Awakened Horsemanship
(Selfseeds for Horse Lovers.)
An Online or Onsite Immersive, Education, Experience to Improve
Your Feel, Timing, and Alignment.
You are the system to study. Simple and natural. Then share it with your horse.
"Horses and riders need an opportunity to learn without fear, force, or fatigue."
Dear Friends of the Horse,
While studying under Olympic riding coaches and spiritual Masters, plateaus were continuously showing up for me.
Have you been riding a long time, hit a plateau, and not progressing?
They always led me to look at a triangle linking the outer self, inner self, and a challenge. An immersive educational experience called Selfseeds developed with short practices to examine mind, body, and inner communication.
The Awakened Horsemanship training embodies Selfseeds to kinesthetically invite you to become more personally aware and to align from a deeper place with your horse.
By the time someone takes on a program that is unknown and not mainstream, she is probably frustrated and disappointed by what is happening in her regular experience. She would be looking for answers to questions and something with a clear strategy that helps with immediate and noticeable results in performance, relationship, and/or safety.
Plateaus are a place of self reflection, a moment to regroup, rest, and consider the next part of the climb, but to move, they require a new perspective.
Are you willing to do that?
It is easier to recognize a plateau when there is a goal in mind, such as the completion of a training level dressage test and now how to reach first level. How about getting around a course of jumps in a calm, coherent way, but next wanting to add speed for a jump-off. Or, completing an obstacle course with a willing horse and a well executed plan, but it isn’t at a competitive level. These are all great achievements in themselves, but is there a new goal and you find that the path isn’t unfolding?
Is there a blind spot that a fresh perspective and new set of tools can be helpful? Every plateau can have a pain point, but there is an exit strategy.
As students, we often don’t know, but we can have a deep innate sense of harmony, peace, and flow. We were born with this and then the advent of life supports it or starts to create a scaffolding to obstruct it. So is the new plateau a natural evolutionary part of the development and it is a needed rest and regroup to systematically move on? Or is it a plateau out of misunderstanding, fear, and disobedience?
Awakened Horsemanship provides support and awareness for developing a new perspective for the horse through the inside of oneself. We start with a gentle experience of mind, body, spirit/soul and then share the insights, awareness, and understanding with the horse.
It is a breakthrough way to help find an aligned path for transformation and advancement.
There is a template of 11 Selfseeds, micro-awareness experiences for improving personal safety and growth in your relationship with the horse.
“Your own inner experience is the only perspective for improving feel, timing, and alignment.”
The really excellent, top-level coaches always wanted to work on improving what I call “A,” the basics. I might have wanted to work on tempi-changes or some other more complicated movement, but the instructor often led me to the quality of the canter, straightness, and throughness. The higher the level I aspired to, the more I understood this thinking.
Practicing the pattern or exercise is a stage of learning about the mechanics. Learning to improve the quality of them is in another league.
Working with Awakened Horsemanship underlines the value of short practices of awareness. Knowing the self as the vehicle will change your perspective and understanding of riding principles.
Take a moment to sign up for the Awakened Horsemanship newsletter.
In Gratitude,
Susan Eoff
"Sue Eoff's horse training is of the highest ethical standards where the first regard is the mental and physical well being of the horse. Her ability to create an understanding within the horse to respond and happily carry themselves and the rider is second to none. This comes from a lifetime of studying horses and humans, how they function and how we can work together in clear harmony. Sue’s love of riding both across the country and in the meticulous detailed examination of training using the classical principles of dressage makes functional happy horses."
Maree McAteer (New Zealand)
What's Inside the Workshop?
Part one: An evolutionary step in horsemanship
Why do we need to awaken our horse awareness approach?
An exploration of Awakened Horsemanship will support and broaden your understanding of yourself and your horse. It is not a training technique for your horse. It is an awareness approach to help unwind personal plateaus experienced in horse handling and riding.
In this session, we will explore:
~Short history of riding evolution to understand why we are at this bridge point in consciousness to experience riding with deeper feel, timing, and alignment. We are evolving as humans and need to evolve with our riding approach. It might be why you are seeking insight?
~Awakened Horsemanship are building blocks for the equestrian seeking change, open to looking at a deeper point of self awareness (mind, body and inner communication), and connecting the awareness to the equine partner. Introducing the 11 Selfseeds.
