Ethical Horsemanship in Teaching Riding
by Mari Louhi-Lehtiö
Introduction
Teaching ethical horsemanship and sound basic riding skills at a riding school context has its special challenges. It is not easy to incorporate the classical art of riding, high quality horsemanship and impeccable ethics into running a profitable riding school. Yet it must and can be done. It is perhaps even harder to offer successful educational and therapeutic activities to people who seek, or need, more than just the superficial connection with a riding school horse. Yet it must and can be done.
The principles of Ethical Horsemanship regard the emotional and physical safety of horses and humans equally important. The horse’s wellbeing comes first because he has least saying in his life. All handling and riding is done so that the horse can always indicate his discomfort without getting graphic or dangerous. It entails the ethical responsibility to learn his language and give him what he naturally needs because we have chosen to domesticate him. The objective in Ethical Horsemanship is to work with the horse so that his natural beauty, balance, and grace are nurtured and to teach others to do the same. It means interacting and riding from the horse’s point of view and agreeing that ‘riding’ starts from the moment we walk to our horse’s vicinity and ends when we leave him gracing.
Why is emotional safety mentioned with horses? Like Ray Hunt, one of the greatest teachers of natural horsemanship ever, has allegedly sad about the horse-human connection : " and then there is one more thing that makes it all work, but I don't know what it is.." No wonder it is hard for young riding instructors to teach! Linda Kohanov, the author of Tao Of Equus and Riding Between the Worlds, has been in the front line putting words to what true horsemen and -women intuitively know. She defines that elusive something as emotional communication, congruency and authenticity. Horses communicate among themselves through emotions and are also sensitive to the energetic fields of people and their emotions. HeartMath Institute scientists have previously found that our nervous systems are tuned to the electromagnetic fields produced by the hearts of other people and that a person’s brainwaves can synchronize to another person’s heart five feet away. They have also shown that a person's Heart Rate Variability changes depending on emotions experienced. While research has also indicated that pets and owners are energetically sensitive to the fields produced by each other's heart, over the past months HeartMath Institute has found in their preliminary research that horses' HRV seems to carry their emotional state, too, and that it is affected by the human nearby. Consequently the advice to not show fear to a horse is rather absurd.
People have the same social emotional skills as horses, they just often need awakening and some fine tuning. When you have been told a lie as truth, feeling the falseness in your gut, which one have you believed? The words or your gut feeling? And haven't you later found it difficult to trust that person in everything else, too? Have you felt your horse's intention just before he has bolted? Just known that he will take off a few seconds before it happened? Or just magically known what your dog, horse or child wants? I believe most of us answer the above questions with yes. However, we rarely know how to put everything together and fully use those intuitive skills. We benefit from Equine Experiential Learning, holistic riding instruction, sometimes even therapy, in finding our authentic self and how to be emotionally more congruent.
The fact that we people still have a long way to become truly trustworthy in the eyes of the horse is proven by the fact that, in spite of 6000 years together, every foul born in a stable is essentially wild until tamed. It doesn't really change things even when the mare is a very sweet family horse. Evolution hasn't seen it wise to let go of that instinct although some birds in the Galapagos Islands aren't the least bit worried about tourists hopping over them. That is why ethical horsemanship is so important and we need to seriously start teaching it.
Why Horses?
Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling, the author of Dancing With Horses, talks about classical riding but his beautiful words descried the essence of Equine Experiential Learning, too : "..Perhaps this is the reason why the horse occupies such a special place in so many poems, fairy tails, myths, and sagas: the dream of riding, symbolized by the image of the centaur. Is it not a dream of deep bonding, of elemental communication and harmony, a dream on oneness with a being that stands as a symbol of freedom, independence, power and beauty?"
Defining ethical horsemanship
Ethical horsemanship, as taught through HorseTalk- program, can be defined as natural horsemanship which is consciously taken to a higher, wider and deeper level and considered something that needs to be taught and learned in every riding lesson or Equine Experiential Learning session. The objective is to work with the horse so that his natural beauty, balance and grace are not ruined but nurtured, and teach others to do the same. It means riding from the horse's point of view and agreeing that 'riding' starts from the moment we walk to our horse's vicinity and ends when we leave him gracing. It entails the ethical responsibility to learn his language and give him what he naturally needs because we don't allow him to live free in a big herd on the Mongolian plains.
