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????
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