The Voice of the Horse

Posted By Jo on June 25, 2009

All of us have various comfort zones.  A comfort zone is a place where we feel “comfortable.”  It can apply to different ways that we interact with the world, so we may have a physical comfort zone, a psychological comfort zone, an emotional comfort zone, an intellectual comfort zone, and a spiritual comfort zone.  We learn what these comfort zones are as we experience life.  We often don’t even realize we have them.

Let’s say that you learned how to jump when you were younger, and you focused on that.  You would have been trained to keep your heels way down, your toes turned out, and you would be used to leaning forward, especially in a 2-point seat.  Now, you decide to switch to riding dressage.  Suddenly, you are told to keep your toes straight, to let your heels rest naturally, to sit tall and relaxed and straight.  Your body is so conditioned to the “comfort zone” of the hunter position, that you must constantly readjust it.  When you are tired or are not paying attention or get frustrated, your body will revert to the comfort zone it knows of the jumper position.  Eventually, with enough time and training and patience, your body will find a comfort zone in your dressage seat.  With even more training, you will be able to have different comfort zones for jumping and dressage.

The key to comfort zones is to recognize them and to be able to realize when we resorting to them, even if they are not helpful to us.  We return to comfort zones because they are familiar to us, even if they are not healthy.  They are “the known,” and no matter how painful they may be, the pain is preferable to the fear that lies outside the comfort zone.  This is one reason many abuse victims have difficulty leaving abusers and/or continue to find themselves in abusive relationships.  While the abuse is painful and horrendous, the victim knows subconsciously what to expect.  To leave the abusive situation is terrifying and that fear may be greater than the comfort zone of the abuse.

So, when we use the term “comfort,” in comfort zone, we’re not necessarily talking about feeling good.  A more descriptive term would be the “known zone.”  We search for the known, even if it’s painful and continues to create unhealthy situations, because it is better than the feared unknown.  Mind you, that fear is generally subconscious and unrealized, which makes it all the harder to get out of.

But getting out of a comfort zone, seeing what is out there that may be helpful and healthy in our lives is very important.  Comfort zones, as I mentioned above, exist in the horseworld in the form of riding disciplines.  They also exist in many other areas, and I’ll be exploring those areas over time.  For now, think about what comfort zones you have in connection with horses.  Think of ways you interact with horses that might be a comfort zone for you but that might not be the healthiest or best behavior for you and your horse.  Think of comfort zones when you ride.  Do you, for example, constantly ride a certain way that you know isn’t the best way you can ride, for you or your horse, but you just can’t seem to correct it?  Why do you think you can’t correct it?  What do you think you need to do to correct it?  Keep all of these questions and answers in mind as we explore comfort zones and the horse-human relationship in future entries.

Categories: Horses, Psychology, Worldview
Tags: comfort zone, Psychology, Riding, Training