It means accepting that the road to true horse-human connection requires from us developed personality, emotional agility skills and authentic presence, and that full-heartedly being with horses also develops those needed qualities in us. It doesn't agree with the current trend of perceiving horses as toys or sports equipment, or with the focus of our training that more readily concentrates on shaping the horse instead of fixing the rider.
Ethical horsemanship doesn't believe in anybody being perfect but it does demand that we are willing to learn and grow as people. When the rider's personality and character develop together with her gymnastic skills, the horse will gladly perform better, too. Buying a more expensive horse or having my horse trained by someone else will not improve my competition performance, if I am not willing to work on myself, understand emotional congruency and develop self-awareness.
The medieval knights of monastic schools in Spain and France knew that. In other words, classical riding in its pure deep sense is very much Equine facilitated Experiential Learning or even therapy. However, people like to label different schools of thought, techniques even, but ethical horsemanship is woven into everything that supports true heart connection between people and horses. True dominance comes from mutual understanding and predictability which build trust, and the opportunity for safe friendship that nurtures obedience.
Whenever you see a horse-human connection that touches your soul, makes you quietly sigh in awe, perhaps brings even tears to your eyes, you are witnessing ethical horsemanship in action. You can be watching dressage, a child and a furry ball with four legs, a teen smiling when a horse free-willingly follows him across a large field, a patient hugging a therapy horse, or a trainer gently leading a young horse past a scary object. The activity isn't important, the quality of connection counts.
The principles of Ethical Horsemanship
regard emotional and physical safety of horse and client equally as important. The horse's wellbeing comes first because he has least saying in his life. All activities are designed so that the horse can always indicate his discomfort without getting graphic or dangerous.
Our responsibility is
to care for horses so that they are willing and able to meet strangers and make friends with them. Only a content horse is calm and trusting and a safe companion to people. Only a safe horse can teach people safely and the right things. We can only train a horse that is calm and trusting.
The horse doesn't have to change, but a riding school horse deserves to be handled in a way that allows him to feel safe and be(come) emotionally, mentally and physically willing to make new friends. If we professional equestrians don't protect the horse, whose job is it? A horse that is in acute or chronic pain or under medication is protected by animal welfare and doping laws and must not be asked to work or compete. Ethics dictate that such laws are followed. Common sense tells that doing otherwise would cause the horse to loose trust in people.
Real trust comes from mutual understanding and predictability
Trust builds respect which together lead to the only kind of obedience worth anything: the horse's free-willing obedience. Only then is his natural beauty and grace retained. Only then is the human-horse-connection worth a bow. I keep saying that a kid who has got a horse follow him free-willingly on a big paddock is less likely to go and beat up horses or other people. The development of such connection over time teaches us about ourselves, us with others, and is the foundation for learning true riding. There are sets of simple activities that together with a consistent and ethical care for the horses allow them to teach the right things, safely and with great impact.
Challenges in riding instruction
We are in essence modelling and teaching a whole set of values and ethical principles to our clients every time they come to our yard. We can do a lot of good or end up teaching totally wrong things. It does matter how we catch and lead the horse in from the paddock when the client is watching, and when he isn't. It makes all the difference if the horses live in a herd and interact with clients on big arenas or if they are stabled in small quarters and asked to join up when they haven't got much room to escape. It does matter whether the activities we choose foster the development of a powerful horse-human-connection, or aim at finding ways to make a horse 'do things'. In other words, is it about the horse and me, or just about me.
Riding is a sport and it can be art. However, art can only be produced if the technical skills are in balance with academic, aesthetic and spiritual knowledge. Spiritual development should be the beginning and the end of all riding instruction. In the middle there is the physical development, aesthetics and strength that are needed for a beautiful dance and remarkable performance. Once the pair can dance beautifully, it becomes spiritual again. The circle closes. Holistic riding instruction and EAL are spiritual all around which makes them emotionally very powerful. From research in education psychology we know that the most efficient way of teaching is to manage to touch the students feelings. We also know that fear prevents learning other than primitive survival techniques.
