Equine Insights

Hi HEALers:

I trust "The Mane Event" was of some interest to you. The three trainers showed some similarities of purpose, which is understandable given the overall "competition" rules and assessment criteria, however there were discernible differences in their personal "styles," "manners," "approaches" and "behaviors."

As you reflect on this event event, consider the nuanced ways in which these trainers responded to the horses. How did they listen, feel, and see what to do? Consider the questions I posed a couple of emails ago:

a. What understandings of non-verbal communication did you gain? What boundary-setting was necessary and desirable? How did proximity and distance figure in the communication? How was attention gained and kept? What intentional postures, positions, gestures and expressions conveyed particular meaning?

b. What were the kinesthetic dynamics of connection, responsiveness and even 'entrainment'? How did breathing, balance, timing (rhythm) and touch figure in the relationship-building process?

c. What were the energy (flow) affordances of effective communication? How did instructing, directing, leading, guiding, facilitating and following look and feel as different energetic communications?

d. On what "empirical" (i.e. observable) basis did you judge certain relational dynamics as positive or negative? What felt right or wrong to you?

That last question about "What felt right or wrong to you?" is the telling one. It goes deeply into our exploration of what is ultimately health-educating, health-promoting and health-caring in our work with others. What quality of interaction contributes most to the authenticity, dignity and the vitality of those with whom we work and live? And how do we come to know and develop this quality of interaction?

Create a blog entry this week that is prompted by these questions. There is no need to address the questions themselves. They are just there is prompt you in thinking about relational dynamics. Once again, when we transpose such questions to the human-to-human contexts of our professional work, these become key questions of "pedagogical" relationality.

There are no correct or incorrect responses. The blog entry is simply about attending to your impressions, making some sense of them, and seeing if there is any wider applicability to what you saw, heard and felt.

Cheers,

Stephen.