Equine Voices Podcast
Equine Voices Podcast
Interview with Dr Sam Fielding - www.drsamfielding.com
Interview with Dr Sam Fielding - www.drsamfielding.com
I'm very pleased to announce an interview with Dr Sam Fielding.
This was our second conversation and I was so I'm looking forwards to hearing about her new ventures (her new horse) and what she has been up to since we last spoke.
Sam is a lovely warm, open person who has discovered a different way of being in this world and the great thing is, she is able to help other people do the same and who knows, they may even achieve their dreams too.
So sit back, relax and I hope you enjoy this episode.
Dr Sam Fielding.
Dr Sam is an Ivy league educated Dr of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. Growing up in a family of orthopaedic surgeons, she found her way to acupuncture, through her life long passion for horses.
Growing up in Maryland, Sam rode hunters, jumpers, and event horses as well as worked professionally for steeplechase and timber racehorse trainers. All she wanted to do was to ride professionally, but with zero support from her family in a career as a pro rider, she chose to go to vet school instead.
As life will do, she quickly realised that being a vet wasn’t the life for her, and began a decades long journey of “following the crumbs” to a life that she could never have imagined.
From a horse obsessed kid straight out of college, to a becoming a professional skier in 5 years from a pretty mediocre beginner, the love of the amazing rides she chased in her youth, became a life filled with following her bliss, in whatever life provided. And that meant over two decades away from horses full time.
After a debilitating struggle with PPD, after the birth of her first daughter, struggling from suicide, she found her way back to a life she thought she’d never experience again with the help of horses.
It has become her life’s work to share her understanding of how we shape the worlds we live in through the power of our minds. And firmly believes that all lovers of horses share a unique gift in our connection to horses. She shares her perspective on the power of our connection to horses and it's purpose to help us heal as individual humans, and from there expand our compassion to help heal not only our communities, but also heal the world.
“It all starts with each of us, in our own minds - Dr Sam
https://www.drsamfielding.com
https://www.facebook.com/Drsamfielding
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Contact Ronnie.
mailto:equinevoicesronnie@gmail.com
Hi, and welcome to equine Voices. My name is Ronnie and I'm your host for today's interview. I am so pleased that we have Dr. Sam Fielding back for a chat, and she's going to update us on what she's been doing since we last spoke together, which is about six months ago. She can introduce herself and explain a little about what she's done in the past and what she's doing now, but I can give you a brief introduction. She's a doctor of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. She rode Hunters Jumpers and she attended vet school, but she shortly found out that that wasn't for her so she can explain all about that and what made her change her direction and she was also a professional skier, how exciting is that? A lady of many talents. So I shall bring her in and we shall have a nice little chat. Hi sam.
Sam:Hello. Nice to see you again.
Ronnie:Oh, you too I'm so excited that you've come back. Yes would you like to go ahead and introduce yourself in your words?
Sam:Sure so yes, my professional background is as a doctor of acupuncture for humans. Growing up I actually wanted to ride professionally, but that got zero support. So I kind of tried to meet in the middle ground with my family of physicians and said, well, maybe I'll go be a vet. But as life will do, that wasn't really the path for me. I landed in the University of Pennsylvania and I said, Nope I can't stay here any longer. So you know, it was, it was interesting because I think up until that point, I had very much believed that I was going to set my mind to do what I wanted to do, create this life for myself and that was the first time I really realized, no, you know you may have a plan in mind, but you could either fight against what your real plan is or you can try and make your personal plan work and I didn't, I didn't fight it, so I kind of rode the next part of my adventure, which led me away from the horses for a while and took me to the mountains out west and As you mentioned, I ended up going from really not having skied at all to becoming a pro skier in a very short amount of time. In less than five years I was doing that. And it was a really important time in my life to kind of discover a lot of the, the work that I currently do with clients. So outside of my acupuncture practice, I had always, you know, a lifelong rider. And I got to a point where I really knew I needed to get back into riding. I knew it was not I was missing something from my life at that point I had moved back east, so I really didn't have the skiing at the level I had done out west and internationally. And I really personally wanted to bring the horses back into my world. But then again, the next big shift in my life came when professionally I was trying to balance as many people do. How do I ride personally? How do I achieve my personal riding ambition, work enough to support all of the things that I wanna do in with my riding and my horses? And at that point in my life, I met a really amazing mentor who showed me, you know, there's no way for you to separate your worlds like this. This is not something that's going to be sustainable for you. It has to be one thing. And from that was born the work that I do with my clients now as a mindset coach, really for equestrians. I personally love working with the competitive equestrians because of my experience with the skiing and with riding and other sports that I've done because I personally love that, that moment of competition and realizing, you know, what, what is it that separates the people that are really able to excel in that environment from the others that aren't. And for me has led me on this amazing journey of my own personal healing, my own discovery and growth as I continue to, to work and share what I understand about how we as writers have a really powerful influence over our success, through our, our mindset. And as we were talking a little briefly before we got on that I do talk a lot about spirituality with my writers now, and I think that's probably the biggest shift since we last spoke. Is that I'm just much more clear and direct about what level of work I'm doing with my clients. What is it that I'm teaching that's different than what sports psychologists might speak about, or therapists or other people that have helped folks with issues around anxiety or performance or just being able to manage their nerves. So it's, it's been a really amazing journey. It's hard to believe that it's been six months.