Experiential learning is powerful in good and in bad. Learning is most powerful when the learner is emotionally engaged. Most people learn more from the actions of an authority figure (modelling) than from his or her words (speech). According to decades of knowledge from various animal assisted therapies and e.g. Biophilia – theory people are likely to engage with other animal species even when other humans have hard time “breaking through”. Equine assisted therapy of autistic children is good proof of this. Equestrian training combines every little aspect known to enhance learning. If horses are powerful co-facilitators in therapy, one can only imagine what forces run unguided, unnoticed, in regular riding schools. We need to be very aware of what we model and teach with the help of horses as the likelihood of learning is very big. Horses engage people's body, mind and soul. Experiences of true interspecies communication leaves very few people unmoved.
I call the biggest dangers of experiential learning “hidden agendas” or “side curriculum”. This applies to all equestrian services. With hidden agendas I refer to situations where the facilitator fails to see how the actual education content ends up being something else than what was intended. Usually this happens through modelling something totally different than what we teach. We don’t walk our talk. A typical situation is one where the horse is forced to interact with a client as we eagerly attempt to teach about “reciprocal relationships”. Similarly a riding instructor may think of teaching dressage but ends up teaching the teenage rider how to force an animal endure pain for the rider’s personal glory at a competition. Hidden agendas can be deliberate, but in most situations they emerge accidentally due to the facilitator’s lack of awareness. I don’t think any riding instructor can ask too often “are we modelling here what we want to be modelling?” It is perfectly possible to teach competitive riding in a way that supports social emotional learning and healthy personal growth of children.
Rider's mental and physical safety
Ethical horsemanship focuses on the rider's physical and emotional safety acknowledging that it is fully intertwined with that of the horse. If the horse is not content and feeling safe, the rider will not be safe. What easily escapes our attention is that the student will not go home from a lesson emotionally content if the horse was forced somehow. We can as instructors try to encourage and give positive feedback but clients subconsciously know if the horse is truly connected or not. Any emotional incongruence leaves clients unhappy, even if they don't consciously know why. People, like all herd mammals, live to connect and synchronize with others in order to feel safe, loved and accepted. Emotional incongruence in. the instructor signals danger to horses and humans alike, children in particular. As emotions are contagious, fear rubs on the horse and from the horse to the rider. In just few seconds the rider is having good cause for more fear.
Horses have a tendency to bring people in touch with own feelings and especially body-bound emotions. This healing potential of horse-human-connection is behind Equine facilitated/assisted Experiential Learning and Psychotherapy. As prey animals horses appeal to the soft, feminine, nonterritorial, nonviolent sides of people, supporting and awakening such qualities in us. It can even be argued that being close to a horse wakes up healing body-bound memories of symbiosis at infancy. With horses, humans get to be surrounded by an energy field as big as the mother's or father's compared to that of a baby.
Many people feel that certain horses mirror the emotions of the people with whom they interact. HeartMath Institute scientists have previously found that our nervous systems are tuned to the electromagnetic fields produced by the hearts of other people and that a person’s brainwaves can synchronize to another person’s heart five feet away. Research has also indicated that pets are energetically sensitive to the fields produced by the human heart—and that humans are sensitive to the fields produced by the hearts of pets. The HeartMath research team recently partnered with Dr. Ellen Gehrke, a Qualified HeartMath Instructor and Professor of International Business and Management at Alliant International University in San Diego, to do a preliminary research project with horses. In their pilot study with four horses the scientists got evidence that a horse’s inner state was reflected in its heart rhythm patterns and affected by his interaction with Dr.Gehrke. This recearch offers clear indication why it is important to start taking emotions seriously in all equestrian training. To read more http://www.heartmath.org/
As a regular riding instructor one rarely knows about people's personal lives and it is fair to argue that we don't have to. However, riding happens in the body and mind, in very close contact with another sentient being. Emotional agility skills and enhanced sensorial awareness are integral parts of equitation and prerequisite to successful competition riding. Teaching with a holistic approach brings along higher client satisfaction, safer horses and surprisingly fast results in technical competence development. Instructors and trainers must not attempt to offer therapy, but they need to know who and where to call for help and when, and learn adequate mental first aid skills to keep all riders and horses safe while waiting for assistance.
Instructors need to have "emotional first aid skills". In today's world riding schools and training yards arent' immune to the society's problems and challenges. Riding can open emotional gates and cause surprises in the middle of a riding lesson. It is not uncommon for riders with past unresolved traumas to experience strong emotional flash-backs during a riding lesson. Successfully teaching feel, timing and communication with light aids requires that people stop being in just their "head" and are able and willing to get in to their whole body. Consequently, the better the lesson, the bigger the risk of emotional outbursts.
