(ie riding with the child) in soft collected rhythms worked so well, was because it was producing vast amounts of oxytocin – the hormone of happiness and communication – in the child; calming the over active nervous system and opening the brain’s learning centers. An effect that was compromised if one led the horse by the head because it pulled the horse’s center of gravity too far forward for the deep, regular rocking movements that create the oxytocin to be produced.
Riding with the child, engaging them in the saddle with you, that was the key. But to engage them properly with the exterior world you have to ride with them on the trail, rather than in the arena. So the Horse Boy Method was born – a six stage process riding in nature that builds the brain through exploration, perspective taking and rule based games on horseback, and then transitions into actual academics – math, science, the lot, all up there in the saddle, with the child eventually teaching us instead of the other way around.
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