The Challenger

Dear Readers and Friends,

here comes a challenging post about my horse’ behaviors. Not challenging for myself in e. g. handling him, taking care of him, no, but in the way that he is challenging himself. Continuously and constantly and in lot of different forms and ways.

Maybe this has to do with Darwinism, the evidence-based theory, about how species develop through adaption to their environment. Many times Darwin’s theory is shortly presented by stating it as the survival of the fittest, and we often interpret it in the term of high-quality and quantity performance. Who runs, swims, flys faster than others, who dive deeper than other, who flies higher, longer, just to give you a understanding of it how we can interpret Darwin’s theory. But what I observe is that there is another way of surviving in the way of the fittest.

It’s what I have to come to think of in terms of challenging oneself continuously and constantly in every little aspect of life. Sir Simple has opened that door of consideration for me through his way to challenge himself, to be on a constant search due to curiosity and the need to make sense of different situations. He uses each opportunity and possibility to challenge himself.

Here are a couple of examples:

1)      If we go for a walk in the forest, he isn’t content with just following the bigger paths cars and trucks use, which are even and broad, no, what is interesting and appealing is to follow the small paths done by a deer or any other forest animal. These paths are so small, they are going beneath and around trees, they go up and down, they are stony, muddy, and slippery, short, they are uncomfortable in many ways. Yet, Sir Simple takes each chance he gets from me to use these paths and to investigate them. Why is the question?

2)      If he is in the stable and even if he has received all his food and most horses wouldn’t spend any attention on other things besides eating, Sir Simple watches for opportunities to open the door of his box to investigate the surroundings. He is choosing between the comfort of having a full belly and the discovery of new things. Why is the question?

3)      The same behavior I could observe when he is in his paddock. Least chance Sir Simple gets, he goes investigating. He does that even when we meet the biggest animal in Swedish forests, the moose. Instead of reversing for that majestic animal, he is curious. With a question mark in his whole body he stands there, listening and paying attention to his surroundings, yet not in an anxious way, rather in a questioning and positive way. Why is the question?

These observations have triggered my thought process and I have reflected a lot about it. The answer I found is that through constantly and continuously challenging himself to investigate, with a positive restlessness, following his curiosity, he learns to adapt to new situations, and at the same time, he tries to understand what is going on. And finally also of course understands situations.

Seen in that way, Darwin’s theory, changed not only the perspective on how I saw upon the theory, but through applying the theory in the way of how I was perceiving and thinking of adaption and development, I could see that Darwin’s theory isn’t about the performance which demands Olympic attention and performance on a high level, it is a performance which is so subtle and elusive that we more or less miss it. It is a performance that demands engagement each day; it is a performance based on curiosity, and on challenging yourself to be engaged and curious.

It’s the challenge to be curious to look behind the next tree in the forest, to look for ways to gain a better understanding of situations, which then leads to the ‘aha’-effect and if we keep challenging ourselves to new questions. It also has to do with enjoying your life, with a lust and zest for life.

Even if horses can’t form a question like we can, they can inquire and investigate. All animals have that potential and ability. The thing maybe which differs between animals and of course humans, is how they use this potential and ability. The question is put on us, the human beings, what do we do with our animals and their constant way of challenging themselves. Do we encourage it? Do we experience pleasure when they are going out for a conquest, so little it might be ‘worth’ in our ‘eyes’?

Horses will never discover America, or new planets, but they can learn us a lot about the way of making discoveries and zest for life. They do it by constantly and continuously challenging them to follow their curiosity.

And if I now finish this post with a challenging question: Which do or should we regard and appreciate more: The one who is discovering new things or the one who teaches us how we can discover new things and enjoy ourselves in the process of it?

Well, it might be a matter of taste:-)

Wishing you a good and challenging day ahead,

With best regards,

Jenny.

About Learning, and A New Way To Look At It

Dear Friends, dear Readers,

you certainly know by now that I am interested in learning. I have seen my horse Sir Simple under so many different situations through the past years. I have seen him improve skills like coping with adverse situations or improving his ability to influence me, but I have until now not understood how he really does. Well, I have understood so far that he his an excellent observer, that he never gives up and that he uses each possibility he get to improve himself. That are the visible signs I can see – but what I try to sort out, is the invisible process which is going on in his mind. The way the information takes, from his senses to his brain and how it is processed and how it is stored and then used again in a suitable situation.

You remember certainly that I quoted a learning theory, or better a theory we also use to try to ‘educate‘ our horses in some of my posts: Learning is synonymous with behavior change (McGreevy, 2004). This theory is a  leftover of behaviorism, a perspective in psychology which influenced our view of the mind and behavior sustainable and quite effectively. It says that environmental factors govern our actions, which means that we are more or less a product of the environment, meaning we are reactors to the environment. Behaviorism contributed with basic laws of learning which says that we can by manipulating environmental factors, change behavior towards the behavior we aspire (Passer, Smith, Holt, Bremner, Sutherland & Vliek, 2009).