The phenomenon can be explained with body psychotherapy and other somatic therapies. Albert Pesso, one of the world's leading trauma therapists explains: "the body is involved because physical memories are created through sensory interactions with care-givers in early life. This is as true of victims of sexual abuse as it is for those plunged into depression following the loss of a loved one to terrorism...This is precisely why the body has to be involved in the healing of the ego following traumatic events," he writes in Between Stress and Hope, a book edited by Israeli psychologists Rebecca Jacoby and Giora Keinan, published in 2003. Horses and riding seem to have a potential in opening closed doors in people's minds and unlocking the body's memories. Even if nothing is surfaced, we need to be very careful that we don't, at worst, turn e.g. an abuse victim into an abuser by commanding a rider to use physical force with a horse. The good news is that violence isn't even necessary if we follow a code of ethics and pedagogic principles that protect both the horse and the rider.
Present challenging life situations, on the other hand, tend to be forgotten on horseback offering an often welcomed break. But it is vital for safety that we realize how emotional states can affect the rider and the horse unconsciously. Instructors and trainers need to have skills to teach students how to detect and reflect on emotional shifts in themselves and in the horse. One gains valuable information if able to recognize which emotions are own and which belong to the horse or someone else in the immediate environment. Instructors need to be trained in how to use own body as a detector of emotional shifts in horses and riders. That is the only fast enough method of keeping clients and horses safe. We invariably feel things before they happen.
Emotions are sensed in the body and can start dissipating only once the message behind is heard. Fear doesn't release its grip until the individual has moved to safety. Emotional arousal is a chemical reaction in the body and people have individual refractory periods - a time span of seconds to hours in which the chemical reactions return to the baseline level. During that period new information doesn't really get into the brain or is 'heard' in support of the present state of mind. Due to its biochemical nature it is safe to assume same is true with horses. The trick is to hear the messages before the emotion needs to escalate so as to keep the refractory period shorter. Understanding the biology helps deal with issues during refractory period.
Horse readily mirror people's emotions. Horses should not deliberately be forced to 'mirror' emotional loads of fear, anxiety etc., that for a horse, are signals of potentially life threatening situations. Only a very balanced horse with strong personality and sense of safety and full trust in the instructor or facilitator will voluntarily hang around people with severe emotions. We people require counsellors to have university degrees, personal therapy background and fully balanced present personality, frequently updated knowledge etc. Horses are horses and we shouldn't decide for them how they feel. Rather test it. If the horse doesn't want to stand still for getting on, have the horse on a full size arena and see if he free-willingly comes and engages with the client. If he doesn't, it can still be a very powerful lesson for the client. When riders learn to work to deserve the right to climb into the saddle, they learn faster and better once they get there.
Fusing a riding instructor and lessons learned from EAL and EAT
I have started to define the job of an EAL-focused, holistic riding instructor as three-fold: 1. facilitate activities that enhance the rider's self awareness, congruent presence, balanced and calm concentration, understanding of and compassion towards horses 2. interpret between the horse and the rider until they can communicate fluently via all nonverbal forms of communication and so dance in harmony and 3. teach gymnastics to the horse and rider so they can better dance together in balance and without getting hurt. I follow the order in every session with a client.
Traditionally riding instruction is mostly about the sport and techniques in training the horse. Instructors aren't so much trained in the skills required for the wider job description. Considering how emotionally powerful riding and EAL are as tools, we must acknowledge that traditional equestrian background or riding instructor/trainer training doesn't per se give the professional skills needed in this line of work. Most training programs clearly don't give adequate tuition in pedagogic principles, how to teach, psychology of learning, child development or any of the other topics regarded as essential for other kinds of teachers and instructors working with other people's children. The fact that many of our clients are especially vulnerable because they come and trust their lives into our hands with these huge animals, and possibly feel drawn to horses due to unresolved personal issues, makes the job even harder.
We need new, more holistic training of riding instructors
In today's equestrian world we need workshops on ethics. Only with strong ethical foundation and skills in sound horsemanship can instructors and facilitators safely and flexibly work in the moment. Once the foundation is solid one can observe the horse and take action without thinking about rules and exercise books. Facilitation and instruction becomes more fluent and creative without the risk of making pedagogically or ethically very poor decisions.
