I never said Mr. Hunt humiliated me, I said I was
humiliated because I had done such a bad job to begin with. Would I take his
clinic again? In a heartbeat. (Did I not stress how much respect I had for the
man?) My point, Ed was that the truth sometimes hurts. It wasn't the teacher, it
was me. Mr. Hunt is about as low key as they come and I think he, or any teacher
worth his or her salt, would rather die than abuse a horse or human. I said he
was, "blunt, but truthful". Not abusive and demeaning. Intimidating the human, doesn't help the horse one bit. Helping the horse
is what it is all about, wouldn't you agree?
I really thought I did a decent job up until that
clinic. Then, it was painfully clear to me that A) I was NOT a stallion handler,
and B) Love is blind. Trust me when I say that my horse, (who was the only one
handled personally by Mr. Hunt and a wonderful assistant by the name of Derrick
all weekend long) learned more in those four days, than I was able to teach him
in 2 years. My horse had the best experience and because of it, his world
was made a little bigger. That was my main goal for going in the first place.
That, and the fact that I learned that I wasn't as smart as I thought and THAT
Ed, was the most humiliating part. Now I be edjacated. Somewhat.
When I suggested a thick skin, I meant don't take
things so personally. Just because the problems you came with were yours, and
not the horses, doesn't make the instructor the bad guy or gal for pointing that
out. You don't pay a small fortune for someone to coddle you at these clinics
and tell you how pretty your horse is. You are there because you want to learn.
Although when the teacher says, "The parents of this nice little colt oughta go
to prison for spoiling him so bad!", I'll admit, it is hard NOT to cop an
attitude. Prison was a little extreme. A day at boot camp would have sufficed.
But I got the picture.
Maybe I've just got more common sense than those people Lisa was
referring to.
I think you are absolutely right, Kristi. I am for
any training, games, playing, whatever it takes to have a safe and sound ride.
For both horse and rider. I didn't mean to imply that Parelli or any training
method or philosophy is something for riders to stay away from. Again, just
those lacking any common sense. And those people shouldn't have horses anyway.
That goes for trainers, teachers and instructors as well. (How does a trainer
have a horse for 3 or 4 months and the horse doesn't know how to load into a
trailer????)
Come on people, let's not get sidetracked. I am not
promoting or demoting any method. Just sharing my thoughts and
experiences. Sometimes, we forget what we thought we knew. Or we just
ain't as smart as we think we are.
Don't deny your horse a better world for lack of
YOUR education.