This theory of learning influenced also the way of training horses and of course the way we look at horses – as a reactor to the environment. In a way this ‘understanding of horses’ serves also our purpose to use horses in competition – they are ‘only’, if I may say so very critically, a reactor to the environment – they have no own will as all they are, is a product ‘produced’/'manufactured’ of/by the environment – or if I may say so critically again, us – we – the human beings. That is very suitable and useful perspective if I think in the terms of I am the teacher and you are the student. The teacher is supposed to have knowledge, whereas the student is supposed to have no knowledge – also a unbalance in knowledge. In term of horse training it can be said (very simplified of course) that the human being is the one who knows and the horse the one who does not.

I wonder if this kind of theory has led us kind of astray or does it make easier for us to use horses in sports and competitive events? Because as far as I know, most people wouldn’t call training horses education. And certainly a lot of people really don’t ‘educate’ their horses in the way which we try to educate our children – to become a person of their own, a person with self-confidence and self-insight, the capability to develop and maintain good social relationships, a person who takes responsibility of his/her own actions, who supports others and yet has a free will. Surely most of the horse owners don’t think in such terms, the terms of humanism I want to say.

So the behavioral theory of learning might be more useful in training horses as we are more interested in wining a competition and therefore we only pay attention to the physiological part of developing a horse’s body to expand his capacity of strength, endurance, and coordination. Of course we also spend some time habituating the horse to new environments (like show arenas, etc.), but we do this just for the purpose of the bigger purpose – wining a competition.

You might wonder now what has all this do to with the head of this post – learning and a new way to look at it. In my work with undergraduate students I am all the time interested how can I contribute that the student’s experience learning in another way. Experience that learning is a process of their own doing, not a ‘behavior change due to environmental factors’, but is a change in the meaning of experience. For that purpose I am constantly searching for evidence or a theory which matches my assumptions and observations and that I am getting behind the obvious and visible behaviors to the processes forming the basis for how humans and animals learn.

And lastly I did find a theory, thanks to my enthusiastic and invigorating students! And this theory is based on evidence, so it’s not just a chimera, a fantasy of our imagination or wishful-thinking:-) Novak and Gowin (1984:x) claim that “learning is a change in the meaning of experience” and emphasize also “the significance of feelings” in the process of learning. “Human experience involves not only thinking and acting but also feeling, and it is only when all three are considered together that individuals can be empowered to enrich the meaning of their experience” (1984:x). And here finally, I think I have found another puzzle bit in my search for understanding equine learning better.

To most of you it is known that horses do not own a very developed pre-frontal cortex where reflective and logic thinking is situated, meaning that horses can’t think in a reflective and logic way. Therefor using for example Kolb’s experiential learning model (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_A._Kolb) can’t be used for horses – as it uses the explicit way of information processing – analytic and rational. So Novak’s and Gowin’s  (…) theory that feelings play a major role in how we learn, opens a new door. This open door is also supported by an article published by Baumeister, Vohs, DeWall, and Zhang (2007). They meta-analysed around 300 articles about emotions, cognition and affect and concluded that emotions are necessary for learning, as emotions serve as a feedback system. But unlike the Direct Causation Theory of emotions, Baumeister et al. (2007) claims that behavior pursues emotion and explains it as follows (2007:173):

“Emotion provides feedback about recent actions and, by implication, about the adequacy of the current if-then rules on which those actions were based. Positive emotions generally validate the existing rules because those emotions signify that what the person did turned out well, and so the existing rules were presumably effective. Negative emotions signal that one’s behavior was not successful, and hence they suggest that the if-then rules need to be revised. The emotional state may stimulate counterfactual thinking and other ruminations about how one could have gotten better results had one followed a different if-then rule”.   

Baumeister et al. (2007: 174) concludes that “emotion serves as a stimulus for cognitive processing“. Here, dear readers, attention is required. Lots of people say or claim that horses have not a well-developed pre-frontal cortex, therefore cognitive processes like thinking can’t be very well-developed. Well, you are partly right. But cognition is not only thinking, it is also attention,  retrieving memories and schemas from long-term memory, and generating responses – also all processes where information is processed to make sense of us and our environment. So, I think it is important to understand that a horse’ emotions stimulate processes like attention, remembering, and responding.

