Category: Podcast

As many of you who follow along with my adventures will already know, at the start of this year I lost my beautiful Irish horse, Bear. Following on from that day, I shared my experiences and thoughts in series of Facebook live sessions that spanned the course of a couple of weeks, which led me to conversations, understandings, and a level of awareness that I would never have gained if I had chosen to keep my feelings to myself.

This experience was overwhelming in the best possible way. People shared with me their stories of loss and their personal experiences of grief. But was I felt most acutely was the love. Love not only sent to me and my little Irish pony, but a love that was unifying, gratifying and uplifting.

 I guess death is funny like that. It brings into sharp focus everything that’s important and allows the superfluous to simply drop away.

 I thought to record a separate episode on grief and I’m sure I will still do this. But the live session captures an “in the moment” experience that is impossible to emulate from a different vantage point. So, in an effort to continue to send conversations on grief, loss and death out into the ether- conversations we are intrinsically terrible at in western society- I offer them to you now in the hope that they will land where they are supposed to, with whoever it is that needs to hear them.

 The nature of the live recordings means that the audio is imperfect at times, but hopefully their value extends beyond that. Amongst other things we discuss:

     – The duality of experience: how grief and loss can co-exist with happiness and joy (and why it’s important to understand this)

      – The invitation of loss and hardship

     – Dealing with guilt within the loss

    – My personal experiences with loss and death

Much love to you all,

❤️ Jane

 

 

Are you ready for us?! I’m joined back on the pod this week with two of my besties who you no doubt are well familiar with already- the most amazing Kathy Price and the infinitely regal Tania Kindersley.

 Kathy, Tania and myself are regularly chattering about all things life, horses and the universe, and whenever one of us is stuck or needs an ear, the call goes out over the WhatsApp airwaves saying, I need a DollyLama conversation! And when one hears this cry, one knows that they need to pay attention.

The Dolly Lama talks began a couple of years back when we were discussing what a superb human Dolly Parton is, and how the perfect cross between a human being would be Dolly and the Dalai Lama. Thus the phrase “Dolly Lama” was coined, and the Dolly Lama chats was basically us doing our best to make sense of this whole human-ing experience.

On that thread, when we all got together for this podcast, I couldn’t really do anything else other than to call it a Dolly Lama session. And with most of our conversations, we cover a lot of territory with much giggle snorting in between.

 Amongst other things, we talk about:

•   The movement away from seeking outward validation and people pleasing patterns
• The liberation of living with authenticity and integrity
• How your perspective creates your reality

I hope you enjoy it!

You can find Kathy on her website here.

And you can find Tania on her Red Mare page here.

Happy listening!

❤️ Jane

Elsa Sinclair is a human that I have looked up to for a very long time. In the horse world, she is a rare light who explores a way of partnering together with horses that is seldom explored and practiced; one that is rooted entirely in freedom.

When I consider my own life and horsing adventures, I know that I am traversing a time where our consciousness of our relationships with our horses is undergoing a seismic shift. Whilst the majority may still work and ride with the traditional methods we have always known, there is a groundswell of others who are seeking something more. And beyond that, are starting to ask themselves the question, is what we’re doing here really ok? Is how we are approaching our horsemanship and riding of true benefit to our horses?

Diving into Elsa’s work gives you real possibilities when it comes to finding those answers. And as with any new learnings, it’s a process that involves unpicking and discarding some of your current beliefs or ways of going about things in order to make room for some new, that is as much about the human as it is about the horse.

In this episode we discuss:

• The different forms of leadership; what it means to be a passive and supportive leader and a dominant leader
• My takeways from my 4 day clinic with Elsa
• How we can work in a way where the horse trains themselves to be a better partner
• What’s required for emotional stability in our horses

You can learn more about Elsa on her website Taming Wild 

I hope you enjoy it! Let us know what you think!

❤️ Jane

Fabulous humans, it’s a party of awesomeness on the podcast.

