Soft Eyes - A Window to Greater Success in Your Horsemanship By Susan Strong Kelley
“Soft Eyes allow for a greater field of vision, more awareness of your own and your horse’s body, less tension, and easier, freer forward movement.” ~ Sally Swift
What are soft eyes and how can they help you obtain a better outlook and greater success in life, on and off the horse? In this article, I will share my journey into this intriguing Basic, developed by Sally Swift, founder of Centered Riding.
Centered Riding has Four Basics. They are: soft eyes; breathing; centering; and building blocks. Grounding and clear intent are also part of the team of Basics, and are the “supporting cast” to successful riding using Centered Riding techniques.
For me, soft eyes has been the deepest, most elusive Basic to truly grasp. I keep discovering how using soft eyes has transformed my life, on and off the horse.
Have you heard the old saying, “You don’t know what you don’t know?” More than 20 years ago, when I started my Centered Riding journey, I attended an Open Centered Riding Clinic, taught by Susan Harris, Level IV Centered Riding Master Clinician. In that clinic with Susan, I discovered that for 37 years, I had been holding my breath and looking down at my horse, using hard eyes a lot when I rode. I didn’t know I was doing this and I was unaware how negatively it affected my riding.
Susan Harris has graciously given me permission to share this image from her poster series on the “Centered Riding Four Basics.”
This image shows the typical rider’s range of vision. The Red Zone is the rider looking down at our horse’s ears, using “hard eyes.” The Blue Zone is the “soft eyes” area – the subject of this article.
Hard eyes are easy to find. Just stare at something in front of you, seeing nothing else but that object. You will likely soon find that you have stopped breathing and have stiffened up in multiple places. The use of soft eyes brings awareness, not only of your surroundings, but also of your inner body in relation to your horse and his motion.
Here’s how to find soft eyes. First, pick an object to look at with hard eyes. Then let your vision soften and relax, leaving your center of interest in the middle. Now, visually take in the surrounding area, allowing a more panoramic view by widening your awareness and seeing around the object. Soft eyes allow you to be more aware and take in what is going on around you, beneath you and inside of you.
When you drive a car, ideally, you don’t look at the hood ornament instead of out onto the road. If you did, you would surely crash the car. Successful drivers use soft eyes to look ahead, out the windshield, to see where they are going.
Here’s where it gets interesting. The horse is a prey animal; he has his eyes on the sides of his head. This eye placement allows him to see his world in almost 360 degrees, but he can’t see directly in front of his nose or directly behind his tail. Since he is a prey animal, he needs to remain vigilant, watching for anything that may harm him, such as a predator. Through evolution, the horse has been deeply wired to be able to spot trouble and run away fast as his first defense.
So here we humans are, with our eyes on the front of our heads, making us look exactly like a predator, and we are riding a prey animal! Our horse is a very sensitive and timid animal that has survived for centuries by escaping predators. When we ride our horse using hard eyes, his very nature is to attempt to escape from us and our aids. Using hard eyes will also result in you losing your sense of your center, restriction of your breathing, and a reduction in your awareness of your body and your surroundings.
I have been living with and using the Four Basics for a long time now. As a result, I have developed a deeper understanding of soft eyes, which has been the most challenging of the Four Basics for me to fully grasp. Now, I truly believe that a person with soft eyes can take in the whole picture when encountering another, whether it is a horse or person.
An experience I had recently with Spirit Hawk, my young Arabian gelding, is what prompted me to write this article. Arabians are very intelligent and highly sensitive animals, and Spirit is true to his heritage. Here is what happened.
My husband was out of the country, so I hired Dylan, a college student, to do the mowing and weed whacking while Stephen was away. Spirit often stands sentry, either in the run-in-shed or out in the pasture, watching the activities around the farm. So, at lunch time that day, as usual, I brought Spirit into the barn, along with another horse, to await the afternoon riding lesson. I often teach while mounted on a horse. This enables me to demonstrate, and I often use Spirit to teach with.
Spirit’s stall has an open window in the back and an open Dutch door in the front so he can see all around. He usually enjoys this stall more than the others. When I returned from a quick lunch, I found that Spirit was agitated and quite restless. To be on the safe side, I decided to lunge him in the arena to get a sense of his mood. Spirit proved to be rather hot and distracted by Dylan, who had been driving the mower more quickly than my husband drives it.
While lunging Spirit, I encouraged him to take his attention away from Dylan and bring his attention back to me. I did this gently, and whenever he looked away from me, I would give him a well-timed, light tug on the line. That would bring him back to me mentally in both directions. I lunged him for only a few minutes, until I felt he was soft and happy working with me.
Soon, my student arrived. This would now be the time for me to mount Spirit and teach the lesson, right? No! My soft eyes told me that although Spirit was calm and relaxed, it would be a better idea for me to put him back in his shed and find another horse for the afternoon lesson. So, while the riding lesson was going on and I was practicing my soft eyes, I could see Spirit watching us from the shade of the shed. Now, I know what you’re thinking: I have spoiled Spirit and let him get the better of me. But wait! There is another benefit of using soft eyes that many people do not consider!
The next day, Dylan was weed whacking the hedge row along the driveway along the short side of the arena, about 15 feet away from us. My brother was running his tractor on his vegetable farm, on the opposite side and across the field. So there were lots of distractions. I chose Spirit to teach with that morning. I tacked him up and put him on a lunge line, alone, while my student got her mount ready. Spirit was completely different from the day before. He was soft and attentive, and ready to work right away.
When my student joined me in the arena, we mounted our horses and started working them where they felt most safe, on the less noisy side, my brother’s side. Then we gradually worked them around the entire arena quite successfully, using the Four Basics. We had no problems, even with all the distractions. Spirit was absolutely wonderful, unconcerned and happy to work, with me demonstrating in all three gaits in both directions, during the riding lesson.
I had used my soft eyes in a completely new way. I had seen that while Spirit looked ready to work after being lunged the day before, he really wasn’t. Instead of pressuring him into working in the riding lesson, I gave him time to think it over. This gave him the chance to feel safe, secure and confident in his ability to be the wonderful partner I always dreamed he would be.
People who use tunnel vision in life are often stiff and inflexible. Soft eyes are a wonderful way to interpret life, and stay relaxed and attentive. Try seeing the “whole picture” when you are moving through life. You can practice using your soft eyes in all that you do, especially when you’re feeling stressed and while riding in crowded areas. The loss of soft eyes will undermine the other three basics, as well as grounding and clear intent.
Learning Centered Riding’s Four Basics, as well as grounding and clear intent, takes time. It’s like making a good stew – you put quality ingredients together and simmer slowly. Taking my time has certainly enabled me to become both a better rider and a better riding instructor. n Susan Strong Kelley is a Level III Centered Riding clinician living in Geneseo, New York.