Team PracOne of your most powerful tools is your breath. Breathing relaxes your muscles, allowing you to better communicate with your horse through sensitive aids. Holding your breath, on the other hand, prevents your body from oxygenating properly, starting with your extremities—your legs and hands. To remind yourself how important this is, think about what happens in death: You stop breathing and your body stiffens in rigor mortis. That’s a good reason to keep breathing!
Holding your breath also deprives your brain of oxygen, which will either prevent you from thinking at all or cause your mind to race in so many directions that you can’t possibly do everything it’s telling you to do. So keep breathing to keep your brain thinking clearly.