For many years I have been communicating about my ideas on training horses, both in clinics as on the internet and social media. As a result I became quite experienced in dealing with criticism and opinions. This inspired me to write this article.
Riders have different values, beliefs, rules, references and ideals when it comes to horse training. Plus, they have different levels of consciousness. And all this affects their way of and perspective on training horses.
Now for centuries, these difference causes disagreements, controversies and feuds in the horse world.
And below you can read more about these controversies…
But first, let’s dive into what values, beliefs, rules, references and ideals are:
Values are adopted by you when you grew up and they are your ‘target’ in life. Here’s an example to explain this:
So rider A values success over love and Rider B values love over success and for rider A failure is worse than rejection and for Rider B rejection is worse than failure.
As a result of this value difference, rider A might easily sell his horse (when he’s not successful with it and fails too often) and rider B will never sell his horse (because he loves his horse dearly and doesn’t want to reject the horse). So a different set of values lead to different approaches.
If you want to figure out what your values are, ask yourself the following questions:
Your toward and away values will influence your view on horse training and when you meet riders with other values, you might not always agree with their approach.
A belief is a feeling of certainty about something and here are some examples of some ‘opposite’ beliefs:
So what does things mean? That differs from rider to rider, it depends on what they think that certain words, facts, ideas and concepts mean.
Click HERE for the Power of Meaning >>
It also depends on their level of consciousness.
Click HERE for the 8 Levels of Consciousness >>
If you want to figure out what your global beliefs are, complete the following sentences:
Our beliefs will influence your view on horse training and when we meet riders with another belief system and other meanings, we might not always agree, and we might feel the urge to convice the non-believers and to prove them wrong. Especially when we live on the ‘blue’ level of consciousness.
Most beliefs and rules are based on generalizations we make about things that happened in our past:
For example:
So most of the time your past colors your beliefs and because everyone goes his own journey in life, you’ll meet many riders with different experiences and references and therefore different views and perspectives on the world of horse training.
And especially when these beliefs are deeply ingrained, because of past experiences, it might lead to strong opinions.
Strong beliefs are not only a belief, they are rules, about:
• What is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong.
• What we should do and what we must do.
• What others should do and what others must do.
• What has to happen in order for us to feel good.
Rules are your ‘judge & jury‘ and here are some examples:
Often riders judge other riders through their set of rules. And some riders get very emotional when their rules are violated and as a result they start to preach their absolute truth, sometimes wherever they can (in other peoples barns, on other people’s internet forums, pages, groups), especialy when they operate on the blue level of consciousness, And if they don’t feel seen and heard, they might drop down to the ‘red’ level of consciousness and start to condemn, patronize and ridicule the non-believers.
Click HERE for the Influence of Rules >>
Click HERE for the Red and Blue level of Consciousness >>
Riders have different rules about helmets, whips, treats, approaches, techniques, etc. And many riders think that their set of rules are the right rules, and that there’s only one way and that’s their way. They would say for example: “If you truly loved a horse, you would never do…” in order to make them more empathetic and kind than others.
But rules are made to be broken — and that’s exactly what other riders do, they break other people’s rules. Therefore you might get upset when somebody violates your rule, but it’s just a ‘rule-upset’ it’s nothing personal. However, it might trigger that you get very emotional about it, because it also affects your values.
With your rules you can hit your target, your#1 value, because rules determines what has to happen for you in order to feel loved, safe, significant, succesful, free, grateful, happy, or whatever your #1 (towards) value is. Now you can have easy rules to hit your target, but you can also have rules that don’t make it so easy.
For example one rider has the following rules in order to feel successful:
So when all these rules are met, he will feel succesful.
But another rider has just one simple rule:
So for which rider it’s probably more easy to feel successful?
If you want to figure out what rules you have to hit your target, ask yourself the following questions:
Then the good thing is that we can change our rules when they become a bit too unreasonable or when they make our relationships with other riders (or even our horse) difficult. We can always redesign our beliefs and rules in a way that it makes it easy to feel ‘good’ and difficult to feel ‘bad’.
Click HERE for the Influence of Rules >>
Another important factor in what influences your choice on the direction you wish to take on your horsemanship journey, are the dreams, desires, goals and ideals you have.
Already for centuries riders differs in ideals and the ways to get there, which causes disagreements and controversies. But more ways lead to Rome and not everybody has Rome as the ideal; they want to end up in Paris, or London or New York.
The only common denominator on every ‘road’ is, that every method has its own ideals. Many years ago, Dr. Filipe Figueiredo Graciosa, director of the Portuguese Riding school, said the following about ideals:
“On an artistic level, the difference between classical riding and sports dressage is similar to ballet and gymnastics: the two are nice and good, they touch each other, but it’s not the same.” But nowadays, sports riders still argue with classical riders about who is ‘right’ and who is ‘wrong’.
Also within the classical schools there are many schools, where for example the School of Légèreté differs as much from the Academic Art of Riding as from the Spanish Riding school.