Ronnie:Yeah, sometimes it feels like not long ago and then it seems like ages ago. Can you explain just a little more about what spirituality means to you? Because some people might think it's something that you do when you are meditating or you do that and then you do your day stuff. What does it mean to you and how do you incorporate that in your day-to-day, in your day-to-day world? Yeah,
Sam:I think that's a really good question and it's super relevant to what I do with my clients because I think one of the things I've heard the most is that what I, people will often say, oh, I listen to several of the podcasts that you've been on, and something you said resonated with me. And to me that resonance is is a part of our spirituality. We have that ability to. Connect with things on a really powerful level. I believe that for many, many horse people, we have an affinity for horses for a reason That goes beyond just, you know, other people can appreciate the beauty of horses, but don't have this lifelong obsession or focus of their whole lives around horses like horse people do. And it's very hard for non horse people to understand it but for us it's kind of you know, it's not anything that could ever be taken out of you. And I think that initially I was more comfortable with that part of what I would consider to be being more spiritual or being more open and connected energetically with another being truly For me, the horses were the first place that I really ever felt safe to explore what that is, what that connection is, or that feeling of safety or feeling of wholeness that I think a lot of people have when we're with the horses. For me, it was very much that the horses were kind of a haven. It's a safe place, a place where I felt comfortable to be myself. I felt safe in a way that I didn't have that support in my home. And I know a lot of riders that I talk to have a very similar story. So for the horses, for me are kind of our first bridge into that conversation. It was definitely my experience that way. I personally grew up in a fairly religious household and that actually became a, a really big point of contention actually. And so for many, many years because my father he was extremely religious, but. It was more the, the show, you know, go to church, show up, do your thing. But how he lived, how he treated us growing up, it had no semblance to what I thought the church was teaching. So for me, that really made it hard for me to identify with anything religious. For years, I, I struggled with anything related to God church. My brother got married in the Catholic church and I remember saying to him, I cannot believe you're getting married into church. Like, how, how can you be okay with this after how we grew up? But he had reconciled that piece at that point in his life. And I still hadn't, and it really hasn't been until very recently that for me, the, the word God or religion doesn't have that same kind of, oh, that's not me. I've really, we, you know, as you mentioned, we were talking about how. For many of us, we have an understanding of spirituality, but what we call it, how we refer to it, is very different. And I think that as individuals it's important to be open to the evolution of that. You know, for myself, I never, if you had asked the 20 year old version of me, would I feel comfortable speaking about God and my connection to source, I would've said no. Nature animals, yes, I can see my connection to that, but as life will do, this kind of journey that I've been taken on has asked me to look more closely at that, really learn about what that is and spirituality, how does it actually play a role in my life? And it's a bit like my journey professionally where I felt like, okay, I, I'll compartmentalize. It's actually interesting, I talked to quite a few writers and they, they say, you know, I, I had my life compartmentalized and it worked. There was work me and then there was riding me and then there was mom, me. And it's kind of fallen apart and it's just chaos. And rather than seeing that as a bad thing for me, I say, oh, well that's great. That's kind of an evolution of you understanding. There really is no com compartmentalizing any of it. And it takes a, I find for myself, it certainly took a deeper level of spirituality and what I consider to be kind of like energetic alignment with myself. So the spirituality piece, you asked, you know, what does it look like? I definitely have a very consistent practice now that I've committed to, and it wasn't always that way. It took me a while to really actually integrate it without fighting it. You know, I, I tried because I, I heard that I should do this and that I. Could get benefit from it. But then I would struggle with the regular challenges that people face of getting up early, finding the time and making excuses for why I didn't want to do it, or I should sleep a half hour more. And I played that game enough to see the difference of what is my day feel like when I do ha wake up intentionally meditate, do my spiritual practices kind of reconnect and take the time for myself in the morning versus just get up and go. It's light years different, not just in the day-to-day experience, but then what things unfold in my life professionally as a rider with my family. So at this point, I've really been much more consistent. Even then when we spoke last time, I think it's, it's been a much more fluid kind of. Integration into my everyday life and it, there, there is a very intentional time where I sit down and kind of focus what I consider to be my energy, get my thinking and my mind aligned to what I want to create in my life and my day, who I want to interact with. And the trick for me is, can I carry that over? You know, you asked is it something that you do and is it an isolated part of your day or is it something that is, encompasses other things? That's the goal for me at this point, is to try and integrate that. Once I kind of align myself to that frequency, that does feel whole, that does feel loving, that does feel positive and really excited and hopeful about my day, my life, everything that I'm working on. Then the trick is, can I carry that over as life is? Throwing all the things at me. So it's become a much more central part of my day-to-day. I think before I understood the value of it, but I, I didn't fully appreciate and have a place for it in my life like I do now.
