Rider’s Blueprint for Mindful Riding - Cathy Woods

All righty. So I typically kick the episodes off by having the guests tell us who they are and what it is they do. So whenever you’re ready, you can kick us off. Hi, I’m Kathy Woods and I am the creator of a program called Body Mind Equine. I am the author of the book called Yoga for a Riders and I am a yoga teacher of 34 years.

I’m really focusing predominantly on equestrian Wellness. I also travel around the country as well as internationally and Ioffer clinics and multi day retreats for equine enthusiasts. So how did you come to combine health and yoga and horses all together? Yeah, great question. Thanks for asking.

So yoga has been a very big part of my life really ever since I’ve been a child and Wellness has always been a big focus. In addition to being a yoga instructor, I was also a fitness instructor for many years and an equestrian as a horse woman. As and your audience knows, it’s important to stay fit and healthy and well if we’re going to be able to do the physicalities required for riding as well as just simply barn chores and just having horses. So it’s paramount that we stay physically healthy and well. But then there’s also the mental Wellness component that I’d love to talk about today, yoga for riders.

Samantha, One of the things that was occurring for me is I’m a long time avid Backcountry trail riders here, mostly in the Smoky Mountains. And I was noticing when I was riding, I was actually doing a lot of the things that I was doing in my yoga practice. I call these like the parallels of yoga and horsemanship. So I was noticing things like self correction in the saddle, just like I would do self correction on the yoga mat. If I felt a little bit out of alignment, I was noticing, wow, is my weight symmetrical in each stirrup?

Am I sitting on my sitting bones? Are my shoulders tense and up around my ears? And what can I do to relax that? What can I do to create more balance physically in the saddle? Other yoga practices I would notice on the mat.

Of course, when we’re in a challenging yoga posture, we breathe deeply. We breathe through that challenge. We went into those areas and I was noticing while I was writing if I would have a quote challenging situation upcoming, perhaps a slippery Creek crossing or a little narrow Ridge trail that made me nervous. I would notice my breathing would shallow right hold my breath. So I would remind myself to breathe through those challenges like I would do on the yoga mat.

I was also noticing what headspace and energy space I went to the barn in had an impact on my horses and how we related and how our time together was. I would notice days that I felt collected and centered and grounded. Maybe I did a little meditation that morning. Maybe I did a breath work on the way to the barn. I would notice my interactions would be calmer.

My training sessions would be more fruitful. My rides would be more enjoyable versus the days that I went to the barn, stressed, task oriented, running late, ego oriented. So I was seeing all of these components that I was doing in my whole yoga practice. I was naturally transferring to my time with horses. And that’s really what prompted my book Yoga for Riders that was published in 2020 by Horse and Rider Books.

So that’s a little bit about how that all the dots got connected there. Yeah. Yeah, it’s interesting. Do you think that you were able to? I always find one of the interesting things with horses, and you touched on it a bit, was that it forces you to look into avenues like body awareness and breath work and all of these things to help curate good rides in a way.

Almost think it’s funny how people make connections like across multiple different avenues in life that may not necessarily even have anything to do with each other, but there’s parallels in some way. And it’s almost as if the yoga set you perfectly up mentally to be able to do those. Check insurance because I feel like that’s a real skill is to be able to know your body enough to be able to have a conversation and like to literally check in and oh, maybe I’m not sitting evenly on my seat bones or maybe I’m not super grounded in my energy. Like it it takes some riders, like some riders can sit so crooked and never even feel like that. It’s almost as if yoga really mentally set you up to be in a position to allow it to help your riding, if that makes any sense.

Makes complete sense what I say. Yoga is not a practice of just athletics. It’s not about flexibility, it’s not about competition. That’s the Instagram version of yoga, right? One arm balance and leg up over your neck.

And the true practice of yoga, again, is not about stress, flexibility, not about competition. It’s really more about awareness. So if I had to describe the practice in one word, I use the word awareness. It’s an awareness practice. It’s an opportunity for us to become more aware of ourselves by hopefully spending integrated time on the mat with our body, our mind, our spirit, our energy, and the ideas.

