[ad_1] For riding instructor Lisa Eklund, riding well is not just about following the “rules” but also about breaking them — and knowing when and how to break them. Owner of The Mindful Equestrian in Sherrill, New York, Eklund is a lifelong equestrienne who has taught hunter/jumper in Ithaca, New York at Asbury Hill Farm;
For riding instructor Lisa Eklund, riding well is not just about following the “rules” but also about breaking them — and knowing when and how to break them.
Owner of The Mindful Equestrian in Sherrill, New York, Eklund is a lifelong equestrienne who has taught hunter/jumper in Ithaca, New York at Asbury Hill Farm; at Cornell as an equestrian team coach; and for 18 years at State University of New York Morrisville in hunt seat. She has also judged horse shows for years.
Eklund discovered mindfulness during a difficult time in her personal life. In the 2010s, she realized that mindfulness could be applied to the equine world. A few years before her retirement in 2016, she became certified in coaching with the International Coaching Academy in Australia and began operating mindfulness riding clinics part-time and integrating mindfulness with her college students.
“They have all sorts of ‘stuff’ going on in their heads, from being in a new place to their studies to boyfriend/girlfriend issues,” Eklund said. “They brought it to the riding ring and I saw how much mindfulness helped them. It’s a missing element in training and riding.”
Once Eklund retired, she fully launched The Mindful Equestrian. Eklund likes how mindfulness taps into a person’s neuroplasticity to help him or her change habits, beliefs and mindset.
“There are three overlapping areas: mindset, position/technique, connecting to the horse,” Eklund said. “Some riders and trainers with good intention get so caught up with position and technique that the rider gets disconnected from the horse because they’re so wrapped up in themselves. Not in a bad way, they’re just thinking about their leg position, for example. They don’t know why their leg is there, for example. But they’re thinking so hard about following the ‘rules.’ That’s where mindset goes. You help them be more present and notice what’s going on with themselves and their horse.”
Lisa Eklund operates The Mindful Equestrian in central New York.
Photo provided by Lisa Eklund
By thinking about what is happening around them — one of the principles of mindfulness — they improve in their technique also. It becomes more natural and in tune with their mount. But that does not mean tossing aside the rules.
“You must have foundational rules, but you have to allow yourself to break them a little bit and make them your own,” Eklund said. “What works for you and for your horse? That’s developing a feel and a flow rather than just following the rules with a disconnected sense. One rider may be able to say, ‘This works better for me this way. My leg is shorter, and it works. But I understand the ultimate goal of how things are supposed to work. I can adapt them to me, my horse and the situation.’”
Eklund is most familiar with hunter/jumper but said that the mindfulness mindset works for any discipline, on or off the horse. She has taught some Western and saddle seat. Even if she is unable to help riders advance their technical aspects in Western, for example, she can help improve their mindset.
As one aspect of her training, she helps competitive riders let go of their mistakes. It can be easy to slide into the habit of beating oneself up over errors in the ring. Eklund instead encourages riders to let mistakes serve them by learning from them and focusing on what went well.
“I tell people that they all started as beginners,” she said. “Some people are more naturally talented, but everyone was once a beginner. When you make a mistake, it’s an opportunity to learn.”
Instead of the fixed growth mindset, she wants riders to develop a growth mindset in which they can build on what they did right and learn from their mistakes.
“It starts shifting their mindset so they’re not positive in a Pollyanna mindset but building on what goes well,” Eklund said. “It helps them take what didn’t go well and look at it in a positive mindset.”
She does not own a stable, calling herself “like a grandparent.”
“I go to other people’s barns, play with all the horses and riders and then leave,” she quipped.
While working at Morrisville, she was responsible for 40 to 50 horses. Stepping away from day-to-day horse care duties enables her to travel more to present clinics. She also handles most of her own marketing of The Mindful Equestrian, although she outsources her website and uses online services like Canva to make promotion easier.
She works with a core group of stables. Each year some drop out and others come onboard. Eklund said that more equine business people would benefit from treating their horse enterprise like a business.
“The business part of doing something like this is a big deal,” she said. “You can be good at a niche, but you’d better learn how to like doing business.”
Social media marketing and promotion presents a continual challenge as the platforms are ever changing. Using social media helps her distinguish her business from the growing number of equine businesses providing mindfulness-based training.
“It’s getting to be such a big world that you can get lost in it,” she added. “You’re competing with more businesses.”
Eklund stands out in that she also offers business coaching, which can help riding stables hosting a clinic. She also coaches non-equine businesses.
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