whatever, you know, something's wrong or I'm not gonna get to where I wanna be with you

Lydia (40m 36s):
Young horses. One more second, he would rear I knew that too.

Caroline Beste (40m 41s):
Yeah, good point. And that's usually a frustration. Definitely. So, and we just really need to be mindful of this with young Horses. I'm not saying a 10 year plus year old horse that you are retraining that that's gonna happen. And if it does, it'll be most likely for a different reason, most likely for learning, you know, it's a trigger for that horse, but with these young Horses it is, it's just where they're at in their learning. Exactly. It's beautiful. That was beautifully put. So yeah, thank you Lydia, thank you for that. No,

Lydia (41m 18s):
Thank you for all the insights and videos to help me learn what it looks like.

Caroline Beste (41m 24s):
Yeah, yeah. Well it's definitely outside the box, so, you know, that's where we, we begin with ourselves and you know, know the reason technique won't work or it doesn't work or some, you know, it only works for so long technique is because it, it needs to come after you personally. Like Lydia was just saying understand and develop the right approach. What's the best approach? You know, and If you don't know, just stop what you're doing with your horse. I always say hit the pause button and you can always hit the reset button at another time. You know, it's like, it's like taking a break from retraining a five year old Friesian Mateo and you can find five months of the retraining of him by video every week, five months of that in my video library.

Caroline Beste (42m 16s):
I'm still releasing them slowly, but you know, I stopped after five months and I told his owner, we're done. He's great to go out on a trail ride. He's got the perfect level of confidence and courage, but training. He needs to be a young horse. He, he, he was started way too early, too fast. He never, never got to be a young horse and he just is not gonna learn right now at this age anymore than he already has. I can't undo anything. And so yeah, it's, it's a real shame about that. And there's a lot of young Horses in that him specifically because he was, you know, being trained fast and quickly to sell and sell at a high dollar.

Caroline Beste (43m 7s):
But this is how I feel about expensive Horses. If they're not stallions or you're not gonna breathe them or show them, why do you pay all that money? There's so many Horses that need to be rescued and I don't agree with showing at all. So, you know, this, the owner of of Mateo wasn't going to show Mateo and when she was here with me, it was on the premise that she wanted everything I was teaching and she wanted to experience this with this young horse and this young horse was gonna, you know, take the time he needed. But that changed unfortunately. So, you know, for me, technique, obviously we need technique when we're training and, and and learning new skills with our horses and our Horses need that too.

Caroline Beste (43m 56s):
But you've gotta have the right approach. So leadership is key here. Leadership is really important and, and often when I speak with fans and followers, and again, you know, we do these, these 30 minute or so free calls to explore the Mastery membership and if is it a good fit for them or is it what they really need? And yes, it is what everyone needs as far as I'm concerned, leadership is the meaning of leadership I find has a totally different meaning for a lot of people.

Caroline Beste (44m 41s):
I'm still stunned for the lack of a better word, that so many people think leadership means to make, to make your horse do something. And it's the language that we use. So I wanna be a good leader for my horse is What I hear. And when I ask them what they mean by that, what does that mean to you? Most people, 95% of 'em use this type of language. Well I wanna be able to make my horse do things and they trust me, I wanna be able to make them or I want my horse to do What, I want them to do period.

Caroline Beste (45m 27s):
And I'm here to tell you that leadership is to be earned. You have to earn leadership. You don't make it happen by making things happen, by showing people how to make things happen. That's not leadership. People will naturally be drawn to a leader when the leader does what they do because it's the right thing to do. It's the right thing for the people, for the common good of everyone.

Caroline Beste (46m 10s):
The welfare of everyone involved. It's not what they think is so to speak as much as it is what they think is right for everyone, not just what they think is right. Does that make sense? And I don't like the language of making or you know, I want my horse to, you know, you said the word obedient and I said respect. You want Lydia, you, you know, that's a word I don't like. You know, I, I want my horse to respect me and, and I want to give my teach my horse discipline and discipline is structure and discipline is good habits.

Caroline Beste (46m 53s):
Like this is the way we act within reason. I want them to obviously express themselves and never always express themselves but know that that kicking me is they can't kick me or they'll kill me, right? I'm not a horse and, and biting me is acceptable because it is an expression and if I get bit and hurt then I then I deserved it. Sorry. And I better do something to change that dynamic. Damn straight. This is the language of Horses. You get bit as a good wake up call just like I'm gonna bite a horse when they know better and give them a good wake up call. So it's a way of tuning the other person within that family dynamic.

