Being at one with your horse is the most wonderful feeling and when it becomes instinctual you, and everyone else, won’t be able to know if your horse is following you or you are following the horse, whether online, at liberty or riding 🙂
The only way to be totally and truly ‘connected’ with your horse is to be with them in the MOMENT, what I call the ‘NOW’, this is how horses are. To be in the NOW we have to focus on what we’re doing and not thinking of the future (goal oriented), the past (history) or what others may be doing (judgemental). Once we are in the ‘now’ we can work on being harmonious in own bodies so that we can be harmonious together with our horse.
For your horse to trust you, you have to trust your horse. It can take time to accomplish this but working on a daily basis you can gain trust with small things like handling, grooming and ground work and build to ridden work. Progress can be made onto more complex tasks whether that is at liberty, online, riding lateral moves or even riding bareback and bridleless, but without you trusting your horse he will not trust you and that will hinder your progress.