I remember vividly on one of Monty Roberts’ early tours, he talked about the “one solution” to all your horse problems. A pill called Monty’s Medicine; little multicoloured pills with MnM on them. I thought the joke was obvious until a lady came asking where she could get them from.
We are inundated by the one solution approaches like “drink lemon and hot water in the morning and all your digestive issues will be fixed”, “don’t eat carbs after 6pm and lose all the excess weight”, “feed your horse this supplement and he will totally change personality”, I’ll admit, I have fallen for every single one.
It is human nature to look for the easy solution but there is a lovely shift to be made when we stop looking for the one answer. One size and one solution rarely fits all.
- Lemon water may work wonders for your digestion but only as part of a wider health focus.
- A magnesium supplement may work amazingly as a calmer for your horse – but only if your horses’ anxiety was caused by a magnesium deficiency.
- A fitness programme may totally shift your confidence but only if your confidence issues were caused by lack of stability in the saddle, or breathe control, or a sense of muscular control.
What does this mean for your confidence challenge?
It means the first step is to look wide. The first step to regaining confidence is to have a panoramic view of your horse life and even beyond that to assess how to rebuild and reassess and make changes for the better.
It also means we look wide in relation to tools to help in the rebuild. I love learning new things and bringing those into my coaching work – EFT, NLP, CBT and an assortment of other acronyms.
My most recent area of study is auriculotherapy – an ancient Chinese approach to acupressure points in the ear and ear seeding with AcuPips. Really interesting stuff.
There is no one answer but there absolutely is always an answer. If you are struggling with your confidence at the moment, don’t give up hope. There are many answer and paths to take. A shift is absolutely possible.