Then we carry that integrated awareness with us off the mat into everything that we do. And so using yoga as an awareness practice filters over into everything you do in your life, not just horsemanship. In yoga, we have a saying that how you do anything is how you do everything. Because of my many years of practice, and it’s so embodied, really everything I do, I try to bring that presence to, that awareness to. And of course, horses are just a great way to illustrate how what we are bringing to them and what we are bringing to the world, it really mirrored back to us.

I almost don’t even love to use the word mirror. It’s more of a reflection of our inner lands. Maybe that’s a better way to say it. So yeah. And yoga is not just about the physical and the body alignment, it is about our energy awareness.

Are we operating from a centre grounded place? Are we operating from a nervous scattered place or a sleepy, tired place? And our horses are reading that and responding to that. Breath work, meditation all has an impact on our nervous system, which we know our horses can feel. Looking at yoga beyond just the physical and then moreover just equestrian Wellness, so much falls under that umbrella.

And beyond yoga, it’s also about just taking care of our body, mind and spirit. And that looks different for each person because when we’re operating from a balanced, congruent place in our lives, that is palpable to everyone we made, including our equines. And we all know what it feels like to be around somebody that feels centered and grounded versus somebody that’s nervous and angry. They literally exude a different energy. So that’s why the whole of yoga, I feel, is so important in our horsemanship.

And I call it a training ground for us. It’s a place for us as humans, as equestrian, to do, to practice collection and groundwork for ourselves. We use the word so freely in horsemanship for getting your horse collected, doing groundwork with your horse. But are you doing the collection practices with yourself? Are you collecting your mind, your energy, your body, your nervous system?

Are we doing groundwork for ourselves on the yoga mat or the meditation cushion or other mindfulness practices? So I like to look at it as collection and groundwork for the human. Yeah, that’s such a good analogy. When I start working with maybe not necessarily young horses, but like the 6 to 8 year old horses who are learning new skills in life. Sometimes when you introduce certain lateral work or certain pieces where they on their own start collecting, they get a little sore and whatnot.

I always, anytime owners bring that up, I go, haven’t you ever gone to the gym and like squatted and then the next day you’re like, Oh my God, I don’t know how I’m going to do that again. But then you go for a while and you don’t feel that way. I find it the same with with training the horses, where when they start using their abs and using these things, they get a little sore at first, but then through the consistent use it’s no longer such a big deal. But I’ve never thought of yoga or meditation as groundwork, for that’s such a great analogy because it really is about just bringing things back to baseline is how I like to view groundwork. I agree.

I agree. I know you’ve had Jet Balu on your show. Wonderful. And we’ve done different collaborations online and we found it interesting that she focuses on the equine Wellness and I’d focus on the Equestrium Wellness. But we both use like so many of the same terms.

I always say what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right? We’re asking our horses to be fit, to be calm, present, all of that. And it’s so important that we example that we embody that. And then I know a lot of your, your podcasts and your conversations are about feeling confident in the saddle too. And I think when we’re feeling optimal, that’s one way and helps us feel more confident in the saddle.

If we’re feeling physically weak or we don’t have good balance, focus, we’re not feeling optimal and that’s going to affect our confidence. So again, importance of taking care of ourselves and really being mindful of what are we bringing to our horsemanship. Yeah, I always joke that riders get really superstitious, but I have tend to realize, I think it’s just fleets in general are very superstitious because we find routines within our life that make us feel physically feel good and we hold on to those because we know how important it is to show up feeling good. And the people that maybe do the sports recreationally, they’re dealing with so many other components of life that they don’t always give themselves the time to sit down. And this is really how I found yoga for me and even mobility work is that it lets me know where my body is that day and that like, my body may not come out.

I might know my right hip is more screwy that day, but at least I know and I’ve checked in and I can go into the day understanding that like I’m feeling a little off in my body or I did things this morning to help even myself out. But there are so many people, I think I said this earlier, that they might sit completely crooked and they totally lack the, it’s not even the awareness because sometimes I think they may even know that they’re crooked, but they don’t have the control over their body in order to actually manipulate where subconsciously it sits, if that makes sense. That does make sense. Yeah. And I think to your point, assessment is so important and assessing ourselves and also being realistic about where we are that day, right?