I am joined today by the incredible Crissi McDonald and Mark Rashid who are not only incredible horsepeople, but beyond that have a collective list of skills and accomplishments that make them a unique force of goodness in the horse world.

Crissi has spent over thirty years working with many different horses and people from all over the world, as well as learning herself from some of the horse industry’s top leaders in our current understanding of humane horse practices.

She teaching at clinics with her husband Mark Rashid, is a certified Masterson Method® equine bodyworker, and an instructor for the Masterson two-day Beyond Horse Massage workshops. Crissi is the author of a number of books exploring the human/equine bond, as well as a fiction series that we discuss over the course of our conversation.

Mark Rashid is an internationally known author and horseman, he has earned a third degree black belt in Yoshinkan aikido and now teaches the “way of harmony” in the local dojo as well as in his Aikido for Horseman workshops, which are known also by the name of “Aibado.”

He is the author of fifteen books, is an accomplished musician  with three music cds, and his novel Out of the Wild is now featured on Amazon Prime.

Before I release you to our conversation together, I wanted to let you know that all three of us- Crissi, Mark and I are teaming up to bring you a three part Zoom series called Come as you are, an exploration of mind, movement and the nervous system in horses + humans that we would love you to join us for! We will be discussing topics such as how to create a productive learning environment for horses and humans, how to create new learning patterns, how the mind and the nervous system shows up in movement and so much more.

You can learn more about that here.

We would love to have you be a part of it!

If you want to get in touch with Mark and Crissi, you can do that here.

Happy listening!

❤️ Jane

 

If you listen to the podcast regularly, you’ll know that I was recently in Texas as part of Warwick Schiller’s Journey On Podcast Summit. 

The summit itself was a mindblowing experience in every way, and I’m yet to adequately find the words for my experience there. I definitely didn’t come out of it the same person I was going in.

I wanted to chat about my time there from the position of a presenter, but it didn’t feel right to do that alone… so I’ve brought in some of my favourite people to do it with me! Today I am joined by Robyn Schiller, Kathy Price and Christine Dickson, incredible individuals in their own right and each a key part of my own summit adventures. 

We chatter about how the idea for the summit came about, our thoughts leading up to it, and of course, how things played out over the course of the actual summit.

I hope you enjoy it! You can tune in via your fave podcast app or listen on my website here.

You can find out more or get in touch with Robyn here.

To find Kathy, jump on her website here.

And you can find Christine on her website here.

Happy listening!

Fabulous humans!

Ready to riff with me on all things mind, movement, and the nervous system?

This week’s episode is a recording of a live Q&A I held yesterday to answer some questions and continue on discussing the topics I talked about in my presentation at the Journey On Podcast Summit.

I’ve had a lot of emails come in post-summit that vary from general questions on movement and the nervous system to more specific questions on various challenges that people are currently facing and I thought what better way to talk about them than to jump on a call, share space, and get into it together!

We cover a lot of territory ranging from the structural changes that occur in the different nervous system states, the effect of the nervous system on emotions and mindset and the relationship of the nervous system overall to riding biomechanics.

So here it is for you… I hope you enjoy it! Please feel free to share!

❤️ Jane

Want to check out JoyRide? You can do so here!

 

Last week, an email landed in my inbox that asked a very specific question.

“I get much of what you talk about, this person told me, but I still can’t make the connection between how the movement work you teach relates to mindset. Can you explain this to me please?”

Now at this point there are two things you should know about me:

1. I’m a self-professed movement and nervous system nerd. This question lights up my insides in a similar fashion to when I see dark chocolate, and I really like dark chocolate.
2. I have trouble narrowing things down into short, bullet point form. I err on the side of big conversations rather than succinct snapshots

… so, with those two things in mind, I’ve dedicated this week’s podcast to answering that exact question.

We all know that movement, exercise and being active generally is important for our emotional and mental well-being, but I want to dive beyond that more superficial understanding and consider movement from a nervous system perspective, and how we can use that knowledge to better understand ourselves both in daily life, in our riding, and when it comes to moving on from experiences we might label as upsetting, stressful or traumatic.