Caroline Beste (47m 35s):
And I am a family with my Horses. We are a family. It's a way of them tuning and then there's playful biting and all sorts of other biting. But it's usually very different than getting stung by a bee. Is it? Yeah, it's a good wake up too. So we're talking about bringing a presence. A presence, creating a presence. We all have presence. How many of you feel like you have a presence out there? Do you know what presence means? So yeah, I mean who, who do you know has a strong presence that when when they come within i's view or walk into a room, they kind of command the room with their presence, their swagger?

Caroline Beste (48m 23s):
How many of us know people like that? Or we've seen people that we, we've seen 'em in act, you know, actors or artists or musicians. There's just something about their presence that we are drawn to or it draws attention Presence. Presence also means being present in being in the moment and being aware and mindful and tuned in, attuned and tuned in. It means many things. So when I'm in, when I'm meeting a horse for the first time, why I can make significant changes immediately.

Caroline Beste (49m 5s):
And you might have been working with your horse for the past year and are struggling and you call me to do an assessment and I come in and I'm able to make immediate changes. Like I said, it's not so much about my skill level, of course this is a skill. Everything's about developing these skills, presence, developing presence, developing intention, developing connection. They are skills, they are practices that develop these skills. But it's What, I bring into that space my presence that is a game changer, a game changer I've seen not very often and but I've seen students who have a presence and they are, they know, you know, they don't have a lot of horsemanship experience.

Caroline Beste (49m 53s):
They have a love of horses and they get Horses for the first time and they bring a beautiful presence that just makes everything they do with that horse easier. Easier. It's a grace. It's a grace. I think we all need to strive for that level of presence in grace before we strive for the technique and that level of skill. And unfortunately because it's marketing and it's all about manipulating you guys, so is advertising and marketing, tv, radio, ads, commercials, advertisements, it's all about getting you in the door and hooking you.

Caroline Beste (50m 38s):
No matter what it takes, it's hard to find that one that is going to be the real deal and give you everything you need so that you can succeed. There are no quick fixes. So leadership is about confidence. That's there's six qualities of leadership that I teach and confidence is just one of them. It is a mindset, a way of being. You need to earn trust from the horse first.

Caroline Beste (51m 21s):
And this is the language of Equis. So this is what Horses know, this is instinctive to Horses what we're talking about. So as the late Dr. Wayne Dyer wrote, change your thoughts, change your life, living the wisdom of the in Lydia and I, we did a book review on this last summer. He explains that this book is a book that will forever change the way you look at your life and the result will be that you'll live in a new world aligned with nature and the horse is nature. Dow is is about nature and aligning yourself, synchronizing yourself with nature so that you are in harmony with nature.

Caroline Beste (52m 8s):
We are all nature. He said writing this book changed him forever. He, he said, I now live in accord with the natural world and feel the greatest sense of peace I've ever experienced. Hmm, I'm so proud to present this interpretation of the teaching that is the book, the great book that is basically the bible in Daoism the teaching and offer the same opportunity for change that has brought me.

Caroline Beste (52m 52s):
So let's just talk real quickly about the science and evidence that supports because I haven't gotten to the the nitty gritty core, which is going to be my eight principles of my method revisited. So they have changed. So we're gonna get to that. I'm gonna save it for last. And I know Lydia, you have an appointment so I'm gonna try and hurry up. Yes. And If, you have to go. I understand if I don't finish in time. So let's talk about the science and evidence about becoming one with horses and, and everything If. you guys know me by now. Everything I talk about usually is building blocks and it leads to the next. So the science and evidence that supports a bean and becoming one with horses is what we're gonna talk about.

Caroline Beste (53m 37s):
And it all starts with heart, the heart chakra and the heart connection literally connecting to the heartbeat of the horse as well as winning their trust, love, and friendship. So science tells us that a horse's heart emits 40 times more electromagnetic force than a human heart. Horses in a herd use this force field, this frequency, this electromagnetic force field frequency to synchronize their heartbeats. This is science, this is evidence, this is, research has proven this. When a horse senses something suspicious, their senses activate their nervous system.

Caroline Beste (54m 21s):
This is how it works. So their senses activate their nervous system, it's all tied together, which in turn stimulates their heartbeat. Thus the heart speeds speeds up because of the strength of the horse, heart frequency and their heart is huge. The herd feels this increase which instinctively through the nervous system puts them on a high alert. Horses can feel heart rates from as far away as four feet. So this has a lot to do with the work that I teach and why we start close in the close work and then we expand and push it out.

