Natural Movement and Balance

11/10/2025

So… What Does “Lift Your Energy” Actually Mean?🤔

“Lift your energy!” they say, usually with the same tone people use when telling you to “manifest abundance” or “just relax.” It sounds profound, but it’s about as clear as “be more sparkly” - which, if you’ve ever tried, you’ll know is not a measurable unit of anything.

But alright, let’s break it down. I’ve spent two decades standing at the front of lecture theatres full of university students, delivering thrilling topics like health economics, drug laws, and the mathematics of drug dissolution. Let me tell you - if you don’t lift your energy, you die. Not literally, but spiritually. You evaporate. You become that droning background noise between lunch and freedom. And university students are ruthless.🫣

So you learn to command attention. You walk out there like you’ve got something worth saying, even if you secretly find the topic as exciting as wet cardboard. You fill the room, not with noise, but with presence. You have to light yourself on fire (metaphorically, of course) so people sit up and think, “Huh, she’s alive and important.”

Now, with horses, it’s exactly the same. “Lift your energy” means stop disappearing. Stop moving like you’re apologising for existing. Horses don’t follow half-hearted energy. They either take over, ignore you, or find your presence vaguely irritating - like an annoying fly.😬

Here’s the catch: lots of people have never had to be seen. They’ve spent decades trying to be small, safe, and unnoticeable. So when they’re told to “lift their energy,” they either freeze like deer in headlights or swing too far and turn into slightly terrifying drill sergeants.

One of my clients nailed it. After I’d tried explaining the idea a few different ways, she looked at me and said, “Shelley, honestly, what you’re describing sounds like trying to hold in a fart.”🤭 And she’s right - that’s what it feels like for a lot of people. They clench, brace, and strain to do something. But that kind of energy doesn’t lift. It implodes. Horses feel that and think, “No thanks, weird human.”🤨

Real lifted energy is presence without panic. It’s standing tall, breathing, and letting yourself exist loudly enough that the horse goes, “Oh, hello, you matter.”

So no, you don’t have to sparkle like a disco ball. But if you’re vanishing into the background while your horse looks for someone more interesting, it’s time to glow a little brighter. You’re not tensing and retaining farts😕. You’re just showing up like you mean it.💪🙌

This is Collectable Advice Entry 76 of my challenge and series on words and terms in the horse world. Please hit SHARE or SAVE but please do not copy and paste (but just enough to miss this particular line) as that is uncool. ❤

PS. I dedicate this post to my friend Kas 😆

11/02/2025

Here are some key things to blanketing in the winter. A proper fit is essential for your horse.

As winter approaches, it's time to revisit the topic of blanketing. Although blanketing tends to be a personal decision, blanketing a horse is necessary to reduce the effects of cold or inclement weather especially when:

🏡 Shelter access is not available during turnout periods and the temperatures or wind chill drop below 5°F. Be mindful of shelter size and herd dynamics.
🌧 There is a chance the horse will become wet from rain, ice, and/or freezing rain. Becoming wet is usually not a problem with snow.
✂️ The horse has had its natural coat clipped.
⏰ The horse is very young or very old.
🏝 The horse isn’t acclimated to the cold.
🐴 The horse has a body condition score of three or less.

If blanketing a horse, make sure the blanket fits properly. Poorly fitted blankets can cause sores and rub marks. Remove the blanket daily, inspect it for damage, and reposition it. Make sure the blanket stays dry and never put a blanket on a wet horse.

09/25/2025

I did a little experiment a while ago -

I didn’t tell anyone at this barn I was riding at anything about me. They didn’t know I was a teacher or trainer or anything I do- and so minding my own business riding my horses, I was plagued with advice. A few women at the barn gave me advice while I rode, told me what trainer to follow and what perceived mistakes I was making - how to fix it, what methods they like, gear to use and supplements to solve my problems.

They were not being mean. However annoying unsolicited advice is, most people’s intentions are probably half helpfulness, half proving themselves to others out of insecurity. Comment sections on videos are full of people like this - you need to follow so and so, take that nose band off, put this thing on, this horse probably has such and such physical ailment —

This experience made me think of my students - trying their best to learn, clinging desperately to new information and patterns they don’t quite have a grasp on yet or understand, and being bombarded by conflicting advice: the barn busy bodies, the internet, sales pitches in your inbox. It’s got to be completely overwhelming! It’s no wonder people’s anxieties are higher and leadership is far lower-
How is one supposed to know which way to go?

It’s important to be open to advice - but consider the source.

Are they trying to help you, or prove themsleves?
Are they trying to help you, or make you afraid of something?
Are they trying to help you, or sell to you? (Obviously all pros have to sell but is it a sale or your long term betterment as well on the table?)

