Reflecting on feelings

In my previous entry I tried to provoke thoughts on the powers of mind and thought. Undoubtedly every one of us can affect how we regard things we face by rationalizing them. I actually don’t even know how relevant this is when working with horses, since horses will react based on their feelings anyway, and only by allowing ourselves to be reflected we can have even the tiniest of chances to reach a level where we might be able to understand how the horse feels. Even a little.

If we compare the horse’s emotional scale to our own, even with a less serious attitude, we can see that a large part of the most primitive feelings that humans have are taboo to some extent nowadays. If a human feels uncertainty or fear, something needs to be done about it. Not to mention hatred, jealousy, bitterness etc.

Since humans are intellectually so far above everything else, they have the need to rationalize and control themselves. This happens on each and every level of our society. The other extreme could be the horror scenario where the results of permissive upbringing lead into the laws of the jungle taking over.

As the horse, in all its perfection, is still more straightforward when compared to humans, it’s fairly certain that it can spot the emotions and the exact behavior in us that are familiar to it. How about if, instead of constantly evaluating the horse based on its behavior, we looked at the horse’s reaction in the light that it’s our own emotional state that makes the horse react. In addition to how it has been taught to behave, of course.

Openness like this is still fairly new to our culture, and accepting it won’t get easier by comparing two extremes. In the other end there’s nothing but mechanical, consistent training that disregards the horse’s feelings, while the other end is supernatural nonsense.

Handling and training a horse to become mechanical is extremely easy. It’s practically enough that the human has a method which is logically based on applying pressure in a certain way. It takes a lot more to use the tools available in a way that not only acknowledges their danger, but also the situations where applying them definitely helps.

The thing that has been the biggest resource and source of strength on my career has been the love for horses. And I truly mean towards every horse. I don’t think that being callous or shutting yourself off from the interaction of emotions with the horse will produce the end result that most people want. A relationship with the horse, that is.

Years ago I was talking with a friend who met seriously ill and dying people every day in her work. I asked her how she can face the families of seriously ill people. Do you have to harden some part of yourself so that facing all the human fates doesn’t break you? She answered: “The day that a child’s serious illness or death does not touch me is the day I cannot do this job anymore.”

Although it’s a heavy parallel, I agree with the thought that if you can’t find place for your feelings, from happiness and joy through disappointment to frustration and anger, you are not a whole person.

So love your horses, and most of all the ones who are near to you!!!!

The power of thought

Nonsense, will be someone’s initial reaction!!! For no reason, because I mean the power of thought that comes from within ourselves and affects everything around us.

Earlier, I have written about guilt and understanding, and they offer a segue to this next topic.

As we all know, a negative person creates negativity around them and a positive person creates positivity. In practice, though, it’s quite hard to notice when we have unwittingly given power to negative thoughts.

There are days when everything goes like a breeze, and at those moments nothing can ruin your day or wipe the smile off your face. Sometimes it’s the other way around, and when that happens, even the brightest sunshine or the neigh of your beloved horse cannot bring a smile to your face.

For my part, I’ve tried to find a positive attitude and thoughts from within myself for a long time. Sometimes it’s easy to do, sometimes not. In the end it doesn’t matter, because the most important thing is that I learn to notice the points and aspects in myself which cause a negative thought pattern and subsequently unpleasant feelings when “poked”, even accidentally. When I recognize that moment, it allows me to observe these things objectively.

Since you’ve read this far, you’re probably wondering what this has to do with horses? The thing it specifically has to do with working with horses is that horses are superb at sensing the emotional state of humans, and as result they can also sense the work related thoughts which the human mind is mulling over, as well as stress in general. Everyone who works with horses has probably had a moment where you’ve thought afterwards that it would’ve been better leave the horse in the paddock or pasture than to go riding with negative thoughts and feelings.

On the other hand, some days riding in the snow on a frosty day or brushing a snowy horse can wipe away the black clouds from the sky and the worry wrinkles from your forehead.

My newest realization has to do with accepting your own humanity and the fact that when you dare to ease your life by being merciful on yourself, it frees us from the burden of guilt.

I don’t believe that a person who regards themselves with excessively big self criticism, discipline and strictness is able to be understanding and forgiving in their heart towards other people, not to mention towards horses.