That means, to come back to the theory of learning and education, emotion gives the horse meaning to a situation and much more important, it will influence over how the horse will master its learning. Novak and Gowin express that with following words (…: xi) which I quote as I think I could not find a better way to describe it:

“All [of you] have surely experienced sometime during their schooling the debilitating effect of an experience that threatened their self-image, their sense of ‘I am OK’. We have found repeatedly in our research studies that educational practices that do not lead learners to grasp the meaning of the learning task fail to give them confidence in their abilities and do nothing to enhance their sense of mastery of events”. 

Dear Reader, if you know ask yourself the question, if you agree with me, that horses can have feelings, meaning they can feel pain and joy, how many times have you observed when people handle/train horses that they have given or confirmed the horse confidence? Or could you observe that people handling/training horses try to give the horse a meaning in what it is doing? Maybe you’ll ask now how can I give a horse meaning in its doings? After all, a horse hasn’t the sense to understand meaning? Well, I think asked in that way, you are probably right. But if we go back to feelings. I think and claim, that a horse has found a meaning in doing something, when it shows confidence in its task and trust toward its person. When the horse is relaxed and at it ease. Then for me, the horse understands the task and has a sense of meaning. However, if you don’t agree, please go out into the field and observe and come back with a constructive comment.

So, my conclusion about learning theory, or the what I prefer to use ‘educational’ theory, is that we need to administer a new thinking in our way to handle horses, a way that is more complex and is more reflecting the word education than the word training. And here, Nowak and Gowin once again have the word (1984:xii):

“[Training] programs can lead to desired behaviors such as answering math problems or spelling correctly, educational programs should [however (my addition)] provide learners with the basis for understanding why and how new knowledge is related to what they already know and give them the affective assurance that they have the capability to use  this new knowledge in new contexts.”

I think it is time that we re-evaluate the learning theory for horses, moving from the behaviorism theory of the horse as a product of environmental factors to the more complex, challenging and demanding theory that the horse is a creature which is able to use emotions as a feedback system to develop and improve cognitive processes – which in turn also demands that we change the way in how we train our horses. I would like that we begin to use the term ‘education’ and in this meaning also evaluate how we best can support the horse in its development and progress towards an educated horse.

References

Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., DeWall, C. N., & Zhang, L. (2007). How emotion shapes behavior: Feedback, anticipation, and reflection, rather than direct causation. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11(2), 167-203.

McGreevy, P. (2004). Equine Behavior. A Guide for Veterinarians and Equine Scientists. London: Saunders.

Novak, J. D., Gowin, D. B., & Butler Kahle, J. (1984). Learning How To Learn. Cambridge, USA: Cambridge University Press.

Passer, M., Smith, R., Holt, N., Bremner, A., Sutherland, E., & Vliek, M. (2009). Psychology. The Science of Mind and Behavior. London: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Please look for related articles under the category: Learning and Understanding

Simply A Harmonious Day

Dear Friends, dear Readers,

the last couple of days Sir Simple became more and more restless and our daily walks toward the storm-bound coast of lake Vänern seemed not to be sufficient anymore. Simple asked for more. For more work as it seemed.

So I decided to ride him again. Yesterday we did our first tour – and today our second. Yesterday we just went for a distance of approximately 400 meters, today we at least made double as much. When I felt my horse again beneath me, it was like coming home. And Simple must have felt the same positive emotion to be connected with me again. He ‘stepped’ along the path, beside a small pond, asking for a higher speed. I didn’t let him on the first 200 meters, I wanted to make sure that my positive perception that my horse is really well and sound, was not wish-full thinking, but truth.

I felt his suppleness and power, I felt all his four legs moving in a harmonious and powerful way, striving forward, asking for a more energy craving kind of movement. So I let Sir Simple set himself into the piaffe. And he obeyed with willingness and eagerness. I let him go piaffe, after all it is a wonderful motion, the horse centered on a small amount of space, ahead and upward, giving freedom to the front legs while the back legs are keeping the horse in movement.

Once again I was allowed to be part of a miracle, Sir Simple’s resilience has once again won. If you think in Darwinian terms, that the fittest survive and that evolution is shaping life after this principle, than I am struck with awe. I think of all the forefather’s of Simple who survived in a very dangerous, wild and hostile environment, the Alps.  Simple’s forefather’s weren’t spared, they had to fight a lot of days during each year to survive and to help the humans they were working for, to survive. Maybe the early summer days could have been days of recuperation, when the farmers themselves didn’t have to work so hard to survive in the meager but beautiful nature of the mountains.

Maybe that relentless work of these forefather’s has shaped my own horse’ willingness to go on and meet life however it looks like. Today our day was one of cold and sun. Frozen ground and the nearby pond seemed finally to settle down under an ice sheet. After the storms of the past days, nature seemed to enjoy the peaceful day. A sort of relaxation covered nature and its beings, the only one not influenced by this tension-less space was Sir Restless Legs Simple. As soon as I got him from the paddock he understood that we were going out for a riding trip.