Caroline Beste (55m 3s):
The better we get with the connection because that it starts with the heart and the chakras. So a horse at rest has a pulse of 24 to 48 beats a minute. This is much slower than the average human, which is 60 to a hundred. So to be sharing calm in states of relaxation, with our Horses being grounded, we need to very consciously make sure we are at the bottom of the human range. We are around 60 or lower. I have a very low heart rate to begin with and that's What I teach you in my work.

Caroline Beste (55m 45s):
The three day intuitive workshop is about that. And so is a Spirituality course. How do you learn how to ground yourself still yourself? Do the meditation, meditative breath work that I teach and connect to your horse in this way and or if your horse is already there, allowing them to help you and then aligning and synchronizing those energies is just phenomenal. So you all can go to the website heartmath.org to find articles on this research heartmath.org.

Caroline Beste (56m 28s):
Pretty cool. So horse's reaction to stimuli, controlled bites nervous system as I mentioned specifically the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is a nerve of parasympathetic intervention or intervention. So sorry, the parasympathetic nervous system inhibits the body from overworking, inhibits the horse's body from overworking and restores the body too calm in a composed state, this is the parasympathetic nervous system and the horse has two nervous systems. One is sympathetic, which is self-preservation, high alert adrenaline. The one we're talking about is the parasympathetic.

Caroline Beste (57m 8s):
And so the in wild Horses, they're always in their parasympathetic. Interesting isn't it? They're always calm, relaxed and thinking. So it can be described as the rest and digest system. The parasympathetic, this is the opposite to the fight or flight response activated by the sympathetic nervous system. So most of our domesticated Horses are either in their sympathetic all the time or they're easily triggered in it, which is not normal and it really messes up their nervous system and their brain chemistry.

Caroline Beste (57m 50s):
And just like P T S D, it can really do a lot of damage. My work is all about undoing that. So a simple example, reregulating and rewiring the nervous system. So a simple example is when we breathe out slowly. So our out breath is longer than our in breath exhaling. We activate the vagus nerve just by doing that and therefore parasympathetic innovation and calm returns. This process is how we align and synchronize ourselves with our Horses.

Caroline Beste (58m 30s):
This is where it begins. I call it grounding for many reasons. By breathing out this way, when riding, we activate our diaphragm and our seat connection naturally. Our seat is where our first chakra resides and our first chakra is responsible for feeling secure, safe, and stable. So when you ride your first chakra is at the bottom of your spine, your seat. And it connects obviously to the horse's spine, their chakra system. And our first chakra, when we ride connects to the horse's third chakra, their chakra system is aligned just like ours and their third chakra is their fire chakra.

Caroline Beste (59m 16s):
Hmm, interesting. Therefore we can easily transmit an energy frequency without even realizing it, a good one or a negative one. And we can easily trigger or stimulate their parasympathetic nervous system of calm, rest, and digest or their sympathetic of flight or fight. And often our riding accidents. I can't tell you how many students have have emailed me to tell me that they just got on their horse and their horse freaked out and went into a bucking episode sending them into the er. So that's a, you know the horse was already triggered to begin with and you're just adding to that.

Caroline Beste (1h 0m 2s):
And the fact that you probably saw the horse perceived, it felt the horse already in that level of stress intention. And it's always the trainer, the instructor that tells you to get on and ride it out. But you're just adding to that stress intention because you already see it and feel it. And now you're taking and adding that to theirs. It's just a horrible combination obviously. So a good slow out breath pulls us deeper into the saddle, onto the back of our sit bones, our Horses feel, our calm, our low heartbeat and deep relaxed seat. Thus they're connected to that frequency and synchronize.

Caroline Beste (1h 0m 45s):
It's instinctive. It's what I'm telling you for them to synchronize to the parasympathetic nervous system. But we don't know that because so many of our domesticated Horses live in the sympathetic, the the self-preservation modes. Now I'm here to tell you that you can be as calm as you can be and still get on a crazy horse and they're gonna be crazy. I'm not recommending that. I don't do it. So that's where you have to learn through my work, how to rewire the nervous system and get the horse to self-regulate in the parasympathetic can be done.