There is an atmosphere of getting along and managing on your own in our horse culture. It’s shameful to admit that you’re wrong or that you need help. It’s as if all human feelings and thoughts were forbidden from horse people. Not to mention a situation where a horse owner fails, for example. He might fall from horseback, or just be unable to cope with feelings of bad conscience or maybe frustration week after week. There might still be people cheering on who could help win the situation, but the people who sincerely dare to say aloud that you don’t always have to manage, want or be able to cope. They are a rare breed.

After all this pondering, with Christmas drawing near, I’d like to wish that people could ease off a bit and smile, even when things don’t go quite as intended. Life really isn’t all that serious =)

The Guru is always right… right?

We Finns seem to have problems with our self-esteem in many things, but it is especially apparent with horse and dog people. Namely, everyone has their own school of thought and its teachings, which are the only correct ones. A guru or a master is also needed. And his or her word is never questioned. Ever.

In his books, including ‘Inhimillinen eläin, eläimellinen ihminen’ (The human animal, the animal human), PhD Jussi Viitala describes the behavior of different animal species, illustrates their differences and the uniqueness and necessity of their senses in everyday life.

As a species humans are fascinating, with all their strengths and richness, but as a creature the modern man has unfortunately become lazy, to the extent that free will and independent thought are becoming rare. While theoretic knowledge increases, the risk is that it becomes difficult to justify, and even harder to accept knowledge that is based on experience or intuition.

It kind of becomes easier to believe the guru and what he says than to question in a healthy way. Questioning in itself is never a bad thing. When things are observed objectively from many angles, it might be possible to unlock whole new viewpoints which then make the decision easier.

Since the topic of my blog is horses, I’ll take a fairly well-known topic.

Different round pen techniques have been a topic of conversation (at least in my circle of friends) for many years. Not specifically because everything that happens in a round pen would be fundamentally right or wrong, but because all tools can be used either well or badly. And that’s why I won’t use the terms right or wrong, since defining absolute truth is too difficult because the horse a. doesn’t express its feelings verbally, which means evaluating it is mainly based on gut feelings and b. the horse is such a fast learner that after a few repeats the original trigger of the stress reaction might subside and in the long run the consequences might only be seen in the horse’s slower learning or something similar.

But, on a practical level, if we look at what you want to achieve with different techniques in the round pen, they’re practically all based on giving the horse two options, guess right or escape. With time, this is logically constructed so that it becomes easier for the horse to guess, and the need to escape decreases.

What this causes in the horse, in addition to becoming obedient with a very high certainty, is that it causes fear, stress and excessive cautiousness. The latter, in turn, causes mechanical behavior (which in turn looks like obedience).

When talking about desensitizing, we similarly face the possibility that the desensitizing process is outside of the horse’s comfort zone to begin with, so it learns to guess right through stress, and possibly even fear. Or then the human starts from a low enough level, either knowingly or out of cautiousness, and the horse’s learning process goes without problems.

The problem I see in these is visible in the horse. At least if the human looks at the horse as a horse. Not like the guru claims to see it.

In the presence of humans the horse only does what it already knows. Similarly, its reactions are based on its earlier experiences. We humans, gurus included, have the will to succeed, sometimes at the expense of the horses….

Years ago, the movie Horse Whisperer came into theaters. It depicted the mutual journey of Pilgrim, traumatized in an accident, and its owner Grace, and their recovery with aid of the horse whisperer. Successful in its narration, the movie still showed the darker side that few want to see and acknowledge….

When the horse whisperer Tom Booker worked with Pilgrim in the round pen, and the horse ran skittishly around the pen while its owner cried outside, the trainer continued until the horse gave up and submitted. Later, the owner was successfully convinced that all of this was necessary, and look, it works!!!!!

So the end justifies the means????

Tolerance

For as long as I’ve been a horse owner, since 1990, I’ve been noticing that horse people are quite an intolerant lot. Regardless of whether you’re a regular rider or a horse owner. Whether your horse lives at a country stable or at the finest riding manège of the town. Whether your horse has a full-time or part-time turnout. Whether it has free access to hay or not. Whether it is shod or unshod. Whether you compete or not. Whether you ride with or without a bit. On a field or cross-country… sigh… the list is truly endless.