We need training programs that teach in practice how to hear the horse and not one's own mind. How to observe the horse to understand what is going on with the client, how to interpret that and when not to, how to use one's own body as another powerful detector of emotional messages, and how to keep the horses safe and content so they can teach the right things and be safe? Teaching becomes easier when the feedback comes from the horse and the instructor is specifically trained to act as an interpreter between the horse and the rider. Such skill can be taught and learned. Together with strong ethical basis and observation skills we cannot go terribly wrong with horses and clients. It's the badly facilitated activities which we haven't really thought through that get us into trouble. And potentially damage horses and clients.
We need a pedagogically sound curriculum with a diagnostic aspect built in to it to help less experienced instructors in the beginning. With strong ethical foundation instructors and facilitators will be able to vary activities and come up with new more, as experience amounts. The sample curriculum has to meet the needs of any commercial riding establishment because otherwise no one will follow it. It needs to give riding clients a well-rounded equestrian experience and good understanding of sound ethical horsemanship based on the principles of classical riding and natural horsemanship.
Instructors need to be taught the invisible part of horsemanship, emotional agility skills and some mindfulness techniques. They have the right to expect that seniors training them will teach everything necessary for successfully teaching others. For some reason emotional intelligence is valued and taught in almost every other profession working with people, except equestrian professionals. As horses use emotions as information and the whole communication is based on all the nonverbal forms playing 90% of the interaction game between people, too, it pays to know which emotions are own, which are being picked up from someone else and what is the message behind.
In all fields involved with helping people find own inner strengths and wisdom, healing from hardships or surviving tough life situations, professional training includes guided work on own personal issues. The work itself should be supported by regular work counselling. For most experienced equestrians the hardest part 'after the leap' into more holistic and ethical approact to riding is having to change their whole perspective. There is invariably some guilt and sadness about previously misunderstanding horses. Tools to work with own emotions are vital. The change in perspective rises many thoughts, like a fellow trainer said after my workshop :"I am scared to realize how I really don't notice all the things that I don't notice". Many skilled equestrians have hard time accepting that, while they don't have to give up most of the technical knowledge and skill , they do have to relearn it and make conscious every action and thought around horses and students. We know how to saddle a horse but we need to once spend three hours saddling the horse loose in a big field to really see and feel the difference when the saddling and riding is truly the horse's free choice. The next difficult thing is learning to stay aware of the serendipitous learning that all the time takes place in the horse and in every individual around. Old habits die hard.
Health Issues
One of the most wonderful things about ethical horsemanship is that it values every horse and treats them individually. Every horse can teach us people. Different horses model different kinds of personalities interacting with other individuals (of two or four legs). As the focus of all activities is to form some type of relationship with that particular horse, and figure out a way to convince that horse why something would be a fun thing to do together, the same ethically and educationally sound activities offer endless variety. Just select another horse and you have a whole new ball game. Or work with one horse for a long time to really make friends.
But what if a horse in my stable seem calm but clients are still afraid? A horse loose in his stall has no real option, let alone tied to a grooming area. An emotionally healthy child instinctively knows that. A 'schooled' horse is quite often trained all the way to freeze mode. A child with certain life's circumstances will intuitively connect with such horse and be triggered. We all have heard the phrases 'all horses go through phases of resistance...you cannot ride him unless you're his boss..you're too soft with him!' Very few people, if any, start riding dreaming of kicking, whipping or spanking it. We need to remember why we started riding in the first place, and hear our clients.
The good news is that an emotionally traumatized horse can be cured through certain out-of-the-ordinary activities and a different mindset in riding. It can take several years, but the frozen horses can be brought back to life. Turning such tragic situation into a valuable learning experience is highly recommendable. Black Storm was rehabilitated by the staff of Sheerwood Beijing International Equestrian Centre under the eyes of all our clients. He would even accompany lessons in indoor school loose like a dog. Slowly the clients learned to participate in helping him. One of the key assistants was six-year-old Anna. After three years Black Storm had even regained his sense of humour. Not once did he threaten to hurt the children.