His face and body showed how much he liked that prospect. So after having prepared him, we went out into the wonderful nature we both are right now are living in. We went around the big pond, the frozen surface glittering like a mirror in the sunshine. The reed glowing golden in the afternoon sun, the nearby forest green and aloof in the cold air, harbourage to majestic animals such as the moose or eagle, or to the shy and pretty dear or hare, and if talk is right, to a wolf.  Sir Simple wasn’t impressed by the nature at all.

He walked forward, wanting to cover miles it seemed. After having walked him, we begun with the piaffe again. And I let him go piaffe almost all the way home. It was a special experience, sitting on a horse, feeling connected, warm, feeling carried by a being which is in complete harmony, radiating energy and a kind of invincibility, and being surrounded by a breathtaking serene nature and landscape – are there any other words than as to describe this experience with the following words?

Simply A Harmonious Day

Thank you Sir Simple, my wonderful horse and friend.

Jenny.

What we share matters

Dear Friends, dear Readers,

today Simple and I went for a walk.

Well, you can ask, don’t you do that regularly? And what is so special with a walk? A walk is just a walk, nothing special. Nothing you can’t be proud of like having won a competition. Nothing you can’t earn a living with, especially not supporting a horse. And a horse that isn’t longer working under the saddle … so why keep such a horse? Ain’t worth nothing.

Well, dear friends and readers, many people might think such thoughts and yet, many of us have made the experience what it is like to have friends or a friend. And many of us even have made the experience that animals can be friends. Well, here you, as the critical reader can ask, friendship with animals, how can that be?

Can an animal experience friendship? Isn’t that human wishful thinking? That we wish that our animals experience us as friends, as family, as a ‘being’ to be trusted no matter what comes? How can, asks the critical you, an animal understand what friendship means? Because even we humans have problems with the definition of friendship. The Chinese educator and philosopher Confucius (http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius) meant that friendship is the only relationship that misses hierarchy between two people (Alberoni, 1984) which I perceive as that he means that where there is friendship, there are no differences between two people. And where there is no difference between people, there is an easy and peaceful feeling of trust and familiarity.

If I return now back to my statement that there can be friendship between a horse (animal) and a human, then the horse has to experience trust and familiarity. And how can we measure respectively evaluate trust or familiarity in a horse? After all, a horse can’t fill out a questionnaire which says the result for your friendship to XYZ is 8 of 10 points. However, if you yourself were asked to fill out a questionnaire where you should judge on a scale from one to ten how you experience trust / familiarity to person XYZ – wouldn’t you come with a critical comment and ask, why is so important to see  the quantity of my friendship to person XYZ? For me it doesn’t matter, XYZ is my friend and that is all that matters.

Correctly, we humans are much less critical about human friendships, we have lots of examples through the ages describing great friendships, like the friendship between Patroclus and Achilles, between Eneas and Pallas, between Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and between Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno (Alberoni, 1984). These friendships are characterized by ethic principles (respect, integrity, authenticity, etc.) However, if it comes to list up the friendship between an animal and a human, people tend to become distant and critical. These descriptions are turned into myth or up-made stories and science has until now supported us to believe that friendship between animals and humans is wishful thinking. However, this perception is changing and more and more scientists begin to see with new eyes, contributing with their observations and conclusions to the change and that the gap between animals and humans is closing.

And isn’t that what really matters? That what we share matters? And not what differs? We share much more than a genetic pool with animals, or the planet earth, we also share the interest to make contact with other species, we share the need for company and for play together, we share feelings of joy and sorrow together – and we share the ability to make and to hold on friends together. Does that also means that animals have a kind of ethic understanding, do they know what respect and integrity means? How can they understand these terms? Is it for them more a feeling than a thought? A feeling of trust? A feeling of familiarity? A feeling of being at peace? A feeling of being at ease?

I makes me glad when I see more and more scientists searching for new ways to judge animals and their relations to other animals as well as to human beings. I am one of the lucky ones who experiences friendship each day – through my horse Sir Simple. In all our up and downs, in times of challenge and in times of joy, the band of friendship grew thicker and stronger and with it, the insight and understanding. Not only insight and understanding in how a horse experience his world, no, also insight and understanding in how I experience the world. And that is the precious gift of friendship, extending the horizon, discovering new and unknown worlds, inside and outside of me, and all the while having a friend beside you … sharing these moments with you … that is what matters.

Friendship is bigger than we (humans) know…

wishing you, my dear Friends and Readers,

Seasons Greetings,

with best regards,

jenny.

