Today was another glorious horse day - beautiful horses and kind, horse loving people. We had 4 new participants and their horses attend; Patty & Ginger (pregnant 2 year old); Dave and Charlotte (3 year old); Nicole and her yearling, Dinah; and Chelsea and Liberty (2 year old).
It was also nice to see some familiar faces who came out to watch; past students Erin & Daryl Anne, Taryn, Sherri, Jade, and Jen.
What I realized about these clinics, as I was driving home, is that every clinic is a total surprise, and who doesn't love surprises. I never know who is going to be participating with which horses; and what issues each partnership may need help with.
Last June, before I ever met Brenda, she was making arrangements to have me out and she asked me what I would be teaching at these clinics. Without telling her "I don't know" and making myself appear totally inept, I gave her a list of things I could teach folks and she seemed OK with my answer. The truth is, I really don't know what I'm going to do or what approach I'm going to take with each horse until I meet them. Once we learn to listen, every horse tells you how they need our help. The joy of this work comes from seeing the change that occurs in these horses relatively quickly, without using pain or intimidation.
Respecting our personal space is an extremely important lesson for horses to learn; and that alone often makes huge changes in other so- called "undesireable" behaviours. The personality of the horse is a huge indicator of how they are going to react to various training techniques. Some horses need you to get big with pressure, and others need you to get very small with pressure. This isn't so much about hard or light pressure with tools or training techniques, but rather "big and small" must actually come more from within us. This can be a very hard concept to teach and learn; and must be felt to fully grasp it.
For a long time, I've had a feeling about this "big vs small" concept, but my work with Dexter really helped me articulate it. Dexter needed to me get "smaller" than I've ever needed to with other horses. So small, that I had to sit on the ground and not even look at him for him to feel safe enough to relax and come over to greet me. Now that we've built trust through mutual respect, I can get very "big" when playing with him and he no longer panics and feels the need to flee.
Thanks to Brenda & Henry and all the folks at D2D for another glorious horse day!
Tovie
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