 G'day, I'm Warwick Sheller and welcome to the Art of the Horseman, online horse fair. Today I want to talk about the human factor in horse training and the human factor involves us, what we do, our actions, not only our actions, our thoughts, our intentions and our energy and it has a huge effect on horses and also our interpretations of what's happening in front of us also has a huge effect on our horses because that affects our energy. If our interpretation of what's going on in front of us is negative, we'll have a bit of a negative energy and so what I want to do today share with you a session I did at a horse expo recently with a horse that's currently housed at a horse rescue and they bought this horse along for me to work with at the horse expo and so the lady from the horse rescue, she came in leading the horse around and I talked for probably about 20 minutes while she led him around and I talked about I talked about being present, I talked about meditation, I talked about you know our energy, our intention, all that sort of thing. So what I'm doing right now is what I would call what St. Mark Rashid calls passive leadership. I'm not asking him to do anything but he's going to call the shots. Now right then he walked along and hit the end of the lead rope and when he hit the end of the lead rope like that I direct his attention right then. I haven't asked him to disengage but I think it's three times now he went to walk off and then he went oh and then he has taken that hind foot and stepped it across like that and then he had a lick and chew. Hello beautiful and bought himself back over here. So what I'm suggesting here is that horse training is not all it's cracked up to be because I think and I mean horse training as in horse training horse training will only get you so far and what's interesting I was a professional horse trainer for years so I had a training barn and the horses live in the stall they get the stall horse they bring it out I saddle it up I ride it I hose it off I tie it up I put it back. That's the extent of the relationship I mean when I'm training on them I'm empathetic and I'm consistent and all those things but I'm not really listening to the little things. I haven't been training outside horses for the last four years and for the last four years we've had four or five acres of our own and we get out of our horses at home because I've been doing this for long enough now it's like oh that's the holy grail like there is so much stuff on a ground on the ground I don't need to teach horses anymore that I thought you've always got it you have to teach a horse that because how else does he know it. I think a lot of stuff comes from trust and connection I think the connection really comes I mean that trust really comes from the connection part. What a good boy Oliver. Bit of a difference than when he started training. So the only thing I did with Oliver here was basically a guided meditation. I just kept getting his focus and like I said people who are anxious are living in the future and you're you're getting worried about a future outcome that hasn't actually happened yet and so you know the big thing that people do for anxiety is learn how to meditate and be present have mindfulness practices because if you are present if you're thinking about that piece of skin between your little toe and your next toe your worries go away because they're not happening right now.