References:

Alberoni, F. (1984). Vänskap. Göteborg: Korpen

Social Organisation – Is All About Trust

Dear Friends, dear Readers,

you may wonder where Simple and I have gone – or better, disappeared. Actually it is a sort of disappearance as it is a path of observation and reflection we right now go. Since Simple was ill I have spent all the time I could with him, not because I am afraid to loose him (that of course I am too) but because he has opened my eyes (=understanding) again. Like so many times before. And that is what makes me right now quiet – I am encountering my horse in a new way.

Of course there are all the habits I know for example his fanfare of welcome, not matter if it is 0630 HRS in the morning before I leave for my job at the University or when I come home after my working day at 1900 HRS.  One of the other habits he has is his impatience to go for a walk. He can’t wait to leave his paddock or box to explore the world. Just last week we went a way we haven’t explored before and he had no problems at all to discover the path – in darkness, in stormy weathy where the surrounding forest made noises that made me more than once look over my shoulders … Simple just kept going. Or one of his other well-known habits is to ask for titbits – and he knows how to do that by now – he knows how to charm – or to speak he knows which behaviours of him triggers a reaction from me.

But beyond these behaviours which are well-know to me, I encounter my horse also on a new ‘surface’ – I try to make sense out of his perception of the world, and here the social world he is living in. My horse has been called ‘unsocial’ for more than once in his long life time by people – and they are in their way right. Because he is unsocial to people who do not try to learn to know him – to these people he shows his ‘unsocialness’ totally, meaning he uses certain behaviours to strengthen their perception and understanding. How can a horse have that ability? How can a horse from only a quick look ‘see’ what this human being ‘thinks’, ‘feels’? Which parts of the human body are giving these thoughts and feelings away?

Then there is of course the other side of Sir Simple – when he is around people he loves, like Åsa or me. Then he is showing behaviours (most of the time) that increase our perception of being social. What body signals do I or Åsa submit to let Simple know, here comes a human being interested in you? Which body parts are telling the ‘truth’?

And are these signals signaling that here comes your family or to use the scientific word: Social Organisation?

Simple knows who is his family/social organisation. He perceives family members in another way, behaving in another way. From my observations the factor that makes the different is trust. He trusts his family members and that shows also in behaviors which are maybe not that of grown-up horse, but of a foal, forgetting his status in the social hierarchy.  Like in human organisations, hierarchy plays an important role, horses high in rank have priority access to resources (Miller & Denniston, 1979) but research found out that rank is not only a matter of birth, but also reflecting “experience in dealing with local changes and a wealth of knowledge about how best to exploit the resources in the home range” (McGreevy, 2004:125, refering to a study done by Keiper and Receveur, 1992. Social interactions of free-ranging Przewalski horses in semi-reserves in the Netherlands, published in Applied Animal Behaviour Sciences, 33, p. 303-318). Relating that to Simple means that his rank has risen with the years – but does the word experience also mean that his trust and self-confidence has risen? An interesting question – and as far as I know, until now not a object in scientific research.

Social organisation for horses is like for us human beings a stable factor, yet a factor which depends on the situation and the people/horses around. That is very interesting as scientific research by Miller (1980) has found that wild horses are mostly very stable in their social organisation. Changes that occur are when colts leave their natal group and change to bachelor groups or when groups split into smaller groups because food is scarce.  This research is another indication that trust and confidence matters, why otherwise would horses ‘group’? What research shows so far is the fact that social bonds are established for protection against predators and that these bonds are usually maintained by mutual grooming and tail-to-tail fly-swatting.  McGreevy (2004:129f) writes that these behaviors increase confidence between horses.  This is actually the only meaning I found about confidence which I perceive as interesting – it leaves me with a lot of open  and unanswered questions – as even if we know a lot about social organisations of wild horses – we continue to misunderstand our domestic horses – even if we know that wild horses follow a leading mare, and are grouped by a stallion which is “maintaining the integrity of the group by protecting it from predators and other stallions” or “that horses  are usually not territorial” (McGreevy, 2004:121ff).

I haven’t found answers to my questions yet, there are answers that science delivers, based on evidence, there are my own experiences, based on my observations and interaction with Sir Simple, yet up to date I must confess I know very little about social organisation and how trust is established – forming a bond which lasts. Maybe you regard this question as too psychological or philosophical, thinking why does it matter, you have trust of your horse, why wanting to know more about it? Yes, dear reader, in a way you are right. And yet, there is trust between Simple and me, and yet it continues to surprise me – like last week when Simple and I went a new path through a dark and stormy forest …. and he wasn’t hesitating or afraid at all.

Is that no matter to wonder and to want more?

Wishing you lots of moments to wonder,

with best regards,

Jenny.

McGreevy, P. (2004). Equine Behavior. A Guide for Veterinarians and Equine Scientists. London: Saunders.

