For those of you who practise Parelli and don't know what principle 3 is shame on you :-) For all others of you it is "Communication is two or more individuals sharing and understanding an idea". A good principle for use in other activities than horsemanship. The essence is that just telling an individual something is not communication unless the other party has understood that communication. Most importantly you must check that the understanding of the idea is also mutual. In other words check the communication means the same thing to each individual.
Yesterday I was playing with Filly at Liberty. We were doing circling game and figure 8. There was a miscommunication as she circled towards the wall of the school and I gave the instruction to change direction. At this point she stopped and started going sideways down the wall, looking very pleased with herself. I was around half the size of the school from her. My signal had been to start disengaging her, run backwards to draw her towards me then point in the direction of the new circle with my stick in the new driving hand. Snag was that if I switched to the driving hand with the stick a fraction too soon she took this as a signal to turn her nose away from me which left her pointing at the wall. Now add in that I had just tried to disengage her hind end a fraction and all the elements were there for her to believe that I wanted sideways along the wall.
Without really understanding principle number 3 I would have got angry and frustrated as my "stupid horse" seemed to defy me and do the wrong thing. But I do understand p3 and as a result I got angry and frustrated at myself for not being able to communicate more clearly what I wanted, whilst actually being proud and happy that Filly was doing her best to understand what to her was confusing and contradictory instructions. Thus p3 was instrumental in me keeping my emotions firmly under control, analysing the problem and then seeking a method of communication that put my desires across clearly to Filly.
This really drives home why it is so important to know AND understand the principles at a level where abiding by them happens at an almost unconscious level. In a situation like this there is no time to systematically go through the principles to see which one is required at this moment.
For those who want to see the list of Principles look at the link to the Parelli Framework in the right margin of this blog.
Just a plea from me. The last comment I got was from Petra on the 24th April. It is getting a bit lonely out here. Please comment if you have time and if you have trouble doing so let me know at Tim@trscott.me.uk and I'll investigate the problem. Thanks.
Yesterday I was playing with Filly at Liberty. We were doing circling game and figure 8. There was a miscommunication as she circled towards the wall of the school and I gave the instruction to change direction. At this point she stopped and started going sideways down the wall, looking very pleased with herself. I was around half the size of the school from her. My signal had been to start disengaging her, run backwards to draw her towards me then point in the direction of the new circle with my stick in the new driving hand. Snag was that if I switched to the driving hand with the stick a fraction too soon she took this as a signal to turn her nose away from me which left her pointing at the wall. Now add in that I had just tried to disengage her hind end a fraction and all the elements were there for her to believe that I wanted sideways along the wall.
Without really understanding principle number 3 I would have got angry and frustrated as my "stupid horse" seemed to defy me and do the wrong thing. But I do understand p3 and as a result I got angry and frustrated at myself for not being able to communicate more clearly what I wanted, whilst actually being proud and happy that Filly was doing her best to understand what to her was confusing and contradictory instructions. Thus p3 was instrumental in me keeping my emotions firmly under control, analysing the problem and then seeking a method of communication that put my desires across clearly to Filly.
This really drives home why it is so important to know AND understand the principles at a level where abiding by them happens at an almost unconscious level. In a situation like this there is no time to systematically go through the principles to see which one is required at this moment.
For those who want to see the list of Principles look at the link to the Parelli Framework in the right margin of this blog.
Just a plea from me. The last comment I got was from Petra on the 24th April. It is getting a bit lonely out here. Please comment if you have time and if you have trouble doing so let me know at Tim@trscott.me.uk and I'll investigate the problem. Thanks.
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