How it Works
It was written in 800AD by Surtees "there is no secret as close as that between a man and his horse".
"With Ian around that secret might not be so secret anymore", said one client.
Humanship is taught at the foundation level, the very cornerstone of building a successful partnership.
The qualities of trust and respect are the foundation. It doesn't matter how long you have been around horses for, this is an ongoing learning, understanding and building trust and respect. A horseman once told me to keep working on getting my basics better and everything else will get better. Trust and respect to me are these basics.
The methods we use are a combination of skill and process. The skill, is taught as more of a concept rather than a hard and fast, do this and that. There is plenty of room to interpret and develop an individual style. These are not traditional skills in the sense of what is usually taught in traditional riding lessons, although they can be applied to whichever riding discipline you like. The application of the skill in an exercise is where your style is revealed. You can learn about the yourself, who you are, how you live life, your fears and how you control them. By working with what is revealed rather than what is done "right or wrong" you can work with the inside of yourself. The mental, emotion & spiritual state of being is of more influence around horses than the physical doing. The physical is just a reflection of the inner processes anyway.
We will always turn the view point around to "how does the horse see this situation or me?"
The Basic Process
Control
(We know this word has a lot of connotations in our PC world). There is no other word for it. We need to have the ability to physically take control of ourselves and act in any given moment to take care of the safety of ourself and our horse. This does not mean to say we are controlling of our horse.
We explore with you the physiological processes from two different viewpoints, those being that of the horse and that of ourselves, all of which have their basis in natural survival instincts and then look at the ways in which these two different processes come together. Then we will explore some of the psychological processes again from our two differing viewpoints. Both of our processes again have their basis in natural survival instincts, with the addition of all of our past experiences giving us what we are dealing with in this moment.
There are only 5 rein positions for each hand, that is all we need to physically learn to achieve the ability to communicate with our horse, the control is of the self to effectively and consistantly offer the same feel of communication each time. The learning and understanding of these rein positions require new muscle memories and the refining of them and can be learned in a relatively short space of time. Yet it will take us a lifetime to master these to their fullest potential, as it is the mental process we have behind each of the physical positions and movements that counts the most.
Communication
This is a big area. The important thing to remember is this communication is TWO way, with as much communication coming back to us from the horse as we are giving. How we communicate has a great number of factors that all come together to affect the quality of the message. When communicating with people only 7% of our communication is verbal. So from the horses' viewpoint we are great non verbal communicators too.
In essence we are communicating our ability to lead, our ability to be the leader. Again this comes back to survival for the horse, for to have a good leader means a little bit less of their own survival they have to worry about. The major factors that effect our ability in to lead effectively and communicate clearly are focus, awareness, feel, presence, decision making, vision, being in the moment, assertiveness, consistency, persistence, determination, setting boundaries, etc. We all communicate differently, so the key here is to look to the horse for the solutions, to unlock the parts in us that limit the communication. Communication is about using combinations of the rein positions in the way that communicates effectively. I am sure this will take several lifetimes to truly master.
I have found that the best way for most people to learn and absorb information is when having fun. So there is a big element of fun mixed with the hands on learning.
"With Ian around that secret might not be so secret anymore", said one client.
Humanship is taught at the foundation level, the very cornerstone of building a successful partnership.
The qualities of trust and respect are the foundation. It doesn't matter how long you have been around horses for, this is an ongoing learning, understanding and building trust and respect. A horseman once told me to keep working on getting my basics better and everything else will get better. Trust and respect to me are these basics.
The methods we use are a combination of skill and process. The skill, is taught as more of a concept rather than a hard and fast, do this and that. There is plenty of room to interpret and develop an individual style. These are not traditional skills in the sense of what is usually taught in traditional riding lessons, although they can be applied to whichever riding discipline you like. The application of the skill in an exercise is where your style is revealed. You can learn about the yourself, who you are, how you live life, your fears and how you control them. By working with what is revealed rather than what is done "right or wrong" you can work with the inside of yourself. The mental, emotion & spiritual state of being is of more influence around horses than the physical doing. The physical is just a reflection of the inner processes anyway.
We will always turn the view point around to "how does the horse see this situation or me?"
The Basic Process
- Working on control, that is self control, both on the ground and ridden and helping our horse to learn show self control as well.
- Working on communication, both on the ground and ridden, with an emphasis on listening to our horse.
Control
(We know this word has a lot of connotations in our PC world). There is no other word for it. We need to have the ability to physically take control of ourselves and act in any given moment to take care of the safety of ourself and our horse. This does not mean to say we are controlling of our horse.
We explore with you the physiological processes from two different viewpoints, those being that of the horse and that of ourselves, all of which have their basis in natural survival instincts and then look at the ways in which these two different processes come together. Then we will explore some of the psychological processes again from our two differing viewpoints. Both of our processes again have their basis in natural survival instincts, with the addition of all of our past experiences giving us what we are dealing with in this moment.
There are only 5 rein positions for each hand, that is all we need to physically learn to achieve the ability to communicate with our horse, the control is of the self to effectively and consistantly offer the same feel of communication each time. The learning and understanding of these rein positions require new muscle memories and the refining of them and can be learned in a relatively short space of time. Yet it will take us a lifetime to master these to their fullest potential, as it is the mental process we have behind each of the physical positions and movements that counts the most.
Communication
This is a big area. The important thing to remember is this communication is TWO way, with as much communication coming back to us from the horse as we are giving. How we communicate has a great number of factors that all come together to affect the quality of the message. When communicating with people only 7% of our communication is verbal. So from the horses' viewpoint we are great non verbal communicators too.
In essence we are communicating our ability to lead, our ability to be the leader. Again this comes back to survival for the horse, for to have a good leader means a little bit less of their own survival they have to worry about. The major factors that effect our ability in to lead effectively and communicate clearly are focus, awareness, feel, presence, decision making, vision, being in the moment, assertiveness, consistency, persistence, determination, setting boundaries, etc. We all communicate differently, so the key here is to look to the horse for the solutions, to unlock the parts in us that limit the communication. Communication is about using combinations of the rein positions in the way that communicates effectively. I am sure this will take several lifetimes to truly master.
I have found that the best way for most people to learn and absorb information is when having fun. So there is a big element of fun mixed with the hands on learning.
