The interview between Emily Kitching and Jim Hicks discusses Jim’s latest book, “Inquiry, Quotes and Thoughts by Jim Hicks,” and reflects on his previous two books.
Order the New Book by 11/22 for Christmas Delivery!
New Book & Support Team
Hicks expresses feeling blessed and honored to have his third book released, crediting his success to a strong support team, including Eclectic Horseman for publishing, Donnette and Kim Stone for their photography, and others for editing. He emphasizes that he provides the thoughts, but it’s the team that brings the books to life.
The Process and Purpose of the Quotes
Hicks explains that his quote writing process evolved from consolidating his thoughts in real-time while writing to achieve more specific answers and be “in the feel and the timing of the ride.”
Audience Response: He realized people loved the quotes he posted online, appreciating the combination of a nice picture and a thought they could process and meditate on, often for an extended period.
Book Utility: He notes that the books are often used as a “coffee table book” or a “meditation book.” He shares a practice from his clinics where participants start the day by picking a random page to be their thought for the day, suggesting that the quote is what that person needs to work through that day, viewing himself as a “mouthpiece for certain messages” from a greater power.
Evolution: Adding “Thoughts”
The motivation for adding “thoughts” alongside the quotes in the new book stemmed directly from clinic participants asking what he meant when he wrote a specific quote.
Hicks explains that the meaning of a quote is always evolving based on his perspective, but the addition of the “thought” provides a baseline or starting point for readers.
He feels the biggest gift is that it allows him to constantly review his own thinking, with horses acting as his “first line of feedback” on what works and what doesn’t.
The goal is to help people “organize their thinking” and narrow complicated ideas down to a single thought that they can consistently review without being overwhelmed.
Teaching Philosophy & Empathy
Hicks’s teaching focuses on helping students overcome feeling overwhelmed by simplifying their approach.
He encourages students to “pick an idea and stick with it long enough to see if it’s gonna work,” emphasizing the need to create a process to verify the idea with their horse.
He uses an analogy of a fly at a picnic table to explain how small, persistent inconvenience (difficult behavior) is the “difficult” part of the philosophy, not physical force. He stresses that true influence comes from “mental muscle,” not physical strength.
Drawing from his personal experience with dyslexia, he developed empathy and compassion for the horse, realizing that riders are often “speaking a foreign language” to the prey animal.
He finds people are often “too busy thinking about the miracle versus feeling the staircase that leads to the miracle.”
He shared a recent clinic experiment where he tied lead ropes to a student’s feet and acted as the reins, allowing them to feel what it was like for a rein to slow or redirect a foot, helping them translate the concept into their body versus just processing it logically.
The ultimate aim is to create a safe learning environment for both horses and humans, reducing the anxiety and fear of making a mistake so that they can operate from a place other than mere self-preservation.
