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People helping horses ~ Horses helping people |
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“In this technology driven age it is all too easy for us to forget that mankind is a part of nature and not apart from it. And that is why we should seek to work with the grain of nature in everything we do, for the natural world is, as the economist Henry Daly puts it, ‘the envelope that contains, sustains and provisions the economy, not the other way around.’ We need, therefore, to rediscover a reference for the natural world…”
His Royal Highness, Prince of Wales, Millenium Reith lecture series
When threatened, animals sometimes “freeze” in their tracks. Neuroscientists have long known that the amygdala sends freeze, fight or flee messages along well-worn neural pathways in the brain. However, (Joseph) LeDoux’s (PhD, New York University’s Center for Neural Science) recent experiments suggest that training can change these “hardwired” responses. So an animal who would instinctively react to a startling stimulus by either bolting or preparing to fight…can learn to respond “actively,” considering the situation and choosing how to respond.
EQUUS Magazine, Article on training techniques based on understanding the horse’s instincts
By working with a horse so that he feels safe, a human can gain the horse’s trust and eventually win his acceptance, to the point that the horse will “synchronize” with the human, so that the horse remains calm and confident when his human is. “You can take an instinctive reaction, reroute it, retrain it, and have a completely different response to the same situation.”
Pat Parelli, Equus Magazine
“Horse handling, like golf, is a skill that everyone can cultivate and few can master. Also like golf, progress requires time, patience, persistence, consistency, concentration, physical stamina, the right environment and reinforcement by success. Novices who will never be masters still benefit from the practice: both horse and person are better for the attempt to find a common language.”
Matthew Mackay-Smith, DVM, Speaking on new scientific validation of natural horsemanship
Bill Devine shows execs a gentler way to ride herd on staffers: Treat ‘em like horses. Managing people is much like the new, sensitive method of training horses-not by cracking the whip but by building mutual trust and respect. For (Bill) Devine, “the horse becomes a teaching metaphor,” says his partner Doug Saarel.
PEOPLE Magazine, 8/26/02, Article on Sky Ranch Seminars
“How do we learn to understand our companions? When riding and training my horses I was forever trying to put myself in the place of the animal and to think from his point of view…Retrospectively I realize that the constant endeavor to understand the creatures entrusted to my care became the reason why, though I was their trainer, they taught me more than many humans did.”
Alois Podhjasky My Horses, My Teachers |
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Home phone (803) 713-8470 (803) 420-6996/(803) 351-0223 www.naturesview1.org / naturesview@aol.com |
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