Keeping an open mind

NEWSLETTER Volume 3, Number 8, September 2006

As I mentioned a couple of months ago, this summer I planned to audit a number of horsemanship clinics. As a result, I’ve become more convinced than ever of the value of auditing. Yes, it is fun to participate, and there were times when I was itching on the sidelines to join in with activities I saw, but being able to see the lessons and exercises, and to be able to listen to the discussions without having to focus on my horse or myself was also valuable.

I was also reminded of the need to keep an open mind. One of my favorite sayings is a Cherokee expression I first came across in GaWaNi Pony Boy’s book, Horse Follow Closely, “listen, or your tongue will make you deaf.” I think this applies in a literal sense - the number of auditors at the clinics I attended who heard very little because they talked through the whole thing amazed me – and in a less obvious sense. I found at the clinics I attended in the latter part of the summer, a dressage clinic with Jan Ebeling and a three day clinic with Parelli instructors Dan and Gretchen Thompson, that several audience members came with an idea in mind and they saw and heard what they wanted to and only that, whether it was to confirm their existing world view or to convince themselves that they were right in some way or other. Yet, the best horsemen and women I know seem able to learn from a wide range of approaches, and to see that at the top levels of training and horsemanship there are more similarities than differences, it is more a difference in approach, style, and expression than substance.

I have two friends here in North Idaho, both riding instructors, one a hunter jumper trainer the other a reining and western pleasure instructor. Recently they decided to trade with each other for lessons. They ride each other’s horses and learn about each other’s disciplines. Not only are they having a lot of fun, but they both say it is helping them to be better horsewomen and better teachers because they can better help their clients who work in both English and Western disciplines now that they have those additional experiences, and to ride horses whose early training has been in an area they are less familiar with. And yet, the gap between disciplines seems so vast that not too many are willing to dip their toes into another world. Perhaps we need to remember that our real agenda is not for ourselves, but as Mary Wanless says “for the good of the horse.”
Anna Banks, Editor womentalkhorses.com
editor@womentalkhorses.com
Moon Hill Ranch, Idaho