For example, like you talked about your hip, some days we get up and we’re feeling very robust and energetic and we assess that and we bring that robustness into our day. And then other days we may be feeling a little puny, a little out of balance, and maybe not quite as energetic. And different things factor into that, like maybe we didn’t get good sleep that tonight. Maybe something’s going on in our lives that’s pulling our energy in another direction. But I think that assessment is so important to know where am I today and adjust our equine activities accordingly.

I call that honoring the energy. What energy is present within me today? Let me give an example of that. I may have a trail ride planned with friends. And when I say trail ride here in the Smoky Mountains, it’s a minimum three to five hours or your horse on Mountain Rd.

So it’s not your little day in the park. It’s challenging, there’s obstacles on the trail, etcetera. If I wake up that day and I am just feeling I’m just not focused today, I’m feeling a little ungrounded today. I may call my friends and say, hey, you know what, I’m going to honor my energy today. I’m going to stay behind and I’m just going to go groom my horses at my barn or I’m going to do a short little ride from home.

I just don’t feel safe enough today to trailer. I’m too nervous, whatever. So I think it’s that assessment and then honoring that energy and not always powering through something that may not be in our best interest. Now, also to that point, we don’t always have the luxury of honoring. That’s where we use the tools that we learn through mindfulness practices to help alter the energy.

OK, that day I wake up and I’m feeling a little tired and while I’ve got this event I have to do. So I use tools like maybe energizing breath work or some energizing yoga postures. Or I get outside in nature and I use tools to help offset. Or I guess a better word might be to level the playing field. So there’s times we honor the energy, and then there’s times it’s really nice to have those tools in our back pocket that we can use to help us through those times when we aren’t feeling quite as energized or balanced or focused.

This is one of my biggest tug of wars in personal life in training the horses because I love competing and I love gearing up for competitions in the process of getting the horses fit and then showing up to the competitions. And I love that part of horses, but I also love the part where there are days when I don’t have anything planned and I can just go out with my horse and I can let them look at things and stop until they take a breath and do all of that. But sometimes where I personally find the struggle is like where those two intersect and keeping the performance aspect of things. Like I think event horses are a fun example to look at because once you get into international levels, like they can’t really miss a conditioning day, right? Like they miss one or two conditioning days and all of a sudden they’re not fit for this competition.

And then it’s an uphill battle where I’m trying to figure out is where is that line for me, for horses of I can handle this much high performance capacity, but I find everything outside of that diminishes the relationship either that I have with my horses or even that I have with myself. Because I’d assume that if you spend so much time pushing through the energy when it’s trying to get you to slow down, that’s when there are issues and that’s when you get hurt. And even that’s when you get sick. And for the horses, like if they’re constantly tired, they’re going to start to not look forward to the rides. I want to honor that so that my horses trust me and I keep building this relationship.

So this is really, this is the point of the podcast is like these two things. How can I like have my cake and eat it too feel? Yeah. And a lot of that really just comes down to balancing, balancing our energy, managing our energy and integrative ways. Because as you said, sometimes pushing through, whether it’s a horse or a human can be counterpart.

We’re not always in the space that we need to be. But again, I think having those tools, like for you, maybe for example, if you’re feeling like, wow, I’m really in that competitive energy and I want to soften that a little bit to try to maybe find ways to counterbalance that. What can you do in your personal life to maybe soften some intensity or maybe get a few things off your plate? Need a little more space? The yogi’s say this.

When your inner is balanced, your outer is balanced, and when your outer is balanced, your inner is balanced. Each inner and outer balance reflect each other. And I noticed when I’m out of balance in my life, for example, I’m spending too much time in my head. I’m not doing enough physical stuff or I’m doing too much physical stuff and I’m not spending time on my spiritual life or my mental health. Then my physical balance literally reflects that.

I will get in a balance pose, like tree pose, and I’m lovely that I’m like what? I use that as a gentle gauge and I say, what’s that? A balance in my life. And again, the two really do reflect each other. So when our inner is balanced, our outer is balanced, inner is balanced.

I think that’s a key. I’m also a believer in moderation in all things. So yes, the competitive end of it can be super fun and energizing and I completely hear your passion for that and I love that. But just keeping that balance of doing and non doing, there’s another phrase I talk a lot about it teaching about doing and non doing or equally as important, they do help create that balance. And a lot of times we perceive, we think that in the non doing nothing is happening.