In this episode we discuss:

• The connection between our nervous system and our movement patterns and habits
• Dominant Patterns of Use; what they are, how that affects us and why they hold the key to moving past trauma and upset
• The interconnection of thought, movement, and experience

I hope you enjoy it! Please feel free to share and review the podcast- I really appreciate you taking the time to listen.

❤️ Jane

I first became aware of Kate Sandel after reading one of her most excellent blogs that she shared on her Facebook page ,Soft and Sound, and from there launched into “quiet stalker mode” to find out more about her on her website.

I was fortunate enough to become one of the early members of her online membership program, and from there, she has become not only one of my go-to people for help and advice about my horses, but beyond that a much-cherished friend.

If this is your first introduction to Kate, she runs a thriving equine business and teaches in the UK and internationally. She trained for several years with Philippe Karl, French classical master and founder of the Ecole de Légèreté, as well as honing her horsemanship skills with a variety of incredible teachers.

She is also a qualified equine sports massage therapist and her background in mental health means she values the wellbeing of both the human and horse in a riding partnership.

She also recently released her book Riding In Release: A Practical Guide To French Classical Equitation & Horsemanship that is well worth having in your library!

You can find out more about Kate via her website www.softandsound.org

I hope you enjoy our conversation, happy listening!

❤️ Jane

Finding the right environment and teacher to learn with can be really messy territory to step into. On the one hand, we want to open ourselves up to the learning experience and put ourselves out there for the betterment of both ourselves and our horses. On the other, the vulnerability that creates means we want to make sure that we are doing so with the right people and in the right situations.

From the student perspective, we want to know that the ethos of any trainer or coach we work with aligns with what’s important to us. We want to make sure that our voice is respected and considered, and that the learning container is one that allows us to navigate our comfort zone artfully, empathetically and skilfully.

We also want to step into the mode of self-responsibility; to commit ourselves to the necessary level and to do the work required in order fully understand and embody what is being offered to us.

From the coach perspective, we need to have done enough work ourselves to allows our students their own learning experience, without seeking to control or override it. We need to let go of the need for others to agree with us and our patterns of perfectionism and likeability in order that we can be honest and clear.

At the end of the day, truly being teachable, I believe, comes down to self-trust. The self-trust that allows you to open yourself up to new things whilst maintaining your voice and advocating for yourself and your horse whenever the situation requires it.

In this episode we discuss:

• The difference between boundaries and barriers (and how they apply in learning situations)
• What to do when things go wonky and you realise you’re not in the right place for you (I share my own clinic experiences to this effect!)
• What it means to be teachable and take responsibility for your own “stuff” (which applies to both coaches and students)
• How the different nervous system states affect our capacity to learn

I really hope it’s useful to you when it comes to navigating your own experiences in the arena and beyond!

Happy listening!

❤️ Jane

In the last episode, we launched into the topic of biomechanics and how understanding the role of the conscious and unconscious brain in movement can empower us to find a different way of moving and being in the saddle that sits outside of the traditional riding lesson model.

One of the things I find challenging about these conversations is that the work I practice is highly experiential and so explaining things from a purely cognitive or “thinking about it” perspective can make it difficult to appreciate what I’m going on about.

With that in mind, when I recorded today’s podcast I had it in mind that you could ride along with me- a ride along audio session- so if you want to do that, you’ll need to grab a pair of blue tooth ear buds or a speaker, your phone with this podcast on it and set yourself up so you can listen to it while you ride.

We cover some basic terms at the start and then launch into the practice together!

Along with the ridden practice, in this session we also discuss:

– Movement arcs and their role in movement in the parasympathetic system

– The basic anatomy of your centreline, and how to use your centreline to match the balance point of your horse

I hope you enjoy it!

If you are interested to learn more or join me in my membership program JoyRide, you can do so here.

Happy Riding!

❤️ Jane

Those of us interested in the art of horsemanship and riding find ourselves on a constant quest for harmony; a way of being and moving with our horses that allows both of us to find an ease of movement not only in our bodies, but also in our minds.