Rescuing horses is a wonderful thing and will model very important things to children around, but choosing the kind of price they need to pay for it requires some careful thinking. The full message conveyed to our clients needs to be supporting compassion, boundaries and personal empowerment. Only then can both the client and the horse enjoy interacting, grow and heal. I consider it rather unethical to use horses with traumatic pasts in active client work without very carefully planned exercises where the horse doesn't have to interact unless he really wants to. Horses willing to do this kind of work and trusting their handlers will hang around people in spite of green grass and a 50-meter runway. The instructor has to have such a close relationship with the horse that he or she offers a strong safety blanket under which the horse can snuggle and not feel threatenedl.
A horse that is chronically in pain would not survive in the wild for very long. Therefore, I believe, horses are not mentally built to endure chronic pain very well. Unfortunate for the horse's sake, one of the typical manifestations of chronic pain in horses is standing quietly, hence making them appear 'calm' and co-operative. They don't lie down even in severe pain until getting ready to die, because they are worried of not being able to get up again if in danger.
Further more, if I give a client a horse in pain, what am I modelling? How does the client feel deep inside, consciously or unaware, when she can sense the horse's discomfort but it is not addressed? Will the situation become better if I tell that this horse has physical/emotional problems but this kind of activity is okay? The ethical problem remains: a horse is in pain but he is working because people (authorities) say he can or that he wants to. The horse is used. A healthy person will feel bad.
We facilitators may feel we know our horses and communicate with them well enough to know when they are willing to work in spite of some health problems. It may well be so but what matters is what the client feels and hears. We can easily turn an abuse victim into an abuser. People who are drawn to horses often have very sensitive radars. Children are sensitive by default but also trust authorities because that is their natural surrival instinct. They go along with what the instructor suggests but we don't know what disturbing feelings are left inside. It is safest to avoid any possible hidden agendas.
A right to touch must be earned, let alone the right to ride.
People spend hours and hours practicing their swing and learning the etiquette before ever allowed on a gold course. For some reason we think everyone should be allowed to just get on a horse and learn to make it do as it's told. It is not easy for riding instructors to try to balance between the equestrian etiquette and public expectations. We need common codes of conduct to support our work. Horses by nature don't let strange horses touch themselves. If asked, they don't like strange people to touch them either. They might ask for a carrot but they will tense up if the stranger starts making her way to the horse's side. People just ignore it unless pointed out. Sadly we also regard it as a sign of a good riding horse when anyone can touch and ride him.
In the horse world the leader protects. Without the four-legged-co-facilitator's trust the riding instructor cannot be sure the client stays safe in the saddle. The client's safety is the instructor's responsibility, regardless of liability weavers signed. Clients take lessons from professionals who they trust to know better. We need to understand what equine leadership requires and accept the responsibility. Mary Ann Simonds ( Mary Ann Simonds: www.mystichorse.com ) is a wildlife and range ecologist, and equine behaviorist who has studied wild horses for 30 years. She tells wonderful stories about compassion, affection, tenderness and care among wild horses. It is less know that also wild herd stallions demonstrate recognition and protectiveness of their offspring, and even the bachelor stallions that live near a herd will offer protection and “babysitting”. In New Horse Magazine, Feb. 2006, Karen Sussman (President of the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros (ISPMB) who oversees the daily welfare of about 300 wild horses on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota) tells in the story titled The secret life of stallions – fathers and husbands :” I recently saw a very young foal wander out to a nearby bachelor band and her father went right out there, turned her back and then went out to take on the bachelors.” Fathers and daughters.
If we work following the principles of ethical horsemanship and use suitable activities, the horse is never forced and even simple grooming is turned into a powerful lesson on wider awareness of subtle signals of discomfort, frustration, ethics and the right to physical privacy and safety. It then leads to discovering what it takes to develop the necessary trust and comfort so that touching becomes pleasant. Only after such intimacy is agreed upon, can riding begin.
Lets start by teaching compassion...
Horses don't facilitate, people must do that part. Horses are horses but when treated well and with respect they are capable of teaching many wonderful things to people by just being horses. Our job is to keep the client and the horse safe and interpret between them until the two are able to communicate without us. In addition to understanding, compassion, and ethics, teaching others requires specific knowledge, skills, and tools. It is our responsibility to make sure we have them before we subject horses and clients to our teaching. But most of all we need to start by digging out compassion in ourselves and in our students. We want to foster the understanding of true connection and communication. -The basis of riding as Art. The explanation to why some horses and riders make mistakes yet touch the spectators' hearts.
The author with Meibao, Ailai and Kojac
© Oy Cavesson Ltd 1994-2008