Oh, I’m going to take a day off. Taking that day off, it shifts your energy, creates space, your immune system. So again, I think just finding that balance, something we do at the end of yoga class. If you’ve ever taken a yoga class, the final pose is Shabasana or Subasana, depending on what school of yoga you studied in. But basically that’s the posture of deep relaxation.

That’s the non doing. We just did the doing in the class. We did the warrior poses and the chair poses and the flows and the yoga postures and that’s the doing. And a lot is happening in that doing. But then equally as much as happening in that last posture, that non doing posture, we’re allowing all of the goodness from those poses to soak into our cells, to soak into our body to continue benefiting us beyond the class.

And I think that can be applied to everything. Just keeping that balance of doing and on doing. So what? You mentioned a couple of times developing tools to have in your toolbox to either help you when you’re feeling low or maybe to help you when you’re a bit too high and need to come down. What are some things that you think the majority of riders would benefit from by developing this tool to put in their toolbox?

I’m going to say if I had to pick just one, because there are several, I would pick breathing, breath work, breathing awareness because the breath work impacts our nervous system. It is a way to calm and refine our nervous system. So a lot of times you’re getting ready for a competition and you’re you’re multitasking. There’s a lot going on and you feel like you need that focus to take that 5 minute mini meditation, mini breath work session to go sit in your stall or go sit in your car and literally just focus on the breath. It helps to harness the mind as well.

So I think if I had to pick one, I would say breath work, because breath work does affect our minds, our nervous system, our body and our horses can feel us breathing. I remember the old Sally Swift book centered writing. She says in there, what would you think if your horse held its breath? What would our horse think if we’re up there holding our breath, we’re nervous and we hold our breath, or we shallow our breathing and there is a direct link to breath and emotions. If we were to get nervous or fearful right now, if we heard a loud sound, we would go and suck up our breath.

We have a nerves coming up because we have a competition or challenging spot to navigate on a trail. We tend to shallow the breath. Our horses feel that. So the breath work is just so paramount because it can also help breathe our horses, not just ourselves, but our horses also through challenging moments in place. So I would say if you had one tool, it’s always right there in your back pocket.

You use it in the saddle. You could use it online at the grocery store, You could use it while driving your car. Just breath work. And to get to the point that you can use the breath work when you need it, that skill has to be honed. Practice when the waters are calm.

So having a deliberate breath work practice. And on my YouTube channel, I do have a free breath work segment on there that teaches different breathing techniques. And basically if we’re practicing breath work on the mat, we’re practicing breath work on our meditation cushion. We start naturally using that tool without really even having to consciously think about it so much when we do feel challenged or when our emotions do feel irregular. Breath work practice doesn’t have to be long.

You don’t have to sit and do a 20 minute breath work practice. Even getting your body conditioned to using that as a response tool to stress can be really helpful. Yeah, it was funny. I just read the Demi Moore. She’s an actress biography, and she at one point early on in her career struggled with emotional parts in movies.

So she hired this acting coach or whatever. And I think the quote was your emotions are equally tied to your breath. So when you need to influence yourself to get you into that. And I was like, my God, what a great tool that you always hear breath work, but I think sometimes it takes hearing in a certain way for it to click. And I just remember being like, oh, that’s such a good way to think about it is that I’m what I’m about to cry.

And I actually did. I was like, let me see what I do when I’m like about to start crying or what I am crying or what I’m nervous or whatever. And I did notice how much shorter my breath got and that when I actually, even without thinking, was trying to compose myself, I’d take these deep breaths and I was like Oh my God, I need to start freaking breathing when I’m right. Exactly. And it’s not so simple.

And two, there’s so many catch phrases or the word of the week. So you hear things like breath work and mindfulness and so many of these words get overused and it diminishes like the real value to them. Again, breath work, it’s not just a catch phrase. Oh hey, I’ll do some breathing. There is actual scientific studies that show how breath again impacts our nervous system, our emotions and how it’s all interconnected again, we’re we’re all interconnected.

