The Mane Event

This weekend our class attended the "Mane Event" to watch the "Trainer's Challenge" where three trainers had the task of training three unbroken colts during a series of clinics over a few days. As other classmates have commented, it was as if we were in a different world quite unknown to us; us "city-folk" had wandered into the equestrian world where even some of the language was unknown to us.
We observed the clinics on the second day where the trainers had already had a chance to meet the horses and to start forming a bond. It was quite interesting to watch since even though each trainer had a very different approach they were all working towards a similar goal and within a series of criteria set out for the final competition. I do think it's safe to say that each trainer was in a state of flow for that one hour as they were completely immersed in what they were doing. The first trainer had a soft approach where he did not push the horse too much; he offered the horse much reassurance through constant stroking and pausing between challenging moments to let the horse "regroup". The second trainer was quite different as he pushed and challenged the horse more and was able to accomplish more with the horse as well. It was quite interesting to see the trust this horse had in his trainer, since you could tell that fear was present (especially when the the blue tarp was present), but he persevered and followed his trainer with trust. The third trainer, I felt was more focused on describing to the audience exactly what the was doing and his full reasoning behind it, that I felt it took away from the actual horse training. To me, personally, it was a little distracting since I wasn't able to fully focus on the horse's reactions and motions. I have always admired horses, as beautiful, smart, and majestic creatures and marveled at their feats in shows such as Cavalia. However, this was a much different experience since I was able to glimpse the beginning of the journey and the pedagogical relationship that gets established between man and horse.
The trainers' approaches got me thinking to my relationships with my patients and clients. I advocate a "soft" patient-centered approach where I don't push or force them too much and listen to their needs; however, since the relationship and trust is there, I feel that I would be able to get them more out of their comfort zone and see bigger results if I demanded a bit more from some of them.   As Hugh McLennan stated "There is a fine line between creating resistance and creating curiosity". In my instance, I wouldn't necessarily call it curiosity, but the drive to move forward that will help patients with motivation for behavior change. The non verbal communication of the horse and the interactional setting that we were asked to look at, is much like body language of a patient where you need to recognize the clues, in that what they are saying may not be what they are actually thinking or feeling based on their body language.