~There is a triangle in riding--the horse, rider, and the current, dynamic moment. Every moment is relevant. Understanding the simple root or highlight needed in the moment, opens the door to transformation.
~Harmonizing the mind, body, and spirit/soul is essential for creating clarity, trust, effectiveness, and compassion. We thrive when these aspects are aligned. And so does the horse.
~You are the system to study. Simple and natural. Then share it with your horse.
~We aren't looking at training systems, but we will look at how you relate to your training system/discipline and how it relates to your partner.
~The most important "mindset" for the deep dive into the 11 principles is curiosity and the awareness of feel. Each Selfseed is an experience, to be felt and revisited time-and-time again.
"Horses and riders need an opportunity to learn without fear, force, or fatigue."
Part Two: Feel is why we have a horse partner.
START NOTICING OUR 6 SENSES ACTIVATED IN OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE HORSE?
In this session, we will begin to explore the experiences of the first four Selfseeds. We start to create a personalized map of the self with understanding of key principles of the body, mind, and spirit/soul. The details of awareness are later applied to feel, timing, and alignment while riding and handling horses.
While exploring these principles, it is about diving inward, experiencing, and not just skimming along as a mental construction. Details are to be felt, noted, and carried into the outer world. The focus is on your uniqueness!!
Selfseeds Nutrition. Is dehydration and thirst a feeling we recognize in stages? Do we feel how food and food types influence us? Is there something to be observed from horses about grazing in increments, resting, and foraging?
Selfseeds Fitness. Core stability, stamina, and action without fatigue are basic assets for fitness. Posture is the number one way to practice and integrate it into our daily life. Horses moving as a herd in a large field stay sound and have well developed toplines for survival and soundness.
Selfseeds Stillness. Inner calm, awareness of resonance, inner peace, foundational place of being, energetics of stillness is not stagnation, place of sacred stability, and inner sanctuary from where every experience arises are all aspects we benefit from knowing as a resting place. Horses standing while resting are showing us the practice.
Selfseeds Emotions. Recognizing the influences of frustration, shame, and joy on our nervous system. We have choices when we recognize emotions are layered over inner stillness. How do often we react first before reflecting? Horses sense and then react, but with time, they return to the resonance of grazing mode with the herd. They sense our emotions as part of the environment.
"First you harmonize, then you customize."
Wilson Pickett
Part Three: Timing is the doorway to flow.
TIMING prevents disharmony and supports rewarding the horse’s responsiveness.
As we continue, we’ll explore the next four Selfseeds and how they relate to our timing. Feeling and experiencing each one are the keys for transformation in plateaus.
Selfseeds Weight Distribution. Weight is our physicality, but management of weight distribution is key. Symmetry and alignment are critical for structural well-being. Horses often graze with one foot forward and rest with one hind leg cocked, so they manage their weight distribution in subtle ways. What patterns do we have? How do they influence sitting in the saddle?
Selfseeds Flexibility. Mind and body are the vehicles for flow and are two dynamic systems. The body has a range of motion to absorb daily movement with or without ease and the mind has observing, sensing, and responding to daily diversity. Like the herd, handling/riding have many nuanced decisions that require flexibility for dynamic alignment.
Selfseeds Balance: Micro-adjustments of mind and body to be in relation to dynamics of living. What is our balance even left-to-right, top-to-bottom, and side-to side? We need our own balance awareness before we apply it to the horse.
Selfseeds Rhythm: Breathing and heart beating are basic rhythms. The rhythm of the day is another. Three basic gaits for the horse require understanding rhythm to be effective. Synchronizing it all in motion is the potential for harmonization or conflict.
"What horse person do we want to be?"
Part Four: Solutions through feel, timing, and alignment.
ALIGNING PERSPECTIVES: TWO-LEGGED AND FOUR-LEGGED. VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL. INNER AND OUTER.
In the final self-mapping, we’ll explore the last three Selfseeds and how the collection supports feel, timing, and alignment. These are the keys to the partnership--on every level.
Selfseeds Integration. A combination of selfseeds to create and solve living dynamics. Integration is the installation and coordination of a single or collection of selfseeds, puzzle or not in pieces. Integration creates a confirmation of how all the pieces can come together to support an action. The I-band helps with feedback.