Miller, R. (1980). Band organisation and stability in Red Desert feral horses. In: R. H. Denniston, ed. Symposium on the ecology and behavior of wild and feral equids. 6 – 8 September 1979, Laramie: University of Wyoming, p. 113-128.

Miller R., & Denniston, RH. (1979). Interband dominance in feral horses. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 57, p. 340-351.

Simple is Life, Life is Simple

Dear Friends of Sir Simple,

The last weeks were busy. Simple had a food poisoning in the midst of September and of course it went out to an inflammation in his hooves. So once again Simple was fighting – and finally winning the battle.

He did fight with a controlled and focused mental and body power, perseverance, commitment and confidence that definitely has achieved through his experiences with adversities the last couple of years a state of excellence which is astonishing. Through the weeks of pain my horse never lost focus, never lost interest for life and was all the time totally convinced that things will work
out well.

It seems that not only humans can improve and learn to take adversities; it seems that also animals can become better to deal with situations. That means, they can improve their coping-strategies. Of course, horses don’t have the capacity to
reflect about their experiences like we have, but somehow they become better – the question is how they do?

I have been watching Simple closely through these days and what I could observe was that he wanted to do things; he wanted to have different tasks to solve in this period of time. We have begun to do tricks which Åsa showed me. And these tricks we
extended when Simple was ill. I haven’t to ask Simple actually to do them, he offered them by himself. He offered them when I came in the morning at half past five o’clock, and he offered them when I came home from my working day in the evening. He did take every opportunity to show me what he could. Furthermore he always kept close contact to me, asking for my attention and touches. And a thing which I have already observed the last time he was fighting, he likes to be a jester, he likes when he is doing something which makes me laugh. I don’t know how he has achieved that skill, yet it is there and he uses it, improving it all the time.

Then there are of course strategies I know he has used since I met him – some people call it stubbornness, I call it a focused and controlled perseverance, a will to survive. He doesn’t give up himself, he is totally convinced and shows no doubt in himself, no matter how much pain he experiences. Even in the worst moments he continues and he stays focused about his goals, and interested in his surroundings. And this mental power to stay focused and interested is supported by his body, which supports his efforts in every way it can.  Even when resting and relaxing staying on the path of recovery.

I don’t know enough about a horse’ coping strategies, I think there isn’t much scientific research done in that area, but I think that horses use different coping strategies in different situations. And I think that there are differences between horses coping strategies.

The strategies my horse used have the effect that he feels competent, proud, valued and appreciated a part of a flock (me and him). And he certainly knows which factors have the effect to improve him. He uses not only his own mental and physical strength;
he also uses me as a mean to improve, to heal, to recover. Certainly he isn’t aware of that like I am, but he does it anyway – and is it really so important being aware in that case? Or is the fact that Simple is still with me, enjoying life, being life, more important?

Learning, perception and our own shortcomings

Dear Friends, dear Readers,

I am sorry for my absence the last couple of weeks.

I have been thinking about ‘learning’. What is learning, how does a horse learn?  Can a horse through the right kind of learning technic become smarter? And what does smarter mean for a horse? Are there different kinds of smartness? And which kind is to prefer? In which way has a horse to be smart? Are there differences in the different breeds in how they learn?

Learning is influenced by our senses and how we process the information we receive. This process of information processing, called perception, is in turn greatly influenced by our experiences. So to start with learning, one has to understand a horses’ perception. And that isn’t so easy for us humans. So, right now, I am sitting and doing homework, reading scientific research about a horse perception and about learning theory.

I am sure each of you has seen that your horse has learnt, and yet, to be able to understand the learning process, to be able to put it into words how the horse has learnt and what factors contributed to it, isn’t that easy, is it? How can we humans be sure that the horse has learnt because we were able to teach the horse what we wanted?

This is not an easy task – and yet, each day we spent together with our horses, we face ‘learning’, more or less. So right now, I am watching Simple closely and try to sort out which things contribute to learning in him and which not, or they are maybe just a by-product.

What makes me ponder about learning? It’s the view you see all around the world. People using force and punishment. Day by day, they enter the riding arena and try to force the horse into doing something. It ends with a big conflict, leaving both unhappy behind. What I wonder is why people each day mount their horses if they only get into a conflict again, if they use force and punishment over and over again. So, the question behind how horses learn is actually, why do we humans not learn?

What goes wrong in the riding schools all around the world? And why are a lot of the most successful riders in the world charged for violent behaviour against their horses, but people still see them as the grand masters? What is wrong with our human perception?

As you know perception is strongly influenced by experience … it seems that we humans have a lot to learn. Most of all about ourselves.

Wishing you a bright and harmonious day,

with best regards,

Jenny Friedl.

 

Swedish Summer

Dear Readers, dear friends,

it has been a while since I last wrote on Sir Simple’s blog. The reason was that we shifted in the beginning of July to our summer cottage, and Sir Simple followed with me.

