Okay, so. . . The place I clean stalls at has cats that run around the place. 2 of those cats are kittens named Blanket and Pillow. They're adorable, but they've developed a nasty habit of climbing up people's pants legs.
So, the cats have really taught me a lot about focus. I've figured out that the cats tell you what happens before what happens happens. They stare at your knee, and crouch down, before they actually jump on your leg. Soooo. . . as soon as they jump, if I time it correctly, I can push my knee forward and they'll just run into it and fall off (they ran into my knee, I didn't try to hit them). But, that's only if I'm focusing on them. I've learned that in order for it to work, I need to catch it at that split second they're in the air. And . . . what's that saying again. . . something like: "Focus brings feel. Feel brings balance and timing. Feel, balance and timing are the tools of teaching." I realized that when I just tried to ignore the cats and clean the stalls, I'd miss every single time when they'd jump on me, so I now have scratch marks all over my legs to prove it. :) So, there is no focus without feel. But just goes to show you, "if you want to learn as bad as you want air, you'll be easy to teach" so then even cats can teach horsemanship lessons :)
Now, the donkey: Also located at where I clean stalls. There was a horse this past week who colicked severely, and so he's been on stall rest the past few days. To get him a little more comfortable with being stalled all day when his friends get to go outside, they brought donkey inside as a stallmate. Well, this was my first time ever interacting with a donkey, and wow is it different! They have a whole different mentality about them. It's almost like they're selfish, in a strange way. They don't have the willingness that horses have. I feel like I have to convince him to do everything, and even then his attitude is "so what?" It's very different. I'm now curious about how you would teach them, if there are donkey trainers out there. I really don't know much about them, so please excuse my ignorance.
Lastly, I had another revelation, this one not mentioned in the title. I was thinking about a lady's blog I read, and this post, in particular. I'll take you through my thought process. First, I was just thinking about how the way she writes is so foreign to me. To me it feels like she's playing 20 questions, because it's like I kind of know what she's talking about but she never really goes out and says it. But I also got to thinking about a post she wrote a long time ago (that I can no longer find or else I'd link to it) where she described her horse. The description was magnificent, but her horse (Cricket) sounded like a force to be reckoned with. I wish I could find the post, like I said just incredible word choice. So, I was thinking about these two things, and I thought about acceptance into all of that: Acceptance of where everyone's at in their journey. And I don't remember how, but I came to a conclusion. When you don't accept where you are at with your horse, that puts pressure on your relationship. Because if things don't go perfect when you step into the pasture, you're going to be unsatisfied. Because you'll wish you had it all yesterday. It's basically an endless cycle of dissatisfaction and direct-lineness. I've been there, done that, and am praying that I've got out of that house, locked the door and threw away the key. It's not a fun place to be. But heck, it took me a year and a half to realize this (though a friend or two knew all along).
I follow Edie Brogan's blog (an incredible read, just packed to the brim with information, I recommend it to anyone on a rainy day, but start with the oldest post first), and in one post she quoted an instructor and stated it perfectly: "He also talked a little more about how our horsemanship is a never-ending journey - and that if we’re not happy with NOW, we’ll never be happy, because it will never be 'perfect enough'."
I'll leave you with that statement in closing.
--Erica