When discussion turns to the well-being of horses, the argumentation mainly focuses on whether the horse is being treated well or badly, and whether it can cope with the conditions the human has placed it in. Would it just be best if horses were let free, or does the opposite of this mean total oppression and exploitation of the horse?

So that all of us could learn from each other we need openness, and also acceptance of things that might be difficult to understand when you’re looking at them based on your own experiences. I’ll give a few examples here.

One very common problem seems to be that the horse might have its “rev counter stall”. A horse like this might be called hot, or just otherwise goofy. People who have gotten to know the horse as an animal understand that the horse doesn’t want to be hot or goofy, but that it’s characteristic to horses as a species to move their feet when their stress level goes up. To put it simply, a hot horse is stressed, and the situation isn’t likely to be very pleasant for the horse, especially if it happens e.g. every time the horse is ridden. In their mighty wisdom, humans come up with different aids and ways to keep the horse under control. Even if this isn’t unpleasant to the humans, it may cause many kinds of problems for the horse in the long run. Including physical ones.

Another example is a horse, whose owner wants to satisfy their horse’s every need to their last breath. When the human starts to realize the things a horse can display with its behavior and gestures, there’s a risk that the human will want to protect the horse, and to avoid further discomfort they stop doing anything with the horse but the things that are pleasant and suit the horse.

These extremes are most likely easy to identify and can be found in everyone’s circle of acquaintances. If one wants to look at these situations past all the humanity and wishes to consider what similarities they share, it helps to look at the horse.

In the first example the human might not acknowledge which of the horse’s resources remain unavailable to him or her, as the horse’s “mouth has been shut”. For the horse, as a prey animal, situations where the opportunity to flee has been removed have a great effect on its stress level. Sometimes it’s enough that the horse simply KNOWS it’s not being forced to do anything. On the other hand, a horse that has been forced for a long time might not be able to relax. It burns out, in a way.

When the horse is then listened to, and observed, and even the smallest of its wishes and needs fulfilled, it often happens that the horse will default to telling that it doesn’t like anything the human wants to do with it. This is the horror scenario that nobody wants to face, and because of that it’s easier to just close your eyes. I believe, however, that in their heart people know, despite all the defenses and justifications, that they may not be giving the horse everything it needs to be well.

So when, for one reason or another, you end up in a situation where  the horse has had the chance to tell its opinion, which generally is no, a new opportunity emerges to teach the same things to the horse in a way that lets it see them in a positive light too.

I’ve met thousands of people during all these years, and most of them don’t give a hoot about the idea that horses have rights, and needless to say they haven’t realized how much more they could get out of their horse and their hobby if they stopped to listen sometime. At the same time those who have given their horse a chance have rarely regretted it. There’s always people who are too busy or cannot give their expectations time, and much less the chance to come true.

It’s amazing, then, that while most “problems” take a few practice sessions and a few thousand repeats after that to solve, there’s still time to do things wrong week after week, month after month, and to be displeased and unhappy.

Nobody can be taught against their will, and for my part I hope that the rift between horsemanship people, horse trainers, moral mongers and the rest of the horse world would narrow. Everyone could have something to learn from each other, after all. Nobody’s skills or experience should be belittled or underestimated, especially if there’s concrete backup, and above all if this skill and knowledge can be observed in the horse. You don’t have to understand everything, but until you can objectively evaluate others based on your own experience, it’s important to be tolerant. Without tolerance your own message doesn’t go out as it’s intended and therefore won’t be likely to reach its recipient.

This week’s guideline could be: nothing is right or wrong by default. It depends on the observer how you look at the situation.

Pressure and comfort zones

During the last few months I’ve been thinking about pressure from the viewpoint of humans and horses. For this to make any sense, it might be useful to define what pressure is. Is it a symbol that stays constant or does it increase, and if it does, then why, at what rate etc?

I remember learning myself, years ago, that the basic definition of pressure is that everything that affects the horse is pressure. Either making it move or stay still. Thinking like this, even everything unrelated to humans is pressure. An example of this could be a situation where the horse is startled by a passing car or a dog running through the corral, and as result of being startled the horse flees. On the other hand, horses are taught to yield to the leg and to the whip, and then to face the pressure by staying put. Hmmm…..

