Coffee and Horsemanship (July E-News)

Patrick riding in Richard Winters clinic, April 2010. Photo by Jessie H.

Coffee and Horsemanship

I was having a conversation with a couple friends the other day; both of these friends are in the same professional field. One mentioned to the other that there was an educational conference coming up in a few weeks that was to cover new information within their profession. The other friend was very disinterested and commented "I figure I learned everything I needed to know about that when I went to school, I'm not going." Two different attitudes.

Attitude One says "I want to learn as much as I can, as often as I can, and from any sources possible."

Attitude Two says "I already learned what I need to know and I can't see a reason to waste time learning more (or - learning from that person or that clinic or that book)."

Do I even need to discuss the benefits or negatives to having one of these attitudes over the other? If you are reading this newsletter, I think you're probably in the Attitude One club, and it's great to be in such an elite club with you!

I have a friend that always says "No matter how dumb a fella is, I figure I can learn something from him." It's an open mind like this that will keep us constantly improving and advancing.

Personally, I try to learn from every source I can about all the subjects that interest, or are of use, to me. I take in clinics from other horsemen and trainers as much as possible. I read all the books and watch all the videos I can get hold of. I listen to everyone that would have a notion to speak. I watch everyone that I can.

I like to think of the learning process as similar to a coffee maker. Our current knowledge is the water circulating through. The coffee grinds are the learning experience that we have presented to us. When we filter our current knowledge (water) through the experience (coffee grinds), we are left with a new and expanded knowledge (coffee). We control the filter in our mind and can choose how much of the information we want to keep or throw away.

This ability to filter is tremendously helpful. We can watch someone working a horse and see what is going on and what works, as well as what isn't working. We can see things that we want to try, and we can see things that we don't want to try. In this way, watching a session that seems to be going totally wrong is just as helpful, from a learning perspective, as it will show us many things we may want to avoid in the future.

Closing our mind off to additional experiences or opportunities is one of the most limiting mistakes we can make. The way I see it, I can't make all the mistakes that are possible, but if I see someone else make one that I haven't made yet, I can learn from their experience and not have to make that mistake myself. The same goes for a positive experience - I can learn what they did and how they did it, and by doing that, I shorten my learning curve.

My most frequent recommendation to students in my clinics or courses is to learn from as many horsemen as possible. Watch, listen, read, ride with as many people as they can. I often comment that I am the best student in each of my clinics, as I get to learn from each participant's experience during the class.

I hope to leave you with this lifetime challenge: Keep an open mind with a good filter. May your experiences be as rich and stimulating as your morning coffee. Most of all -

Enjoy the journey!