Do your thinking at night, and your feeling during the day
This day, I... *Charted my horse's horsenality *Learned/reviewed the 8 principles of Parelli Natural Horsemanship *Played me & my shadow *demanded respect during feeding time
What thresholds did my horse have? The entrance of the playground, didn't feel like going to investigate that area
What surprised me about my horse? He's really curious, high energy
3 Things I want to think about tomorrow: 1. Haltering: build & maintain quality 2. Try more different catching games 3. Slow & right beats fast & wrong!
Domestication The horse was domesticated 4000 years ago. At first for their meat and milk, later to work in agriculture. Later on they were used for wars. Since then people started with genetically engeneering, so their horses would be better than those of the enemy. Breeds started to develop, for their endurance and strength. This was also the period were saddles and stirrups were invented, tools to brace. The Greek general Xenofon has written the first work about the horse as a tool for the military, and nowadays there are still dressage schools like the Spanish Riding school, which is a remaining product of that idea. A third reason for domestication was transportation, to deliver mail or food for exemple. Some of these animals escaped, like the mustangs. They're hated by farmers, because their desire to make a herd is so big that they still steel domesticated horses out of their pastures. If we overlook the history of the horse, it's only been domesticated for a very short period of time.... It doesn't take long to turn a domestic horse back into a wild horse, because they're still very close to their roots.
Survival of the fittest We all know this law of nature: the one who addapts himself the best to a new situation, survives... There's an everlasting natural selection going on, and only the fastest, cleverest and healthiest creatures survive.
The two teams In this competition, there are 2 teams: predators and prey animals. Predators, like a lion or a wolf, are born to kill prey animals: their eyes are close to eachother so they can focus on a prey. They often hunt in groups for convenience, but they'll always try to get the best bite. They want to survive as anindividual. Prey animals are born to not be killed by predators: their eyes are to the side of their head, so they are very well equiped to register every suspicious movement. They move in herds, often with the youngest animals in the middle and the old and weak on the outside. They all want to survive if possible, but their natural mechanism works that the old and weak ones will die first. Survival of thespecies is more important.
The game of nature The game plays itself: the one who's the fastest, strongest, cleverest, and the most explosive wins. If you ever saw a documentary on African wildlife, you surely noticed how close predators can come to a herd, without immediately chasing them away... That's because the herd animals feel their focus. In nature, energy is money! It's no use for them to run away and waste valuable energy when they run into another pack of predators who's waiting for them at the next stop. No, they just continue like their noze is bleeding, but in the meanwhile they're thinking their way out. The best way for them to survive is slowly sneak away, without a predator even notices it. After all, they know predators aren't going to throw themselves in the herd and take a lucky shot. Their energy is way to valuable too, they're observing the herd first and pick an easy victim. So the first stage is the game is: who's the cleverest?
Predators plan their attack, but once they're in attack modus, the adrenaline rushes through their veins to maximise their body strength. This takes a lot of energy. A smart predator will wait until he can do a surprise attack, his changes are bigger when the prey is just scratching his ear. If the prey animal is attentive enough and notices the attacking predator, it has some seconds in its advance. Its energy goes up as well, and runs for it's life. The time between the moment the predator starts to attack and the moment the prey animal runs away is crucial for the game. This stage is defined by who's the most explosive?
After that stage all activity from both teams is going to their feet: they run for their lifes... both of them! A predator only has about 5 attempts to win a game before he starts getting too weak to ever catch a prey again, and is bound to die a slow and painfull death. The one who has the most endurance wins this part. This stage is called who's the fastest?
The finals start when there's an open fight... everything is allowed from both teams and usually the one with the most athleticism wins. Sometimes a prey animal can escape, by kicking and biting... and then pulling back as quick as possible. Who's the strongest?
Men are predators, we're in the opposit team of nature.
So what's the deal?
A week after the course I came back home and saw a documentary on National Geographic. I was really amazed by how long, and how close the lions could hang around the herd of zebras... Just like they were almost part of the herd. I was thinking about where this fits in the whole prey animal - predator relationship thing? How can they get so close to a lion and not freak out? I was thinking about how deep this law of nature is... Horses and humans are not so civilised or domesticated as we think... So can it be that horses just hang around us because they feel like they're in stage 1 of the nature game? Can it be that the so called partnership we'd like is just an illusion? I've been struggling with this for a couple of days, but then I remembered John saying: If you can't read the behavior, you can always ask yourself: Is he acting like a partner? Horses who are acting like a prey animal are not partners, but then again... I guess a good mare teaches her foal to be an excellent prey animal. We are the natural enemies of horses, but can we convince them that we are not acting like predators but like partners? Can we act like partners and not like predators? After all, we are raised to be good predators. Can we overcome a game that's as old as life itself? Isn't this the most difficult thing in the world?
