By Brandon Carpenter, Part 1 Training is a term we have been conditioned to accept as done through tasks and by using tools. This is true, but sometimes the tools we use, we cannot see, taste, hear, smell or physically touch. If we cannot see or touch the tool how can we use it? The sense we employ to use this tool is feel. This feel is different however from the feel we traditionally experience through our fingers or skin.
Instead I am referring to the inner feeling that goes on inside our bodies to create an emotional and physical change in us. This feeling changes us as well as those we come in contact with. What does this have to do with training or even handling horses? A lot! It actually has more to do with training ourselves in order to work more effectively and subtly with horses. What is sadness, joy, fear, aggression or any other feeling but an emotion within us? In short it is a state of being that we get a physical internal sensation from. This internal sensation influences our attitude, thoughts and physical demeanor. We have all heard the expressions "dead on my feet" or "my heart was in my throat". What do those words describe? Obviously they aren't literal terms, but terms to describe a feeling. For most of us it conjures up a memory we can identify with when we felt a certain way. The feeling we got when we were so tired our energy was low and in our feet, or so scared about something our energy was in our throat. Energy is the key. Energy is something for most of us that we know is there and available for us to consume every day. We consume it to light, heat or cool our homes, cook our meals, drive our cars, as well as thousands of other uses. We tend to think of energy as a tool for us to get what we want or need to sustain life. We purchase it from companies as a commodity every day. There is also the type of energy that is not just a commodity, but is what makes us live as a biological unit in our very base form. This energy is what you use to influence yourself and others around you. It is the energy of your being. We use this energy every day and never give it much more of a thought other than how much do I have left at the end of the day. We tend to think of it as the gas in our tank. We view it as what we need to get more of in order to do more activity. I like to think of energy as something that is directly tied to our emotions and thoughts, not just viewed as a commodity we use. The feeling you get when you are suddenly scared causes the emotion of fear. That emotion causes the body to react by dumping a chemical called adrenaline into your blood stream from the adrenal glands. This chemical allows your body to react with a fight or flight response. The amount of adrenaline released is somewhat measured by the size of the threat as perceived by you. What does this have to do with energy used as a tool? Let's demonstrate. Imagine that you are out in the mountains in an open flat clearing with no trees within 100 yards. The gentle warm breeze carries the smells of the grass, flowers and trees permeating the air. You are meandering alongside a nice creek. You are focused on the water, rocks, and sound of the water running. It is a beautifully tranquil day. Suddenly you hear something behind you. You turn and look only to see a very large grizzly bear running at you and growling as he quickly closes some distance between you. You wheel around and instinctively run toward someplace for protection. You decide your only chance is to make it to the trees. Your "heart is in your throat" as your body is moving like never before. The bear is still chasing you because you can hear his growls getting louder and closer. You don't know how close he is, but know he is gaining on you. You are not sure if you will make it to the trees and be able to climb one in time, but you keep running for your life. Just by reading this, your thoughts and imagination made your body react with a small shot of adrenaline. You don't even have to be in the real situation for this to occur. This has been proven time and again with researchers measuring heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, respiration, galvanic skin content, blood analysis and reporting of emotional state through questioning of the subject themselves. Perhaps right now you feel your heart beating slightly faster and maybe have a little more available energy. There is really nothing new here that hasn't been known and taught for centuries. I was taught to control my emotion and energy and therefore my body in order to do things I never thought possible in the martial arts. The research described with the bear encounter only gave me more evidence that what I learned in the martial arts is real and measurable to someone outside of myself. Why is this important? Because knowing this we can use thoughts and emotion to influence how we emotionally and therefore physically control situations when dealing with others. Animals are especially sensitive to our emotional states and are influenced by them to a high degree. If we think it, we create it in our minds and our emotion and body follows what the brain has told it. Therefore, thoughts are things. I'm sure most of us have seen a horse respond nicely to one person through what appears to be great training. It is calm, obedient, willing and attentive. That individual can get off the horse and another person mounts up, but within mere minutes the horse is not the same horse it was with the previous rider. It is the new rider that influences the behavior with little apparent physical change. I see some horses being troublesome; have a rider change and almost immediately become calmed and willing. Again the rider is the changed influence. It is common for none of the riders to pinpoint exactly what they did to influence the horse. Often they are just being themselves. It is their emotional state and the influence it brings to the horse that causes the horses' behavioral change. This means we need to learn how to analyze and control ourselves to cause positive behavior from our horse. Many times during clinics or in lessons I see people having problems with their horse. When I begin to help them, one of the questions I ask is how they feel about the relationship they have with the horse. Within a short time we drill down to the core issue, and find that the person is scared of the horse, or scared of certain situations they are afraid of putting the horse into. Some have even said they don't like what the horses' behavior is and over time have begun to dislike the horse. They are looking for ways to fix the horse. What those honest answers reveal is an underlying emotional "state of being" on their part. Upon asking them to pinpoint when they first feel the way they do about the situation, they almost always answer similarly. Before they even approach the horse, they envision how the horse is going to react. This thought process often takes place whenever they think of the horse and it becomes their dominant belief system. They don't even have to be anywhere near the horse to make a judgment on how its behavior is going to be. They mentally and emotionally prepare themselves for how they believe the horse will behave. And what happens? The horse does exactly what that individual's emotional communication has told it to do. Call it self fulfilling prophecy, but they are controlling how the horse will act by setting the tone of the communication between them before even being near the horse. (continued) Judy http://icehorses.net http://clickryder.com