Caroline Beste (1h 1m 26s):
We can do it. So I'm now gonna be talking about the Tao of Horsemanship. Do the Tao Now. Eight principles to developing you and your horse as one. Yay. So this is where it's a bit new but it's not, I mean I've been teaching this forever, I just didn't break it down like this. Thanks to Lydia in our year of talking about it and sitting with it and digesting. I'm trying to make it simple number one. Yes. And to simplify it. That was the key. Yeah, simplify it. And I think, think we're there.

Caroline Beste (1h 2m 5s):
I think I'm there. Okay, number one, I'm gonna read it like this so it becomes an affirmation. You'll see and this is What I teach number one I center. It's the first principle I center. I am centered, therefore I can support your center. What does that mean? Means I'm grounded, therefore I can support my horse. Number two, I feel I am compassion, I feel of and for you that is the mindset that I bring into the space with my horse.

Caroline Beste (1h 2m 51s):
Number one, I center. Number two, I feel of you and for you. Number three, I understand, I empower my power is transformational. National. You don't have to understand why your horse does what they do. You come in with a mindset to your horse. I understand you. It's another level of compassion and it is powerful and that level of understanding is support and is transformational.

Caroline Beste (1h 3m 31s):
You are open. Number four, I love, I am love, therefore my heart is open to love and receive love. How many of us have a hard time with that personally? But you must come in with an open heart. Number five, I speak, I have a voice. Hear me, feel me, understand me. You need to say that to yourself and you must give that to others. You must give that level of compassion to your horse.

Caroline Beste (1h 4m 12s):
I speak, I have a voice. Hear me, feel me, understand me. So does your horse let them speak, hear them, feel them, understand them. Number six, I see I am connected to my higher power. My intuition is my guide. Number seven, I am I am all and all flows through me. Number eight, we are, we are harmony, we are one connected in heart thought and movement.

Caroline Beste (1h 4m 59s):
And now I'm gonna explain these a little bit more. Principle number one I center. Principle number one is because it is the first chakra, the root chakra. Your root chakra represents the earth element and grounded energy. Now you guys are gonna see how all this works in my work and it all starts with number one and leads to number eight for me. You do not mix these up and you'll see why connect. Yep in that order. So your root, which is I am I center, number one principle is the grounded energy.

Caroline Beste (1h 5m 43s):
It is responsible for your sense of safety, security, stability, comfort, and ease. We must begin there. And that's where I teach you affirmation. I am centered, therefore I can support your center. Principle number two, I feel this is your second chakra. You're called your chakra. Your chakra represents the water element in the flow of energy. So the first chakra is at the base of your spine. The second chakra is in your pelvis area. And this is where we ride our pelvis.

Caroline Beste (1h 6m 24s):
This is where we, it's many things where we carry our babies. It is the womb and it is the water element and the flow of energy. It is associated with your feelings, emotions, relationships, creativity and pleasure. There are many associations with each of these chakras, but I'm gonna be listing the ones that are most the tie in with this work with the horse. So it's your feelings, emotions, relationships, creativity and pleasure. And many of us have blocks in each of these chakras and in order for these chakras to work like feeling centered, feeling at ease and allowing flow and not being tight and figuring out how to allow your pelvis to move with the horse when we can't.

Caroline Beste (1h 7m 21s):
It's because we have blocks trapped emotions within each of those chakras. Principle number three, I do, this is your third chakra and it is your, oh, I have, I understand. I do. So sorry. It is I do. Third is I do. That's where we have power. My power is transformational, I apologize. So the third one is I do, and that's your third chakra, your solar plexus. Your solar plexus is also your fire chakra. That's where we sit on the horse, their fire chakra. It represents the fire element and transformational energy.

Caroline Beste (1h 8m 4s):
This is what makes it so powerful, transformational energy. It is a center of our willpower, our self-esteem, our confidence and transformation. And it resides between your belly button and your diaphragm. Affirmation. I am power. My power is transformational. So that's number three. I do that is the act of doing number four. I love That is your heart chakra. That's your fourth chakra is your heart chakra. Your heart chakra represents the air element and balanced energy.

Caroline Beste (1h 8m 44s):
It is associated with unconditional love, growth, harmony, balance, healing, joy and transformation. Affirmation. I am love, therefore my heart is open to love and receive love. Number five, I speak, I have communicate to I speak. So this is your fifth chakra and it is your throat, your voice, your throat chakra represents the ether and space element as well as expressive energy is responsible for self-expression, communication and the ability to speak one's truth.