So it’s you really can’t compartmentalize things, the mental effects, the physical effects, the mental effects, the spiritual effects, the energy. So I think looking at things more holistically too, that every part of us is interconnected. And again, having that awareness too, we circle back to awareness. You have to be aware that, oh, I’m holding my breath. Oh, when I feel these emotions, I shallow my breath.

Practice also makes permanence. Practice makes permanence. So the more we practice breath work out of the saddle and out of our horsemanship, and horsemanship is not just when we’re in the saddle, as you and your listeners know. It’s anytime we’re leading our horse, feeding our horse, putting them in and out of the stall, anything. It’s all horsemanship.

Something I do at my retreats and clinics is I do an exercise called Breathing with Horses. If you take a couple of minutes to do this before an event, before mounting up, it just shifts the energy. It not only helps ground you, but it helps you ground your horse. And learning different breathing techniques is helpful too. So in yoga, I teach the basic three-part yogic breath, and that’s a breath you can use when you’re standing next to your horse.

You can use that breath while you’re riding your horse. You can use that breath in your yoga postures. You can use that breath when working at your desk. So it’s a very basic breath. It’s known as the complete breath or the three-part breath.

To do that for a few minutes before mounting up before training session, it really can pivot and shift the energy and the experience and the outcome for you and your horse. Just taking that beat to slow down. And basically three-part breath is you think of three separate chambers or vessels, right? You have the belly, the ribs in the chest when you’re breathing into your entire lung space, letting the lungs fill from the bottom up, allowing the breath to enter the nostrils, but expand the belly and that same breath moves outboard, expanding the ribs and then expanding the chest. And then you exhale out the nose in that reverse order.

And practicing this through a guided practice or with the teacher really helps get you comfortable with that. And then you start breathing that way more naturally. Our breath work can also expand in other directions. If we’re feeling sleepy and tired and lethargic and Gee, we have this thing we have to go do, how do I get my energy up? There’s different breathing techniques that yogi’s use either to raise their energy, lower their energy, or balance right, left hemispheres of the brain.

So breaths like Capella Bhatti, the bellows breath, those would be energizing breaths. If I’m feeling sleepy and tired and I need a pop of energy because I’ve got to get up and do a presentation, I might do a couple sounds of that. If I’m really feeling hyper and nervous energy, I might do a breath called Ugaya breath, which means the ocean sounding breath and that’s more of a calming and soothing breath. So learning different breathing techniques can help. But even just that basic three-part breath, I would say, can be done literally anywhere and everywhere.

And how like when you’re developing a practice, whether it be starting to get into yoga or you’re just OK, I’m going to start to just work on my breath worker, I’m going to try to start meditating. Is there a time frame like 12 minutes of this to start is actually good to get you through the door or is it actually your best bet for yoga is to do a class once a week for 45 minutes optimal or just entrance level amount for to help people get into the door of these things? Great question. Set an attainable bar. That’s the best thing I can say because a lot of times when we start something new we get almost overly excited.

Wow, I found this yoga practice, this breath work practice. I’m going to go do yoga five days a week, lining up for every class. And you may start that way out the gate, right? And then a week or two goes by and life happens and the enthusiasm for this new practice kind of wanes. To set yourself up for success, you need to set an attainable bar.

And that looks different for everyone. So for example, if you know you have a really busy life, you get up, you’ve got to get the kids off to school, you’ve got to go feed the horses at the bar, and then you’ve got a really demanding job. It’s not going to be realistic for you to say, you know what, I’m going to do 20 or 30 minutes of meditation a day, or I’m going to do an hour of yoga a day. I would rather see somebody spend 15 mindful minutes on the yoga mat where they’re present. They’re not looking at their watch the whole time thinking about what else they’ve got to do.

I think that’s more beneficial. I really think like quality over quantity is valuable. And also to try different types of practice. This is, I’m teaching a course this weekend, not for writers, but introduction to meditation and just finding a style, a technique that helps you enter into meditation that works for your personality style. Same thing with yoga, finding a Like I move very fast all day in my life.

I’m very physical. So when I get on the mat, I use that as a place to slow down, to breathe, to be mindful of the stretch, the sensation, the movement of energy, the release of tensions and tightness. Other people use yoga as an outlet to be more vigorous, to move energy. Maybe they have a desk job all day and they’re using their yoga more as a power practice. So again, I think there’s not really A1 size fits all answer to how long or what style.

