Trainers
Filed in: Misc
What Does It Take To Be An Exceptional Horse Person?
It also seems to me that you really have to like horses, if not love them. Being good with horses takes too much time and a great deal of effort and I can’t see anybody sacrificing so much for an animal they don’t care about.
I think most people accept these features as a given in any good horse person.
But there are a few features that I have been thinking about that go into being exceptional with horses that I’m not sure get mentioned very much.
(i) I think it is a huge help if a person is fairly easy going by nature. Somebody who is a “can do” type of personality can really struggle letting go of the idea that sometimes things should go slowly. The classic “type A” personality generally starts with an agenda and when things don’t go according to plan they often have an emotional reaction. Horses don’t always do well under such people. Often in their haste to get something done, things get missed and the person overlooks the early signs of trouble in a horse. If people can teach themselves to slow down and let go of their agenda to work with the horse in front of them rather than the horse they have in their head, improvements will happen quickly.
(ii) I think the exceptional horse person probably has above average intelligence. I think of the people that I have feel are great horse people and they all are very bright. They are not necessarily well educated or academic, but they are smart. Being intelligent gives a person the advantage of thinking outside of the square. They don’t have to rely on a bag of methods for solving issues because they can invent their own methods on the spot. They can improvise easily because they have an understanding of why things are falling apart and why things need to change and how they need to change.
(iii) Thirdly, I believe the best horse people have a really impressive ability to notice everything. They are the sort of people that you see in spy movies where they walk into a crowded restaurant and notice everyone in the room, where they are sitting, what they are wearing and who they are talking to. From the book I’m reading it seems Tom Dorrance had amazing powers of observation and incredibly good recall. Harry Whitney has an ability to notice incredible detail. Ray Hunt had that ability too. I think the power to notice the smallest thing is an essential part of being brilliant with horses. It allows you to notice a small amount of bother in a horse at the earliest sign before it turns into trouble.
(iv) Great horse people can’t look at a horse and not be looking for where the trouble lies. They can’t go for a ride and not be working on something. It gets under their skin to sit on a horse or watch a horse that is not right inside. It’s a passion to help any horse feel better.
(v) Lastly, the most important aspect of being around a horse is how they feel. This takes precedence over competition wins or social rides with friends. The best horse people I have ever known do not compete. I don’t know if I’m right, but the more experience I get the more I am coming to believe that it is not possible to be a successful competitor and a great horse person at the same time. I know that might cause some people to bristle - and as I said, I don’t know for sure that I’m right – but I feel a mounting body of anecdotal evidence is strongly suggesting that to be a serious competitor will cause a person to lose an essential element of what it takes to be a great horse person.
I have listed some characteristics that I think I see in all the best horse people I know. But that does not mean that the rest of us who don’t posses all those features can’t be damn good horse people. It just means we have to work harder at the things we find difficult. I think we have a responsibility to our horses to do that – they need it from us.
It also seems to me that you really have to like horses, if not love them. Being good with horses takes too much time and a great deal of effort and I can’t see anybody sacrificing so much for an animal they don’t care about.
I think most people accept these features as a given in any good horse person.
But there are a few features that I have been thinking about that go into being exceptional with horses that I’m not sure get mentioned very much.
(i) I think it is a huge help if a person is fairly easy going by nature. Somebody who is a “can do” type of personality can really struggle letting go of the idea that sometimes things should go slowly. The classic “type A” personality generally starts with an agenda and when things don’t go according to plan they often have an emotional reaction. Horses don’t always do well under such people. Often in their haste to get something done, things get missed and the person overlooks the early signs of trouble in a horse. If people can teach themselves to slow down and let go of their agenda to work with the horse in front of them rather than the horse they have in their head, improvements will happen quickly.
(ii) I think the exceptional horse person probably has above average intelligence. I think of the people that I have feel are great horse people and they all are very bright. They are not necessarily well educated or academic, but they are smart. Being intelligent gives a person the advantage of thinking outside of the square. They don’t have to rely on a bag of methods for solving issues because they can invent their own methods on the spot. They can improvise easily because they have an understanding of why things are falling apart and why things need to change and how they need to change.
(iii) Thirdly, I believe the best horse people have a really impressive ability to notice everything. They are the sort of people that you see in spy movies where they walk into a crowded restaurant and notice everyone in the room, where they are sitting, what they are wearing and who they are talking to. From the book I’m reading it seems Tom Dorrance had amazing powers of observation and incredibly good recall. Harry Whitney has an ability to notice incredible detail. Ray Hunt had that ability too. I think the power to notice the smallest thing is an essential part of being brilliant with horses. It allows you to notice a small amount of bother in a horse at the earliest sign before it turns into trouble.
(iv) Great horse people can’t look at a horse and not be looking for where the trouble lies. They can’t go for a ride and not be working on something. It gets under their skin to sit on a horse or watch a horse that is not right inside. It’s a passion to help any horse feel better.
(v) Lastly, the most important aspect of being around a horse is how they feel. This takes precedence over competition wins or social rides with friends. The best horse people I have ever known do not compete. I don’t know if I’m right, but the more experience I get the more I am coming to believe that it is not possible to be a successful competitor and a great horse person at the same time. I know that might cause some people to bristle - and as I said, I don’t know for sure that I’m right – but I feel a mounting body of anecdotal evidence is strongly suggesting that to be a serious competitor will cause a person to lose an essential element of what it takes to be a great horse person.
I have listed some characteristics that I think I see in all the best horse people I know. But that does not mean that the rest of us who don’t posses all those features can’t be damn good horse people. It just means we have to work harder at the things we find difficult. I think we have a responsibility to our horses to do that – they need it from us.