Ronnie:Agree totally I can resonate with you So meditation is a funny word again it's one of those words like religious night, you know God and whatever you wanna call it. But to me, meditation is just checking in with yourself, you could say I'm just checking in with myself. Sometimes the words we use have an impact by where the words originate from or what meaning we put with the words. You know, like, God, if you're brought up religious, you were made to go to Sunday school, you made to go to church. I sort of rebelled a little bit against that and I still now I don't mind saying that, but when I say that it has an old heavy feeling. Mm. It's weird and I know it's just the word, but it's the energy behind the word, what it means for me. Yeah. But meditating, like just poop picking in the field or just going for a walk or letting your mind just wonder that could be a meditated state. Absolutely. So checking in for me, as soon as I sit in my car, I'm checking in. Now, it doesn't mean to say I get it right and I'm doing it as I should be, but I'm constantly trying to work with myself and seeing how I feel. What's coming through. And if I find that my mind's distracted by lots of things it doesn't need to be, I put a podcast on just to take me back somewhere else. And then if I'm at work, if I'm doing something, you get drawn into the day, but when I stop, I think, oh, okay, where's this coming from? If my moods changing or if I'm, if I'm judging, you know, sometimes somebody will walk past and just comes in and you think, where's that coming from? So I'm much more aware of my thoughts. Yes. And what comes through with that. So if you do that, Quite a lot if you pay attention to yourself. When you stop doing that, you notice it's like, it's like when you spend time with horses. If you just spend time with them doing nothing but you be with them, there's a different feel and they wanna be with you. They don't necessarily do anything major, but you can tell they wanna be with you or even if they look at you from the bottom of the field there's more of a connection. Now if you get into the busy mode and you haven't done that for a few weeks, You notice it, so you notice when it's not there. So there's not a huge transformation on the outside but you notice there feels different. Yeah. That's how I describe when you start to meditate or start to pay attention to you or check in with you and the more you do that, the more you notice when you're not in it.
Sam:Yep. I agree. I agree. I think that I definitely had a similar experience as you with, you know, formal religion and church and it's amazing to me to actually get to the point where I can, I can speak about that without having that same kind of residue of the old experience as you were talking about and I truly would never have imagined that I would've arrived there. But I'm grateful to say that I am there because it's a much lighter experience. I don't, I think that that. That past experience that I had, I colored my world so much. But what was really important for me to realize is that that was a very significant experience in my life like it literally divided our family. My parents are no longer together and it all came undone around my father's basically obsession with religion and the church and having to go and do all of the formal things. So I really couldn't have imagined getting to the place where I didn't have that edge in my mind, even just hearing the word or having someone identify as being Christian or Catholic. But now it's a bit like the shift you're speaking of in meditation now that that has gone out of my life, there's a new level of acceptance and openness that makes it so I don't. You know, unintentionally we are creating these barriers with people that we know nothing about. We know nothing about their experience or where they are in this moment, but our past will create that and I can feel that now without that piece, kind of clouding my experience. And those are some of the energetic blocks that I talk about when I work with my clients, that it creates a disconnection so that rather than feeling that connection that the horses put us back into, we are inadvertently disconnecting, disconnecting, disconnecting. So for me, the. You know, being able to have that level of new openness and connection with people in my, my day-to-day life, strangers, the people that I do know is amazing. It's, it's kind of liberating, but it, it does shine light on the fact that that very shift that you're talking about, that you almost don't know until you change the context or you change and you think, well, this does feel different. That's exactly what the body of my work is about. And I've learned enough to know that, well, if I'm gonna teach people truly, how do you actually intentionally shift those states? Because the, the way we feel with the horses is not because they create that, it's because we allow it. They are always available there in that state. It's how open and how resistance free are we to feel and connect. So when I teach. My clients and when I speak to them about their energy, how, if you wanna learn how to create that state, there really was no way for me to separate the, the talking about the spiritual piece. Because when we are doing that as individuals, if you wanna learn how to do that out of the context of horses so you can experience that anywhere in your life, the first place you have to feel that connection is with us. And that is the kind of whole conversation about spirituality. So whether you're calling it, you know, whether you're Christian or you're Hindu or you're Buddhist, or you're Muslim or you're Jewish whatever formalized religion you are, or philosophy you've kind of approached it from, we're all talking about the same thing. You know, it's just different human experiences and the language we put to it makes it slightly different. But for some people, Hearing it from the Buddhist vein makes it a lot more, you know, digestible or something that they can integrate and comprehend. For other people, it may be through Judaism or Christianity, and I think that it's really unfortunate that we, we aren't allowing ourselves to get past that personal, individual energetic barrier. That feeling of ugh. Like the, the heaviness that we're talking about. Because it keeps you from being able to see the connection.
