The facts about horseback riding are, best way for a horse
owner to achieve a higher level of horsemanship is through
one-on-one lessons with their horse. This is when the time
invested really pays off. In a sense, this is like the human
actually goes through the training process the horse usually
gets. This is the approach Kerry uses when giving one-on-one
horseback riding lessons. Kerry wants the horse owner to
have a feel for what the horse goes through during a days
training. This helps the human to look at situations more
from the horse's point of view. In fact, Kerry encourages
a horse riding training vacation to maximize this communication.
The first thing that Kerry is concerned about is safety
and having fun. If you keep things safe, it is easy to have
fun. If there is no fun involved, things get old real quick.
Having a relaxed attitude helps to stay positive when things
aren't going so well. There are a lot of things that come
into play when sitting on a horse. Everything you do with
your body will influence the horse underneath you in some
way. If you are afraid to move because you don't want to
do something wrong, the fun is gone. In Kerry's environment
he teaches that there is no 'right' or 'wrong', only techniques
and ideas that reward us with positive responses from our
horse. There are many different ways to work with a horse.
To Kerry, that alone alleviates the 'right' or 'wrong' attitude.
Kerry believes if you teach people there is no 'wrong' way
of doing things, they become more relaxed and anxious to
try something new.
Kerry encourages people to try new ideas, like mental imagery
horse training, and sort out the ones that do not provide them
with a positive response from their horse. Use the ideas and
techniques with the best results and simply discard the others.
Kerry wants people to build confidence and be comfortable when
sitting on their horse.
|
|
 Having
someone yelling at them that they are doing something
'wrong' all the time makes this impossible. Kerry takes a
lot of pride in his approach to working with people, as well
as horses. Being able to work in a positive, relaxed environment
allows people to be safe and have an enormous amount of fun.
The second thing Kerry keeps in mind is challenging yourself.
Kerry reads people the same way he reads horses. He can see
where the comfort level goes down hill. He will not ask someone
to do something if they aren't comfortable with it. Instead,
he will work from where the comfort level is good and try
to build on it. Pushing someone into something to fast will
only set them back. Horses teach us that every day. So being
able to judge someone's confidence and comfort level is another
way for Kerry to set up the best environment possible to
learn in. Kerry says, "challenge yourself and your horse
everyday and don't settle for where you are at if you could
be somewhere better!" |
