Sunday, March 4, 2007
Life Lessons
When Deborah, the director of Kopper Top, handed me a halter to get onto a horse named “Image,” I instantly begin to worry because I felt like any comfort I once felt around horses had slipped away. The way she spoke to me about the entire situation seemed to make me feel like she expected me to know far more than I actually did and it made my heart start racing. As soon as I led Image away from the stall and up onto the driveway with about four other horses, I begin to feel a bit more in my element. Diane, another woman who worked at Kopper Top, stayed with the five of us volunteers and proceeded to teach us various “porcupine” techniques, which were various ways to control the horse and its movements and successfully direct it to where it should move at that moment. I feel like although the skill will assist us with our work at Kopper Top, it will also provide us with personal abilities. One of the key points made was not to make eye contact with the horse while directing because it put to much pressure of the horse to perform perfectly, and also not to look back at the horse when leading because it said you didn’t trust him to follow. I feel like those are two lessons to take into account whether they involve a horse or not, I mean it’s very important to remember that we shouldn’t expect others to perform perfectly in any respect or chances are they’re more likely to crack under pressure and fail. In addition, we should always remember to trust those around us before we feel the need to not trust them. In society, it is more common not to trust those around us and then to grow to trust them, however a personal rule of thumb for myself is to trust until I’m given reason to not trust. Perhaps this is a more naïve outlook but according to the teachings I absorbed from Kopper Top, my personal beliefs go hand-in-hand. I’m excited to continue taking lessons from this experience and to hopefully assist in changing another individual’s life by the end of this term.
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3 comments:
That is so exciting that you got to work with the Parelli technique with Image. When I have gone we have seen them practicing this technique and saw a student performing the technique on a horse but have not gotten to work with it myself. I think that the two lessons you mentioned that you came out of it are very important as you said not only with horses but people as well. These two things are what Deborah was telling one of her student to do while he was working with a horse. I am excited to learn the Parelli technique and hopefully do some research on it to incorporate into some of the writing assignments we have to do for our class.
That is really interesting that you got to do the Parelli technique with Image. I hope I get the chance as well. I liked your points about not putting too much pressure on the horse, and not looking back, and how these two things relate to people also. It is true and I don't know if I would have made that connection myself, but it makes perfect sense. It is a good lesson to learn.
Caits - You do a better job here of "delving deeper" with your reflections. You've made an excellent connection between your lesson on horses through service and general life lessons - great job! Again, though, be sure to make connections to course content to earn the full points.
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