I think really whatever resonates with you and being realistic about how can I really fit this into my life right now. I can’t do 30 minutes of meditation because my life is too busy right now. But yeah, I can commit to 10 minutes a day, Commit to a 20 minute posture practice and maybe focus on specific postures on areas of the body that you’re trying to strengthen or focus on areas of the body that really tend to hold tension. So I think it’s so customizable and one of my missions is to make yoga and horsemanship accessible to anyone and everyone, regardless of what that looks like. Regardless if your yoga looks like chair yoga or your yoga looks like 15 minutes on the mat or your yoga looks like an hour of power yoga.

Also, regardless if your horsemanship looks like just spending time ruining your horse or if it looks like riding, or if it looks like partnering with equines for therapeutic purposes, not boxes in to anyone horsemanship is really important because we’re all different kind of learners. We’re all different personalities and different ways and techniques and methods resonate with different people. Yeah, no, I think that’s so important. I’ve actually started. I am a gym goer.

I love the gym. I have been so sick and busy lately that my gym now is I sit in my chair and I do posture exercises in between podcast episodes and sending emails and all of that because I’m like, I know it serves me to do this, but it does almost hold me to a level of accountability where it’s even here. I can do something for myself. And so often, especially as women, we do things for other people. We love helping working with other people that I think sometimes we don’t do things solely for ourself or when we do what’s I’m going to go buy an ice cream or I’m going to go, which is, but by doing this, mine’s literally, I just move my arms up and down and it’s 2 minutes every every hour or so.

And it it makes me better in the long run. And I’m not saying a good cup of ice cream doesn’t also do that, but moderation, I think it’s something that got mentioned earlier in the episode. Absolutely. And I love that because what I hear you saying is you’re integrating your fitness and your physicality in a realistic way that works for you in your life right now. And I think that’s key to customize it, to make it your own.

A comparison game is a complete energy drain, whether we’re comparing ourselves on the yoga mat to the instructor or the person next to us, or we’re comparing ourselves in our writing and our competitions. I think it’s just an energy drain and to just stay out of comparing and to say this is what works for me. This is where I am in my yoga practice. This is where I am in my fitness practice. This is where I am in my variety.

I’m working certainly toward our goals, but with a gracious attitude of acceptance. And you talked about using the word force, maybe sounding like a mean word. And also a lot of times I use the word discipline. And people can misconstrue that and think, oh, discipline sounds like overly structured, not really. Discipline can be really very healthy.

Create a structure, a foundation in our lives that feels good, that supports us. So it doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad word. So I think reframing those negative connotations to words like discipline, to more, giving myself the gift of creating a healthy foundation, Something my guru, my Yogi has always said is commitment eliminates all indecision because it raises our energy to a very high vibration. I often think about that. And I think when you’re committed to something, you’re all in and there’s no wavering.

There’s no, oh, hey, I’m not going to do my practice today or not going to do my training today. So I think commitment is also a good word and good thing to focus on in our lives. Yeah, no, it’s funny. Discipline is a funny word because I think horse people are so innately disciplined. Like how many days do you not want to go feed the horses or go to the you want to sleep in, you want to do that and you go and do it anyways.

People don’t realize that. Like that’s discipline. Like if you had no discipline, you just wouldn’t get out of bed. It totally gets, it’s one of those like Navy SEAL words where you just think the big buff guy that’s yelling at you to eat a salad instead of whatever. It’s no discipline.

I’ve started using the term I to my life and then the bad things fall away. I’m done subtracting out of my life. And I think it’s that same sort of mindset shift of if you think of discipline as a negative thing, it will be. But if you think of it as this positive thing, this thing that serves you and the person you want to be, not living necessarily for the here and now, but for the person that you hope to be at some point, that’s discipline. Beautiful.

That’s wonderful. Yeah. I look at it as it creates a healthy structure to our lives, like having to go down and feed the horses or do these daily things that can seem mundane really are key components in our life and something that I strive to do as a yogini. A yogini means a woman. Dedicated tradition was people are familiar with the term Yogi, but something that I tried to do is to bring sacredness to the mundane.