My adventures into the nervous system have led me to some specific understandings of how the nervous system impacts our movement, and how we can use this knowledge to not only move through the physical challenges that we experience as riders, but optimize our balance and effectiveness in the saddle.

This involves letting go of models of control and embracing ways of working with the body that honour its inherent wisdom and capacity for ongoing adaptation.

In this episode we discuss:

• The relationship of biomechanics to the nervous system
• The role of the unconscious and conscious brain in movement
• How we can use these understandings to work with the body rather than against it

I hope you enjoy it!

You can learn more about my work by visiting my website at www.confidentrider.online

❤️ Jane

It’s one of my favouritist (yes, that is a word) humans ever joining me for the podcast this week. Kathy Price is in the house and we are talking about the… well, basically all. of. the. things.

It’s impossible when chattering to a person like Kathy to keep things at surface level, so we cover a lot of territory. Before we get into that however, let me introduce Kathy to you!

Kathy comes from a scientific background gaining a BSc (Hons) degree in Zoology. Her mindset then was always based on the scientific paradigm of you had to be able to “measure it, replicate it and explain it” for it to be true. If those criteria where in place Kathy was happy. If they weren’t she didn’t want to know.

That was until in 2003 when with her horse Midnight she went to a horsemanship clinic with clinician Len Judd. For her this clinic was the moment of transformation, a spiritual experience that changed her life.

From that weekend forward as she stepped into and embraced the world of energy and connection, her need for scientific explanation fell away and her mind set became “My experience is my Truth.”

Now nearly 20 years on, after many years of studying energy, quantum physics, healing, spirituality and training in several energetic modalities, Kathy is well-established in her work which she calls Point of Balance.

Through this purely energetic work her aim is to help the person or animal she is working with move back into balance at all levels – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. This move back to balance not only helps them to heal themselves, but also helps them realise their unique power and potential.

In this episode we talk about:

• Kathy’s personal journey that led her to the work that she’s doing now
• The importance of movement to health and well being
• The beliefs that we have about our body and the nature of change
• Stories and experiences from working in the field of energy and movement

I hope you enjoy it as much I did!

You can find Kathy through all of the following channels:

Website: https://kathyprice.co.uk/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pobwithkathyprice

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathypricepointofbalance/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/KathyPrice333

❤️ Jane

 

Hands in the air if you feel like you never have enough time?

This “time conundrum” is something that I’ve wrestled with for a long time and has created a lot of stress and struggle along the way. I recognize now that my own relationship with time has been caught up in a somewhat toxic relationship with people pleasing patterns, the need to get things right, and that somehow my self-worth was inextricably linked to how much I could get done in a day.

What’s more, the idea of being endlessly busy is something that is socially supported and as a result, normalized.

But at some point, this no longer cut it for me. I was sick of juggling balls and feeling like more balls were being thrown my way.

So instead, I threw all the balls on the ground so I could step back and ask myself, what’s happening here? Do I really have no choice in my experience? How can I renegotiate my relationship with time so that I could release this feeling of being overwhelmed or flat out bonkers?

In this episode we discuss:

• How your nervous system impacts your relationship with time
• How embracing your limitations is a liberation
• How the ability to make choices and be decisive impacts your experience of time

I’d love to hear your thoughts! Happy listening!

❤️ Jane

How would things change if we looked at our horses and the first thing we thought was, you are brilliant?

A Confident Rider Sound Bite on the place we begin from.

Do you know the difference between the action of fear and the emotion of fear? Because there is one. And being able to discern between them is vital when it comes to understanding not only how your nervous system works, but how your perception of different situations and experiences create sympathetic or fight flight responses.

When the fight flight nervous system is working as it’s designed to, it produces the action of fear in response to something it perceives in the environment to be threatening. In the wild- in their natural environment- this is what animals are experiencing. They are experiencing the action of fear, but not the emotion of fear. That’s quite a different beast.

The action of fear is unconsciously driven and kicks in as part of our survival reflexes.

