Ok, so generally when I'm working with horses I have a goal in mind. Not all the time, sometimes, we just ride or play with no particual focus at all which I view as equally important.
However when working on something with a horse towards your percieved goal are you fully concentrated on getting the result or on whats happening in the process towards that? Generally the process is normally seen as the means to achieve the goal.
For example, I have been working with my mare over backing over a pole. This is something she has real issues with. She dislikes things round her back legs, although I've spent a lot of time getting her to accept a rope near her back legs, which she now does, other things still worry her. So as she backs over a pole, touching it or accidently moving it with her foot is a big issue.
She hasn't got good spacial (sp?) awareness. She finds it very difficult to judge how close she is to something, say a jump, when to take off and how high to jump. So actually knowing where the pole is, is difficult for her, she's constantly looking behind trying to gage how far it is away, how high to step and what to do if she catches it and it moves.
So first of all I just play with asking her to put one foot over it. Controlling her movement. If she takes a foot back without me asking she meets the pressure of the rope till she puts the foot back. Another thing she has a huge dislike for is pressure on her head. (I use a spliced rope halter meaning there are no knots which place less intensity on a specific area.) She reacts by putting her head up and pulling back. By keeping the pressure on (which isn't a huge amount) untill she steps forward she learns not only to keep a hoof where I ask her to keep it for the length of time I ask her to keep it there but also not to resist pressure.
Anyway, I've gone on enough about backing over the pole. The point is, although I've not yet achieved the goal of backing her over the pole, we have both learnt a lot from the process. Shes learnt how to pick her feet up, how to trust that I know where to put them and what I'm doing and how long to leave them and how not to resist pressure. She also learned that when she did move the pole with her feet how to contain her fear so it's expressed as just a snort and then a return to being in a calm and submissive mind frame ( instead of jumping upwards and backwards, her eyes having grown stalks
). I learned, how and when was the best time to apply pressure and release it in order to support her to trust; myself, the pole, the rope and her environment.
The goal of backing over the pole means nothing. How often is it going to be neccesery to back over a pole anyway? I could of gone in with strong energy, told her not to think about it and backed her up hard till she jumped back over it. This is asserting my dominant possistion but no leadership is envolved. Nothing is gained. The process of her thinking and working things out was really the goal in the end, and the act of backing over the pole was insignifcent (sp?).
So there is my anwser, but I wondered generally what people placed importance on, the process or the goal?
However when working on something with a horse towards your percieved goal are you fully concentrated on getting the result or on whats happening in the process towards that? Generally the process is normally seen as the means to achieve the goal.
For example, I have been working with my mare over backing over a pole. This is something she has real issues with. She dislikes things round her back legs, although I've spent a lot of time getting her to accept a rope near her back legs, which she now does, other things still worry her. So as she backs over a pole, touching it or accidently moving it with her foot is a big issue.
She hasn't got good spacial (sp?) awareness. She finds it very difficult to judge how close she is to something, say a jump, when to take off and how high to jump. So actually knowing where the pole is, is difficult for her, she's constantly looking behind trying to gage how far it is away, how high to step and what to do if she catches it and it moves.
So first of all I just play with asking her to put one foot over it. Controlling her movement. If she takes a foot back without me asking she meets the pressure of the rope till she puts the foot back. Another thing she has a huge dislike for is pressure on her head. (I use a spliced rope halter meaning there are no knots which place less intensity on a specific area.) She reacts by putting her head up and pulling back. By keeping the pressure on (which isn't a huge amount) untill she steps forward she learns not only to keep a hoof where I ask her to keep it for the length of time I ask her to keep it there but also not to resist pressure.
Anyway, I've gone on enough about backing over the pole. The point is, although I've not yet achieved the goal of backing her over the pole, we have both learnt a lot from the process. Shes learnt how to pick her feet up, how to trust that I know where to put them and what I'm doing and how long to leave them and how not to resist pressure. She also learned that when she did move the pole with her feet how to contain her fear so it's expressed as just a snort and then a return to being in a calm and submissive mind frame ( instead of jumping upwards and backwards, her eyes having grown stalks
). I learned, how and when was the best time to apply pressure and release it in order to support her to trust; myself, the pole, the rope and her environment.The goal of backing over the pole means nothing. How often is it going to be neccesery to back over a pole anyway? I could of gone in with strong energy, told her not to think about it and backed her up hard till she jumped back over it. This is asserting my dominant possistion but no leadership is envolved. Nothing is gained. The process of her thinking and working things out was really the goal in the end, and the act of backing over the pole was insignifcent (sp?).
So there is my anwser, but I wondered generally what people placed importance on, the process or the goal?
