Hi Judy, >>> Erica wrote an article entitled Control vs Respect:
I like that article. Years ago (about 1992) when I was teaching with Marty Bennett - who works with Camelids - in Australia we started talking about horses that did not appear to be afraid and were being described a dominant or alpha because they would not easily comply with human requests. We discussed Maslow's (sp?) hierarchy of needs - with the first need being to feel safe. So perhaps there are some animals who do not feel 'safe' giving up control and so when people try to take control of those horses (dogs are exactly the same - the 'top dog' theory) and if the horses don't feel safe with the person they resist what is being asked. It is a bit like asking a room of people how many people prefer to be the driver of a car versus the passenger - many of the group will say they prefer to be the driver - why - because they feel safer when they are in control. However, if they are with a driver that they trust, that is often fine. So if we have animals that we try to take control through dominance type training, some will comply and others not. Once an animal feels they can trust the person to be clear, consistent and listening to the horse it is no problem for them to comply. It helps when we don't put labels on animals because once a label is there, it can be difficult to remove or for people to see them in a different light. Robyn Icelandic Horse Farm Robyn Hood & Phil Pretty Vernon BC Canada www.icefarm.com -----Original Message----- http://www.awarenessinriding.com/blog/archives/81 Judy http://icehorses.net http://clickryder.com IceHorses Community for Photos and Videos: http://kickapps.com/icehorses "The greatest enemy of the truth very often is not the lie- deliberate, contrived and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive and unrealistic." "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." ~ Arthur Schopenhauer [] Lee Ziegler http://leeziegler.com [] Liz Graves http://lizgraves.com [] Lee's Book Easy Gaited Horses http://tinyurl.com/7vyjo [] IceHorses Map http://www.frappr.com/IceHorses Yahoo! Groups Links
