A Learning Way

Julia:

Rider Attitude. "I strongly believe that a rider's attitude is more important than his or her raw skill. The best technical rider in the world will limit a horse's potential if his or her attitude doesn't recognize and honor the horse's individuality or isn't flexible enough to work with the horse." -Linda Tellington-Jones

What is your opinion of a rider's attitude?

My answer:

My opinion of a rider's attitude, or any person even just being with a horse, makes a huge amount of difference. I think it does go deeper than attitude though - it's not just the emotions that you're feeling as the present, in response to something, but it also matters who you are and how all of the levels of your emotions are. (Example) Chuck (someone I know) met a lady who had horses, and abruptly asked to meet them. He has recently found a love for them, not riding them, just being with them, stroking them, and walking around with them - which is just fine. The woman took him to the horses, but warned him not to count on one of them coming up, as it had been abused by men and hated all of them, and bit and struck people "randomly" when they weren't doing anything. He said, "Oh that's fine, we'll see." When he approached the fence, one of the horses galloped over to him, stuck its head in his hand, and nickered at him over and over, then began to lightly touch him all over with his nose, just ever so carefully pressing it against his cheeks, the top of his head, his shoulders, his arms.... As if he were kissing him. Chuck giggled to himself, then turned to the woman and asked if this was one of her friendlier horses. She stood, dumbstruck. She responded that that was the horse who would not stand to be touched, who hated men, who bit people and struck them. Chuck is an amazingly happy man, who lets his emotions come fairly freely and has a humorous outlook on life. He does laugh a lot, he loves to make people happy, and he's like a big hilarious teddy bear. The horse loved him because of who he was and how he looked at life. In comparison, I have met "professional" trainers whose horses will run away from them, strike out at them, and find anyway to get away from them or make them miserable even when they are known for their soft nature around children. These people are typically either very cold or very distorted - "incongruent" in their emotions, as Linda Kohanov would say. They typically only want to take advantage of both the horse and person involved.


Adding more... We have to remember that certain horses will respond to upset and unbalanced emotions or people in different ways. Typically, the more large and dominant you try to be, the more the horses will try to avoid you. When you embrace your emotions as you feel them, and you recognize that in comparison, you are a very fragile creature, and most of all, you don't wish to take advantage of the horse but to be with them... The horse will readily accept your company.


I have watched many people fall when they start to worry if they will fall... Or have even had horses run off with me, but only when I begin to worry of whether or not they won't. It's not what I'm worrying about that makes them do exactly that, it is the building fear and irritation at myself that will help the horse to run away from all of my tumbling emotions. I have been fortunate enough to experience the tumbling feelings of emotions of people first hand, and it's never too pretty if they just continue on and let it get worse, or the most terrible ...trying to hide it and shrink it into a little box. The more open we are with ourselves, the more open the horse will become with us.