Caroline Beste (1h 9m 34s):
Affirmation, I have a voice. Hear me, feel me, understand me. Principle number six, I see making sure they coincide. I see six chakra is your eyes. Third eye, actually it's your third eye. Your third eye chakra represents vision and a natural element of light and upward flow of energy. This is the beginning of transcendence. The higher self, self-actualization and enlightenment begins with a third eye.

Caroline Beste (1h 10m 14s):
It is associated with their intuition, light, illumination, knowledge and awareness. It is also associated with mystical visions. Clairvoyance the ability to observe chakras and auras, pre-cognition and out-of-body experiences like transcendence. Affirmation, I am connected to my higher power. My intuition is my guide. Principle number seven, I am the seventh chakra is your crown chakra. Your crown chakra represents universal consciousness and divine energy.

Caroline Beste (1h 10m 56s):
And its element is thought. Its energy center controls your connection to spirit as well as your sense of universal consciousness, wisdom, unity, and self-knowledge. It is connected to our highest self and represents our direct connection to to soul and spirit and a higher source God, the universe, whatever you wanna call it. We know we are here when our mind is quiet and we experience a great sense of ease and harmony wherever we find ourselves. Affirmation, I am all in all flows through me. I don't hold on to anything.

Caroline Beste (1h 11m 38s):
I feel it, I see it, I understand it and I let it go. A lot of people believe that we end at the seventh chakra and a lot of people believe we go further. I've read until the 12th chakra, but I'm gonna stop at number eight cuz this is really important. And eight is also a very important number in Chinese philosophy in medicine. The number eight is the symbol of infinity, of continuation. So number eight is we are one. So the eighth chakra in humans is called the soul star.

Caroline Beste (1h 12m 20s):
Soul star. Your soul star chakra represents divinity, Spirituality, and transcendence in its element is our soul. When free flowing and imbalance, the chakra heightens our embodiment of spiritual wisdom. It is a center of our willpower self-esteem. Yeah, I wasn't sure if it was you or me or it, it was me. And for some reason my internet decided to disconnect. I'm sure I short circuited it as usual. Where's Becky? Here you go. And I don't know If. you guys can notice my face getting red as I was coming up the chakras and talking about them.

Caroline Beste (1h 13m 1s):
I mean I was getting dizzy and it's all good. So I most likely had something to do with that. So let's just end it with the eighth chakra of the equine, which is the brachial and it is ascribed to the relationship the horse has with mankind. Healing and awareness. This is amazing. It provides the balance for human animal connection and interaction. It also relates to connection to trauma and any healing should begin at this chakra. Its element is the universe. And the affirmation for for both human and horse is we are in harmony. We are now one connected and heart thought movement.

Caroline Beste (1h 13m 44s):
So yeah, my work teaches you all about this, you guys, and how to take this way of being presence attunement into your training. It is just mind blowing. So that's it. Thank you. Always something going on around here, isn't there? Yeah, I just said, sorry folks. Yeah, Lydia looks like we've got a couple of questions and you guys just email me privately at Caroline Tao of horsemanship dot com so I can address your questions. We do take questions, but I think I'm running late and Lydia has to go.

Caroline Beste (1h 14m 29s):
So I'm just trying to go through here.

Lydia (1h 14m 35s):
There was just a leadership question with a young horse, 11 month old.

Caroline Beste (1h 14m 40s):
Yep. And I think I've received an email from ----. Yes. Horses need like children, they need a mentor, they need a parent, they need leadership, they need guidance. It's your mindset about it though, meaning it's not a dictatorship. I don't believe in that. So it's just like a mama horse who will constantly guide and correct and reinforce her baby. And if she does it correctly, she doesn't ruin that baby's confidence or self-esteem. And you gotta be careful cuz Blue came to me with no self-esteem, no confidence. His mother was a wreck and he didn't have any guidance.

Caroline Beste (1h 15m 23s):
So yes, young Horses are just like children. They need that and it and it changes. It changes. And as they develop that, it's a com. Raising young Horses is complicated you guys. That's why so many of them get messed up.

Lydia (1h 15m 39s):
And look at Caroline's podcast on raising young Horses. There's a couple of them.

Caroline Beste (1h 15m 45s):
Thank you, Lydia. I do have a couple of them. Thank you. Okay, that's it. Thank you everyone. We'll see you in February for our next podcast. And that's it. Love to everyone. Bye Lydia. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Bye guys.