Interaction and Communication

Interaction is needed in all forms of communication. The definition is, an action when 2 or more things have an affect on one another. It is a form of cause and effect in many ways. Magnets communicate through interaction by pushing apart or pulling themselves together. There are many subtleties in all forms of Interaction. The radiation of the Sun interacts with all living things, plant and animal. As well as the Earth and rock. Without the subtle Interactions with the Sun, plants wouldn't grow, there would be no evaporation, warming, and it even produces vitamin D naturally in the human body. The Suns energy interacts and effects everything in and beyond our solar system. Its the reason all the Planets orbit around it. These are just a few simple examples of Interaction.

We have Interactions in so many ways on a daily basis. Whenever there is anything in close proximity, there will be interaction of some kind. There are even interactions with things that are light years away and still they  have an effect on us. Just passing someone on the street is an interaction. You may have needed to move over so to not run into them. Maybe you admired something they were wearing, carrying, or the smell of their perfume or cologne. Sometimes a moment of interaction becomes embedded as a memory. It may be forgotten only to reappear decades later. The simple idea of catching a cold, or disease is interaction related. Transferred from one to another and travels throughout. Some of which started generations ago, maybe even century's ago.

We tend to go through life almost totally oblivious to our interactions with others. Not paying any attention to cause and effect in any way. Our focus tends to be more on our own wants and needs. Other things tend to be outside of our acknowledgment or understanding. Only people who work at obtaining a heightened sense of awareness will even begin to acknowledge it or try to understand it. The more we are aware of these things, the more we can evaluate and learn. Increasing our knowledge and understanding as well as our ability to communicate.

I can barely show you a puddle compared to the oceans of knowledge and understanding you can find on your own if you work on making yourself more aware of things. Evaluate, Read and Interpret simple interactions you may not even give a second thought to every now and then.

When it comes to your horse, you are having interactions all the time. As soon as they hear you coming, there is an effect of some kind. You can be a mile away, but if they can see or hear you, you are interacting. Interpret what cause and the effect this cause has on you, and your horse. Open your mind to a more heightened awareness. This will get you closer to the truth about what is happening. Most of us just assume. This leads to making excuses for a happening of some kind. Not allowing us to decipher what is really happening and why. In this way we have no idea on how to make it better. Sometimes we are not even aware there is a problem in the first place.

Working with horses opened my mind to so many things. Things I would otherwise think don't even matter. Trust me when I say, "it all matters, every bit of it"  I am finding the more I learn and understand, the more there is to learn and understand. The one thing I understand best is that it is never ending, and that my understanding will change from time to time as my knowledge and experience increases.

So I invoke a challenge in all of you. Evaluate your Interactions. Search for better understanding. It's a well groomed path to enlightenment, and the view along the way is so inspirational.
Thanks for reading along.

The Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How of Horsemanship

Being this is a Blog about Communication. I thought it would be wise to write about this topic. After all, any good journalist who is writing about something will ask and answer all of these questions in order to communicate their understanding to the best of their ability. So I started pondering on the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How of Horsemanship. All simple questions we need to ask and have the answer to before moving on to the next part. Its also important for us to be clear with our communications in what we are saying and in what we are hearing and interpreting. In Horsemanship, we must also ask How Much. We all go to clinics and demonstrations to try and learn something new. Most of us go to learn WHAT this trainer does and HOW they do it. But many of us leave out the rest. If this is all we take from it, we will get less than 25% of the information. Its all important. When communicating something to someone else or a horse all of these things should be known.

WHO as in who's turn is it to speak, or who needs to respond, and who needs to listen?

WHAT would be more than just what do i do now. It would refer to what is it I need, or what is the horse saying to me and what do they need from me? What goes so deep that we want to know spot on what we want or need to happen, Like front end or hind end movement, forward or backward, what position or body shape are we looking for?,,,etc...etc. What could also pertain to what is the anxiety level in us and or our horses. We should ask what could happen if we try this, as well as what should happen? So we need to think what do we want to happen and what is actually happening?

WHEN as in when is the best time to speak or respond or when is it best to stop and listen? When should something be introduced or asked for? Timing is everything. We can do all the right things at the wrong time and that is the same as doing it wrong.