Maybe it's just a dream, but it would be beautiful if we can build towards it by using love, language and leadership. I think the most important part of the journey to reach horsemanship is to release everything that's predator behavior, so they can release everything that's prey animal behavior. I have a long way to go.
PS: This all fits in principle 1: horsemanship is natural & principle 4: horses & humans have mutual responsibilities: don't act like a predator/prey animal, act like a partner.
PS: Did you notice how each horsenality comes forward in each stage of the game?
The day started with the introduction of the faculty members: Cathy, John, Avery, Julia and Lea as support.
Then John continued with giving us some outlines for the rest of the day, and how to set things up for success during this course. He told us their task was to make us feel uncomfortable... they'd never come to us unless we're in danger... but they're very happy to answer our questions as long as they start with HOW... I knew this already from the previous course, and was now fully prepared for this, but I saw also the horrified expressions of other participants faces... hihi.
Welcome to the Parelli center, make yourself uncomfortable!
Another big request was to not ask or give eachother advice. Very, very, VERY good idea... I didn't have much problems with that, I was at the source of the knowledge, and I would drink only the pure stuff! I think other horse people are crap anyway! (there are some exceptions)
HOW questions are the only questions that lead to an immediate progress. They can be both principle or purpose oriented, but in any case they have a constructive outcome. WHAT IF... WHY... can be nice stuff for a discussion, but that's not why you're at the center. HOW questions also learn you to think about what you're looking for, what you'd like to change. They set you up to think about a solution instead of accusing the problem.
Give a man a fish, and he has food for one day, give him a fishline and he's never hungry again. That's the whole course idea: they want to turn us into superlearners! They want to learn us to feel frustration because that's what you feel before you change. In the end, it's worth it!
The most important thing is to keep track of your own progress. We had all the freedom in the world to EXPERIMENT! Horsemanship is not science, so you can only find things out if you take that 50/50 chance. Every horse is different... don't make assumptions that a certain arrow won't work!
As a student you can not make any mistakes. You can only make a mistake if you know better
The art is to try something and OBSERVE the behavior, REMEMBER it, try another thing and then COMPARE the results.
The definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result
So.... You know the principles by heart... What's next?
Put your heart in your hands, and your hands on your horse
It's that simple! But if you're just like me trained to be difficult, only the difficult things are simple, and the simple things difficult. No worries! Parelli has a real nice way to deal with difficult people, so if you're difficult or really all new with this stuff you should immediately visit www.parelli.com.
Let's continue...
The first course is called "Liberty & horse behavior". It's a 2 week course, the first week we learned all about the principles, the second week we added some purpose to those principles. In the next posts I'll describe day by day what we've been learning.
Since I came home from the states I discovered I have a new understanding about the Parelli program, I made big steps towards becoming more of a horseman. That means that instead of just a human, I spent some very intense moments sharing and understanding a horse in such a manner that this deeper understanding brought a little piece of 'horse' into my way of thinking, feeling, acting and dreaming. To me this has been a magical experience, and I am quite sure it's one of the most valuable events that can ever take place in a human lifetime.
I learned so many things at the center that it's very hard to explain it in a constructive and comprehensive manner. I'm still going to try anyway...
Let me start by trying to convince you of the importance of principles: A basic ingrediënt of Parelli is CHANGE, what leads in a positive way to PROGRESSION. There are 2 ways you can change: you can change the way you ACT or you can change the way you THINK. They both affect eachother. But if you want to change the way you act without knowing why, chances are after a while you'll just continue with the same old behavior.. because you lack the motivation and the clear understanding to practice the new behavior long enough to make it feel natural to you and eventually master it. If you want to change the way you think without also supporting it with acting in a different way, you never give yourself the chance to experience the new behavior, and reinforce the idea when it works or replace the idea by another when it doesn't work. Either way, if you want to change your behavior successfully, you need to have a clear, structured motivation: A PRINCIPLE. Principles are the roots, the foundation, of everything you ever want to achieve in your life.
In the Parelli Programm, there are only 8 principles. If you have a true understanding of those principles, you dream, feel, act and think like a horse. Then there's more than just a horse and just a human... there's horsemanship.
EIGHT PRINCIPLES
1. Horse-Man-Ship is natural
2. Dont' make or teach assumptions
3. Communication is 2 or more individuals sharing and understanding an idea.
4. Horses & humans have mutual responsibilities.
5. The attitude of justice is effective.
6. Body language is the universal language.
7. Horses teach humans & humans teach horses.
8. Principles, pupose & time are the tools of teaching.
I'll explain them in my next posts, but I suggest you learn them by heart. To me, these principles are the beginning, the middle and the end of everything I do with horses, and it makes everything so much easier... I can guarantee your horse is going to adore you when you master these principles...
