In case you missed last week’s post, I am not a horseman. I don’t want to misrepresent myself in writing posts about horses. This is not a how-to post on training horses, because I lack the knowledge required to write such a post.
A few months ago, we took one of our horses to a trainer. My observation of this training process is that it has two fundamental goals taking place roughly simultaneously, one step at a time.
The first goal is to train the horse to surrender his will to the rider. While being ridden, the horse’s goal should not be to go where he wants to go or to do what he wants to do. Rather, his goal should be to do what the rider wants and to go where the rider wants to go. This is not a one-time training activity, but an ongoing process. Even after the initial training, for much of his remaining life, the horse is likely to require a brief warm-up at the start of each ride.
The second goal is learning to understand the rider’s prompts. The rider uses a combination of body language signals to direct the horse in what to do, and the horse must learn all the appropriate signals.
These two goals work hand-in-hand. Without an understanding of the rider’s prompts, the horse would be unable to do what the rider wants, even if he wished to. Similarly, it is through the process of learning riding prompts that the horse also learns to yield his will to the rider…to seek to do the rider’s will rather than his own…or, more accurately, for his will to be conformed to the rider’s will.
And we call this process breaking a horse…
Is it any wonder that it is in periods of brokeness that I draw closest to God, learning to seek His heart and listen to His prompts?
Your thoughts?
[Linked to Messy Marriage, Graceful, Wellspring ]