So it’s like that chop would carry water principle, right? Like feeding the horses, being reverent. I’m getting to take care of these other sentient beings. I’m getting to have the joy of having horses in my life. Reframing some of those, oh, I have to do this too, I get to do this can make a big difference.

And I think that healthy structure, if we can use that as an opportunity to be present, I think those chores or disciplines that we have to do can take on a new light and a new meaning. I also want to tap on to as something you said sparked this thought. Sometimes you said something about adding to your life. And I think it’s important to to recognize like, what is no longer serving us? What else can we let go of?

What are the energy drains? Maybe we let go with some of the people who create drama in our lives. Self-care looks like saying no to something, not overextending ourselves. So what are the things we can let go of to create and bring about that more healthy balance to our body, mind and spirit? I think we live in a comparison society with social media that it’s easy to see the things that other people want you to see that they have.

And it’s easy to go, I don’t have this or I have to do this and I don’t get to do this. It’s, for lack of a better word, like you have chosen this life and you can choose to live a different life, but you should know what it is you’re choosing, right? Because you’re only choosing this good thing that you see on social media versus choosing the good thing that is within you. And I think so many people, my goal of this podcast is really to develop intuition for riders because so many times riders will see something happening at a horse show or whatever and it doesn’t make them feel good, but they won’t voice it because of where it’s so made. Be like, don’t say what you think.

Don’t say what this is a traditional sport. You just do it this way. And I think more and more people need to understand that, oh, you have so much power just as a human being. Like you have so much power. Right.

And what do you want to do with that power? Where do you want to direct that? Do you want to use that power to be ego and task oriented? Or do you want to use that power to honor your truth? I think that’s important.

And you talked about intuition. That’s another big subject for me because learning to listen to our inner voice is paramount, not just in horsemanship, but in everything. What serves us, what doesn’t serve us. Listening to those inner inklings, those inner whispers, and sometimes they’re not, they’re louder than whispers, but learning to listen to those and to honor those. And when we’re always caught up again, the circles back to the non doing, when we’re always caught up in the busyness, the doing, the achieving and the accomplishing.

There’s so much noise, internal and external noise that we can’t even listen to our inner voice. That’s for another beautiful part about meditation practice of just taking some time to quiet that noise and allow that inner wisdom to bubble up. Allow yourself the space to to hear it, to listen to it, to see it. And I also always say inner voice speaks to us in a variety of ways. It can be a thought, it can be a vision, it can be a word, it can be something someone says, it can be something you read that sparks that inner knowing about something.

And I think learning to listen to that is important. We’ve become such a busy and distracted and almost numb society that we don’t really stop long enough to really listen inwardly. What do we need to create balance? What do we need to do more of? What do we want to let go of?

I think inner wisdom can come into play in so many wonderful areas of our lives. Yeah, for sure, this has been. Thank you so much for joining me. How do people find you? Follow along with what you do.

Yes, thanks. So Kathy with AC Kathy Woods Yoga is really where you can find me on Instagram, Facebook, as well as YouTube. And my book Yoga for Writers is available on many platforms. If you go on my website, kathywithyoga.com, it has links to all of that and I have a lot of other resources on there too. I have a product called In the Moment, which is an downloadable audio series for equestrians and they’re like 5 to 10 minutes.

So it’s literally like having a coach or a meditation or breath or I. In your earbuds to breathing through breathing with your horse or symmetry in the saddle, notching down nervous energy. So all those are on my website. I also want to mention I’m writing a new book that’s just about to get submitted is called Riding through Change. And I’m very excited because it addresses not just age-related changes, but changes in the equine industry, changes with our horses.

So change of all sorts. So that’s coming out in spring of 2026. I do a retreat called Ageless Riding, typically a ranch in Georgia, in Arizona. I do embrace your cowgirl spirit every year. So lots of different retreats and even one day clinic.

So lots to offer, lots of ways to support equestrians and their Wellness. And really, if you just jump on Kathy with yoga.com, you’ll find it. So that was a long answer to how to find me. But thank you for letting me plug all those things. Awesome.

Yeah, sounds exciting. Yes, Samantha, great to meet you. I love what you’re doing. I love your passion, your enthusiasm, and Many thanks for having me as a guest. Oh, thank you for joining me.