In the early days of becoming a professional horse trainer I met a clinician from Arizona named Harry Whitney. Many of you probably know him or know of him. He is undoubtedly the best horseman I have been privileged to know and work with. I know many good horse people, but Harry has always stood out.��He took me under his wing and every year for about 15 years or so, I would travel to Arizona and spend anywhere between 6 and 10 weeks hanging out and helping out at his clinics. He’d cover my living costs and I just had to get myself to Arizona. We became close friends and respected each other both professionally and personally. Even though Harry is a little older than me, he would call me “the old man”, and in return I would refer to him as “the old woman”. For those that may know Harry well enough, you can appreciate how appropriate that tag is.��I think we were driving the 2 hours to Phoenix in Harry’s truck when the topic of my earlier career as a medical research scientist entered the conversation. We talked about how my break from horse training when I was working as a career scientist had impacted me as a professional horseman.
I said, “You know, I really envy you Harry.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because for all those years I was a scientist, you were training horses. You got all those years ahead of me. If I had been training for those 15 or more years instead of being in a lab I might have caught up to you by now,” I explained.
Harry then said something that surprised me. “Well, I envy you.”
“Uh. What do you mean?
He said, “While I spent those 15 years riding horses, you were learning to think.”
I was a little stunned at first and thought he was joking. But as I thought more about what Harry said, I knew what he meant.
There are a lot of skills needed to be a good horse person. I’ve heard experts talk about feel, powers of observation, timing, commitment, compassion, etc. But being a thinker is rarely mentioned. However, as Harry pointed out, being a critical thinker is right at the top.
Critical thinking gives a person the power to problem solve when they encounter a horse like none they have seen before. It gives them the ability to critically assess good and bad practices. And it empowers a person with the ability to be creative and invent unique approaches for unique situations.
Every horse person I respect has exceptional thinking skills. Every person I know has the ability to critically think if they made the effort. You don’t need a university education or a career in science to be a critical thinker. Every person can apply the brain power they have to this purpose. Most of us do it in our daily life, but we don’t always do it when it comes to our horse training. We are all capable of asking hard questions.
A lot of people I know don’t make the effort. It’s easier to let their favourite guru do the thinking for them. They are open to information that confirms what they already know and closed off to ideas that challenge what they already know.
This dependency on others to do the thinking is a hindrance to being as good with horses as people could be. You only have to read some of the comments on this page to be aware of people who are happy to criticise my ideas simply because they read differently somewhere or were told differently. They often have little rational explanation for their criticisms and more often than not they don’t ask questions. These are smart people and are capable of critically thinking. But for some reason they don’t.
I suspect some professionals in the industry are in part to blame. Some of us don’t like contradiction or our teaching to be challenged. We discourage our students from thinking critically and searching outside of our box. We like our loyal followers. By all means, this is not true of a lot of professionals, but it is true enough that it doesn’t take much effort to think of several names.
My clinics are as diverse as anyone else’s. A lot of time is devoted to working out practical solutions to problems people are having with their horse. But I hope in the process people are learning to ask the hard questions and think. I want them to question everything (including and especially me). If I am not helping people do that I am not doing my job properly. I don’t want any of my students to try to mimic me or any horse person. I want them to be the best they can be and not copies of anyone else. This means they need to be thinkers with inquisitive minds.��I enjoy my job. I like helping horses and people. But my proudest and most enjoyable moments are when a student asks me a question that I don’t know how to answer or questions something I said (or did) through pure rational thought or came up with an approach I hadn’t thought about. When it has happened I think the grin on my face is a giveaway indicator of how much fun I am having.
My motto is, “Assume everything you are told is wrong until you are satisfied it isn’t.”
I like to “brainwash” my students from an early age.