The Three Seconds That Changed Everything

A rider called me last week, and I could hear the frustration in her voice before she even described the problem.

Her horse couldn't pick up a simple change from walk to canter on the right side, and it had been this way for weeks. The left side was perfect - smooth, clean, exactly what you'd want to see in a dressage test. But the right side? The horse went hollow through his back and picked up canter two or three strides late, which is a costly mistake when you're being judged on precision and partnership.

She'd been drilling this transition daily with the same attempt yielding the same result, and I could hear in her voice that she was starting to question everything - was it the saddle, was it pain, was she failing her horse, should she call the vet again?

When I arrived and watched her ride, the pattern became obvious within minutes, though not in the way she expected.

What I Saw

Her entire focus lived in what the horse was doing - his back, his timing, his response to the aid, the mechanics of the movement itself. She was so concentrated on fixing what was happening with him that she'd completely lost awareness of what was happening with her.

I asked her to tell me what she was feeling, and she immediately started describing the horse - how he felt hollow, how he was resisting, what he was doing wrong. This is where most riders live, in this constant analysis of what their horse is or isn't doing, searching for the problem in the animal rather than in the partnership.

I stopped her and said, "Not what the horse is feeling. What are YOU feeling? What are your seat bones doing right now?"

She went quiet, and I watched her shift her awareness inward for the first time in what was probably weeks of working on this transition. She checked in with her own body, noticed her position in the saddle, felt what she was actually doing rather than what she thought she was doing.

Three seconds later, the horse picked up the simple change on the right side - clean, no hollow back, no delay, as if the problem had never existed in the first place.

She looked at me with this expression that was equal parts relief and disbelief and asked, "What did you do differently?"

Nothing. I didn't touch her horse, didn't adjust any tack, didn't offer a single technical cue about aids or timing or positioning. I shifted her awareness from narrow to broad, from horse to self, from external to internal.

The problem dissolved the moment she stopped looking for the fix in her horse and started noticing herself.

Where 90% of Riders Get Lost

This is the pattern I see everywhere, and it's why I eventually shifted my entire practice from treating horses to teaching riders.

For years, I worked as an equine chiropractor, and I watched the same cycle repeat with almost every client. The horse would improve after treatment, show real progress for a week or two, and then the same issues would come back. Not because the treatment didn't work, but because nothing had changed in what created the problem in the first place.

The rider's tension. The rider's anxiety. The rider's held breath and rigid positioning and mental state that the horse was mirroring every single day.

Riders focus so tightly on the problem that they miss the bigger picture, and every failed attempt makes the focus narrower while every piece of advice makes them look harder at the horse. They invest in new tack, hire different trainers, try better techniques, purchase expensive equipment - all searching for the solution outside themselves.

But your horse is already telling you everything through their behavior, through their resistance, through that transition that won't come clean or the movement that never quite feels right. They're mirroring what you carry - the tension in your seat that you don't realize is there, the anticipation in your breath before you even ask for the movement, the rigidity in your body that comes from trying so hard to get it right.

I see riders spend thousands on their horse's care - physio, chiro, custom saddles, specialized supplements, training programs - while treating themselves like machines that just need to execute the correct sequence of aids. Then they wonder why their riding suffers, why the partnership feels difficult, why that one movement never quite comes together despite months of focused work.

What Changes When You Go Within

The rider I worked with last week couldn't get that transition for weeks, but it was waiting for her to stop searching externally and start listening internally. The moment she shifted her awareness to herself, to what she was actually doing in her own body, everything her horse needed from her became possible.

This is what I teach now through The Horse Listener program, and it's completely different from the traditional approach of applying more techniques to your horse or drilling movements until they improve through repetition.

The Horse Listener framework teaches you to assess what's actually happening in the partnership, ask your horse what they need through reading what they're already showing you, and adjust based on what you discover. But the critical difference is that you start with yourself - your awareness, your body, your presence, your state.

When riders develop this ability to go within first, something fundamental changes in how they show up with their horse. They feel bolder because they're not second-guessing every aid, braver because they trust what their body knows, and they develop a genuine sense of agency because they're no longer dependent on external fixes or waiting for someone else to solve the problem.

The horses feel this shift immediately, and the partnership transforms in ways that no amount of technical training could create on its own.

What I'm Curious About

If you're reading this and recognizing yourself in that rider - if you've been focused on fixing something in your horse while missing what might be happening in yourself - I'm genuinely curious about something.

Next time you're with your horse, before you ask anything of them or start working on that movement that's been challenging or begin your usual routine, pause for a moment. Check in with yourself and notice: are you actually present in your body, or are you already focused on what needs fixing, what needs improving, what's not working?

What do you notice about your breath, your tension, your state of mind? What shifts when you become aware of yourself before you direct your attention to your horse?

The transformation my client experienced in three seconds came from this simple shift in awareness, and it's available to you right now, in your next interaction with your horse. They're already showing you what needs to shift, waiting for you to notice, ready to respond the moment you become present with yourself first.

If you're interested in developing this ability systematically rather than hoping to stumble upon it by chance, The Horse Listener program teaches you exactly this framework over six weeks. You can learn more about how it works:

https://nikavorster.com/the-horse-listener

But for now, just try it - the next time you're with your horse, go within first and see what changes.

I'd genuinely love to hear what you discover.

Nika Vorster is an equine chiropractor and creator of The Horse Listener program, teaching riders to develop complete understanding and effortless communication with their horses through awareness-based partnership.