Gratitude

 Mark Rashid talks about gratitude stones - these are small stones you keep in your pocket. The idea is that any time you reach into your pocket - to get money, or keys, or something else from your pocket - you will feel the stone and it will remind you to be grateful for all the things in your life.

Ok so you don't need a stone for this - but how many of us do remember to be thankful for what we do have, rather than griping about what we don't ? The stone is supposed to be a physical reminder of the full part of the glass.

[Just out of interest, the idea of a gratitude stone appears to come from  "the Law of Attraction", from a film called "The Secret"]

What does this have to do with riding ? Mark talked about the first moment when you get onto a horse. For many people there is a moment then when their past experiences come back, and there is a moment of fear. Maybe you wouldn't call it fear - maybe for you it is a moment of apprehension, or concern, or uncertainty.  Whatever it is, Mark commented throughout the clinic I watched that "you get what you present". That can work at so many levels.  But it means that the feeling you have when you very first settle yourself into the saddle - that instant however short - can set the tone for what comes next.

He proposed instead to replace it with a moment of gratitude.