The emotion of fear is the conscious awareness of an experience and the labelling of the event, that is both subjective and perceptual. In other words, it’s specific to us, our experiences, our nervous system and how we see the world.

In this episode, we discuss the difference between the two as well as:

• How the emotion of fear is not necessarily accurate nor responding to reality. But it can trigger the activation of our survival nervous system and send us on a reflexive loop that’s not necessarily in our best interest
• How a  nervous system functioning in sympathetic dominance (where we are more often than not living from our survival nervous system) results in overthinking and recurring negative thoughts, and how they can leave us in a catch 22 cycle
• The relationship of trauma to both the emotion and action of fear

The experience of the emotion of fear is real, but whether we are responding to something real is a very different thing altogether. It’s our job to become curious about our own experiences and to begin to decouple emotional associations and labels from reflexive bodily experiences that don’t actually match the moment.

I hope you enjoy it!

Onwards,

❤️ Jane

Fabulous humans! I’m baaaaaack!  The Confident Rider Podcast is back on the airwaves for Season 2, and I have to say, I’m pretty excited about it!

It seemed only fitting to give you a rundown of where I’m at work and life wise, but beyond that, to discuss some of the changes that have happened in my work over the past 18 months and how that has informed my own practices and understandings.

So, let’s take it from the top! In this episode, we go down the rabbit hole of the nervous system and discuss:

👉🏻 The difference between the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system function

👉🏻 The motor reflex chain of the sympathetic nervous system, and its relationship to movement and emotion

👉🏻 Understanding the relationship between trauma, motor patterns and dominant patterns of use

I hope you enjoy it! Please feel free to share and comment, and if you love it, hit the subscribe button.

 

Looking forward to continuing the adventure with you,

❤️ Jane

 

A couple of weeks back, I got tagged in a post on Facebook where the person in question had been bucked off and now found herself in the midst of two different riding experiences; when she is in company or with her instructor, she is fine to get on and ride. When she is alone, it’s a completely different story.

Given I had quite a lot to say on this subject (more than I could include in a Facebook comment!) I asked if I could use the question for a podcast episode, and the answer was absolutely yes. Here is an edited version of the original post:

“I bought my first horse last year. I had a few rides on her and everything was great-then one day she bucked me off.  It’s the first time I’ve ever been bucked off and I’m pretty sure I gave her mixed signals and was the cause of it. I sent her to a trainer and she has been going beautifully. I also took some riding lessons with her and it seemed like we were doing ok again- until I get by myself with her.

I can’t seem to make myself step up on her when no one else is around. If someone is with me then I’m fine. She does great when I’m working her from the ground and responds to even just voice commands. But I can feel myself get nervous and tense when it’s time to step up on her. I know she can feel my nervous energy and that makes her nervous and then she won’t stand still and acts scared of me. Any ideas on what I can do to get my confidence back? And get her confidence back in me?”

In this episode, we discuss the difference between these two scenarios- and what’s changing at the level of the nervous system- and I share my thoughts on the approach I would take to move beyond the reflexive responses created in the aftermath of an accident and injury.

You can tune your listening ears in here:

Happy listening!

❤️ Jane

So here’s the current state of play.

Over the last little while, all three of my horses have had some time off. This definitely wasn’t in the game plan- they have all for different reasons had some physical niggles from unrelated incidents that made me think a few weeks of paddock rest was a good idea- and now I am finding myself in the position where we are needing to begin again.

This transition space is one that I’m in conversation frequently with other riders. There are so many reasons why we might find ourselves in the position of having to regroup after an extended break. It can be weather or seasonally related; it can be due to injury; it could just be that turning your horse out at specific times of the year is something that you do. Whatever the reason, there are some pretty common stuck points that rise up when it comes to picking up from where you left off including:

• Overwhelm (and consequently procrastination)
• Anxiety
• Confusion about where to start and what to focus on

In this episode, I share the process that I have been going through and talk in more detail about what’s going on in your brain space when such happenings rise to the surface.

You can tune your listening ears in here:

I hope you enjoy it!