WHERE is a huge question as well. Where do we want to go, not just in direction but with the conversation. Where should we focus our energy? Where do we need to be for this to work? Where is your horses and your own attention? and Where would you like it to be? Also we could ask where is the horses head, neck, or body position and or where would we like it to be? This would be the same for all body parts as well.

WHY and why not should be asked and answered. Why do we want this? Why is this happening? Why should we try this? Why is it important? The why not's also apply here.

HOW is about how we would like to go about things. How do we communicate this better and how do we understand what they are communicating better? How do we want things to play out or how is it supposed to go? There are many variations of how. Which how you choose isn't all that important. Its just important that you fully understand the how you chose to use. Just remember that no matter how well you know it, there is always more to know and learn.

HOW MUCH Lets not forget to ask How much and how much is to much? Keep this one up front in your mind. Its real important we know what works and what may be getting greedy. We don't want to be at a level of, its just enough, but it should be almost effortless. Sometimes the applied level may need to go up and down to fine tune it to that effortlessness. Just beware not to over do or under do it.

We can go so much deeper into every one of these questions. These are things I do instinctively whenever I am communicating with a Horse, a Dog, a Human, or a Cat. Its all part of my evaluation of the situation. In which I am constantly evaluating things as we go. I should mention that these questions are often asked on the fly and need to be analyzed in a blink of an eye. Its difficult to get the correct answer sometimes. But we need to shoot for it or we miss so much. The more you work on getting answers, the more you open your mind to the possibility of new knowledge and understanding. Understanding is relative to our knowledge and experience. The more we learn and the more we do, the better our understanding will be.

I hope this helps you all open your minds and understand the great possibilities that can come through better understanding.
Lets make the world a better place.
Thanks for reading along.

Choosing A Path To Your End Result

This topic is something that I wanted to speak about because there are so many ways to get where your going. An example of this could be. If I wanted to go to Bangor from my place, there are so many routes I could take to get there. In some cases the fastest way may not be the fastest way today. Meaning maybe there is an accident that is holding up traffic. If I wanted to just go a certain way because I knew the route better, this may not be a wise choice if maybe there was a bad snow storm. Then it might be better to stick to the main roads. In many cases you could be going along and have to detour for road construction or many other reasons.

This can be the same when working with our horses. It is true that we need a very clear understanding of where we want to go, or our end result. But we should do proper evaluations so we pick a good path to get there. We may find ourselves making a detour because something came up and we need to go a different route. Or the horse needs to understand something else first before they can understand the next part.

I say this because many people go at working with a horse in a planned out route. Using a method they learned from someone else. Even very well known trainers. Sometimes the timing is off and we need to do something else first in order for us to continue. Many methods are broken down so that if you follow it and make sure you're at a reasonable place to move on to the next step, it can be a clear path. There will always be something somewhere that will make you detour. It will either be a horse that is struggling to get the lesson, or maybe a person missing out on a proper evaluation and not being aware of the horses needs. If we miss out on the horses needs then they miss out on understanding us do to them not wanting to except us. We need to ask our questions at the best possible time. In order to do this we must fulfill the horses needs and only ask the questions they can answer.

I to have developed a program and method that I use when working with horses. I follow a path that I've learned to be most productive. But there are times I have to back up because the horse showed me something that needs more or individual attention before I go any further. Sometimes its in me, sometimes its in the horse. Either way the horse always shows me what it is.

When working with students I like to show them the way I do it. Making sure they know that they need to develop their own way. Sometimes what we think is the best way, may not be the best way for us at this time. Sure we can practice anything long enough and well enough to get good at it. But just like the detours in our travels, or with our horses. There may be a detour we need to take in order to get there. We all have limitations. Sometimes they are emotional, physical, mental, even spiritual. We need to take them into consideration and develop them accordingly in order to progress. If we play to our strengths and work on our weaknesses, we can make progress. The horse can tell us these things as well if we listen to them.

In short the point I'm trying to make is, "Be sure to carefully take care of your horses needs before asking them to fulfill yours" Its easy enough to do but sometimes gets forgotten when we are focused on other things. Also, "Be honest with yourself and your limitations so you don't try something you are not ready for" We need to progress in an orderly fashion. We may need to work on our weaknesses first before moving on.

Thank you for reading and I hope this helps and makes sense to everyone. As always this is an interactive Blog, so feel free to comment or ask questions.