In an effort to keep myself from studying, well, anything for my surgical technology class, I have suddenly taken a profound interest in studying -heavily- Natural Horsemanship (NH) training principles and simultaneously studying Classical Dressage (henceforth referred to as CD) principles. I compare and contrast the two constantly. I find it surprising how many training philosophies overlap and how many are polar opposites. (There is more overlap than not. Who knew?) I love to spend hours and hours contemplating which theories make more sense, which are the most valid, and deciding which ideas to tuck into my training "tool belt" and which ones to ignore forever. I try to look for parallels, and , when there are none, I try to consider reasonable compromises between the two. I want to become knowledgeable enough about both extremes so I can understand everything in the middle. This way, when it comes time to start my yellow colt (in another year and a half or so), I can make informed decisions and pick which methodologies I think will have the most success with that particular horse.
Unfortunately for my older, broke horses, they have become my guinea pigs. Biff, Drama, and Footloose have become my training experiments. Mostly Biff, because he has the mind and forgiving nature to deal with my mistakes and not hold them against me. Notsomuch with the girls. Biff is my "tester" and the girls are my "confirmation."
Should be interesting. When I am procrastinating on homework further I will write about my first lesson with Biff and what *I* learned from it.
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