❤️ Jane

A little while back, a friend of mine sent me a video of a trainer working with a horse who was suffering from significant anxiety. I watched them work together and loved not only the principles he followed but his thoughts about what was happening, and his intentions for creating trust and connection.

Josh Nichol was the horseman in that video, and I had the great pleasure of sitting down together and having a conversation about his work, and our shared passions and interests.

Our time together covers a lot of ground; we discuss Josh’s Relational Horsemanship approach, his definition and thoughts on leadership and the body-mind connection.

“I look at relational horsemanship and reactive or emotional horsemanship. To me, relational horsemanship means that when a horse’s needs are unmet, they will demonstrate that through their physical being.

It’s our job then to exemplify what leadership feels like. So for any of us, when we feel when we have someone who we desire to be around or we look up to, it’s generally not just because of the things they’ve done. That may be what draws us in at the beginning. But the people we see or feel a desire to be around the most are usually the ones that emanate something we desire to have within ourselves.

So I look at leadership, at its essence as a sense and confidence, an awareness that we have within ourselves, a piece that the horse desires to have within themselves as well.”

~ Josh Nichol

You can tune your listening ears in here:

I hope you enjoy it!

❤️ Jane

In this episode, Anxiety has stepped forward as our volunteer to show us just how important context is!

Case and point:

Say I am a rider who has come to recognize anxiety as a fairly familiar part of my riding experience. In fact, I am so intimate with my particular brand of riding anxiety that I’ve started to view it as a part of my personality and identity.

This presents a few different problems for me. First up, I’ve taken something that is intrinsically mercurial- an emotion- and given it a sense of “fixed-ness”. Owning it as a part of me creates a sense of permanency.

Secondly, when I DO find myself in the midst of an anxious experience, I see it as a flaw or weakness on my part (enter the Itty Bitty Shitty Committee from Stage Left), rather than something I can learn to understand and work with.

And thirdly, I cut myself off from developing true understandings as to the nature of emotions and what it is they are trying to tell me.

In this episode, I provide three possible contexts for the experience of “free-floating anxiety” (you know, that anxiety that just “appears” in situations that seem to have no justifiable reason!) beginning with intuition, and ending with understanding the nature of traumatic stress and the formation of memory at both a conscious and unconscious level.

I hope you enjoy it!

You can tune your listening ears in here:

❤️ Jane

It’s a raw, uncut, unedited podcast for you this week! I had planned to release a different episode, but we made an executive decision to hold that off for a couple of weeks’ time (super excited to bring that to you then!). In the meantime, I had two options:

1. Leave the podcast for this week and have a two-week gap
2. Roll with whatever came up even if I didn’t have time to present it as a perfect package

Given this is here with you now, I have gone with the latter. So here it is for you, my Sunday morning conversation around the nature of sensation and relationship is has with our emotional brain and motor patterns and function (isn’t this what everyone muses over when they are having their Sunday morning coffee?).

What’s the deal with all of that? Here’s a brief breakdown.

Many of us find ourselves in groundhog day experiences with our horses based on certain feelings or sensations that arise in the body. Whilst those sensations can feel concrete and absolute, they are inherently subjective. Think of them as a mash-up of everything you have thought, experienced, or been told in relation to a similar experience in the past.

What then happens is that our body registers a certain feeling in response to the environment, and we label that feeling based on something that has happened in the past. That labelling or thought process then triggers a motor response and we find ourselves acting out the same experiences on a repetitive loop.

In order to move away from that, there are some key things we need to consider:

• Our associations with sensation and discomfort in the body as a whole, and the decoupling of stories and labels around them
• The secondary gain we experience from what we would primarily understand as negative behavior or experience
• The true meaning of sensation and how we can use that to bring ourselves more into the present

We discuss all this and more in this episode!

You can tune your listening ears in here:

Happy listening!

❤️ Jane

 

 

 

 

A little while back I was interviewed for the Whole Horse Podcast and for the first time “properly” had a chance to talk to the host of the show, Alexa Linton. I found our conversation before and after the interview so fascinating and enlivening that I knew I had to turn the tables and invite Alexa to speak to you all on my own podcast!

