Lauren's Horse Musings

Those of you coming over from the August newsletter… it’s below this entry.

So… Are You Horseman Material????
Are you satisfied with your riding skills? Are you satisfied with your horsemanship skills? What are the differences between a rider, trainer, horseman? If you don’t know that there are differences, please start thinking about what I may be referring to. If you suppose there are differences, what are they?

I’ve moved this over from my June and July newsletter article. So, it’s two and maybe a bit long but, you’ll live. I’m not even sure if there is a blog size RULE! If there is I intend to break it either long or short. Just how I roll.

A horseman (and women, don’t get all in a bunch, we’re all in here) is a rider and a trainer. But, riders and trainers aren’t necessarily horsemen.

A while back, David O’Connor said something close to this, “What happens in the horse world these days is completely backwards. People get a horse and start showing, then they, hopefully, learn to ride. Then, maybe, some of them learn horsemanship.”  I couldn’t agree more.

Riders and trainers frequently think what they know is enough. Enough to win, even at the highest levels, doesn’t necessarily make one a horseman. Technical skills and ability to stay on... and look good in the proper position doesn’t make a horseman. Yes, a horseman possesses these, too (although I will add that there have been horsemen that don’t exactly have the best looking position).

Horsemen have an  understanding and a profound respect for the horse. Who it is and how it thinks and feels and when it’s thinking and feeling it. And, a horseman knows that every day is filled with a deepening and continual learning about “horse”. There’s never enough knowledge, never enough bettering of skills and abilities. Never enough realizations of concepts and changes and ways to do it better for the horse.
AWARENESS, TIMING, FEEL AND PRECISION! Keep getting better, know there’s always more.

How to learn vs. what to learn.
Not only that but, it goes for horses as well as people. Many times I have a person wanting to bring their horse to me and say… “Teach my horse to ____.” This is a desire based on hope that all possibilities are going to be exactly the same on any given day. NEVER SO! right? Even the fact that they aren’t me is enough to cause the result to be different.
If you only teach horse to do “some” thing in particular, it will cause you no end of frustration when you ask horse to do something that you consider pretty much the ‘same’ thing and horse says “No, don’t understand” because it’s not the SOME thing. Likewise, if a student is only taught to do something when the trainer notices that horse is doing something, tells student WHAT to do and leaves out the important why student was told, what horse did, how to rectify and what the timing and phase considerations are… then student is the same as horse. Only knowing WHAT to do when someone ELSE understands what’s going on and then tells them. This leads to FRUSTRATION for both the horse and rider. By the way, don’t stick your hand on the stove burner when it’s on!
Trainers frequently (and by that I mean A LOT!!!) want to teach the what. Sorry. Is that an attempt at guaranteed income? Or is my opinion about how to teach way …mostly like no one else?