Ronnie:Yeah. Absolutely. What do you think is the biggest So for me, if I say it this way then you might understand what I'm trying to ask. For me, the biggest thing is if something's going on I don't look outside. Hmm. I don't look at what's going around me. Although that has an influence and that has the trigger sometimes. I go back to me and say, okay what's it showing me? What am I scared of? What am I worried about? You know silly things like what will people say, what will they think of me? And you know that's not the true essence of you. Cuz the true essence of you loves you. You love you, your pure. There's nothing to be scared of, there's nothing to be afraid of. You are your own judge and jury, but it's a human mind that does that. So for me, the biggest thing is always going back to you and you might react, oh, for God's sake, why did that car cut me off? And then you are like, okay and you go back to you. And I think for me, the biggest changer and the biggest thing that you can acknowledge because that is when you start to make changes mm. If you are always blaming somebody else, doesn't mean to say they don't have an impact. And it's harder if you are in a relationship or you've got lots of people around you. There's lots of other energies around you, lots of other, yeah. Humans that have got their view. I'm lucky that I've been on my own for quite a while so I can spend time, hours just, too much sometimes I'm too much just going over things in my head. Yeah, it's just dealing with stuff yourself and acknowledging that it's you. What is it about you? What is coming up and starting there rather than anybody else. Does that make sense? And I've forgotten what I was gonna ask you now. I think it was a similar thing, what is it for you?
Sam:Well, I think that, I do agree completely with that. What I find though, and I found in my own experience when I really started to contemplate like, how do we change these patterns? You know, and the relevance this has to the work I do with riders is that when we ride. Regardless of how long you've ridden or how competent you are, there's always a level of fear. We always know that there may be something that happens. We're riding horses is another being. We are never 100% in control. So there's always an element of, okay, this is not necessarily the safest thing I could be doing. Even when you're really talented and you trust your horse our minds know that we are not in a completely safe situation. So the thing that I think is really interesting is that whether that fear comes from a physical thing, you know, whether you're truly at risk of being injured, which we are when we ride, or the threat is more psychological. You feel threatened for your safety because you feel uncomfortable around a person, or our past experiences were traumatic. Those in our mind are so similar. You know, we don't have the sensitivity or awareness to fully separate what that experience feels like in our brain. So it very much fires a similar pattern in response. So what I was, you know, when I think about what you're asking, like, is that similar to what you do to bring it back For me, 100% yes. In the physical space, it wasn't as intimidating for me as with the, like, the psychological piece. And what I found was that, you know, as your, your example of the car, like if someone cuts you off, if you're not mindful and if you aren't really in a state of trying to bring it back to yourself, it's very easy to be off 10 miles down the road having this, you know, conversation in your head with yourself about why that happened and how whatever you wanna judge about the other person. And we don't ever really stop to contemplate like, wait, I don't even have to be engaging with this at all. And even with something that's small, people will get carried away. I used to play a game with myself and kind of catch myself thinking about something so random as I was being driven around in the car as a kid. And I would ask myself, how in the world did I get to here in my mind, into the thought that I was thinking? And I would backtrack it and go back and back and back. And it was so absurd and amusing to see the jumps and go from, okay, well now I'm thinking about Christmas. And I had been thinking about, I wonder what dinner is, you know, six or seven thoughts back and that when I was a child, that was my first. Time, I really had awareness of, man, our minds are just all over the place. Like it's mind boggling how quickly it jumps, and it can be completely irrational. But the, the jumps that we take when we are triggered, you know, we're, there's something that intimidates us or, you know, when you get cut off in the car, there is a little, oh my gosh, I almost got in an accident. Or that could have been bad. Those moments I find to be very difficult for people to catch themselves. It was certainly that case for me before I really started to understand this work. You know, anything emotionally charged, it was, I was way too far down the road energetically, emotionally in my thinking to, to reel it back to me. I was already in fight mode or I was defensive and it really, you know, you. You think, God, it would take me a long time to get there. It doesn't. It's seconds. We're really quick to respond in triggered ways. So I do now as much as I can, as much as I can, keep my awareness to that, try and bring it back to myself and do as you were saying, explore some of those questions of why am I really feeling this way? But I think it really still comes back to the original conversation we were having with the shift that we feel in meditation or when you take the time to put yourself into that kind of state, whether it's in some kind of repetitive action like picking stalls or running or walking, driving the car, people tend to access that state much more easily because we are engaged enough doing something else that our mind isn't. You know, there's less resistance there, so you are receiving more as opposed to creating some storyline in your head. But to have the awareness of where, what's the difference between storyline in your head that's totally fabricated because you were triggered versus what's helpful information coming in versus what's random thoughts because your mind is just busy bouncing around. It's very difficult for people to ascertain which one's which, like what's the useful information up there. But I do agree, I think that a lot of it, if you can actually catch yourself in those moments and have an awareness of this is not me speaking anymore and truly know what me versus what not me is, then that is the time where we can really make. Changes. That's, to me, the only time is in that small moment. You can't do it when you're, you know, really, really worked up. Or people wonder why I have so many people that come to me that say, you know, I've worked with sports psychologists and it doesn't work for me. And it's not that what sports psychologists teach is wrong by any stretch of the imagination. The techniques and the tools work, it's really difficult for some people because energetically they're at this level at a horse show. Well, you need to practice it when you're like this, if you think you're ever gonna do it when you're at 11. So it's not that the techniques don't work, it's that we need to get greater facility with working with the energy when it's manageable. But the challenge there is that at that point, it's almost imperceptible to most people.
