In my first post, I explained horses are the inspiration behind these communication entries. They are the true communicators, I believe. By reading their body language and their energy, you know where you stand with them.

On Saturday, I stopped paying attention to my horse's communication system for a little while, and that got me a quick flip in the air, a hard thud-landing on my back, and a collision of my shin with my horse's hoof. One lesson I've worked on over and over during the past four years of riding with my trainers is mindfulness; knowing how your horse is doing and how he's feeling so you can best read, respond to, and direct him. Five minutes of not being mindful taught me a great lesson: Be mindful, dummy.

I laid on the ground for a while, watched my horse continue his rodeo round for a moment, and cursed like a madwoman at the pain. My trainer came out and asked, "What happened before what happened happened?" (Meaning, how did you get bucked off?)

I wasn't listening to my horse is what happened. I was distracted and put aside the idea that Rooster is just a four-year old, has not been worked regularly over the past two weeks because of my nutty schedule of deadlines, and was trying to tell me he was really full of energy that day. He worked great at the ground work exercises we did in the morning, and part of me thought that was enough listening to get me through riding him in the afternoon. I didn't listen to his energy at the moment, which was (in hindsight) bounding all over the place and surging through his feet. His trot was wild; why did I think asking him to lope would be less so? I didn't think. I didn't listen. I did fall off.

A lesson you can take from my black and blue moment: Be mindful, dummy. Listen to your customers so they don't buck you off.