October 20, 2011

I have got to figure out how to get movies off my phone and uploaded here. That is my next self-assigned assignment because I have some pretty cool videos to share.

So. Today.

Last class and today we performed an obstacle course (from the ground) for our midterm. It definitely is a good opportunity to judge how well you are engaged with your horse. Cowboy really did pretty great. The one problem was his lack of excitement. (That is the one major problem with a laid back horse... ha ha.)

Cowboy is a great matcher of energy. If I pick up my energy he is quick to respond. I love that. But something I'm terrible at is... dun dun dun... having more energy! (I need to get more sleep, eat more vegetables or something.)

During our midterms Brother Twitchell pointed out that one of the horses did a particularly good job of "being excited" about going over the jump. Poor Cowboy just isn't ever that excited about the jump. I asked Brother Twitchell how I could fix that. Really though...

How do you get a horse to do something they aren't excited about (or anyone for that matter)?

The answer is quite simple. You teach them to like it. How do you do that? By letting them discover how fun it is.

We read a great article this last week about the brain processes of learning and how dopamine and epinephrine (feel good chemicals) are released when we have a learning moment. That applies to both human and horse brains. SO...

That means I need to ask bigger, harder things in order for Cowboy to get a bigger release of those feel gooders. And in turn those feel gooders will encourage Cowboy to enjoy and even be excited about these things I'm asking him to do. SO...

I tried it. I tried to have more energy, to ask bigger, harder things... AND IT WORKED! How cool is that!

Something that crossed my mind while I was reading that article was how much Heavenly Father wants us to learn. He is so eager about it that he made a physiological pleasure response for when we have big learning moments, probably in hopes of us learning to love learning. That thought has really changed my perspective working with Cowboy. Instead of having a checklist of things we can and can't do, my job is to help him learn to love learning, help him enjoy our relationship, help him accomplish hard things, help him engage his mind and his body.

I just think it is really very cool. That is probably enough thoughts for today. Videos to come.