Post by Elaine on Jul 4, 2012 9:00:36 GMT
It's Your Journey: Do Your Own Work
Many of us like to think of our horse work and our horsemanship as a "journey", a path, sometimes straight, sometimes convoluted, that we all walk. Each of us walks an entirely unique path, determined by who we are, our history and our circumstances. No two of us walk exactly the same path. We might walk a "similar" path to someone else, so we may have a traveling partner for a short or a long time, but in the end, our path is our own. We are responsible for it, and it's important that we realize that we are a volunteer (not a victim) on our path.
Most of us are here studying horsemanship because we want to better our work (and therefore our life) in some way. In the beginning, the way we learn is usually through imitation. A teacher shows us something and we imitate it. In the beginning, we may have little true understanding of what we're doing or why. We don't really "own" the information or the movements yet, but we go through the motions and we think about the theories. At some point, hopefully we start to "own" the movements and the information and we begin to understand both at a deeper level. We begin to be able to creatively combine movements and concepts, to problem solve and to do the work with "feel" and mindfulness rather than with simple mechanical imitation.
This is true of many pursuits, not just horsemanship. Think of learning to dance with a partner. At first, a teacher would show us how to stand and how to move, and then would show us some steps. We would imitate the instructor and practice the movements, and probably feel pretty clumsy and mechanical for a while. But then a transition would start to take place, and we would start to understand the steps and the movements and the why of the movements and a flow would start to happen. That's when it would start to feel good and we'd start to feel some competence. We might, at this point, start to improvise a bit and move away from pure imitation toward ownership.
It's the same with our horsemanship. There's a transition that happens, when we move from imitation to ownership. That's when we start doing our own work instead of doing an imitation of someone else's. That's when the work becomes a part of who we are.
The important thing to know here is that we can really only do our own work. We cannot do anyone else's work, nor can they do ours. Only Mark Rashid can do Mark Rashid's work, only Buck Brannaman can do Buck Brannaman's work, and only Ray Hunt ever did Ray Hunt's work. Only you can do your own work.
If you are a beginner or an intermediate horseman, you may be in a place where you are still imitating your instructor in order to learn the work. Do this with gusto and awareness. Maximize your imitation experience and practice well. This is a great and necessary stage of learning that we will all revisit time and time again over our lifetimes. For as we gain mastery of a certain concept or movement, we will become a beginner again at another.
If you are an advanced horseman on the road that leads toward mastery, strive to walk your own path and to do your own work. Do not see what you do as imitation any longer if it is part of who you are. Own it and take responsibility for it. Walk your own path and let others walk theirs. If we choose, our horsemanship will become less about who we've imitated and more about who we are today.
Many of us like to think of our horse work and our horsemanship as a "journey", a path, sometimes straight, sometimes convoluted, that we all walk. Each of us walks an entirely unique path, determined by who we are, our history and our circumstances. No two of us walk exactly the same path. We might walk a "similar" path to someone else, so we may have a traveling partner for a short or a long time, but in the end, our path is our own. We are responsible for it, and it's important that we realize that we are a volunteer (not a victim) on our path.
Most of us are here studying horsemanship because we want to better our work (and therefore our life) in some way. In the beginning, the way we learn is usually through imitation. A teacher shows us something and we imitate it. In the beginning, we may have little true understanding of what we're doing or why. We don't really "own" the information or the movements yet, but we go through the motions and we think about the theories. At some point, hopefully we start to "own" the movements and the information and we begin to understand both at a deeper level. We begin to be able to creatively combine movements and concepts, to problem solve and to do the work with "feel" and mindfulness rather than with simple mechanical imitation.
This is true of many pursuits, not just horsemanship. Think of learning to dance with a partner. At first, a teacher would show us how to stand and how to move, and then would show us some steps. We would imitate the instructor and practice the movements, and probably feel pretty clumsy and mechanical for a while. But then a transition would start to take place, and we would start to understand the steps and the movements and the why of the movements and a flow would start to happen. That's when it would start to feel good and we'd start to feel some competence. We might, at this point, start to improvise a bit and move away from pure imitation toward ownership.
It's the same with our horsemanship. There's a transition that happens, when we move from imitation to ownership. That's when we start doing our own work instead of doing an imitation of someone else's. That's when the work becomes a part of who we are.
The important thing to know here is that we can really only do our own work. We cannot do anyone else's work, nor can they do ours. Only Mark Rashid can do Mark Rashid's work, only Buck Brannaman can do Buck Brannaman's work, and only Ray Hunt ever did Ray Hunt's work. Only you can do your own work.
If you are a beginner or an intermediate horseman, you may be in a place where you are still imitating your instructor in order to learn the work. Do this with gusto and awareness. Maximize your imitation experience and practice well. This is a great and necessary stage of learning that we will all revisit time and time again over our lifetimes. For as we gain mastery of a certain concept or movement, we will become a beginner again at another.
If you are an advanced horseman on the road that leads toward mastery, strive to walk your own path and to do your own work. Do not see what you do as imitation any longer if it is part of who you are. Own it and take responsibility for it. Walk your own path and let others walk theirs. If we choose, our horsemanship will become less about who we've imitated and more about who we are today.