You have to stay sharp out there. Trust what is working and stick to it - sometimes you don’t know if it’ll work til you stick to it for a while. But look at the evidence around you -
Are the horses in the program you’re using getting sounder over time? Or are you just seeing curated snippets decorated in slow motion with music ? Who is it marketed for?

If they can get you afraid or emotional, they can sway you.
Think about it. Stay sharp. Trust yourself and trust the process.

It’s a messy, confusing and chaotic world out there - but if you find someone you trust, hang on to them with both hands.

09/21/2025

Great information on reflex belly lifts. This is the reason I do not recommend them.

Unachievable expectation that your professional puts on you and your horse, yet they dont follow their own rules

So often i come across posts and I just feel yeah it all sounds nice yet in reality can that be achieved are they asking the impossible and the one that is doing the rounds is asking for a belly lift and declaring this is where your horses back should be when riding like 🤔

Its an impossibility and especially when the following pics are the same dysfunction which prevents the horses lifting its back is still there but the horse has no choice because we are activating the reflex points (often long spiels about consent and choice follow, erm yep no consent no choice when you are activating a reflex piont the brain isnt even involved at the initial stages ).

I never do a belly lift to achieve a lift i do it to look for dysfunction and if you are only focused on the lift then you may just miss the reason why the horse struggled in the first breath.

We do know how horses breathe right?? I mean breathwork is a hot topic everywhere yet the simple function of the breath is interrupted if we keep things up,
Up and out, down and inward is the rythum of breath if we only keep the horse at the up stage then well we are not only impeding them physically but mentally aswell, and we wonder why some horses hate it.

Do you know how a lift looks, bellies blowing out, lumbars roached, hind ends tucked under are, flanks sunk in is not a success its an issue that hasn't been addressed and will never be addressed by sticking a hoof pick in their sensitive areas. We cannot just lift away pain!!

What are reflex points ?? They are there to keep the horse safe, if activated they have no control over the reaction but the brain will receive a signal and if the irritant i.e our poky fingers do not stop the brain will initiate a further conscious reaction like a kick up or a bite, so what has the horse learned ??? Do you think the body will process and use the information in a positive way.

The lift even if perfect may be achieved but add negative forces such as a saddle and rider then how can the the horse then be in the same place that it was without the added pressure, was your saddle fitted to a lifted back ?? Does your saddle now fit if like in real life horse nor human walks around in a constant state of over active core, normal is not buff.

Vertical lift is a whole body action not a poke in the girth area and blinkering eyes just to the thoracic area, it comes from everywhere working together but a back like a cat stretch yoga pose is not an 24/7 action its a task which is doomed to fail.

08/04/2025

It’s always worth checking dry spots and why they are there. Even if you have no dry spots you could still be having saddle fit issues.

08/03/2025

Whips, spur, bit, bitless, release of pressure or food reward- haltered or liberty-

There are a million ways to get a horse to do something. The whole conversation around what’s right or wrong to me misses a very important element, that goes getting beyond just getting a horse to do something.

You can chase the horse forward, or you can have him excitedly rushing toward a carrot on a stick - but what I’m more interested to know is HOW does he do it? My goal isn’t just to make something happen, but to create fluid movement, and that is a deeper conversation.

How do you create fluidity? How do you create moment to moment conversation, how do you create swing, flexion, rythmic quality? That goes far beyond how you teach, and much more into why you teach it. If the goal is just to make something happen- a collection of behaviors, or prompt responses - and you don’t have an over arching why - it’s hard to connect the dots to weave a more interesting picture

07/26/2025

I’ve worked with lots of troubled horses - horses who are unconfident, fearful, aggressive, inflexible in their ability to adjust, and who struggled with daily events like turnout and herd life, and so on -

Some of these horses were handled poorly, over exposed and under educated, maybe roughed up or handled without patience or care. Some treated like machines who’s only purpose is to perform

A good number, however, were over protected, treated more like someone’s prize poodle carried around in a purse. And the most interesting thing here is - both types of horses struggle with taking in new information, can be very rigid in their routine needs, and have very low confidence.

The average person is not going to whip their horse or tie it for hours with its head to a stirrup. Most horse folks love their animals- and so if the average person has an abused horse, it is usually from a past incident or person.

The average person, however, is capable of creating discontent, anxiety and general inability to be confident quite easily - by not providing the framework to learn and grow through a healthy degree of discomfort.

This is a hard reality to face: we can certainly love our horses to death. It’s easy and understandable to want to prevent discomfort - to work tirelessly to eliminate it from our horses lives.

In some ways this is an honorable quality. It shows empathy and care. But we need to learn to balance our desire to protect with our desire to be true stewards- which means not just creating immediate comfort, but setting up the framework for a lifetime of confidence-

Temporary discomfort can sometimes be extremely productive, so long as it’s provided with tools and education to manage it, and the mentality of care for the horses wellbeing above all. What this means is most of us already have the right attitude: we just need a little development with the love for horses we already naturally carry.