Our summer cottage is lying in the beautiful and picturesque landscape ‘Dalsland’, which I always think of Sweden á miniature. There are lush and green forest filled with all kind of trees, there are mushrooms and mosses, there are flowers and wild berries, there are blue clear lakes and rivers, and there is a rich animal life. Just past week the white-tailed sea eagle was flying above my head, in a distance of only 30 meters.

In this fantastic and almost magic landscape Sir Simple and I am on vacation and we enjoy it greatly. The advantage of being on our family’s summer cottage is that my horse is just 5 minutes away, which I perceive as pure luxury. I see my horse at least 4 times a day, I receive already a fanfare of welcome early in the morning, when I am coming to serve Sir Simple breakfast. And then it’s up to me how many times a day I want to see my horse.

This is for me a precious time right now. After a very busy spring where I concluded a bachelor in Human Resources AND in Psychology (passed with distinction in both ), I enjoy the moments. And Sir Simple, too. I have been able to watch and observe him in a lot of different hours of the day, and still, I never get tired to see him.

Sir Simple and I have been of course on lots of walking-trips in the wonderful nature. My horse likes to discover new paths in the forests and he sets up a speed that makes it difficult for me to follow him. Of course we are also going for riding-trips and the last couple of times we’ve had company of two other horses and their riders. That is a special pleasure for Simple me, enjoying a trip in company.

Riding is actually perfect right now. I don’t know if Sir Simple thinks that as well, but by riding through the forest, one has the  possibility to search for the tasty chanterelle. Not that this year there are few, in the contrary, there are lots of them. But while sitting on a horse, you have a better view and see even chanterelle in places where you otherwise, while afoot, wouldn’t have seen them.

So Simple and I are mostly on trips through the forest, but we also have begun to work again. While doing my exam at the University of Karlstad, especially the last month, I hadn’t so much time to ride, but now, I have again. So I work on the basics again, smoothness, suppleness, co-ordination, strength and staying power in mind. And while doing that, I once again are amazed. How simple things, like shoulder-in, or like travers, simple exercises, are the foundation of complexity in riding. 

Have you ever thought about that, that simple exercises can lead to complex exercises, which are not only complex in how your horse moves, also extended the co-ordination of your horse, meaning also extending the horse’s balance, but that also simple exercises also built up strength and staying power? Further, the combination of the exercises makes your horse smooth and supple AND you can combine the simple exercises endlessly and if you have the right feeling, you know when to use which exercise – to support your horse optimally.

This always evokes a kind of awe in me, that simple things can become complex things. Well, you now may wonder, where is Sir Simple in all of this – where is he – right now, he is enjoying his afternoon meal after we’ve had a wonderful work-out.

We’ll be back!

New Home

Dear Readers,

last week Simple shifted to a new place.

Now after having lived there for a week, Simple feels at home and enjoys the new surroundings. The first day we were there we went for a walk and nature at this place is simply wonderful. The place is nearby a lake so even in Summer, on the hottest days, a slight wind is blowing, refreshing the hot air. Beside that, this place lets the eye roam over pastures where horses, cows and sheep are going, where hedges and trees give the landscape harmonious changes and where the forest and the lake gives the impression that wild life isn’t far away.

What Simple most delighted was the discovery that Bidde, Åsa’s horse, was staying on his summer holidays next doors and the first days they exchanged their greetings over the fields. When we did our first walk, I walked Simple to Bidde and you should have been there, seeing how Bidde and Simple greeted each other over the fence. And Simple, who had been nervous, at once become calm. For me it was calming, too, as I have been anxious and concerned, shifting Simple to a new place where he doesn’t know anyone and anything … well, it’s always an adventure.

Since the first walk, Simple and I have discovered the surroundings, alone or in the company of Åsa and Bidde. We have been to the nearby lake and did take a nap, we have been walking through the fields and the forest, letting nature, the sun, the wind and the sweet fragrances of the different flowers growing along the paths, swirl around us. And we didn’t only find flowers, we also found woodland strawberries which with their sweet taste area true symbol for Swedish summer.

Yesterday, Simple and I worked for the first time since our arrival, but Simple had his mind anywhere else, just not on work. Everything else around was much more interesting, especially the flock of nearby cows. So, after a short work out, I let him be. He isn’t allowed to spend the whole day in a grass pasture due to his anamnesis of laminitis, but each day I let him grass up to one hour in the big grass pasture. As I slept him yesterday in the big pasture, he took of in a gallop. High-speed and neck-breaking, taking my breath away. This grass pasture is not a slight pasture, it has been a forest and everywhere are stones and dead trees lying around, and when there is no stones and trees, than there are holes … I saw my horse in a neck-breaking speed galloping to the end of the pasture. I don’t know how he did it, but he mastered it gracefully. I know my horse has grown up in tough terrain and from time to time he showed me his sure-footedness when we rode for a trip through nature, but today he showed me something I have never seen before – on him – and most of all not in a 26-year-old horse:-) But yes, Haflinger and mountain ‘goat’ he is.

