Fall, Fog and Horse as Teacher

What does October mean? Well, Wikipedia’s explanation is as follows:  ‘it is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and one of seven months with a length of 31 days. The eighth month in the old Roman calendar, October retained its name (from the Latim "octo" meaning " eight") after January and February were inserted into the calendar that had originally been created by the Romans’. Ok then…moving right along…

Fall, autumn, a time when the air is crisp and the leaves transform themselves from shades of green vitality to red, yellow, and orange vibrancy. There’s a subtle energy in this transformation, from life and photosynthesis to death and decay. Perhaps a lesson we humans can learn from nature is to embrace the vitality and vibrancy of transitions be it between the in and out breath, the spoken word, our thoughts or any of the millions of things we do. During my 45 minute walk this morning the light fog swaddled me with a force that lifted by spirits.  What started off as a quick brisk walk after about 15 minutes, transitioned into a more meaningful contemplative reflection about the many things I am grateful for, the lessons I am learning and the transformation of self. I reflected on spending time with family on Thanksgiving and it reminded me of this poem I wrote to my self several years ago:

to discern colors and shapes with clarity and crispness, I am grateful for sight

to enjoy the pleasure of food, drink and nourishment, I am grateful for taste

to be caressed with tenderness, and feel stroking circles, I am grateful for touch

to be aware of breath as it mingles with heartbeats, I am grateful for sound

to recite and quote the words of greatness, I am grateful for speech

I am grateful for the sangha

This weekend our class was held in the red barn; we travelled to Chilliwack to experience the Horse Expo called ‘The Mane Event’ with a particular focus on ‘The Trainers Challenge’. This was a competition between three experienced horse trainers; each had an hour to train their horse to perform

In the Show Pen

tasks such as moving in specific directions on command and crossing over obstacles like poles and tarp. Class readings such as ‘Becoming Horse in the Duration of the Moment: The Trainer’s Challenge’, ‘Experiencing Animals Minds’ and ‘Interbeing and Inter-species Communication’  and the lively classroom discussions prepared us for observing the pedagogical development of the horse human relationship.

What resonated for me during these sessions:

• Observing how each of the horses, on entering the pen, sniffing the ground and tentatively walked around the confines of the round pen, in other words the landscape (penscape). They were getting to know the area
• How the trainers gradually reintroduced them selves to the horse (this session was the 2^nd of three sessions) – lots of rubbing and patting the forehead then progressing to rubbing and patting the thorax and legs
• How the trainers used touch, either gentle or firm, with their hands or other objects (ropes etc) to nudge and encourage the horse into a specific action and then allowed the horse to rest and ‘think’ about what was just done
• How the horse’s attention was maintained by using certain verbal cues, body and hand gestures, or ropes and what appeared to be certain types of whips used either on the saddle or cracked in the air, and
• The repetitive reinforcement of positive speech to the horse ‘ good horse’, ‘good boy’ after successful completion of an action

Each trainer adopted a unique approach in how they developed a relationship with their horse. General impressions:

1^st trainer: overall impression was – more of an authoritarian approach - while the horse completed many of the tasks it appeared the trainer seemed to  ‘push’ the horse to perform the task as opposed to allow the horse to first understand what was asked of him and then to find the confidence to perform the task. At times, I felt too much force was used and the horse actually seemed very scared with obvious changes in breathing patters

2^nd trainer: displayed more of what I expected to see after our class discussions about the flow and transition between leading and following where both horse and trainer took turns at leading and following. This trainer talked a lot to the horse, he allowed the horse freedom in discovering new spaces, take the time to explore the space, and then gently coaxed and nudged the horse to go into the space. What particularly stood out during this session was when the trainer increased the width of the tarp, just after the horse crossed it for the first time, the horse’s facial and body expression was one of ‘bewilderment’. It seemed as if the horse was thinking to itself… ‘what the heck…give me a break I just walked over the tarp, and now you want me to do it again…and it looks wider than before!!!!’  And that was exactly what the trainer did, gently coaxed the colt to cross over the much wider tarp.

3^rd trainer: this trainer was primarily involved in training horses to work on cattle farms where the work of the horse involves quick, sharp, stops and turns. The trainer spent quality time teaching the horse how to respond to head and neck movements using ropes to guide and hold the head in certain positions. His approach was gentle yet firm enough to lead the horse with either ropes/ reins or when on the saddle with cues (gentle heel strikes) on the torso, into certain movement patters such as quick right and left rotations, and backing up and standing still, movements that are useful for rounding up cattle.

What started out as observing the trainers challenge, the interaction of the trainer with the horse, slowly shifted into a lesson with the horse as my teacher.

I reflected on how my behavior at times mimicked that of the horse. During my schooling certain teachers pushed or forced me, and others, to go to places while we were in a state of fear; and then there were other teachers who took the time to allow me to explore and develop trust, offered guidance and walked the path with me. In my own experience as an educator I realized how these past teachers influenced me in my teaching especially since I was now the one taking time to guide others in their learning.

As a practitioner I wondered about which of the ‘training styles’ reflected my practice, and how I developed the pedagogical connection with clients. I realized that perhaps I push certain clients too quickly down a healthy highway without giving them the chance to express their thoughts on what health means to them. With others, they invite the discourse and the challenges with charting a new health direction, while there are those who are contended with their health disposition. I observe that after the Mane event I became more attune to what the client is saying; and more so to what was not said.

When I work with the body the notion of following and leading is very clear. There are times when the body leads and I follow. I listen for breath, observe for movement and sense safety. Sometimes the body moves too fast and I slow things down to allow and invite inquiry and curiosity. When necessary I take the body through new kinesthetic patterns and unfamiliar spaces using verbal cues and gestures such as brisk touch, encouraging words and allowing time to think, somewhat similar tools and methods to those used by the trainers. What is indeed obvious to me is that we humans are not so different to horses, we experience fear, we need spaces for inquiry and discovery, we develop trust and seek safety and, we need a push ever so often. 

As I watched the horses canter around in a confined and very unnatural space I reflected about the man made notion of the social determinants of health. I liken the determinants to the round pen that keeps individuals confined within a space. I wondered if I / society stigmatize and reinforce this stigma of poor housing, low income, non-education etc., onto individuals so they eventually believe that they belong in this round pen/ social pen? Have we considered what effects wars, unnecessary pharmaceutical use, nuclear disasters, natural disasters and diseases such SARS and other contagions have on the social determinants of health?  Just imagine every hour taxpayers in the United States are paying $11.26 million for Total Cost of Wars Since 2001. This number $1,485,468,360---.00 and counting (http://nationalpriorities.org/cost-of/) is what it was at the time of writing this post.

Backyard sunset

How do you even say that number! I wonder what that amount of money can do for the social determinants of health! Perhaps there is a ray of hope and we might touch on this inquiry at our next class in late November.

That’s all for now

Namaste (I bow to the divinity in you) to all

Stay safe until the next post