FROM: Gwenyth Browning Jones Santagate:
Bluff training? More powerful? No, I don't
agree. What I work with is establishing a groundwork and foundation of
mutual trust and respect. Horses are insitinctivly a herd animal with
a very strong hierarchy. They *instinctively* need a leader. There is
an "alpha" mare in a herd; then there is another leadmare in
the subgroup. Horses' herds are divided into many sub-groups, each
with its own group leader. The "alpha" leader of the main
herd is the mare who stands off from the rest and no one wants to hang
out with her ... she's the one who directs the herd to food, water and
play. She's the one who "tells" the others when to move,
sleep, where to move, etc. Yet, she's also the one who will place a
very swift kick or other painful reminder to not come too close to
her. The lead mare in the subgroups are strong and have the
"dominance" of the alpha mare within that group. But, that
mare is one with which the others like to hang out ... she enjoys a
mutual grooming with a special buddy; she's not as aggressive as the
alpha. She will defend her group as fiercely and loyally as the alpha
will defend the entire herd but is much more amiable than the alpha.
This position of leadership is the one that we ultimately strive for.
We actually go *through* the "alpha" stage into the
"passive alpha" stage but only if we can get past the egos
and control issues of our own. This is not dominance, bossiness, power
games or anything else similar. Horses don't play games as such. They
know what they need to know in order to survive and behave
accordingly.
The *true* horseman is a person who understands
the horse's nature and kindly and respectfully seeks to attain a
mutual dependency of trust, friendship and partnership. The *true*
horseman's understands the flicker in the eye, the shadow of a muscle
ripple, the twitch of an ear and seeks to understand and reciprocate
with appropriate responses. The *true* horseman is a person who
carries the spirit of the horse in his or her heart ... always seeking
wisdom to enhance the knowledge which she or he has of the horse.