When pressure is used in training a horse or communicating with a horse, many other things besides the signal itself affect how it is received and responded to. I’ve noted that many methods teach that the human should rev up and get worked up if the horse doesn’t “obey” a slight pressure. This certainly does work, since the horse is constantly learning, but at the same time it has given something new to think about.

My own preferred way of thinking and working is that the best thing that the human can do is to create the best possible circumstances for the horse to learn in. An essential part of this is that the horse won’t need to learn through mistakes, to do things wrong first in order to succeed or to be punished. A well executed learning situation doesn’t stress or scare the horse, but rather creates an optimal situation for the horse, so it can always respond correctly.

So what does responding mean? The way I see it, training a horse is, to a great extent, basically like playing the age old warmer-colder guessing game. The horse gets a hint from the human, and with correct timing the human rewards the horse for a reaction that resembles the correct one, little by little. This requires that the human has an understanding of the chain of events that leads to performing a single task or an entire series of movements.

But to get back to pressure, it would appear that humans do not perceive the side effects of increasing pressure very well. The horse will certainly become obedient,but at the same time it gets more cautious, and at worst the feelings it goes through in the learning situation become fixed, and the result might be that when too much pressure (in the horse’s opinion) is used, it learns that the human’s own emotions are a part of the learning situation.

So how could signals or pressure be used kindly at all, or in a way that doesn’t transmit the human’s emotions into the horse? In all its simplicity and ease, if you actually need to increase pressure, you can do it without getting angry, worked up or frustrated. How to increase pressure in a way that doesn’t affect the human him- or herself?

When humans end up in a situation where, for instance, the horse doesn’t understand what is required from it, they can easily get frustrated. When this happens, they can easily get taken away from their comfort zone. However, when we feel success it’s like a drug, we want to experience it again and again. One more time… if we turn this on its head and consider how the horse feels like outside of its comfort zone and how success feels to it, it cannot be hard to imagine that the horse would prefer to spend most of the time over at the better side of success.

Learning new things often involves a certain amount of stress and discomfort. Then again, discomfort can motivate us in our pursuit to reach a better state. When we’re justifying the discomfort caused to a horse, it might be a good idea to stop for a moment and to think how we would feel if someone else was in control of the situation….

The essential part, in the end, is motivation. What motivates us to learn new things? If motivation is born out of fear or pain, the learning situation is bound to be more uncomfortable than a situation where the reward is clear and easily understandable. And most importantly, learning is constructed logically so that new things are taught on top of the old and already learned.

 

Everything is relative – even understanding

My friend told me she’s not interested in horse related things anymore, and based it on how she can no longer bear to watch the unwell people and horses around her. I do understand this, but once again it gave me something to think about regarding my own mission, which, surprise surprise, is of course about the well-being of horses.

Deep down all of us humans are equally good or bad. Each of us base our choices on our own experiences, and an understanding of what’s right. I think I’ve come to the 

realization that this is the heart of the problem.

When talking about a horse’s well-being, for instance, some people think it means good food, water and shelter, not to mention a good setting. Yeah, sure, but those are the basic necessities and requirements of living. And when they have been satisfied, you can start talking about well-being, which I think is a much wider concept. My own humble but loud opinion is that defining a horse’s well-being is not very hard at all, if you have the will for it.

It includes getting a horse that’s suitable for the task it is used for, that the horse is trained right and also coached so that nothing that it has been taught will cause a problem, for example in a competition situation. Or well, that’s what you might imagine.

So is it acceptable to hit or kick a horse? And if it is, in what situation? When you’re crossing a road and the horse stops? Could it be justifiable to hit the horse in order to make it move on, so the fear of being hit by a car will pass? Hm… first of all it should probably be considered whether the horse has been taught that hitting with a whip or kicking with spurs means something. Whether the horse has a signal registered in its brain that says: aha, that kick means “carry on” or that the day after tomorrow it means “don’t hesitate, jump”, etc….

I don’t think it’s important to consider whether the horse is being hurt or not. Of course it is. I’d rather approach the matter from the viewpoint that if a rider is, for example in a competition “forced” into a situation where the pressure builds up and he has to hurt the horse, what will the horse learn from it? A new signal? That when humans are tense, they get frustrated and kick or hit? Or what? Answers and comments are gladly accepted =)