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ParticipantShakespeare hit the nail on the head.
And I’m gonna relay a story here that is mostly true, which really happened and I wrote. So you can ask yourself again when you are done reading it about bailing. Enjoy…sjd.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To Bail or Not To BailThe Wells Fargo wagon clops by the door of my shop every day. As regular as Old Faithful, about every twenty two minutes. I never get tired of hearing the four beat size 9 irons hit the ground as they announce the coaches arrival.
Tourists find themselves looking back in time on several different wild west coach rides here in the hole, wheels a squeekin and them rockin to and fro like a sideways porch swing. As they look over their shoulder, down the paved streets and up to the mountaintops, they imagine this to be the real deal. After they have their fifteen minutes of goin back in time, they get to clomp around on our wooden sidewalks and continue dreamin.
The big Belgians that pull the coaches seem quiet enough and not too bored with their job. Everything seems to run like clockwork every day, another set of tourists every twenty two minutes and another turn around town layin down iron on ceement.
Cept for one day. Everything went haywire. One of them coaches took off like crazy. You could hear the tourists screamin like banshees, hear leather flappin and smell the coach wheels sparkin, makin turns a coach ain’t supposed to make, at least not in these times, and not on ceement.
There was no steering, no stoppin and no idea if a body would come out unharmed yet alive when they came flyin past the door. And Wild Belgians at full speed can make a mess of ceement. The coach driver was doin the best she could, puttin her whole body weight on one foot, slammin on what was left of the brakes and pullin with all her might on the one long rein that was the only thing between her and what might be the last time she saw a buggy seat.
Later she told me there was only one thing left to do.
“Did ya bail,” I asked?
“I thought about it, but then I thought, howm I gonna get all these folks off here with me?”
She had a point.
The only thing left to do, she said, was tellm to sit down, hold tight and don’t look. Then she headed for the most solid and biggest object she could. Drivin with one rein at bein-chased-by-invisible- elephants speed, Miss Pia turned that team towards a big white delivery truck and told em to get on.
What happened was a miracle. The team listened to her direction, all be it strange, and stopped just in time not to bury themselves and everyone else into the side of that truck.
I was tuckered out hearin the story and Miss Pia was just as tuckered tellin me. But I have remembered it and what Miss Pia did to this day and try and think of it when I’m feelin like one of them Belgians bein spooked by nothin anyone could ever determine to be real.
The End.
sjdortch copyright LIVE IMAGE INK/LIFEHORSEQUINE 2009ParticipantHi Jennifer,
I’d like to respond to your posting about working a horse ‘old school.’First, let me commend you on your thoughtful approach to communicating your experiences. It sounds like you take your horses needs into consideration and are interested in learning more about how to apply your useful knowledge further, as well as gain more. It also sounds like you are concerned about your approach to training your horses, as well as how well they will respond.
I’m a Communication Coach and one of my coaching programs uses horses to help humans transition into more effective communicators. My mantra is ” A HORSE DOES NOT AWAKEN EVERY MORNING, FIND A MIRROR, MEASURE ITSELF, AND THEN BELIEVE IT WOULD LOOK AND FEEL BETTER AS A DIFFERENT HORSE.” On the other hand, that’s the first thing most humans do every morning…find a mirror, find a way to measure their appearance, find fault with it, and then try and make themselves believe they would look and feel better as some glittered out botoxed media magnet. They already have a conversation going before their first cup of coffee!!! With themselves!
To my knowledge, horses don’t do this.
So…
One of the platforms I teach about in my workshops (using A DRAFT HORSE,) is what a humans intention is when they enter into a conversation, with another human, or an animal.
Many times, when humans enter into conversations with other humans, they have an ‘agenda,’ a conversation already going on inside their heads. They confuse being agreed with with being accepted or being loved, choose anger when they are not agreed with and find fault with the other person when they don’t get their way.
When a human begins a conversation with another human, or a horse, one must remember and take to heart, that ‘there is a fine line between getting what you want and standing up for what you believe in.’
So when a human works with a horse, there can be no ‘agenda,’ no other intention than to have a conversational exchange, verbal and non, to get along and enjoy working as a team. If we stop for a moment to think about our fears, the what if’s, the oh my gosh’s, then plant them on the other person or our horse, we open up the conversation for the horse to join our fears and get the heck outta dodge! Remember, he is a fright or flight animal. A horse smells our fear, feels it’s vibration, before we have time to act on it.
Horses, as you know, do not relate to humans with agendas. They are clear and consistent in their communication and responses. Whether we are working with a two thousand pound Draft horse or a Shetland Pony, the language is still the same…the intent is still the same. We may need to present it differently depending on size, breed, temperment, weather, etc…you get the picture. We still are a human communicating with a horse and the first thing we better do is observe him when we get to his house, be a good listener and remember that this very sensitive animal, no matter his size, is allowing us in it’s most vulnerable space to exchange information and walk together as a team.
Hope this information is of some value to you.
Please visit my website at http://www.lifehorsequine.org for more information or email me at sjd@lifehorsequine.org to schedule a workshop.
Regards,
SJ Dortch
Director/Coach
LIFEHORSequine.orgHAPPY TRAILS…
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