Learn
to Override Adrenaline
© 2008 Cherry Hill ©
Copyright InformationRiding
requires mental and physical alertness but when it turns into anxiety, look out!
During stress, adrenaline is released into the blood. This hormone increases your
metabolism, blood pressure, oxygen consumption, and the activity in your central
nervous system. Adrenaline reduces blood flow to your gut but increases blood
in your skeletal muscles. This results in an increase in strength, alertness,
coordination, and reflex action. That's why, in a stressful situation on horseback,
when adrenaline kicks in, it's easy to "overreact". Do you need to learn
relaxation techniques to over-ride your adrenaline? RELAXATION
Relaxation is the absence of detrimental
tension. TEST: When you hear a loud
crash or a gunshot, do you immediately stop breathing and freeze? Or have you
trained yourself to breathe deeply and center your energy in your abdomen? If
it's the latter, that's great because if your horse suddenly spooks, you'll have
a much better chance of staying with his movement if you melt into the saddle
than if you jump out of it! 
Read these other articles
in the Back In The Saddle series: Part One: EvaluationPart Two: Improvement |
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