Supe makes friends
CLICK HERE for a link to dressage trainer Karen Rohlf's blog entry called An Assumption of Obligingness.
I came across this entry as it was shared by local dressage trainer Susan Ziereisen. Karen uses the phrase 'training is like teaching calculus to an alien' to introduce a different perspective on how we do what we do with our horses.
I chewed on it for a while, and decided to stretch the metaphor a little further. If the 'alien' is our horse, and dressage is the 'calculus', our alien already knows calculus quite fluently, but we want it to perform on demand, and in English, our own language. Most people don't have a good working knowledge of the calculus, and yet blame, punish and confine the alien to comply.
If we only took a moment more often to recognize the genius of it all, hundreds of years of careful thought and practice, to show us what's possible with these amazing creatures, how could we not feel awe and appreciation? I'm working with a new rider and her horse and she shared with me that she'd been previously encouraged to 'get mad' and 'make him do it' by her former instructors. I explained that getting emotional in this way only serves to put us in an egoic position where we think we have the right to punish. In my experience, a rider who gets upset has wandered beyond their skill level, and the picture it creates is never pretty. What if we avoided the mess altogether by studying to understand, and noticing problems earlier, so we may do less to fix them? What if we spent more time praising and rewarding these creatures for all the good things they do, as soon as they do them? There could only be less fear and anger, for our horses and everyone else.
I came across this entry as it was shared by local dressage trainer Susan Ziereisen. Karen uses the phrase 'training is like teaching calculus to an alien' to introduce a different perspective on how we do what we do with our horses.
I chewed on it for a while, and decided to stretch the metaphor a little further. If the 'alien' is our horse, and dressage is the 'calculus', our alien already knows calculus quite fluently, but we want it to perform on demand, and in English, our own language. Most people don't have a good working knowledge of the calculus, and yet blame, punish and confine the alien to comply.
If we only took a moment more often to recognize the genius of it all, hundreds of years of careful thought and practice, to show us what's possible with these amazing creatures, how could we not feel awe and appreciation? I'm working with a new rider and her horse and she shared with me that she'd been previously encouraged to 'get mad' and 'make him do it' by her former instructors. I explained that getting emotional in this way only serves to put us in an egoic position where we think we have the right to punish. In my experience, a rider who gets upset has wandered beyond their skill level, and the picture it creates is never pretty. What if we avoided the mess altogether by studying to understand, and noticing problems earlier, so we may do less to fix them? What if we spent more time praising and rewarding these creatures for all the good things they do, as soon as they do them? There could only be less fear and anger, for our horses and everyone else.
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