Today, I had the privelege of watching the inventors of NH in action, The horses themselves. I was at my barn and I was observing a paddock which had just had a new horse added to two others.
I also was reflecting on Linda Kohanov's teleseminar and what she had said about Dominant horses vs. Lead horses.
In the adjacent paddock was my friends horse, displaying very anti-social and dominant behavior. Aggressively lunging at the fence, pinning his ears and acting very agitated. I had no doubt that he would hurt the other horses in the paddock if he was in with them. In the other paddock was a true Lead horse showing me how "real" round penning is done. He was moving the new horse around in an assertive but not dominant way. The second horse mimicked him and followed and was showing that he was already established with the Lead horse. I saw the dance between them. The new horse stopped, turned and faced, looked in several times, dropped his head and walked. He wanted to talk it over. Come and Join up. The lead horse looked away and showed no interest. I watched this for some time. It was so interesting to watch them do it. Not a human! I felt like I had a refresher lesson from the masters themselves.
FDT
No comments:
Post a Comment