*Car broke... at the garage... is going to cost me WAY TO MUCH money for such an old WRECK... but I don't yet have a job, so the damn thing has to run untill it dies... I am SO pissed off! *Still looking for a job, the chat with the Proximus guy didn't go so smooth, but I still have 2 other applications running. *Next week I have the evaluation test for the police. *I want to go to the nice and warm fitness center... but I first have to wait untill my car is fixed.
And I'm dreaming about my own appartment, a fine job, a nice new car and especially A HORSE! Last weekend we went for a walk with Crumpie and got a little bit lost. At the end of an agricultural we found a beautiful pasture, with an even more beautiful 2yr old warmblood in it. She was alone, and came floating towards us, in a nice flowing trot. My heart melted!
Obama is the official president of the United States...
And I am officially subscribed for the first recruitment test of the police! I am also training pretty hard to run longer and faster... Yesterday I ran 1600m in 12 minutes, which is an average of 8,5km an hour... this after only 12 days of training...
Yes! I finally have an appointment with a serious company! They're looking for extern sales people for a phone company. If the first months go well I get a car.. Sounds interesting!
Yesterday I went body jamming, it was fun! This evening I go to the yoga class... becoming balanced!
2009 will be the year of building emotional, mental, physical and financial fitness... I am still looking for a job, which is actually more difficult than I thought at first. There are a lot of crappy jobs, but I am looking for something that looks nice on my resume... but I guess I'll just have to hang in there, and keep on looking.
So my days were quite lazy, altough I have the time to get things in order, like paper work for instance.
BUT the main thing is that I took a Gold Pass at Health City, a very nice fitness center! For the next 12 months I can go everyday to train, lift, run, swim, cycle, jump, and all that stuff... and afterwards I can take a shower, sauna, steam bath or relax under a solar screen I wonder how much better I will look and feel next year
I started just this Friday, so I only did the Cardio training, but after the tests with my consultant next week i can start doing the strenght exercices. Tonight I am going to do my first lesson of Body Jam, that's a work out on music...
I hope I can maintain this standard of happiness I feel right now, that I find my way into a job that suits me, so I can buy a horse in a reasonable period of time...
Horses give you the feeling that everything else is less important.
Apparently, I had to do more than just the test of French... in the end I spent all afternoon making tests... It's been a while since I challenged my brain, so I was out of my comfort zone. At the end of the day I called the agency, and I was positively surprised by the results:
(Maximum score is 5) English: 4 French: 2,5 Calculating: 3 Logical thinking: 3 Speed and accuracy: 3 Understanding a written explanation: 4
I had a special remark for my test of English: I had 74 correct answers out of 80 questions! Yihaa!
These results are really okay, so they're going to introduce me at Proximus, which is the biggest phone company in Belgium..... I'm looking forward to it!
*recovering from a major jet lag. *celebrating christmas here at home with my family. *getting my application forms ready to send. *celebrating new years eve eating gourmet and stone grill, and afterwards we went dancing a little bit. It was fun! Today I have an online test French, later they will call me for which vacancies I'm suitable. Interesting!
My dog is ill... she probably won't make it much longer. We've been to the vet 3 times already, and she's still very sick. Monday we'll go to take pictures of her intestins.
By this time tomorrow I'll be on the Orlando airport... snif snif. So now I am packing like a maniac... all the space in my luggage needs to be superefficiently organised... Because else I'll have to leave things here... I still have lots of stuff to pack..
Yesterday we had a party over at Karens place.. It was very nice! We ate BBQchicken, fresh oisters and clamps, and Julie made some chili. It was delicious! A lot of people from the ranch were there. Brian and Jay played old country western songs on their guitars, and I had a real nice chat with Lauren. Suddenly she was talking about the rich history of Belgium, while I was standing behind her She visited Ieper and Waterloo (if you don't know these places you should google them immediately!), and also said that the Belgian food is the best food in the world..; I like that girl!
I am ready to go now... I experienced the 6 weeks all the way now, I still had a taste of the country and the people.. And I also know why I go home: there's no place like Antwerp. Friday I showed some pictures of my city to Julie: the cathedral, the museum of arts, the Carolus Boromeus church, the Meir, ... Now that I experienced what it's like to be in a country with a very limited history I'm for sure going to look at ours with different eyes.
I had a fantastic time here... and I am confident that things will go better at home as well.
