Becoming the kind of human a horse seeks to be with
Posted in Anaïs, behaviourist training, body language, energetical, Horses, Humans, liberty on Aug 23rd, 2020
Whenever anyone tells me an extraordinary – by ordinary standards – story about their horse’s ability to understand and communicate with them in the absence of any training or trained (conditioned) behaviour, I usually encourage them to share it with other horse people. My thinking goes along these lines: the more we humans realise what […]
Posted in behaviourist learning theory, behaviourist training, Francesco de Giorgio, Horses, Humans, Lucy Rees, natural, natural horsemanship, science-based on Aug 31st, 2018
Much, if not most of the time that we humans spend interacting with our horse is devoted to behaviourist training, such as habituation, or positive or negative reinforcement. How many of us are aware that behaviourist training is not only exceedingly limited but also even destructive?
We know so much about horses but have such little understanding of the horse. Understanding the horse’s nature allows us to pursue choice rather than control, connection instead of coercion, communication as opposed to conditioning. This is a reality that I now experience with my own horses. A path to the horse is open to all of us. Simply discover the power of being with horses. Is it not time to be fully human … for them, for ourselves?
I have learned to listen to horses speak through their movements, their expressions and ultimately their energy along with much that has been recorded about them. Listening to horses speak has changed my life and taught me a great deal. This book contains a little of what I have learned from horses while listening to them speak. And much of it is startlingly different from what we take for granted.
Urgently in need of a meaningful change of life, a man decides to cross the world together with his wife, a horse and a dog to spend a year training full-time with Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling , arguably the most popular horse trainer in the world based on social media statistics. He expects it to be life-changing. It is. These are his reflections.