by Craig Stevens | Apr 30, 2015 | Craig Stevens' Blog
One of the primary reasons we experience the horse as resistant and even threatening is that they threaten our sense of worthiness. While true of all of us, it is particularly true in dressage. Instructors, trainers. and those who lay pretense to expertise frequently find themselves so placed. Then, if and when simple aggression fails to secure the results desired, all too often our vanity finds technical excuses and bits and other devices obtained from the tack shop to inflict our will. If these fail, then our “science” consists in upping the aggression. The experienced “horse person” who knows what is socially acceptable, knows how to apply these devices to force an obedience which could have been obtained by simple, but educated kindness most easily. Then by the weight of common judgment the abuse of the horse is deemed necessary. Fame and gain await those who can cloak their aggressions. The simple solution of kindness is to understand that posture is the first step and when we or the horse feels unworthy what follows is a mental state of bewilderment which is distressed or obnoxious. Mindful of posture and aware of placement, the horse learns to support the rider and the rider learns to allow the horse comfort. The goodness of dressage is that it restores to the horse its basic sense of worthiness. This sense of value is awareness in action and is a goodness which seeks to balance concerns of mind and body. From this place, fear and heavy emotions can take no hold in the mind which is trained. Simple equipment and kind application with educated...
by Craig Stevens | Apr 29, 2015 | Craig Stevens' Blog, Training Ideas
How to start a training session with a horse… Every session starts with and actually ends with petting the horse. It is done in long slow strokes always with the hair as the start. It is our way of inviting the goodness of the horse to be present by first bringing our goodness forward. The time this takes is the time it takes. We are generous because not only can we be generous, but because we wish the horse to be generous with us. The neck and head are involved but how we do this is not as important as the horse’s eye and reaction. It is important to breath slowly and to stand open and balanced. One feels the sensations and presence without words. There is much more but for the average horse person, this is enough. There are more techniques which bring the horse’s mind and your mind into a link, but this is a simple thing which everyone can do and so few do. We do not use food to bribe the horse nor do we expect anything from the horse at this moment. We are kind because we can be and tender because we want to be. This is the greeting of friends and not master-servant dialog. Confusion, doubt, and fear are the enemies of our relationship. Primoidally free confidence and delight are our friends. There is never a quarrel, for we start from a state of ever loving and generous being and hold out loving kindness for the horse. This is the gift from which our dressage starts and our gratitude is what presents...
by Craig Stevens | Apr 28, 2015 | Craig Stevens' Blog
The measure of the depth and quality of our dressage is found in feeling. From our feelings, we learn to care and extend caring toward our horses. It is in feeling that we are born and exist in this world and from here we connect with the horse. It is first important to understand that our feeling are not a matter of judgements. Feeling is the first step and something which we are all born with. Good dressage starts with a feeling between the horse and our self. From feeling, that authentic experience we all have of being alive at any given moment, next arises an act of noticing. This simple act is mindfulness and from this we experience the context of our experience. This is what is termed, self-awareness which allows compassion and empathy to arise. Through this simple and basic process, we connect with the horse. As our experience deepens as we feel, notice and feel and notice again and again. We are aware. Dressage is born and we collect the idea of dressage through our experience and reflections. What is most important to understand, in this process, is that feeling and noticing without judgement is the root. What is good in dressage are those things which stay as close as possible to the root. When our dressage does not connect with the feelings, we are relating to both ourselves and the horse as an inanimate object. An intellectual dressage (top down) always runs this risk of losing the horse and ourselves in a disconnected construct. Any dressage of value, first connects through feeling and evolves by...
by Craig Stevens | Apr 28, 2015 | Craig Stevens' Blog
In a microwave oven, we can place our food in and it gets cooked instantly. However, in the realm of working with horses and dressage you can’t expect a microwave oven kind of training/dressage. No achievement with a horse or human happens all of a sudden. There is a process of growth, a gradual process of developing ourselves and our horses. No clinician, trainer or instructor is going to bring results on the spot. Microwave dressage and instant training are always an illusion. While you are welcome to enjoy the illusion when these things occur, understand that such things always pass. Even in those things which seem to occur on the spot, a closer look will reveal an a lot of small things which need to be in place before the big moment of revelation. Sometimes it appears that an individual clinician, instructor or method brings a profound awakening but do not lose your mental balance to such appearances. In the end, our progress is up to us and is always slow and progressive. As a clinician, I get to have students presented to me by instructors that I have trained. Sometimes I can awaken a kind of awe in those students, achieving amazing results in a short time and thus winning the praise of everyone. I appear to eclipse the local instructor but without the patient work of that local instructor and the work of the students themselves, I would not be able to make the “miracle.” The problem created by these miraculous revelations lives in that they create an expectation of magic in someplace other than in our...
by Craig Stevens | Apr 25, 2015 | Craig Stevens' Blog
Dressage is the natural process of becoming familiar with the horse by repeatedly placing our minds upon it. Whatever we’re doing with the horse, we always have a view; we’re always placing our mind on some aspect of the equestrian experience and we conceptual that experience in certain ways. In the proper placement of the mind, we ground our mind in the present moment. Free from intentions and goals, we see what is present and harmonize with the motion. We seek to place our mind with the horse and practice keeping it there, allowing our intentions to naturally follow the cadenced flow of energies that arise within the movement itself. As this process deepens and matures, the training becomes advanced. Resistance diminishes and our dressage is found to be natural and good. We demonstrate, through this psychological process, our desire to discover a mind of stability, clarity, and strength in the horse by learning to rest in the harmony of what is present. This is the view of a goodness found in dressage. The collective mind learns to rest in a state of peace. Our calm and confidence are transmitted from our mind to the horse through a simple contact through the aids We turn the horse’s mind into a partner by learning to see the situation as it is; peaceful. Our judgments and actions are not clouded by our fears, aggression and passion for control. We do not ignore what is present in favor of stories we contrive. Our view is simple. This simple process is a matter of consistent discipline of our minds joined a patient practice....
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