This is a custom course envisioned and created for you with the current and future needs of the horse(s), and your accommodations for them, and available time for them in mind.
1. LEARNING HOW TO READ and MANAGE HORSES, USING FEEL
Topics covered will include how to:
-- “read” a horse’s soundness and recognize balance and imbalanced locomotion;
-- accurately perceive the moods; quickly spot the signs of health (including hooves, teeth and gut health);
-- observe and practice many life-saving aspects of practical safety; --avoid misunderstandings about equine intelligence;
--assess a horse's suitability for specific work;
--learn how to sense, see and respond well to the "inner horse", and know if and when the horse has revealed or suppressed its intrinsic nature and primal responses.
How do horses communicate with us about their needs, fears and comprehension?
This is perhaps the most fascinating part of the connection we have to horses.
Students will learn to recognize the difference between learned behavior and instinct, and learn some ways I have found o help aggressive or insecure horses mellow out and sync with the herd, while supporting other horses in the same herd or social environment to allow those changes to occur.
2. SHARPENING THE TOOLS THAT LEAD TO KEENER SELF-AWARENESS
A. Understanding the fear of working adjustably and flexibly.
B. Embracing the challenge of working with a horse
This is a goal to develop intentionally while your powers of observation and awareness improve.
As your feel and timing begins to reflect an expanded awareness, new knowledge and better skills,
the capacity to observe accurately usually starts a dialogue in the mind.
Growth and positive changes occurring at deeper levels tend to support refinement in a broad range of personal habits. This is where the real work in sustaining change and building on a new foundation takes place.
3. KNOWING a HORSE vs. KNOWING ABOUT a HORSE and the Feel of a Horse
Introduction and study of the horse's anatomy and behavior, locomotion, and mental setup.
Due to the importance and complexity of these components, when taken together with the less tangible things the make a horse whole, a lot of time is needed.
Coincidentally, function also follows form when we are talking about animate physical structures.
[For example: a set of shoes is not changed on a stalled horse for a few months,
and he suddenly has an “unexplainable” shoulder pain, a stifle incident, and palpable lumbar weakness; or, the horse
won't strike off at a lope, or run with the herd the way he did before.
lame (unsound), stiff, diseased. And, unfortunately, more horses than many people might imagine are dying slowly from poor gut
function and other metabolic issues -- unbeknownst to the owners or custodians. This is an avoidable shame.
By slowing down and taking enough time to evaluate the symptom(s) of a problem, and their probable causes and possible solutions
Early detection of unsoundness and its probable cause(s) is likely to resolve well, with a positive impact on the long-term outcome. Students will have an opportunity to witness unsoundness that is a result of form following function, and function following form.
4. TEAM WORK DURING YOUR STUDY / The Feel of You
process, if desired! If someone prefers to study alone, that is also fine.
5. CURRICULUM GUIDELINES & ADJUSTMENTS
HOW TO APPLY FEEL & RELEASE, [GETTING STARTED]
Curriculum guidelines are exactly this: a guideline. When it comes to the mastery of any skill, art, or body of knowledge the need to make adjustments is inevitable.
The need for this becomes most apparent when a person realizes that s/he must UNLEARN something that has been practiced over a long period.
No two people are the same, and no two horses are the same.
No two creatures feel or think or learn in exactly the same way, either.
So, we can decide to remain flexible in order to preserve a learning frame of mind - our own mind, the minds of our students, and the horses' minds too.
When the need to adjust is recognized, that's the best time to start planning to make a shift. This is a custom course, and modifications to your goals and learning curve will be suggested, and/or implemented to fit you and your horse. I will discuss this with each student after the application and questionnaires are carefully completed, and received.
Here are some examples:
--What changes in diet, exercise and accommodations should I make -- for myself and the horse!?
--Halter, bridle and saddle fit: generally and specifically.
--Approaching, catching and releasing your horse
-- Bi-lateral handling
Important questions come up when the process of unlearning begins.
Re-educating the body necessarily brings up thought,
Leslie Desmond and Antonio Hidalgo, co-founders, Feel of a Horse and supporters of the Feel of a Horse Legacy Project.
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This project and out international school for continuing education were inspired by the horses we love and care for, and the life and teachings of master horseman and rancher, Bill Dorrance (1906-1999) of Salinas, California.
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On the Horizon!
Topics to be covered in Part 2
Topics to be covered in Part 3