Ronnie:Yeah. I suppose you could say, to put it simply but I'm not sure this is the right analogy. It's like baking a cake you can have two people bake a cake with the same ingredients, the same amount, and they can bake a cake and it can come out and taste differently. Because it's the awareness, the feel. And sometimes well somebody might mix a cake and they put lots of love and feel into it, and they have a feel for the consistency of the cake. Can you tell I like cake. I love cake. I'm sorry I'm not apologizing. But you know, you can have two people, make cake and it's different it tastes different. So going back to the car thing, if that happened, I would question myself but I wouldn't keep asking. Asking, yeah. I'd ask and then I'd just be aware of how my feel is. And then if it calmed down and there was nothing there, it'd be okay it's nothing really. But if there was a feel of anxious or anxiety with that, I'd know something's surfacing or something's ready to be seen. Yeah. And to go like a bubble in a bottle. Yeah. They come up to the surface and then they just float off. Yeah. That's my analogy.
Sam:It makes sense to me. I think that sometimes we have expectations that, I think our, we're not expectations, but maybe we hold ourselves to these standards that I think are not realistic. I think that people want to live lives. I, I truly believe that everybody wants to be happy, there's nobody here that doesn't want to be happy, but there are many people who have life circumstances that have made it difficult for them to get back to being happy. We don't come onto the planet unhappy. I mean, babies come onto the planet happy, they're whole. They may not be super verbal or independent, but they're happy creatures and I think that for some people, we believe that we should go through life and be happy without having struggle without feeling the range of emotion you know, not be wronged by people, whether it's in school or work or family. And I just think that's impossible. It wouldn't be life. We need those experiences are part of the human process in my opinion. And I think that there's an expectation that there's something wrong with me when I have these things, when I have, as you say, the little bubbles of the things that come to the surface that need to be looked at. I truly used to think that, okay, well I've got to be completely screwed up from this childhood. There's no way that growing up with that amount of anxiety and pressure that I'll be able to. And hide this because I thought that that was what was expected. You know, don't acknowledge all of this stuff that was difficult. Just carry on, just shove it down there and just keep going. But you can't, you can't shove it down there because it does bubble up and the bubbling up if you don't know what to do with it, is overwhelming. But if you have a sense, as you're saying, of recognizing that when that anxiety comes, that is this real, is this something, or is it me just a momentary blip that fades? Or is it something that's asking to be looked at? That's, I think, a really unique thing that I want more people to understand that you and I can appreciate that for a lot of people, that's not something they want to experience. They, they want to go through life. And wipe those out completely. But you can't wipe them out completely, nor would you want to because as you go and you address these things for me, those, when we shove those things down, we create these energetic barriers. You have these restrictions. I see it in people's bodies. I can feel it when I work on them in acupuncture. And you can feel it when we connect and communicate when we are doing the the work to discover what is that bubble about and is there truth to that or can I let that bubble go? And almost always, it's something you can let go or rectify. Then you actually open yourself up energetically to feeling more, to being able to receive more, to hear more clearly, to distinguish what's the useful information or not. And as writers being able to feel more is. Essential. You know, if everybody, it's funny because I think I mentioned this last time that I spoke to someone about what I do with my clients and she said, well, can you teach people to ride, you know, and develop feel? And I said, yes. That's the essence of what I'm talking about. Because the only reason you don't feel is because you are disconnected. But when you're energetically connected, it's like you're feeling what's happening in your body. You're connected in an extension with your horse. Your mind isn't thinking about something that's outside of your physical experience. You're very much there. That's why people love riding, because even when you are not very feeling and connected, you get to, to have a taste of that experience and they get addicted to it. The the fun part is that when people come and they wanna fix their riding because they want more of that, that connected feeling that, really the sensation of all of my troubles are gone and I'm just there with my horse. You get more of that everywhere when you start to do this work to ask yourself, how do I deal with these bubbles?
Ronnie:Yeah it's not just the benefits for the horse and human element it's across the board.
Sam:Yeah you know, speaking about the spirituality piece, I truly believe that why some of us are horse people is because that is our spiritual path. I mean, I don't know how it is in the uk, but I certainly know that there are quite a few horse people that I know that say they like horses better than people. Yes. I hear that a lot and I say, well, maybe now, but maybe not later. You know the whole point is that that horse is showing you, there's a part of you as a human that still feels that level of connection. And I find the challenges or the roadblocks that people face in their riding to be a huge gift because the people that are really committed to learning how to ride better and solve that are the ones that certainly in the work I do with them, then it opens up, how do you actually do that everywhere else? You know the why, just experience it in one isolated place when it's available to you everywhere.
Ronnie:And it naturally happens, it naturally filters into the other parts of your life and then people will say my friends have noticed something different about me or there's something different, or I'm different with my friends. And that's when they become even more aware of their own energy and their own being. So if somebody comes to see you, so you have like a client, how do you go through your work with them? What is it you do with your clients?