Aside from being one of life’s inspiring and engaging people (two of my favorite things!), Alexa is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to all things body-based; from the energetic to the nuts and bolts mechanics, she has spent over 14 years working as an Equine Sports Therapist, is in the final stages of studying Osteopathy for humans, has a degree in kinesiology and extensive experience in the energetic and healing arts.

Our time together is a winding discussion on horse and human connection, exploring the body from the skeletal to the emotional, sharing personal experiences of both, and highlighting just how incredible this structure is that we call the human form.

You can tune your listening ears in here 👇

And if you want to find out more about Alexa, the best place to find her is on her website: https://alexalinton.com/

Happy Listening!

❤️ Jane

Over the past few years, I’ve noticed what I am learning from my horses is taking a much bigger and more expansive form.

The same dreams remain; to create a harmonious and energetic relationship together. To learn what I can about behavior, biomechanics, and horsemanship so I can be the best partner possible. But beyond that, I’ve noticed that my work with horses has gifted me with an increased capacity, strength, and resilience to show up in other areas of my life in bigger and bolder ways.

In short, horses have allowed me to access and find my voice in ways that I have never experienced previously. They have prompted me to redefine what it means to be brave and to understand the different forces at work that exert their influence on us and keeping us playing and feeling small.

In this episode I reflect back on my experiences and discuss:

• The importance of strengthening our voice and developing a healthy relationship with the fight channel of our nervous system
• Letting go of the rigid, masculinized view of bravery and offering a different viewpoint that allows us to ride and move with integrity
• Horsemanship as a practice of everyday activism, that allows us to enter the bigger conversation on structural and systemic inequities

Happy listening!

 

❤️ Jane

 

 

 

Sitting down to write the blurb for this podcast, I pinged Tania and Kathy a message:

“I have no idea how to condense our conversation down into a few sentences.”

That remains the truth some time after as I attempt to gather our “life, horses, and the universe” into a palatable description!

So here is the truth of it! Kathy and Tania are two of my closest and most trusted friends and I couldn’t think of a better way to muse over the last 12 months and ponder the next 12 than to gather around the microphone together. This episode is a fly in the wall listen in on our ponderings covering everything from “Tania’s Top Tip” for dealing with difficult people to getting down to the nitty-gritty of what it means to show up for our horses (and ourselves) in an aligned and authentic way.

 

Happy listening!

❤️ Jane

For someone who spends a lot of her day discussing various aspects of confidence (and what’s more has it featured as a keyword in her business!), it may surprise you to hear that I think we have things a bit mixed up when it comes to understanding what confidence actually is… and what’s more, what we *actually* mean when we say we want to feel more confident.

Over time, I’ve come to understand the complex relationship so many of us have with the word “confidence” (let alone our feelings around it) and from the place I sit now, I think we are focusing on the wrong end of the stick. While we may want to experience confidence, what we need to be focusing on as a practice is increasing our capacity.

So, what, then, does that mean? When I say, “increasing capacity”, what’s that all about?

Well, think of it this way.  Every experience that we find ourselves in the midst of holds a certain energetic blueprint, or activation level. If I’m feeling Zen, there’s a relatively low level of activation present, and I can easily contain that experience within my body without it feeling like it’s a problem.

Anxiety, on the other hand, has a much higher charge. Our ability to hold that charge before it moves to a place where we feel disconnected from ourselves and no longer in control of the energy relates directly to our capacity.

Capacity is basically how much energy and activation you can hold without overflowing.

Exceed it and you move into survival mode.

Stay within it and you feel like you have a handle on things- even if those things are hard.

In this episode, I dive into our associations and misconceptions around confidence, share some personal stories with you… and get you to consider that it might be capacity that you are looking to increase rather than confidence.

I hope you enjoy it!

