Inside out not outside in

Inside out not outside in

As with most things, there are two aspects to working with the horse; subjective and objective. It is important to keep in mind that the real value in dressage is always subjective and about a personal experience with the horse. The denial of the subjective realm does not make it vanish. All because in modern times we are lost in a seeming self righteous objectivity does not remove the importance of the cultivation of a personal and subjective dressage. The simple fact that unity between the horse and rider must start from the human side and that this starts from the inside out does not mean that the willing acceptance of the horse can be avoided. We like to think of human superiority creating a dressage which as the dictation of the horse’s surrender, but in fact it is the other way around. Our true superiority is in the acceptance of our need to surrender to the horse and good dressage are the terms of the deal. In the “deal” we do not have to give up our ego, but we do learn of the terms the horse would have for the ego to exist. In this compromise we learn of the importance of the exchange of another (the horse) with our self. In service to the horse, we can find the value of our own humanity. We are at our best when we put the welfare of another before our own. This is where the nobility of dressage is found and the place where the birth of sanity occurs. At this point, dressage is personal and subjective and objective dressage...
Naked and alive

Naked and alive

There is a certain willingness to be naked which is essential to dressage. We must be willing to drop the garments created by our minds to be able to “see” the horse.   The force we generate by our thoughts “dress” the horse and then we can only see the costumes we create. Some of us dress the horse in a loose fit others seek tight garments but lose or tight, we cannot see the horse and then horse cannot see us either.   This amor we create, at its best, only adds a layer of confusion. Drop all contrived devices. Only a simple bit, because only the bit can let us deeply penetrate the horse’s mind. A whip is required because our arms are not long enough to love the horse fully. A saddle with a tree is required, because our seat bones create discomfort and/or our legs block the horse’s movements.   These requirements are debated by those who follow the fashions, but never by those whose education and experience really can see the horse. If you do not understand the use of equipment, you will not understand the choice involved.   The “dressing” of the horse in your version of what your personally see as natural does not mean that you are encountering the natural horse. It only means that you have dressed the horse in the outfit of your dream. To get beyond this is first to stop and find the meaning of the zero state.   Once you are at zero, then the bit is added first and then the whip and finally the...
Two views

Two views

Method or Relationship Based Dressage “Method is everything.” There are many trainers who believe that there is no need for anything more than the application of method to the problem of training the horse. The relationship becomes balanced once the horse accepts the imposition of the method on its behavior. This is modern dressage. It is really a very impoverished manner of looking at the horse and human relationship. Of course, to people who have no other reference points, this poverty mind is not obvious. If instead, the relationship is placed before the method, then the method must deal with, and allow itself to be modified by, the relationship with the horse. The complexities of the horse and human individualities start to prevail rather than a black and white approach to training found in a method. When the relationship is put first then there arises a beautiful  texture in the work. It is not that without a guiding method the wheel needs to be reinvented, but instead a kind of playful delight starts to come into the work. A richness is present and for those who appreciate and value the individuality of relationships, they and the horse find a sense of excitement and discovery in the work. The noble rider of the 18th century had the time to play, and little need of a rigid method. Instead they had the luxury to relish the texture of the work. The military equitation of the 19th century, upon which modern dressage is founded, had no room for anything other than method. After the destruction of the royal schools in the French revolution, and the transfer...
Instructor training

Instructor training

Over the years, on many occasions, I have been asked to certify riding instructors. We have done a number of “instructor” courses over the years, but I have never felt comfortable certifying anyone. I have always felt like certification is something you get from the horse. Understand that my intent here is only to speak for myself and not others, but it has always seemed that certification courses always seemed to be to be a deception and a commercial exploitation of people by someone pretending to be an expert or by an institution or individual seeking power and this never seemed to have anything to do with the equitation I practice at all.   Expertise and extensive experience does not need to result in acclaiming oneself to be expert. It would seem, rather than claim expertise, that expertise is a quality which seems self evident in working with the horse and that experience, too, brings its own proofs to the situation with a horse. What we should acclaim is the status of being a student and that senior students become such from experience and reflection rather than the blessing of anyone else.   There are students and then there are students. The depth and clarity of the study/work is more important than the amount of time though the amount of time one spends does seem to be a factor, it is not conclusive at all. What seems most important is to learn how to study rather than amassing a bunch of facts. All senior students and teachers have serious long term students they like and approve of and others...
Joining

Joining

Four roads to the expression of the centaur effect:   (1) Contiguity The strength of associations of ideas, feeling and movement is due to (a) vivid or emphatic experience of two things in conjunction or (b) frequent repetition in conjunction of two things which are not vivid or emphatic in experience. (2) Class Relationship, or logical inclusion: coordinated activity and simple presence which leads to inclusion into the herd. Time and place are key in this inclusion. (3) Whole and Part, or concrete inclusion; the part follows the whole or the whole follows the part in a weak but harmonious action which serves no purpose other than harmonization. (4) Object and Quality or functional inclusion. Balancing of the elements by attending to the textures.   Inclusion, from Latin includere ‘shut in’, from in- ‘into’ + claudere ‘to shut’. There are two sense of shut; one is to point in a direction (in old English shut and shoot are related) and the other is to close a gap. It is important that contact be maintained as much as possible by class rather than by grasping for connection. Gravity is the most logical form of inclusion and presence the next.   There is a sense of geometry and ideas of perpendicular and parallel are solidified. Proportion and careful respect of magnitude are important. All applications of force are always weak enough to allow gravity and presence to be the greatest strength.   The two objects create relationship. In the centaur effect the two basic objects are the horse and human. These objects relate in two planes physical and psychological. Relationships have...