Where are the papers?

Where are the papers?

In dressage, as we practice we obtain our credentials. Those credentials which are best are experiential, but it seems that in the horse world, it is better if we have “the papers.” We show horses, attend clinics, take courses. We are awarded many “degrees” and obtain a certain status. We collect the proof which we can share with the world to prove our value. The problem here is that the horse does not collect nor recognize our credentials. Every horse, potentially, can at any time blow our cover. Even an upper-level horse, who may be noble and kind, can at any moment take us down despite a stack of credentials. In every ride, we are the emperor in his new clothes. Clever verbal ducking and dodging do not conceal who and what we are. Riding an outstanding horse goes a long way to removing the attention from our riding to the movement of the horse but even at the highest level, what is seen is what can be seen. We all too frequently live in a cloud which the horse society and media have produced and are blinded to what really is. Fool all of us, maybe, but fool the horse, never. It is always better to forget man-made levels, and credentials and instead focus on the qualities of what is. Is it kind, gentle and light? Feel what is and see what is, do not look to judge rather make your judgments as kind, light and gentle as you can, for changing what has happened is impossible. Our dressage, based in goodness, is always in the present as...
Master who?

Master who?

Three levels in teaching dressage: babysitter, friend and master. The first two levels are common enough and the level of a master is surprising perhaps. The babysitter level is the instructor who keeps you from harm in the earliest stages of working with horses. One learns not to get stepped on, kicked or run over by the horse. These things are most obvious, but less obvious is that, at this level, fear is converted into confidence. This is a stage of rules. Learning how to be with horses is not always easy but in the second stage, your equestrian friend teaches how confidence is converted into basic skills. The mind is prepared for the further work and individual practice is started. This is a stage of methods. In these first two levels of equestrian education, we find the whole horse world in general. Those who are in these levels see the top of the stage of methods as mastery, but mastery is really something else. Those who have achieved the perfection of method have a high degree of skill and since in the horse world, finding logical consistency is a mark of high level of achievement, those who tread here are considered masters; especially when they maintain formal distance and are not very friendly, but a master is really something else. We might say that the first stage of a babysitter is the travel guide level in a language. We learn common day to day expressions but if the conversation drifts from the ready-made phrases memorized in the travel guide, we are lost. At the level of the equestrian...
Simple words

Simple words

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” —Jack Kerouac Here is the aspiration of my life in teaching dressage. I have found that the words may be simple, but now I find that there are too many, but then again, if I reduce them down to just a few, the result is surprising. We journey forward together, the horse and I, and we have found a deep appreciation for our mutual sacredness. We are in nature not really different and so in extending loving kindness, we partake of the precious love which embodies our mutual existence. So it is that great love grows greater and showers its blessing all around. This is what dressage has taught me. It is all simply love in...
Inlaid with gold

Inlaid with gold

As long as our approach to dressage is based upon enriching ego, then it is a form of materialism which places the horse last. it is a self-destructive process which is quite suicidal rather than a creative process. All the promises of dressage that we have heard are pure seduction. We expect the teachings to solve all our problems with the horse. We expect to find in dressage a magical means to deal with the horse and vent our aggressions and hangups in the training. But eventually we begin to realize that this magical horsemanship is not going to happen. It is disappointing to realize that we must work both inwardly and outwardly on ourselves and cultivate an awareness of the horse. At some point, one might even realize that after owning several horses that our money cannot save us or there is no magical power in this or that school of dressage. Of course, we can put this off by hiring a trainer to do the work but then our relationship with the horse becomes a sort of mythological story which supports our ego. It is disappointing to realize that we have to give up our expectations, and rather than build on the basis of our preconceptions about the horse and dressage, we must allow ourselves to be disappointed with our own work in order to progress with the horse. This means we must surrendering our ego and our desire for achievement and get down to doing the real work. If we can open to the horse, we then can be educated by the horse and surrender our...
Sunny today?

Sunny today?

Every time we go to the barn we bring with us ourselves and present to the horse who and what we are and the horse presents itself in a like fashion. We both greet and meet each other. While perhaps this may strike one as obvious because we see ourselves and the horse as the object of the presentation, what we fail to see is that we are a rather transparent mist of who we are as well. Parts of us exist beyond the realm of objects and things. We are living in a haze of intention. We are not just solid beings, nor is the horse, but we are composite beings which present a micro-climate of sorts. The question that arises from this is ” What is the weather like today?” This kind of subjective meteorology affects both the horse and human, but like the weather here, storms and clouds appear close to the planet and that if we can fly we can lift ourselves beyond the weather. There is always a level where the sun shines. The power of the horse for most people is the power they have of lifting us from our local weather into the eternal sunshine above the clouds. Of course, it does not always work out that way, but a dressage of goodness exists always above the clouds. The point of training is the find stability beyond any microclimate and while this relatively easy for the horse, it takes a lot of mind training for a human. It is not that horse’s do not have weather but that their weather easily changes; they...