Sam:So, because I tend to focus with competitive riders, there's often a hurdle that they're experiencing when they go into compete or whether it's a struggle they're facing at home that's kind of keeping them from being able to, because some of them are professionals, but some of them are you know, amateurs with ambition that they, that would like to achieve. And the first thing for each client that I work with is the process is very unique to them. So we have to identify, well, what are the limiting beliefs that are really creating this pattern of behavior? So it's kind of a twofold process. The first piece I like to do with them is to help them uncover, you know, when you're in that triggered state or high pressured state of showing, or you're feeling the pressure of a client or whatever, the context of that particular person's struggle is as I said, our minds are so amazing. That when you're in that stressful situation, your mind is already looking for the shortcut. Let me give you the hack to getting outta here. However, a lot of times that automatic subconscious response is not helpful. So they're off on a path that's no longer keeping them connected, no longer allowing them to stay present. They're half in their mind and half here in the moment and not doing either well, so I help them with hypnosis work. So the type of hypnosis that I do is very powerful. It's a really amazing piece that I think is why the work I do with clients tends to be so effective. That's a powerful influencer in their experience, how they feel. The number one thing people say to me after that is, I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Because it's almost like, gosh, I can let go of that thing that I, I knew wasn't serving me, but I never knew how to put down. So we go in there and we upgrade that literally on the level of the subconscious mind. But because most of those things have been so long standing in their minds, I have to show them, okay, your mind is really brilliant. And if I don't teach you and put you into a better pattern of behavior to create a new response, because another trigger will come and your brain is going to wanna take the old path, it's not gone you're actively creating a new one. So over time, with repetition and consistency, you make a new path. And the new path is all around what we're talking about. If you want to get to the place where you have that connection, for me, the first place is that they need to understand how do they find that energetic alignment to their own level, the own internal guidance, because that's the only stable thing we ever have in our experience. All of the context around us will continue to change. So you can't chase the context. You have to find the stability internally. So the second process, the second part really is truly teaching them how to integrate these simple practices into their day-to-day experience so that they're in, they're the ones intentionally creating the energy, they're the ones developing the awareness to be able to discern what information is useful for me, how do I follow the path that's gonna bring me to greater joy with less resistance. We were talking before I got on the call about The trainer that I'm working with, that I've since moved to in the time that we spoke and that partnership is something that I knew what I wanted in my mind, what I wanted to work with it would level, you know, everything about that experience and she literally came into my world. I could never have orchestrated that but when you live in a way that's energetically aligned, those are the opportunities that show up on your doorstep. And being able to show people that we are actively involved in that process. And when you do it, to me, it makes life a bit more like a game. It puts the fun back into the things, takes away the necessity to control. And to orchestrate. And it gives you the ability to really trust because that confidence that we need as riders to be able to go in and sit on this, you know, 1500 pound animal or more, and trust that it's gonna be fine, that's a very deep level of trust. It doesn't come from just good results or someone telling you you're good. You have to feel that and that's something that people can truly develop but it, it's a process of getting yourself to the place where you understand who you are. What is this whole journey about? What is the point and how do you do it in a way that it's always win, win. You know, I'm not about making things more complicated. I want to simplify things. I want to enjoy things. And that's really the core of the work and the place where I want my clients to be at the end of this. And it's amazing because a lot of people say well you talk a lot about winning and then winning isn't that important. And no winning isn't important, but there's no problem in holding a high standard for yourself but to me, winning is when you can keep yourself aligned and really start to see and appreciate what life has in all the little moments and the cumulative effect of walking that walk over time. Putting the diligent, you know, the training, the effort into our riding, when you show up at the show, that's just gravy that's the fun. And getting to win is like, that's just an extra cherry on top, but it comes much more easily because we're not resisting the whole thing along the way. And there's the win-win. So the process of getting there is satisfying. Being there is satisfying. The results, however they shake out are satisfying. But to be truly in that place, it comes from having a very specific mindset that's grounded in something much bigger than winning. You know really, it isn't about winning as much as I talk about the fact that my clients win so easily. A lot of people get that mixed up thinking that I'm just about teaching people how to win. I can't teach people how to win, but I can certainly make it so that circumstance is much more likely to appear.
Ronnie:It's the old cliche. It's not the destination, it's the journey, but it can be the destination because as you just said, If you win, how you got there, you can see that and you can feel that and that's the extra like, oh, I get that now I understand that and then you win that win has an added bonus because of what you've understood, what you've felt as you've gone through that experience. Yeah. I know last time we spoke, you were talking about trying to or you was going to be having a group session with people that's what you wanted to do. Is that still on the cards, is that something you've done?