❤️ Jane

You know, confrontation of any kind can be a hard thing to handle. In JoyRide, we’re talking all the time about the various communications (and miscommunications!) that happen within all the different types of relationships that we find ourselves in- both within our horsing life and outside of it.

I know way back when I was in my early twenties (when I was also reading a lot of different spiritual texts and throwing myself headlong into my own studies of body and breath), I convinced myself that if I was serious about this whole “mastering myself” malarky, that I needed to take myself off and live in a cave (spoiler alert: this definitely did not happen and actually sounds kind of ghastly to my present-day self. So cold! Those hard floors! But I digress…). What I’ve since understood is that the real learning happens in relationship. With yourself first and foremost, but beyond that with those we choose to surround ourselves with, and with those who temporarily, for a little while, or fleetingly cross our path.

When we are presented with the many faces of relationship, we get to see what our “stuff” really is. And it turns out, well… we have quite a lot of it. Stuff that is.

Enter at A our horses, and we are gifted with a magnifying glass that allows us to see things from a slightly different perspective. And in order to create a conversation, we have to approach things from a different angle, and with a new set of understandings; ones that require us to get out of our head, to let go of the stories we’ve told ourselves, and to be present to our direct experience.

In the last week or, I had an experience that allowed me to practice yet again. A confrontation that jolted me and temporarily knocked me off-center. It is in these moments I am grateful for the lessons that came before that allowed me, however briefly, to create a space between what I was feeling and experiencing and how I wanted to respond… which was ultimately with my integrity intact.

In this episode, I talk about exactly this and more. How we can manage the choppy waters of confrontation and discomfort and do so in a way that allows us to maintain perspective, integrity, and self-compassion.

You can tune your listening ears in here:

I hope you enjoy it!

❤️ Jane

You know, when things get tough, usually one of the first things to kick in is the commentary of the Itty Bitty Shitty Committee. The “You should have done this, or you didn’t do this or why did you do that or what were you thinking-ness” in all its hues and colours and variations can pretty quickly throw a wet blanket over any feelings of hopefulness or possibility that we hold for ourselves or our horses- or at the very least suck the joy out of it.

The thing about the Committee is they convince you of things that simply aren’t true. They tie your worth to the outcomes that you create, your value to how much you can get done, and your ability to feel good about yourself to a series of outside metrics that see you constantly chasing the carrot on the string. Those little critters can make life exhausting.

So it’s for these reasons and many more, that I now understand that being able to meet yourself with kindness- being able to separate the essence of who you are from the remarks of The Committee and to treat yourself with self-compassion is the highest form of practice there is.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why kindness and self-compassion is essential for ongoing motivation and momentum
• How meeting yourself with kindness gifts you with a clear perspective and the necessary understandings to decide the next best step for you and your horse
• Why kindness is the necessary antidote to low self-worth or feelings of not-good-enough-ness

You can tune your listening ears in here:

 

I hope you enjoy it!

❤️ Jane

A couple of weeks back, a collection of members of JoyRide gathered together on a Zoom call. The purpose of the call was simply to get together and find out what was going on for everyone and get some help and support if needed. Sarah, a member of the group, spoke up about her concerns about her students and if there was a chance we could possibly create something that would help them develop some strategies that would help them cope with what were sometimes significant stresses within their working life and ways to better manage the more difficult client relationships.

As an equine veterinary surgeon, a veterinarian, and clinical professor at UC Davis, Dr. Sarah Le Jeune is well versed in the pressures of veterinary practice. The veterinary field as a whole has some worrying and frankly heartbreaking statistics around mental health that speak to just how significant that stress can be. Dr. Sarah and I decided to team up in this episode to extend support to vets that might be struggling, help raise awareness and share our thoughts on how as horse owners and clients we can be more mindful and considered at our end within the relationship.

Beyond that, we are also interested in creating resources and hosting a round table discussion with equine professionals who would be interested in being part of this conversation. If you are interested in being a part of it, please get in touch. We would love to hear from you!

Please feel free to share this episode around. Although the conversation covers some difficult topics, it’s an important one to put out there and hold in our broader awareness.

❤️ Jane