For this four-day intensive clinic, Michele Morseth, GCFP of Sit The Trot! is teaming up with Dr. Wendy Morseth, a clinical psychologist who specializes in helping people overcome anxiety. You will learn how to control your physical and mental responses to your fears of riding as well as how to sit with the movement of the horse to have a more secure, harmonious seat. Fear is a natural, normal and necessary response to immediate threat and danger. Anxiety is a learned response to the perceived possibility of danger. Both fear and anxiety cause riders to lose security in the saddle and horses to react negatively.

Through a series of mental and physical exercises, including mindfulness and body awareness training, you will learn to distinguish the difference between fear, anxiety, and relaxation and to identify how your mind and body create anxiety. Each day you will practice being in control of how you experience relaxation and how you communicate your feelings through your body to your horse. In addition, you will learn specific ways to move with the horse’s motion so you are comfortable and confident in the saddle.