Sam:So I do work with clients in a group in my coaching. I haven't done any live experiences. Since we spoke I've been really more focusing on how can I make this more available to a broader audience. The clients that I work with one-on-one, it's not something that everybody can do. I certainly have a limited number of people that I can work with at the level that I want to show up for them. So I spent a lot of the time since we spoke in figuring out, okay, well how can I make what I do more ef as effective for someone that's going to be working on it on their own? What are the pieces I need to do to explain it so that they can really feel that shift too? So I created a whole new body of work that I took from the, the things that I found that were most beneficial for people from the different programs that I had created in the past. And I really tried to make it as digestible as possible. Something that I knew people could be consistent with and find the benefit with, and stick to it because of the changes that they were feeling. And really, as I said before, being much more direct about the fact that this isn't just about the winning. This is more about, of course, I want people to ride better I want them to get where they want to be but it also comes with the clients that work with me that get the greatest results are also at the point in their life where they understand this is more than just riding this is more than just this dream I've had as a kid that won't go away. That dream has a relevance and a purpose and the purpose is not just so you tick the thing off. It's part of your life journey that's saying, you know, it's not just the, what is it? That's not the destination, it's the journey. Yeah. You know, people hear that and they say that and they're like, yeah, yeah, it makes sense. But it's the same difference as talking about winter. And thinking about like, yeah, winter's cold. It's kind of miserable. And actually having to be out there in the cold that there's a very different experience. You can't think in your mind and take yourself back to that full fullness of actually living cold. And you know, hearing a phrase like that is like just thinking it and having someone say it and you have it in your memory versus actually going through your life and realizing, I get what that phrase is about. Yeah. This journey, the day to day, the moment to moment is as exciting to me as if I had arrived at some amazing experience winning the Olympics, or you know, winning or for a lot of people riding at the level they want. Jumping in a Grand Prix. The thing that is so interesting to me is that. People, we are so quick to ascribe that amazing feeling to when I arrive somewhere, if I just had that thing, then I'll feel, but the reality is it would not feel amazing if someone plopped you tomorrow into a Grand Prix and you got to write it as if it took you all of those years of work and training to get there. But we want instant gratification, but it doesn't come it, it wouldn't have the same impact. So really getting to the place where you are accepting and wanting to understand, okay, well that actually sounds not so bad. If every day had that kind of impact and wow. To the experience. That I didn't feel the need to achieve that one thing, man, that would take a lot of pressure off of the thing. I would be happy day to day. It's kind of like a no-brainer to me, but it's difficult for people to see that that's a reality. Just as much as it's difficult for people to, you know, if someone is heard about winter and never experienced it, they're just not gonna get it the same way that someone lives somewhere where it's winter for six or seven months of the year.
Ronnie:Yeah the feel for me is, is quite strong. I'm aware that you've only got an hour with me today. So do you wanna talk about your new horse?
Sam:Oh my gosh, he's amazing. It's incredible. You know it came together in a way that was so seamless and just truly one of those unicorn experiences. I personally have been looking for a horse to do jumpers with, I have a young horse who she's great, but she has been not a hundred percent, so I wasn't sure what her situation was gonna be so I decided to go and look with my trainer at some horses, and it's amazing. I don't know if you've ever tried to go horse shopping in Europe but it was like a whirlwind experience. We went in there and they just brought out horses and we were pretty quick about it. I guess not everybody's like this, but we didn't waste much time. Like we got on and we were on for 10, 15 minutes and then we'd switch. So it was. A lot to take in but I do remember when he came in, there were other horses going, some of them kind of had my attention and I noticed him, and then it was kind of like, okay, I'm gonna keep watching the other ones that are going. And then when I watched him go, he caught my eye and I kept watching and watching. And by the time the, the actual person selling the horse, by the time their rider was done before my trainer got on, I was like, I really wanna get on that one. I really hope I get to get on. Because she didn't waste any time if it wasn't appropriate for me. I never even got on. So I was a little like, please look, this wouldn't be appropriate and it was interesting because as much as I was like, this one, when I sat on him, it wasn't the perfect ride. There was this other mayor that I wrote that was like, we clicked but it wasn't the same, there was something that I knew I wanted to uplevel. Even back then, there was a, a part of me that knew, okay, this is not my ride now, but I can learn this. I can figure this out, and if I can get myself back to the place where I'm riding this kind of horse, I know it's gonna elevate my riding back to where I want it to be. It was a similar thing to when I was learning how to ski, I was always thinking about how can I improve? What could I do? And there was a point where I couldn't ski moguls to save my life. And I remember thinking, well, if you're gonna get really good at this, you're gonna have to be able to ski those. And so I said to my trainer, it was like, he's like my moguls. She's like, what are you talking about? I said, well, there was a point in my skiing where I was pretty good, but I knew if I wanted to be really good that I had to be able to just. Ripped down moguls, like they were no big deal. And it took a lot of work and focus to get there. But I knew it and I was right after I had kind of mastered that, the rest felt super easy. So I said to her, he's my horse like that. So when I figure this guy out he's gonna be amazing. And the intention was, go find a horse for you to do some stuff you know, get back in the ring and feel really comfortable and then move up. Maybe we find you another horse at that point. But the thing that's amazing to me with this guy is he's, there's no more move up, he can go as far as I wanna go. And that's just exciting to me because for me the horse kind of relationship part, they become like my family for me. So, as much as I have my ambition as a rider, I don't necessarily want to have a horse and have it take me to level and then it go away and not be a part of my life. I would like for it to be in my family and be in that journey with me. So it's even more exciting for me to think, you know, this horse is gonna live