THE HORSE GAZETTE
A horse, Of Course
all events are training sessions for your horse
By Don Blazer © 2009
The nine secrets of
Your horse will study the event the herd) are the products of
perfect horsemanship are not
and learn from it and will not someone’s ego seeking quick
about styles or disciplines. They
easily forget it. peer approval. Avoiding the
are about finding perfection in a
When you are new or responsibility is not an action
moment.
inexperienced in training horses of the heart. The heart is brave
In the training of
you have to do a lot of “wrong” and accepts both the difficult
horses, the actions you take are
things in order to learn to do the and the easy.
yours. The actions others take
“right” things. Mistakes are To find perfect horse-
are their actions. To tell you
part of the learning process. It manship in every moment, we
“this is right” or “this is wrong”
is something to be accepted, but must accept the Third Secret:
or that you “must do this” would
not labeled. Practice non-judgment.
be imprudent on my part. What
There is only one rule It is not for you to
anyone does is “right” for that
to the training of horses which judge whether any thought
person at that time in that place
is followed by all good horse- or action is wrong or right, is
if they are open to the lesson.
men: Never knowingly place good or bad, is joyous or sad.
You have the power
unnecessary stress to the muscle, Every event will produce emo-
within to accomplish anything
skeletal or nervous system of the tions. The emotion must be
and if you follow your heart
horse. recognized, experienced and
you will always know the right
The key word is “un- accepted, but not judged.
thing to do. This, however, does
necessary.” Stress to muscles, Each event simply
not mean you will always enjoy
skeleton and nerves must occur “is.” You must see it for that
perfect days, blue skies, bright
for growth and strength and the and nothing more.
sunshine and smiling faces. No,
mental development needed How other trainers
your destiny is to experience
to reach perfection in perfor- train and how other riders ride
everything so you will recognize
mance. are mirrors for you to see into
perfection.
This single rule will yourself. Don’t judge them;
To know joy, you
guide you, and even though the learn from them.
must know sadness, to know
stresses may not always be well- Do not label, name
winning, there must be losing.
designed or well-implemented, or take a viewpoint about any
Peace is only possible if you
they will never be damaging event. View everything as
know chaos and relief only
if they are done with the best simply an event from which to
comes after the pain.
interest of the horse in mind. learn, the source of emotions to
Mastering the third
However, if you are training be experienced, a moment in
secret will change your life by
from “ego” and not your heart, the process of moving toward
changing the way you view and
the stresses will almost always your perfection.
assess events. When you know
be “unnecessary.” Here are three guides
the third secret you will experi-
It is sometimes hard to help you: 1. Think, act,
ence events just as you do now;
to understand how a physical move slowly and your horse
however, you will not react to
discipline of the horse can be in will learn more quickly. 2.
events as you do now.
the horse’s best interest. Con- Set low goals so that all you
At the moment of an
sider this: within the herd there do with your horse will be
event, we give the event a label,
are many physical disciplines easy and successful. 3. Make
a name, a viewpoint. But if in-
enacted to stop unwanted or no criticism of yourself or your
stead of labeling the event, you
inappropriate behavior. Horses horse; accept yourself and your
accept it simply as a message,
do not learn from praise alone, horse without judgment.
learning comes more easily. If
constant rewards eventually
you ignore the message, you
have no meaning and horses do Don Blazer is the
learn nothing and diminish the
not understand the concept of author of seven horse how-to
flow of your creative potential.
praise or rewards being with- training and health care books.
Every event, every
held. You can visit his website www.
action also has a message for
The avoidance of the donblazer.com to read other
your horse, for all events with
responsibilities of discipline and articles.
your horse are a training session.
leadership (taking control of
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