Equine Assisted Professional Development & CEUs
You cannot punish skill into a being. You first have to provide intentional teaching of skills, allow time for fluency, and then provide accountability for actions.
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I learned that, in education, we don't necessarily teach or have it wrong. We just think through the lens of the traditional punishment system which seems to work great as long as the prerequisite skills are in place. What happens when the vertical alignment didn't go exactly as planned and your upcoming student or child enters the next grade with some pretty large gaps?
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We can keep writing kids up, sending them to D-Hall or ISS but how do the horse people address gaps in learning that can cause performance or safety concerns? We've bought 4 horses that had been turned out to pasture for a few years and then tried to "leg them back up". This is just another way of saying give them a refresher with the expectation that they will pick up where they left off years before. Only 1 of these horses was able to recover his skills and work demeanor without issue. Ray, our 24 year old retired roping gelding has aged from a light flea-bit gray to almost solid white and earned his retirement. What made him so different and why was he able to be pulled out of the pasture after years off and re-enter the arena as a Youth Rodeo horse carting around kids ages 5-15?
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Out of Doc Quixote's blood lines, Ray is the grumpiest horse. He doesn't like pets, lovings, or to be groomed too extensively. While we were in Youth Rodeo, Ray wanted to cart around the littles, be fed some hay, and then left alone in the pasture. Some people (and horses) are a little less social and that's okay! Ray only ever asked to stop working 1 time through pawing his front hoof in line for the chute and it was obvious that he was tired. Ray worked hard for my family and now one of his favorite things in life is standing at his feed basin and staring at us with heavy judgement for running out of fresh, soft, baled alfalfa.
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I don't think it all has to do with choices in parenting. The life we live today is very different that pretty much all of past humanity. By age 5-6, children would have begun helping with basic chores (farm chores, house cleaning, cooking, tagging along on simple hunts, etc.). By around age 11, children would have either entered into the family apprenticeship or another apprenticeship of a career they found interesting. We've delayed entering into work skills or apprenticeships by around 7-8 years.
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Agriculture and having to contribute to your own livelihood builds executive functioning skills. Do kids need to have jobs and financially support their families? No, they are too young but having investment in your own well-being works like magic in our brains.
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