The first post in this series dealt with several nuts and bolts, business considerations to keep in mind when working to build a riding program. There are many resources out there that can provide more detailed information on those considerations. This post will deal with matters that are not easy to google.
What I will set out below will be of little use to most people. Some will think it odd. Some might even be offended by it. Some might think it sanctimonious or even self righteous.
It is neither. It is blunt and simply lays out my core beliefs without apology or sugar coating.
Teaching riding and natural horsemanship should not be an occupation. It should be a calling. It should not be a calling to teach spoiled little rich white girls how to win ribbons. It should be a calling to radically improve the quality of the lives of riding students and their horses.
The building of a riding program works best if done as an entirely selfless venture. An ethical system that seeks, as an ultimate goal, the complete abandonment of self interest is completely wrong headed. Disregard of self interest cannot be the goal of an ethical life. It must, instead, be the beginning--the very first step to living an ethical life.
To do so is liberating. It allows one to work very hard , seven days a week, for years on end. Most importantly, it allows one to teach by example. Kids learn best that which they see and experience consistently.
Disregarding self interest is financially liberating. Doing so frees up a tremendous amount of money that one might otherwise spend on one's self. Eventually one can even reach the point of avoiding the use of the filthiest four letter work in our language--"mine". (I generally only use that word as an accounting classification so that everyone understands that program funds were not used to acquire certain assets, e.g. the cattle are "mine" in the sense that they were not purchased with program funds.)
Disregarding self interest is physically liberating. It allows one to get work done regardless of whether one is sick or injured. This is particularly important as one gets older. Pain is a near constant companion the closer one gets to the end of the game. Being able to disregard that pain allows one to accomplish as much at age sixty as one could at age forty.
Lastly, and most ironically, disregarding self interest can be the most self rewarding thing that one can do for one's self. Instead of spending life chasing meaningless frivolities like "happiness" one can obtain a life of meaning and satisfaction.
I did not begin this pilgrimage with this understanding. I started out doing clinics on the taming of wild horses and when people saw Lido working with me they asked if I could teach their child to ride.
The experience of working horses in the round pen and teaching kids that they could do more than they ever thought possible taught me what matters in life. Seeing victims of extraordinary physical and sexual abuse jump out from the dark corner that their mind had always lived in taught me what matters in life. Seeing the impact that the horses have on those who are in the inpatient PTSD program at the local Veterans Hospital taught me what matters in life.
Ashley Edwards taught me what matters in life.
And Lydia Barr's typically profound and simple statement taught me what matters in life.
She said, "The horses are important but the people matter most."
No comments:
Post a Comment