b'Arizona Broomsticks and HorsesREALBy Lee Anderson, Old West Living Historian,COUNTRY Award Winning Author, and Old School HorsemanLee Anderson and his horse, Concho, are well known around the state doing presentations in schools, corporate events, and civic events. Learn more about them and his book on his the magazine website. historicaloldwest.orgMike Barna Y eah, yeah, yeahI know, you rode a broomstick Publisher horse when you were a kid so you know all about ArizonaRealCountryMagazine@gmail.com it, right? Well, maybe, but thats not what this is all about. What Id like you to do is try the very simple exercise described in the following paragraph. Bear with Erika Smith Royal meit will graphically illustrate why some people while Editor riding a horse, appear to be doing absolutely nothing while the horse under them is performing flawlessly. erika963realcountry@gmail.comOkay, take a piece of a broomstick (or some similar Misty Voitovski straight stick of wood) about 12 or 14 inches long. Now, try to balance it upright on the palm of your hand. At Creative Director first, you have to pretty aggressively move your hand allon the part of the horse before it happens. The horse over the place and its pretty difficult, isnt it? However,is intuitively attempting to stay in balance by staying Contributing Writers the more you practice, the less you have to move yourunder the riders center of gravity. The quicker an hand. You still have to move it, of course. Its just thatundesired action by the horse is detected and a correct Lee AndersonBob Boze Bell with enough practice the movements become less andcounteraction (center of gravity shift) performed by less obvious. Eventually, with enough practice, it canthe rider, the quicker and less visible the correction will Bridgette CrosbyPete Floresappear you arent moving your hand at all. be. The slightest change in the rhythm of the horses hoof beats, the slightest elevation of the head, the Justin LeglerBetsy LemaireOkay, so now lets study this simple exercise a littletightening of certain muscles, or even the flick of an Naomi LoomisDodge Marshall deeper. How much deliberate, conscious thoughtear can instantly trigger a corrective action by a skilled was required in determining how much and in whatrider. Because a less skilled rider has not developed this Randy MillerErica Odello direction you needed to move? Almost none, right?level of feel they fail to realize something is going to I mean, if you had to take the time to stop and thinkhappen til it actually does happen. The rider then has Jim & Bobbi Jeen Olson about what to do, whatever you decided to do would beto deliberately and consciously determine what to do. Bill RobertsAlan Rockman way too late, wouldnt it? So, just how did you determineAfter determining what to do it takes a few seconds to what direction and how far to move your hand? Ratherperform the corrective action. By that time, whatever John SamsillMichele Wilson than deliberate conscious thought, theres a whole lot ofis done will be too late which will invariably lead to an reaction to a feel going on in this little exercise, isntovercorrection. The overcorrection often creates yet there? At first, you had to make a lot of very obviousfurther unwanted action on the part of the horse which, moves with your hand. Then, the more you practiced,more than likely will also end up being overcorrected. 801 W. Wickenburg Way the less obvious your moves became but, it still requiredAll of this serves to not only frustrate the rider, it Wickenburg, AZ 85390 no deliberate or conscious thought on your part. thoroughly confuses the horse. Its also quite visible to anyone watching. (602) 254-6644 This, my friend, is precisely what is happening whenIt may appear a skilled rider is simply a passenger but you watch someone riding a horse. The less movement you are able to detect on the part of the rider andwith nearly every stride their horse takes, they are ArizonaRealCountry.com the more precise the actions of the horse, the moreintuitively, unconsciously, and consistently applying reaction to a feel is taking place on the part of bothsome dynamic combination of infinitely small horse and rider. The rider is unconsciously and evercorrections through their body, their hands, and their so slightly, shifting their center of gravity to eitherlegs. Should someone experienced enough to ride in indicate a desired action for the horse to perform orthis manner spend enough time with one horse, that they are intuitively counteracting an undesired actionhorse and rider can become so programmed they can detect and react to such infinitely small corrections Follow Arizona Realits unbelievable and will do it with no more conscious thought than you use to get up out of a chair, walk Country for news, events,across a room, and flip a light switch. Carried to an extreme, this process requires absolutely no conscious giveaways and more! thought whatsoever by either horse or rider. Reactions and responses will simply become conditioned reflexes on both their parts. Once this level of perfection is Arizona Real Country is owned andreached, horse and rider perform in nearly perfect published by Barna Broadcastingunison, no different than a highly skilled dance team. There is no horse whispering or magic involved. LLC. No person, organization or partyIts the result of an unbelievable number of hours in can copy or reproduce the contentthe saddle along with a lot of study, dedication, and on our website and/or magazine orrepetition over a lot of years.any part of this publication withoutEventually, a highly skilled rider becomes very much a written consent from the editorslike the stick of wood in the balancing act discussed panel and the author of the content, asearlier and a well-educated (not trained, educated) applicable. The publisher, authors andhorse will respond to its rider exactly the same as your contributors reserve their rights withhand responded to the stick of wood. The horse will regards to copyright of their work. simply have developed the reflex actions necessary to move however needed in order to align its center of gravity with its riders center of gravity. ArizonaRealCountry.com January 2023 5'