In the Arena

[glenatron]

So following on from my photo-report of a few days ago, which I posted a link to from the only horsey forum I'm a regular on ( until recently the most open-minded and interesting horse related discussion group I've been part of ) the "can only do things through positive reinforcement" bunny-huggers really laid into Tom's work and my pictures with the typical pompous rudeness, arrogance and religious zeal that makes people who mistake clicker training for horsemanship so irritating to me. I don't deny that clicker training can be a useful tool but you've got to have more than that.

Anyways, thinking about that gave me an excuse to post a quote I found earlier this week ( probably something that my overseas friends have had drummed into them from the cradle ) from a speech by an American politician:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to develop into fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work of a workaday world. Among the free peoples who govern themselves there is but a small field of usefulness open for the men of cloistered life who shrink from contact with their fellows. Still less room is there for those who deride of slight what is done by those who actually bear the brunt of the day; nor yet for those others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not exactly what they actually are."

That's pretty much where I am in my thinking at the moment with regard to a whole selection of things.

Comments

[harnessphoto.livejournal.com]

there most certainly is a fine line, and you don't want to be on either side of it. you can't man handle a horse. that would never work. they're bigger than us, and they're prey animals that don't do well with fear-training techniques. HOWEVER (as any good NH trainer will tell you) a horse needs to know its bounds. you are not a horse's herdmate. you are his leader. end of story. he needs to respect you. however, he also needs to trust you. how you establish that trust/respect varies from horse to horse and person to person... but the basic concepts are the same. some horses need a little more loving/coaxing. some need a little more reprimand/firm hand.

my horse respects me not because i bully him, beat him, or 'put him in his place', as some rough-handed individuals would put it, but because i'm just as stubborn as he is and don't give up. however, he also trusts me in ways that other people envy. why else would he willingly lay down for me? or come swimming across a pond that nearly killed him just to reach my side... and in his mind, safety in my hands...? we have our arguments, and there are days when i have full out hit him as hard as i can (which isn't saying much, since i'm all of 120lb, and it was open-handed), but in the end, he would follow me off a cliff if i asked him. there is a reason why i can ride a horse that professional trainers gave up on.

i am by no means a NH endorser, but i have been to parelli and clinton anderston clinics, and have learned a lot from them. while my methods lean towards the traditional, i pride myself on the fact that i have an understanding of horses that some would find uncanny.