Feeling a Thought

In the spirit of the new year, I'm going to take a new direction with this blog. I'm not interested in producing any sort of how to manual. I read a lot of blogs, websites and articles where trainers seem to have it all figured out. The reason I love working with horses so much is because they are always a challenge. There is always more to learn. To me, working with horses is an exercise in self-improvement and self-awareness, both in and out of the saddle. I think I've got some pretty good things going with my horses, but I really hope that in five, ten, twenty years (or maybe even tomorrow), things will look completely different, and be better between us. I think when we think we've got it all figured out with horses (or maybe in life..but I'll stick to horses) it's probably time to quit. Horses deserve more respect than that, and knowing it all opens the door to forcing a horse to fit into our system, instead of trying to step into their moment. So, I'm going to let this blog be a place where I share some of my own journey towards understanding. Hopefully it will be useful to all of you, and feel free to email questions, comments, thoughts or specific subjects for discussion. alex@threerivershorsetraining.com

Feeling a Thought

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about slowing down. The last time I was with Harry and I was working on slowing something down, I said to him, “I never knew it could take so much energy to go so slow!” He just laughed, and then told me to go slower. But it’s really true. Going slow with a horse (and maybe in life…) means so much more than just speed. It means doing less, waiting more and only doing things that mean something. That’s not exactly how most of us live our lives, and so I really think it’s an exercise in a lot more than horsemanship. I think it has a lot to do with resisting the urge to just control the situation, and instead really being in the moment.

What does it take for you to ask your horse to turn? Most of us probably don’t even think about all that goes into it, but there is a lot! Deciding where you want to go. This probably involves something causing you to want to change direction, a look towards the new direction to decide a path, and then a decision that you are ready to go. Now you have to decide to ask your horse to do it, and then tell your body to do whatever you do to ask. Then there’s the actual physical act of asking. Next comes the horse actually understanding that request. That could be a whole other series of events, because I’d assume the horse goes through as many or more steps as I do in understanding the request, deciding to do it, and then actually making it happen with their body. And finally, (hopefully) everyone is going where you decided to go.

But in the moment, what do most of us notice? Just the asking (or telling) and the going. Pull this rein, go that way. Maybe you were taught to look where you want to go as a first step, maybe not. Maybe you do it, maybe not. But what if before and during any request, you said all of these steps aloud? I’ve played with it. “I’m going to go over to that post. There is a clear path. I’m going to ask now. I’m asking. My hand is moving. We are going” Etc. Etc. Etc. You can narrate until you are blue in the face. I’m not saying we should be chatting to ourselves all the time when riding, but it’s an interesting exercise to slow down and really be in these moments with your horse.

I’m always thinking like this these days. How little can I do to effect change. This really means, how clearly can I present the request in a way that is easy to understand and was presented at just the right moment so that the horse picks up my thought with very little effort. I’ve been thinking about this a lot while halter breaking a few fillies that up until a few days ago had never been touched. When working with a horse that has truly no idea of expectations, it really magnifies the need to take little glimmers of a thought. So to me, this means recognizing all the above steps I listed in terms of the human, from the horse’s point of view. I think about what the earliest moment of the horse understanding my request would be. Is it just a shift in weight, a blink, a glance, an ear? Sometimes I think if I’ve waited for the ear I might be late! Something told that ear to move, why couldn’t I have noticed that thought? I probably couldn’t have seen it. But I’m learning to feel it.

Yes, it might be a little different if the horse knew something about what I was asking but had learned from the human to be sloppy or sluggish, and the intensity of their resistance to changing a thought was a bit more, but still, getting even that dulled out horse to think things through will mean to slow some things down and make sure everything is clear. Again, slow doesn't only mean speed, but also intention and clarity. Even if the expectations of the actual physical performance are a little higher than that of the colt who has never felt human touch, the goal and philosophy can stay the same.

Having the horse search for the answer instead of being given it so that they can take ownership of it might require us to actually take ownership of what we are asking, when, how, and why. Often times as an exercise in self-improvement, when I think I’ve got something going pretty good with myself (not with a horse…but the me part), I take something away from myself, whether it’s a tool, an action, or anything else that maybe I could use as a crutch (like a flag, a noise, physical contact…). I take something away and see if I can get results I like as much with less. I like to force myself to be a little choosier with my asks/actions, because I can’t always be trusted not to use a tool if it’s in my bag of tricks. I give it back to myself once I think I can use it responsibly! Kind of like when I realize I’ve just been talking but have nothing to say. I listen more to the people who don’t talk for no reason, because I know when they do talk, it’s worth listening. So I try to take a lesson from that with the horses (I’m not as good at practicing this with people…). I say a lot with the space before and after the action, so maybe if I pay more attention to that space, there will be less to do.

So, tonight I’ll go to sleep thinking about what I could have slowed down today. What I could have let the horse find in her own time that maybe I rushed. What a horse gave me that I didn’t deserve. And tomorrow, maybe I’ll do it better!