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The Challenge of Change
Another lesson taught to me by the horses.
A gorgeous white stallion racing and jumping around in a huge outdoor arena. The brilliant blue summer skies highlighting his outline on one side of the arena and dark evergreens on the other.
The joy of working with a new rider and/or a new horse are the lessons that you will learn along the way. It doesn’t matter that you are supposed to be the one teaching. As a teacher, I frequently feel I am the one learning new lessons that need to be passed on.
I only met this horse a few minutes ago, and already he was teaching me. It makes me a little nervous for what the future holds. I have a feeling this stallion will have a lot to teach me.
I marvelled at his ability to be a gummy bear in three dimensions. I had never quite seen anything quite like this. One moment, his withers were down, not only his withers but also his entire body, compared to the fence behind him. The next moment, in the very next stride, his movement was completely different, and his body had moved up by at least 8 to 12 inches with withers raised well above his croup. The next moment, he was doing the turn on the haunches with his torso lifted and a bascule to die for that resulted in an upright compact body that yet again changed moments later.
From stride to stride, from moment to moment, his body bent first one way, then another; the withers dipped, and then they rose, and his body morphed into different carriages from moment to moment.
This is who and what he was when he was left on his own.
This is something that should speak to your soul, challenging you at every level. Asking you if you can meet your horse here?
Working on behalf of the horses, we challenge you again and again to meet the horse where he is.
We challenge you to become the horse.
We challenge that from the perspective of the horse, you become one because nothing in you interferes with what is in him.
And now we challenge you, asking you, if you can match this? Could you be one with a horse that has this kind of athleticism?
We as humans think skill lies in riding the same stride, stride after stride. Perhaps the next time you ride, check and see how many strides that you ask your horse to stay the same. And then, ask yourself why! What does that give to the horse? Rhythm, maybe, but a constant change in shape does not negate that rhythm can’t be a part of that.
While I marvelled at the time it took my sleeping brain to realize exactly how unique this was. To put two different facts together.
The first fact was, this horse. at least from one stride to the next, this horse was infinitely variable.
The second fact was how many muscle groups do you think that get worked when every transition asks something new of the both of you? How do you find new muscle groups to work, how do you find new ways to work ones that you are using right now?
Horses are creatures of movement.
Riding an endless circle is not movement, not engaging all of you. Not engaging for you. Not engaging for your horses.
If we asked a dancer to repeat the same movement over and over again in the same posture with the same frame, they would seem stagnant and boring. That isn’t dancing, that is more like jogging! And that is what we do with our horses when we don’t challenge their balance, their shape, their carriage.
The definition of movement is simple.
The definition of movement is change.
To alter, convert, reorganize.
We need to challenge our horses.
Challenge means changing from the moment before.
How atuned can you be if everything is the same and no challenge is issued? How awake and focused can you be on each other unless you welcome the joy of finding something new between the two of you.