the rest of his life out with me, God willing, and we'll get to go and explore all kinds of things together. And it's, it's, each piece has fallen into place in a way that it was a little bit like, I'm trusting this is the thing, because we did it so quickly, I really didn't even get a sense of his personality. The German horses are very professional. These are young horses, and they come in and it's a little bit hard for an American rider myself to get a read on their personalities because they're so, like, I come in, I do my job, and I'm, I'm gone. So before I came, I said to my trainer, I'm like, I hope we click, like, I really hope he is who I think he is. And she was like, he is, he's exactly who you want because I love the, the sweet cuddly horses. Like the, the serious kind of standoffish ones. They are not as fun for me. I, I like to go and kind of get to know who they are and interact and he has hit all the marks. He is just the loveliest creature and energetically we have an amazing body worker. And she said to me after I said, will you work on him. There's nothing wrong with the way I work is I keep everything working. I'm a preventative person, you know, ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So I asked her to kind of just, just get familiar with him. We're gonna keep him getting body work and feeling comfortable. And she said, man, That horse's energy. She said he just has this presence about him, like he's an old soul. And that is a super accurate description, but he is also very funny. He's got a, you know, a kind of sweet, funny personality and just, he's been a pleasure to have. And it's a good reminder to me, like you can't go into an experience with a preconceived notion. He's giant. I don't even know how big he's, I've never sticked him. He's probably at least 17 hands. I usually go for the tiny little horses. I like these nimble, sporty, kind of catty horses. He's not, he's a giant big moving gray. Like everything that I probably said a no I would not do. But when it clicks, it clicks and all the other stuff becomes irrelevant. Yeah. Like you said, the universe had other plans. Yes, and the more I can embrace, you know, the, what I teach my clients, I live and I walk and I, I love working with them because it elevates my understanding of it. It helps me get a deeper sense of it and stay in it for myself. So the more I do that, the greater this level of trust in the universe and God having the best outcome for me in mind. If I can surrender and release the resistance and just move forward with confidence, staying aligned as much as I can in my human mind. The amazing things just keep coming. And that's what for me is, I mean I used to think I'm just a lucky person. I have really good luck. I always get the parking spot in the front. I win lotteries all the time, but I don't think that that's just luck. I am learning more and more. I really am trying to fight less. I want to allow more and more, and I know that I'm only scratching the surface of my understanding. And that's what makes this so amazing to me, is to think, wow, if I'm doing a small fraction of this well, and this is what I can receive in my life, then I am all in and really experiencing this and committing to this because it's, it's amazing. I mean, The ski experience I thought I had, I thought was that was it, that was the the coolest thing that's gonna happen to me. But what I learned from that time, and I've applied to where I am now and am expanding on and continually learning about, is showing me that that's just the tip of the iceberg of what you can experience. So I'm so committed and passionate about helping other people understand that our lives are meant to be that full and that that rich, it's not meant to be drudgery, it's not meant to be, oh, I wish I could, if you're still here, you can.
Ronnie:Yeah unless you've always been that way, it's something that's not taught. You know it is getting better, but it's not in the mainstream. It's when you get older, when something happens and you have this epiphany, that's when you start to ask questions. Why does it have to be way? Well, I don't think it does and I think that's why these conversations, I know it's based around horse, well, it's not based around horses, but horses are involved for very good reasons. But resistance, that's a good word. Resistance and surrender. It's funny I said that today cuz a few things have happened. That on the outside look like uhoh things, but it's almost making my decision what I've been thinking, but maybe a little bit, Ooh, should I be doing that? Mm-hmm. More like, yes what you gotta lose. So today I was in my car and I goes, okay, I surrender and I was going, even though I said that out loud, I know my body's saying, are you really surrendering? And you're having a conversation with yourself. It's quite funny sometimes, but the resistance, you know, when you are re resisting because you just feel and can be from a small thing to a huge thing. It is like if somebody says to you, how are you? Are you okay? And you go, yeah, I'm fine but the person knows. Or they might have a feeling, but you know that too. Yeah. Yeah words have vibrations and frequencies. And if we pay attention when we say them, we notice that and that's another insight to what's going on. It's been lovely to, I'm conscious that you've got to go soon. It's really been lovely chatting with you, Sam. So where's the easiest place that people can contact you? Which is the easiest for you? Is it email or through Messenger?
Sam:Well, I am on Facebook and Instagram. Instagram is Dr. Sam Fielding. And Facebook is Sam Fielding or Dr. Sam Fielding. I'm kind of both places. But my website has information on how to contact me or more information on if someone's interested in speaking to me about working with me. Then the website is also dr sam fielding.com. So it's pretty easy. And yeah, I'm, I'm always open to chatting with people. I love interacting with people on Facebook and Instagram and people are always welcome to message me or comment and I'm, I'm in there chatting away with people, so I, I would love to chat and engage with people there, and I'm, I'm pretty available.
Ronnie:So you can explain in more detail on how you'd work with them. Yeah, absolutely. Or if they've got any concerns you can shine a bit more light on for them personally. Yes. Thank you so much, Sam, for staying and chatting with us, and good luck with your new horse, sounds so, so exciting. I can feel your excitement and I'm not surprised you've got a horse like that because that's where you are in parts of your life. Would you like to say bye to everybody? Yes.
Sam:Thank you. I love having these chats. It's great to be in the conversation with someone to kind of spark some of the, the thinking that when I'm by myself, it's not the same. So thanks for having me again.
Ronnie:Oh, you're more than welcome, you can come back anytime. Okay. Just bring cake next time. What a lovely lady. She has got so much knowledge and she's so genuine and she's so open and you can see that when she's talking and for more details, please have a look at your website, there's lots more information there. Thank you for listening. Really appreciate your time and any feedback will be greatly appreciated for both Sam and myself. Take care, and bye for now.