05/09/2026
Very interesting 🤗
As someone who is neurodivergent and has been a groundwork trainer for years, I struggled with this whole concept of “energy” for a LONG time.
“Bring your energy up.”
“Increase your energy”
Okay, but what does that actually mean?
I tend to need things to be tangible. If you tell me to change something, I want to know what I’m physically changing. And “energy” can mean SO many different things in horse training.
Usually when someone increases their “energy,” something about their actual body changes too. They walk faster, take bigger steps, become more animated, turn more directly toward the horse, move closer, change their posture, move the rope faster or increase pressure.
We’ve just lumped a whole bunch of those things together under “energy.”
The horse obviously isn’t responding to the word. Something changed that they could perceive.
“Feel” was another one I struggled with.
“You’ll develop feel.”
“You’ll know when it feels right.”
Not always helpful.
But once I started looking at “feel” as a bunch of smaller skills, THAT made sense to me.
Someone with really good “feel” may notice a tiny weight shift, a change in tension or the very beginning of a response and change what they’re doing immediately. After you’ve done that thousands and thousands of times, you aren’t consciously thinking through every piece anymore.
You just do it.
So I don’t actually have an issue with people using “energy” or “feel.” I use both.
But when I’m teaching someone who looks at me like I have three heads after I tell them to “bring their energy up,” I know I need to translate that into something they can actually DO.
Bigger steps. Faster movement. Change your position. Watch that weight shift.
Sometimes “feel” needs to be taught in pieces before it can actually feel like feel.