It’s the same with classical music: there’s baroque music from Vivaldi and Bach, classical music from Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms, romantic music from Chopin, Lizt and Strauss and nationalistic music from Tchacikovsky and Dvorak. It’s all classical music, but with a different ‘flavor’ and ‘color’ and ideal. Also the background of the composers and their approach differed: Beethoven was not nearly as talented as Mozart as a child; Vivaldi started to play music in a church, Brahms in bars and brothles; Handel was very skilled at the organ, but Lizt was one of the most talented pianists the world has ever seen and he was so grandiose with his concerts that he ordered a second piano be on stage in case he were to break the first one while playing.
But back to the horse word, where an Icelandic rider will never argue with a show jumper on how to train a horse, because they know they differ in ideals, views, beliefs, rules and perspectives. However, the closer things start to look, the more people have the tendency to develop the need to convince each other from what is the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ ideal and the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ way to get there.
Value-belief-rule-ideal-upsets go way back: since time immemorial, riding grandmasters are champions of their approach and many of them openly disagreed with other grandmasters and other approaches:
In the Renaissance, Antoine de Pluvinel didn’t agree with Frederico Grisone, both were head-master of a riding academy.
In the Barock time, François Robichon de La Guérinière who advocated his rule ‘Think first, act later‘ wrote about the violation of this rule in his book:
“Practice – stripped of sound principles – is nothing more than routine that only results in a false brilliance that fascinates the demi-connoisseurs, who are often amazed by the horse’s kindness, rather than by the rider’s skill.”
In the Classical era Gustav Steinbrech (left picture) and François Baucher (right picture) where ‘rivals’ as much as music composer Mozart was a rival of Salieri. Steinbrecht was applied the traditional compound exercises such as the lateral movements, where he worked the horse’s body in unity and harmony, and Baucher invented new isolated exercises where he worked single parts of the body. At the end of many chapters in Steinbrecht’s book ‘Das Gymnasium des Pferdes’ he writes about how he completely didn’t agree with Baucher’s training approach.
Steinbrecht also was opposed to anyone who searched for a ‘quick fix’. He wrote in his book: “As long as a horse is of flesh and blood, just like with the ‘philosopher’s stone’, people will search in vain for a tool to make gymnastic exercises redundant.”
In the 20st century grandmasters Egon von Neindorf (left picture) and Nuno Oliveira (right picture) were also rivals. They both had a horse from the same blood line but didn’t agree with each other’s training approach.
So over centuries there has been disagreement about values, beliefs, rules on how to reach the ideal and not only in the horseworld, also in many other industries.
So it’s not only the horse world that is dealing with controversies! And besides this, in each equestrian discipline it occurs: in the sports dressage world, the natural horsemanship world, in the classical riding world, in the western world. In each school or method, riders will speak about their way following their rules, based on their scienctific research and their own experiences.
Until the ‘camps’ do not agree to disagree, value-beliefs-rule-ideal-upsets will keep popping up and ‘believers’ and ‘dedictates’ keep starting never-ending discussions on the internet about who is ‘right’ and who is ‘wrong’, where some people would rather be ‘right’ than happy. It’s probably the smartest to agree to disagree, because it costs more to fight it out than to resign to the fact that history repeats itself. Yet people still choose to spend all their time and energy on social media, especially on other peoples accounts and timelines, just to get recognition and conformation from other readers or to collect as many ‘likes’ as possible that will prove they’re ‘right’.
Whatever you do, you will always bring your own values, beliefs, rules, references and also your expectations and ideals to the table. And the good thing is, that when you know your values, beliefs, rules and dreams and desires you can choose an approach to training horses that suits you and your horse best, and make a choice on the direction you wish to take on your horsemanship journey.
And what’s great is, that you have all these choise options and to stay open to learning from others who show great results with the ambassadors of their approach: their own horses.! It’s also great that each method and each riding master offers something valuable and that you can still learn from those that you don’t necessarily admire, even if that means you learn ‘what NOT to do’.
And if you decide not to follow their path, you can agree to disagree, but still show mutual respect, at least for the honor of their horses.
Since no two horse trainers are the same, it would be a waste of energy to try to convince each other of a single true way. Just go your own path, and use the power of the internet, which is a great place to connect with like-minded riders. So start a website, start a Youtube account, create a Facebook page or join an excisting Facebook group with kindred spirits, to share your insights, photos, videos and to chat about things with ‘believers’.
But take care not to use other peoples websites, accounts, pages and groups to proclaim your ‘gospel’ and to win souls by persuading others of ‘the only right way… your way‘. Avoid fruitless and endless discussions on other people’s timelines about ‘the absolute truth’ and stop patronizing and preaching on other people’s platforms. (And if you really think horses are being actually abused somewhere, stop talking, stop judging, stop being emotional and actually do something. Call an animal protection organization, hold a petition, get to work.)
With the variety of values, beliefs, rules and ideals that excists in the horse world, it’s far more productive to stop talking and start doing and to share the fruits of your training efforts on your own platforms, to walk your talk and be the change you want to see. Actions speak louder than words!
Enjoy My Free Training
Jump on over to my free training were you get a three-step process for implementing Straightness Training in your training sessions right now.
Watch two videos and download your free eBook which will help you put the information into action right away:
