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A Horse, Of Course
By
Don Blazer
The nine secrets of perfect
horsemanship are not about styles or
disciplines. They are about finding
perfection in a moment.
In the training of horses, the
actions you take are yours. The actions
others take are their actions. To tell you
“this is right” or “this is wrong” or that
you “must do this” would be imprudent on my
part. What anyone does is “right” for that
person at that time in that place if they
are open to the lesson.
You have the power within to
accomplish anything and if you follow your
heart you will always know the right thing
to do. This, however, does not mean you
will always enjoy perfect days, blue skies,
bright sunshine and smiling faces. No, your
destiny is to experience everything so you
will recognize perfection.
To know joy, you must know
sadness, to know winning, there must be
losing. Peace is only possible if you know
chaos and relief only comes after the pain.
Mastering the third secret will
change your life by changing the way you
view and assess events. When you know the
third secret you will experience events just
as you do now; however, you will not react
to events as you do now.
At the moment of an event, we give
the event a label, a name, a viewpoint.
But if instead of labeling the event, you
accept it simply as a message, learning
comes more easily. If you ignore the
message, you learn nothing and diminish the
flow of your creative potential.
Every event, every action also has
a message for your horse, for all events
with your horse are a training session.
Your horse will study the event and learn
from it and will not easily forget it.
When you are new or inexperienced
in training horses you have to do a lot of
“wrong” things in order to learn to do the
“right” things. Mistakes are part of the
learning process. It is something to be
accepted, but not labeled.
There is only one rule to the
training of horses which is followed by all
good horsemen: Never knowingly place
unnecessary stress to the muscle, skeletal
or nervous system of the horse.
The key word is “unnecessary.”
Stress to muscles, skeleton and nerves must
occur for growth and strength and the mental
development needed to reach perfection in
performance.
This single rule will guide you,
and even though the stresses may not always
be well-designed or well-implemented, they
will never be damaging if they are done with
the best interest of the horse in mind.
However, if you are training from “ego” and
not your heart, the stresses will almost
always be “unnecessary.”
It is sometimes hard to understand
how a physical discipline of the horse can
be in the horse’s best interest. Consider
this: within the herd there are many
physical disciplines enacted to stop
unwanted or inappropriate behavior. Horses
do not learn from praise alone, constant
rewards eventually have no meaning and
horses do not understand the concept of
praise or rewards being withheld.
The avoidance of the
responsibilities of discipline and
leadership (taking control of the herd) are
the products of someone’s ego seeking quick
peer approval. Avoiding the responsibility
is not an action of the heart. The heart is
brave and accepts both the difficult and the
easy.
To find perfect horsemanship in
every moment, we must accept the Third
Secret: Practice non-judgment.
It is not for you to judge whether
any thought or action is wrong or right, is
good or bad, is joyous or sad. Every event
will produce emotions. The emotion must be
recognized, experienced and accepted, but
not judged.
Each event simply “is.” You must
see it for that and nothing more.
How other trainers train and how
other riders ride are mirrors for you to see
into yourself. Don’t judge them; learn from
them.
Do not label, name or take a
viewpoint about any event. View everything
as simply an event from which to learn, the
source of emotions to be experienced, a
moment in the process of moving toward your
perfection.
Here are three guides to help you:
1. Think, act, move slowly and your horse
will learn more quickly. 2. Set low goals
so that all you do with your horse will be
easy and successful. 3. Make no criticism
of yourself or your horse; accept yourself
and your horse without judgment.
Don Blazer is the author of seven
horse how-to training and health care
books. You can visit his website
www.donblazer.com
to read other articles.
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