When I began this FB page my intent was threefold…

1. to promote my clinic business. I had just switched from trainer to clinician and needed to expand my client base.

2. to present principles that form the basis of what I do as a horseman.

3. to encourage people to develop critical thinking skills. I’m less interested in people agreeing with me than I am that they have a thorough rational understanding of their idea.

Given point 3 I want to highlight two elements that in my opinion that contribute to growing critical thinking skills. There are more aspects to consider but these two are a good enough place to start.

Firstly…

People often mistake a question for a statement and horse people debating horsey topics are no exception to this. What often appears to be a question is not always a question but a declaration. How do you know the difference?

A question is a question when there is POTENTIAL that the response could alter the questioner's ideas or opinions.

A question is not a question when there is ZERO POSSIBILITY that the response could alter the questioner's ideas or opinions.

This is really important and needs to be considered before asking a question or answering a question. As Jonathon Swift famously said, “You cannot reason a person out of a position he did not reason himself into in the first place.”

The second idea I want you to consider is….

I have often quoted something I was told when I was first embarking on a career as a scientist. In the first week of my Ph.D. studies, a professor told me, “Assume everything you are told is wrong until you are satisfied it isn’t.” I was to learn that this forms the basis of all good scientific enquiry.

I agree intensely with this concept and profoundly believe it underpins all critical thinking. I have tried very hard to adhere to it all my adult life. I question everything. I know I am not alone and many people question everything. The horse world is full of people looking for the truth about how horses operate.

However, in my experience, people struggle with the definition of “everything.” To me, everything means everything. But to some people, everything means everything that somebody else tells them. They forget to question everything they tell themselves. We have a strong urge to be comfortable with the things that agree with us or that support and strengthen our comfort bubble. When we do that we surround ourselves with people who agree with us. We read books, read social media, watch videos, have instruction, and befriend people who think like us. This behaviour only reinforces what we already know and does not leave a lot of room for growth. And it creates a herd mentality and tribalism among groups - traditional vs natural horsemanship, classical vs modern, negative reinforcement vs positive reinforcement, shoeing vs barefoot, bits vs bitless, etc.

I believe it’s important that we look outside our comfort bubble. I’m not saying we should take on board everything or even anything that challenges what we know and do. But we should know about those things and leave open the possibility that they are not all bad. We should also look at what we believe and leave open the possibility that there are maybe better ideas out there that work for our horse.

The next time you ask a horse person from a different tribe a question, are you asking a question or making a statement?