I became glad, seeing my horse full of joy and energy running to the end of the pasture where he not only coud see Bidde, but also apparently has the best grass to offer. There he stood, grazing and in harmony with the world and himself. An hour later I came back to bring him back to the stable and he followed me, without making a fuss that I ended his wonderful time. He went by the side of me, without a rope or something else, just by the bond of our relationship. I enjoyed Simple’s trust in me, he walking closely beside me, up the little hill to his box. There he immediately asked for reward, he knows when he has worked than there is always some food waiting for him. And of course, it was waiting.

I left Simple, eating concentrated food and hay, content with his day, and cycled home, content myself and yet eager for tomorrow, a new day waiting for us.

About the human-horse relationship

Dear Readers,

last Thursday I could deliver my HR- and psychology bachelor paper to the examinators of the University.

It was a wonderful feeling to awake the day after delivery, Friday morning, and take the bus to the stable, being the person who leads Sir Simple out to his pasture. Simple was pleased to see me, welcoming my with a fanfare. He is so full of energy and spirit,  and of course delighted to get some nibs of the grass growing along the way to his pasture, that our walk was  a little bit chaotic, sometimes we run, sometimes we stood, while Simple ate some grass. Finally we arrived in his pasture and it was a special pleasure for me to give him a little extra grass by extending his pasture.

Then I sat in the grass and just looked at my horse, enjoying a moment of peace and harmony. Birds were singing around us, insects were humming while seeking for flowers and high above us a bird of prey was circling, looking for unwary rodents. I sat in the sun and took in nature. I think Swedish nature right now is at its best. The animals are enjoying the warmth after the cold winter, they enjoy the fresh supply of food and the long days of sun shine. That at least is Simple doing. He takes in nature as it is, without thinking about the future, being there at the moment and making the best out of it.

We haven’t been working the last two weeks, my schedule didn’t allow for extra time with Simple, yet yesterday we couldn’t hold back and so I went with Simple to the riding paddock. Åsa and Bidde joined us and we shared a wonderful time together. Simple was showing improvement in holding his balance in the levade, so soon we really can talk hopefully of a levade. Bidde was showing improvement in his flexibility of his hips, he has become as smooth as a river, following Åsa’s helps gracefully and changing without difficulties from a shoulder-in to a travers and back again. Of course Åsa and I weren’t short of words of reward and appreciation.

I think sometimes that this is the real difference why my horse makes so rapid improvement. By telling him he is the best, by appreciating each right reaction upon my question, he is so eager to receive a reward that he learns and learns and learns. Åsa shares my opinion that rewards are the best mean to teach horses ‘obedience’.  Yet the obedience of Simple or Bidde is not a suppression, it is an obedience which makes our horses develop and evolve so that they positively can experience the human-horse relationship as so many fairy tales are telling us. And not to forget our horses feel confident and have trust in us which makes it possible to show how they really are, giving not only them peace and harmony, but also us. Bidde and Simple haven’t to be afraid to be exchanged when they no longer can be ridden – because they are appreciated for the persons they are. This is even in these days in Europe pure and rare luxury I think. 

The past three years with Simple haven’t always been easy, yet there wasn’t a minute where I didn’t appreciate his person and his attention and care, his joie de vivre, his fight for life, his way to approach life and its challenges. To take a horse to a new country while studying is a big challenge, not only financially, yet I wouldn’t have missed one single day of the past three years. Horses have always accompanied humans when humans set out for new horizons, discovering the assumed ‘ends of earth’ and yet each time, humans have discovered that there is no end – just a new beginning.

Simple and we are awaiting a new beginning, we will set out to once again discover new places,people and horses. Yet we will not forget the people who have accompanied us in the past three years. Making life rich and colorful.

My severe thanks

• to Åsa and Bidde; we wouldn’t have had so much fun and new insights, and your helping hands in difficult situations.
• to  Dr Sanjiv Sharma who is  always eager to hear about Simple’s ideas and who has believed in us when times weren’t easy.
• to my mom and my sisters and brother who have supported us and enjoyed the pictures and story’s about us.
• to Ida, my partner in our HR-project, who has become a wonderful friend – hope we soon can make the trail ride on the  Southern Sweden coast with our horses!
• to my readers who showed and continue to show interest in how Sir Simple approaches life by reading these lines.

I hope you all will stay with us, accompanying us on our journey to new places, people and horses.

With best regards,

simple & jenny.