How do you introduce yourself to a horse for the first time? For that matter, how do you introduce yourself to another person? How does a horse, placed in a new herd, introduce self to the herd? Most horses move forward, observing the other horses, looking for a flick of the ear, a wring of the tail, a hoof pawing at the ground, a head that swings outward, while we as humans tend to focus less on the nonverbal cues the other is transmitting and focus on one self. It should be noted, unconsciously, we are absorbing these cues, yet the bottom line is, we are preoccupied with self. How do we look, what we are going to say, should we extend an arm, does my breath smell, are my teeth white enough, etc… What needs to be stated here is that what we as humans value is of little interest to the horse. The horse is focused on safety, survival, and determining if the other (horse or human) is trustworthy, while we focus on performance, credentials, and making a lasting impression.
A horse doesn’t care about the letters before a person’s name or for that matter the last name. Rockefeller, Gates, Smith doesn’t mean anything. The age of the individual or their latest accomplishments are not considered. It doesn’t matter if one is married or single, gay or straight, liberal or conservative, or the color of their skin. What does matter is the body language to determine if one is a friend or foe, and if one is not an immediate threat, are the actions consistent? The horse’s primary concern is determining where does one fit into the herd? As a result, the focus is always on the other.
Since I am introducing myself to you and not to a horse, I will play the social game of performance because, unfortunately, the hegemonic construct requires that to be taken seriously, one MUST perform and one MUST have performed in the past.
The purpose of this blog is to share the musings of my work with horses and everything they have taught me and connect that with daily life. I started riding at the age of 5 and have ridden ever since. I incorporated horses into the college classroom when working with future teachers. I offer educational workshops on leadership, on team building, on future planning and always having a horse at my side. Together with my wife, a licensed therapist, we use horses for equine therapy with individuals and families. I have a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Critical Pedagogy but even that included horses as my dissertation, From the Stable to the Classroom, explored the dynamics of power within a herd and within a classroom. I have published four books with the fifth to be available late fall. For the past 25 years I have taught at both the secondary and collegiate level. But, at the end of the day, when I place my foot in the stirrup and step up into the saddle, the horse really doesn’t care. What they do care about is that I am aware of them, aware of our surroundings, and can provide them with direction and guidance that our ride is safe and enjoyable.
In the bi-weekly postings that follow it is my intention to make the following enjoyable – yet thought provoking. Giving you, the reader, reason to pause to reflect, to question if the hegemonic constructs are truly in your best interest, to value and appreciate that we are learning all the time, and to recognize that some of our greatest educators just might be a horse. Finally, I hope to never lose sight of the question, does the magnificent creature, the horse, have anything to teach us, humans, about how to live life more peacefully?