If you wonder why I am suddenly so quiet: I am applying for jobs. I sent 21 mails to 11 different agencies... If I come home tuesday there's going to be at least 1 positive reaction for me... Fingers crossed!
If you speak German this is THE site you HAVE to visit! If you don't, just find out where the pictures are.... http://www.lancretio.de/
It is the homepage of Iris, who shared the 6 weeks with me. She is a student of the Parelli program and she competes in S-dressage in Germany. I experienced her as a very centered person, and therefore nice to hang out with. One of the good things about following this program is that you learn how to be positive, progressive and natural, and I think you can find this qualities in her, and as well in what she writes on her website. Therefore I think it's very interesting to see the mass amount of pictures she took and her comments with it.
The course is over, so now it is time to let everything soak in, and enjoy my last week here in Florida.
In opposit to what I experienced during the weekends of my previous stay in Florida I didn't see so much of the country. That's mainly because this time I didn't have my party loving friends Sergio and Kyanna, and I also didn't have a rental car to go places. What I did have was... California girl with a comfortable Suburban.... who was so friendly to drive us 'everywhere' for 50 bucks a week. I soon found out that the word 'everything' covers the following places: Western World, Walmart, Mac Donalds, the Smoothie place, Wendy's, the Petro truck stop, Publix, Target, Best Buy, and of course the mall (both the Paddock Mall in Ocala as the Oaks Mall in Gainesville). The only exciting things I've seen during the weekends is the bowling alley and the movie theatre... Of course I am very grateful that I had a ride to get the supplies we needed to stay alive, and afer all I had a lot of fun with my 2nd roommate Gerlinde (I'll spare you guys the story about my roommates, but I returned the crappy one and got I nice one in return). At this point now I see that the gap between the cultures is more than Country Western Music and the type of car you drive in. In Belgium I never ever go shopping full days... 3 or 4 hours at max. Let alone that you do that every week, six weeks in a row.... I had a creepy feeling crawling down to my spine that this can be indeed ALL, and than I mean literally ALL life is about over here...
BUT Sunday morning Julie, Angelica, Gerlinde and me went to the cane grind. That's a harvest party of sugar canes. It was at a big old Southern house, which this family bought from the Spanish over a hundred years ago... real pioneers! The lady of the house was a real artist. She made jelly, bread and sirrup from the fruits of her garden, and she also decorated her Christmas tree with all natural things. We saw the cane being stripped into a machine that sqeezed the moisture out of the canes, and that was cooked above a special fire... It smelled delicious! Then we were invited to eat saucages, biscuits with sugar cane sirrup, and a big cup of coffee. We chatted with the grandma, the children and the grandchildren. In the afternoon we came back to buy more of their goodies, and everybody was there: 4 generations playing and chatting and having fun, ... of course a couple of dogs, some bikers... Black people and white people.. I loved it! A garden party in december... It felt like I was dropped in the middle of a movie scene
In the end the lady said to me that she was happy that a foreigner got to meet the real Florida... I have a lot of pictures which I'll soon put on Webshots... I had a fabulous time over there! I feel very lucky to find out that Florida is more than a nature park disturbed by huge commercial areas. Florida has the real southern soul....
Just a thought about last week: chaos is an essential stage of a learning process. It's the step where all the pieces of the puzzle are on a big pile on the table, the only thing you have to do is find the right construction. I think becoming a horseman is like a puzzle... Your horse, yourself, the principles and the purpose are the pieces, your learning curve defines the time line on which you add the pieces together. The more structure and consistency you build, the easier the puzzle will be. It's like finding the corner pieces first, that are the principles. Then the side pieces, that are the level 1 basics. Everything in between is attached to that. Level 10 is seeing the whole picture...
Yesterday I tried all the stuff, all at once: Longitudinal flexion using a fluid rein, latitudinal flexion using a direct rein, indirect rein, a suspension rein, and also transitions using a suspension rein... The fluid rein was ok, suspension rein was ok while on a latitudinal pattern (simply said: a cirlce), transitions was .. less. I was amazed on how particular you have to be in your body (The drag queen position, or contra-latitudinal position), especially your shoulder and hip position to get a nice response in your horses body and get him to soften his jaw. This stuff is really high level... Very interesting!
I also noticed he's not yet confident with the bit in his mouth, although he accepts it very well. Further I observed that he's not capable of shortening or lengthening his stride... he just speeds up or slows down without any difference in his body shape. Interesting!
The major things I have to work on are: RELAXATION!!!! Big time... Swinging the ribs so he's physically capable of moving his rib cage and swinging his shoulders more out and forward.
How can I let this horse move more like a tiger, and less like a turtle?
