 |
Re: [RC] At the end of my rope.. - heidi"....Also, simply following someone's "method" (be it Parelli or anyone else) does not a horseman make--that ability to "read" the horse does not always come with the tapes and the lectures..." One of our cultural weaknesses is that we think, as proper logical westerners, that every skill and everything can be reduced to words and taught by verbal instruction. Some people learn well this way, others less so. The other way is exemplified by the "Zen" approach of easterners. Many things are learned and done on a non verbal level. You just have to do it until you "know" how to do it properly. About all the instructor can do is to reinforce you when you do it right. I have found that I have a hard time learning physical skills by traditional instruction, unless I already know most of the activity. If I had had similar problems with math and science I would have been labeled a "slow learner" and most probably spent my life flipping bergers somewhere. And in many cases, the "truth" of learning lies somewhere in the middle, between the two extremes. One need not go out and buy all the commercial material in order to "study" what one or the other of the "commercial" masters does, although sometimes a written description of what they are doing is a help to those who didn't have the opportunity to grow up with horsemen, and to those who learn better by the "western" model. But training animals is VERY much a "zen" sort of thing--the horse (or the dog, or any other animal) does not function in a world of word language, and in order to get into his mind, there comes a point where the word language cannot teach you. You have to learn the body language, and no amount of written material can teach you that, and videos are even of limited use, unless you already understand the body language. One of the most aggravating endurance rides I ever attended, I was following a "Parelli" student down the trail (at least I think it was Parelli she was trying to mimic--she had all of his "stuff"), and she was "schooling" her horse in front of me. There was little room to pass, and although I got by her a couple of times, her horse would then pick up the pace to try to keep up with me, and she would slam her into a canter to pass me again, and then start this criss-crossing stuff again, slowing the pace down considerably. This woman could have been locked in a cell with all the tapes of the great masters of the horse training world for 100 years, and she STILL would have had no clue about how to train or handle a horse! One has to get away from the trappings and packaging of all of these "methods" and be attuned to what kernels of truth one can mine from each--but more importantly, one has to become fluent in "horse language" so that one can carry on a running "body language" conversation with the horse in "real time" and can recognize what the horse is saying so that one can make the appropriate "comment" in return, and in time! Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|