Humans are a funny species and horse-loving humans are perhaps the funniest of all.
People like labels. No, it’s more than like; people love labels. It is a huge evolutionary omission that humans do not have an inbuilt Dyno Label Maker. Then we could label everything to our heart's content and we would be happy.
Take for example the labels we use in the horsemanship world. We have traditional horsemanship, natural horsemanship, clicker training, learning theory, and so on. But that’s not good enough. Then we feel a compulsion to break it down further so we have subcategories like Pat Parelli horsemanship, Tom Dorrance horsemanship, Clinton Anderson horsemanship, etc – all with their distinct band of followers.
In the dressage world, we have modern dressage and classical dressage that are umbrella labels for Portuguese dressage, French dressage, Italian dressage, German dressage, competition dressage, pro hyperflexion supporters, anti hyperflexion supports and so on – all backed by people willing to argue with their dying breath which is the best.
Then there is the breed world where horses are bred and crossed so many times that people have forgotten what the foundation breeding ever was or looked like. And let’s not forget the various categories of gear like the many different types of bits or bitless bridles or saddles or the innumerable choices we have of how to trim our horse’s hooves.
It’s more than enough to do a person’s head in. Imagine trying to explain all this to aliens visiting from another world. It would be like trying to explain the rules of cricket to an American.
And of course, each of these categories and subcategories and sub sub categories has their own band of experts and gurus that we cling to as though they hold the secret to a long and happy life and we would be lost without them. We put them on pedestals and our hearts fill with joy with every decree and utterance they share with us. In our minds, they are bigger than rock stars. In fact, they are what rock stars aspire to be.
The thing that all these categories, subcategories and gurus have in common is simple. We follow them religiously because they all confirm what we already believe. They make us feel good about ourselves because we are like-minded with their ideas. If we agree with what our favourite expert says or what classical dressage theory teaches, it gives us good reason to think we are on solid ground with our own ideas. Why wouldn’t we be happy about that and want to cling to it?
And of course, we hate the theories and the people who preach them that contradict or that diverge from our own beliefs. They are evil and a scourge on the horse world.
But here is the problem. Nothing and nobody is infallible.
Even the most sound and reasonable principle of training and horsemanship can be wrong in any particular case. There is always one horse that goes against every sensible idea we have ever known about horses. There is always one horse that proves the point that there are no golden rules that we can rely upon. We are all just getting by on our best guesses.
And when it comes to worshipping our favourite horse person, it becomes still dicier. Even the best horse person who ever lived didn’t get it right all the time and the worst horse person who ever lived didn’t get it wrong every time.
I never met Tom Dorrance, but I have met several people who knew him. Each has relayed stories if his phenomenal talent with horses and what they learned from him. I found this frustrating because it only told me what Tom knew. I want to know what Tom didn’t know. If I had the opportunity to sit with him over a cuppa, I would ask him about the horses he screwed up, the horses he didn’t help and the mistakes he made. I want to know what he knew and what he didn’t know.
There is a big danger in worshipping an idea or a teacher. It leaves us with tunnel vision and an inability to be better than our betters. The result is that it leaves us with no options when the idea or the method is no longer working for our horse. We become stuck and our horse pays the price for our narrow mindedness.
There is a strong motivation in the horse world for people to cling to a dogma or a teacher of dogma. They can be like a life raft when we are lost at sea with our horsemanship. They give us confidence that we are doing things right, so why wouldn’t we want to cling to that?
Nevertheless, the responsibility for the training and the choices we make are ours. They are not the responsibility of our favourite horse trainer or our favourite philosophy of horsemanship. We are the ones that are accountable and where the buck stops. The role of principles and teachers is just to give us ideas to be used as guideposts. Principles are not rules and gurus are not gods – don’t treat them like they are.
You can tell by the light that shines upon him that this guy is a guru