How we think determines our success or failure with horses
| How we think determines our success or failure with horses Horses, will clearly let us know what they think of us. What they think of their work, stable companions, environment, feed and so on. Equine behaviour offers us information, it lets us know when we are getting something right or something wrong. However, very often we do not want to know what our horses are thinking or how they are feeling especially when it does not suit us. It is easier just to label the horse as having a problem rather than ask ourselves why. |  It is easier just to label the horse as having a problem than ask ourselves why |
Observation, perception, motivation, awareness and our understanding of these areas within our own behaviour help greatly when training/working with another species.
One way of determining if you have an understanding of other minds (called a theory of mind) is by observing your ability to reason about the motivation of others. This includes horses. Understanding and working with motivation is one of the essential elements of success when interacting, training and riding horses.
Our perceptions of what we see are just as important, as they determine the decisions we make. Our perceptions are guided by the context in which they are received. Often the context in which information is received not only affects WHAT we learn but can affect HOW we learn.
 We are engaged with watching the horse, which means we are not aware of ourselves at the same time. | When observing equine behaviour, it is easy to see what we ‘want' to see as opposed to what is really happening. Observation alone does not necessarily teach us much because we tend to focus on the totality of the horse rather than the many elements that go to make up the animal and it's individual characteristics and behaviour. Observation alone means we remain ‘outside' of what we are seeing. We are engaged with watching the horse, which means we are not aware of ourselves at the same time. Observation, by itself, usually remains unconscious. By turning pure observation to consciousness, we start the process of awareness. When we learn to combine awareness with conscious observation we can start to avoid error in interpretation. When we can stop placing our interpretations on what we are seeing and activate our sight, in full consciousness. Then we can start to learn in detail. When training, riding or working with a horse we tend to be responding to our map of reality, not reality itself. |
What our mind stores is not experience but our own individual translation, symbol, or representation of that experience. Everything we do or say on behalf of horses relates to this. To work with equine behaviour we need to become fully conscious of our interpretations of information, of ourselves, our behaviour, our understanding and our motivations.
© 2008 Emma Kurrels Voices for Horses
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Added on: 29/12/08.
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