Selfseeds Partnering: Application of self to another being, event, or moment in time, lead-and-follow or follow-and-lead. Riding and/or handling the horse are our motivation in this case. Plateaus are the reflection points we often want to resolve in a partnership.
Selfseeds Personalize 5. Soul/spirit seed with deep inner dynamics. Experiences of profound inner states relating to the 6 senses, Selfseeds of essence. We are one in the depth. Feeling and remembering this deep part of the design is what stirs us to take conscious action.
"How do we support our horse(s)?"
Part Five: Discussing Awakened Horsemanship
Live Q & A! Start connecting Awakened Horsemanship to your horse.
In this session, we will answer questions:
~Anything and everything!
~Feel, timing, and alignment are the fundamentals of all actions. How do the 11 Selfseeds support these?
~The language is Selfseeds, but how does the new perspective relate to riding and handling methods?
~Sharing your personal mapping experience of mind, body, and soul/spirit with your horse.
"Is the resonance for trauma in your horse deeply familiar, because you recognize it from your own relationship with it?"
Here’s What You’ll Receive Inside the Course
1) Live Zoom Session (90 minutes) or schedule an onsite visit.
A new perspective to know your horse through more deeply knowing yourself
The introduction and experiencing of all 11 Selfseeds will lead you through a gentle, self mapping program. Mind, body, spirit/soul are the layers experienced. We are the medium for communicating, making decisions, and interacting with the horse.
Not understanding our personal layers limits decision making and problem solving as a partnership. Once the Selfseeds are experienced personally, they can be effectively applied to evaluating and problem solving with your horse. The awareness gained from this program clarifies and supplements the application of training systems: classical, natural, English, Western, competitive, non-competitive and more.
2) A Follow Up Zoom Call to answer questions!
The final Zoom call will be important for asking questions. Selfseeds is a simple program, but simplicity often leads to opening doors to self awareness and nurturing of questions.
Plus You'll get This Special Bonus!
Bonus: A private assessment of a personal video.
Success comes through self-awareness and applying the experience to feel, timing, and alignment. The bonus offered is to submit a personal video and receive detailed feedback from the Awakened Horsemanship perspective.
Cost
$150/Private Individual
$75/person, group (minimum 5 people)
*ask about travel fees
*ask about youth, 4-H, and Pony Club discounts
About Your Teacher
Susan Eoff "My quiet life on an 88 acre horse farm in Kentucky with 6 horses (several rescued), time, freedom, and only stewardship requirements are showing me more is not always better. The peace, harmony, and the herd are inspiring me to offer Awakened Horsemanship”
Current living status. Steward of Horse Woods Haven (2021) (http://www.horsewoodshaven.com), 6 horses, and two cats. Columbia, Kentucky. Background: NATRC President’s Cup 1982, Tevis completion, University of California at Davis, CA B.S. Genetics. 35 years horse trainer (Portugal, France, Germany, Hungary…),USDF 4th level certified/Silver Medal, 20 years competitive ballroom dancing, NASM sports training, 2011–renunciation of Western life and moved to Jaipur, India.
Upon returning to the West, Selfseeds felt like unfinished business on a very deep level. It had been created right before moving to India and became a living template for myself. I shared it during my global travels, but now is the time to grow it, so people have a gentle pathway to know themselves more fully as a body, mind, and inner communication. The horses will benefit greatly from this choice of dynamic, integrated self awareness.
Are you ready for a new perspective to know your horse through more deeply knowing yourself?
My Personal Guarantee & Promise You
I created this program as a source of guidance and inspiration. My sincere hope is that you will benefit from this offering from my heart. If you are not satisfied with the first week of online experience, you can receive a full refund simply by emailing us within the first 14 days that you register.
"Whatever a horse is forced to do, it will do without understanding and beauty. Just like a dancer who gets abused would dance; without grace."
Xenophon
"Horsemanship is the one art form which it seems one needs only practice. However, practice without true principles is nothing other than routine, the fruit of which is a strained and unsure execution, a false diamond which dazzles semi-connoisseurs often more impressed by the accomplishments of the horse than the merit of the horseman."
François Robichon de la Gueriniere