When riding the control of our entire body is required. To concentrate on everything at the same time it’s impossible… When we try to think of everything at once our head is no longer free to concentrate and react to the actual situation. The difficulty lies in the fact that most of a rider’s reactions are executed by automatically-reacting muscles which are not subjected to the conscious range of movement. When trying to execute every little, detailed movement consciously we will always be too slow. We will ride well only when we are able to exclude our mind, when we submit ourselves to these automatic reactions and keep the head free for other things. Of course, when in the process of learning a new movement, this is not possible at first. Naturally there is no way that we can ride without using our mind now and then. Above all, it’s important to remain open for any changes on the part of the horse, of ourselves and of our surroundings. Only when perceiving things quickly and surely can we react adequately and correctly. You have to listen to your horse and ask it how it would like to be ridden today… We also need to concentrate on the perception of our own body. All our sense organs are part of this perceptions: when looking down onto our horse in full concentrations we have excluded the eyes this way, one of our most important organs. Freely carrying our head while looking over the horse’s ears and into the direction of movement is of great importance for proper perception. Positive thinking is required when riding. Motivating our thoughts should be essential and a problem should always appear solvable. What a rider thinks tends to happen, so negative thoughts are fatal. We should ban them from our mind and concentrate on positive and solvable thoughts.We must not underestimate our inside. We bring all our emotions with us onto the horse. All our thoughts and movements are imprinted by our inner situation. There are days when we feel that we could move mountains, we feel in heaven and we ride like we always wished we could…