More on NQR
In my last post I spoke briefly about NQR, meaning "not quite right" and referring to a term that Jenny Pearce uses a lot in her "From Your Horse's Heart" course. This concept has been key for resolving chronic issues between Gunny and I that no amount of training was able to resolve, prior to now. A big part of the course is learning how to recognize what your NQR is, what a NQR from your horse feels like, and what to do about it.
There are two main areas that I have resolved through the use of listening to NQR and responding properly. Ear pinning at feeding time was one area and hurrying home when riding or walking was the other. Both of these issues had been present for a long time, years and years. Both of these issues were things that I attempted to resolve through many different training techniques for years and years. Those training techniques got us by in the moment but did not eliminate the underlying behavior I was trying to address.
Because NQR is an early warning signal, you feel it before there is any outward physical sign of anything not going fine. To say it another way, the horse will still look totally calm, happy and willing, when you feel the first NQR. This was a catching point for me because I was so used to looking at Gunny to see the subtlest nuances of expression and acting on those. Because of this, I was feeling the NQR and then dismissing it based on the fact that everything looked just fine. It was only through much practice, observation and journaling that I noticed my inner dialogue and was able to notice and listen to our NQR despite the fact that everything looked good. This was when everything started to change for us.
One reason that this is so powerful is that we are listening to our horse's communication to us before it has to get louder. One way horses communicate is through feelings. Anyone who has been riding a calm horse and then come upon an upset horse and found that their own horse became upset has experienced this. So by learning to feel that NQR, we are listening to our horse better than we ever have before. And they really appreciate that. On the flip side, when we are going through life with our horse and not hearing those NQR's, the horse can become resentful because either they feel you are not listening to them or they have to "yell" with their behavior to get you to listen.
Another reason that is so powerful is that it provides a "crystal ball". We can take appropriate action before we have to take action. This then heads off the behavior before it happens because we dealt with the reason the behavior was happening, not the behavior. If we deal with the behavior after it happened, really it is already too late. It already happened and there is nothing you can do to erase it. The general idea with training is that you are going to do something to make sure that a certain behavior doesn't happen again. But this usually goes down a road of creating some form of mild or more severe consequence for that behavior. And that can end up creating tension, defensiveness, or a desire to outsmart you, in the horse.
A third reason listening to NQR is so powerful is because it makes things easier. You get to deal with things while the horse (and you) are still in a good frame of mind. The energy is much calmer, reactions are slower and smaller, and things are much more peaceful.
There are two main areas that I have resolved through the use of listening to NQR and responding properly. Ear pinning at feeding time was one area and hurrying home when riding or walking was the other. Both of these issues had been present for a long time, years and years. Both of these issues were things that I attempted to resolve through many different training techniques for years and years. Those training techniques got us by in the moment but did not eliminate the underlying behavior I was trying to address.
Because NQR is an early warning signal, you feel it before there is any outward physical sign of anything not going fine. To say it another way, the horse will still look totally calm, happy and willing, when you feel the first NQR. This was a catching point for me because I was so used to looking at Gunny to see the subtlest nuances of expression and acting on those. Because of this, I was feeling the NQR and then dismissing it based on the fact that everything looked just fine. It was only through much practice, observation and journaling that I noticed my inner dialogue and was able to notice and listen to our NQR despite the fact that everything looked good. This was when everything started to change for us.
One reason that this is so powerful is that we are listening to our horse's communication to us before it has to get louder. One way horses communicate is through feelings. Anyone who has been riding a calm horse and then come upon an upset horse and found that their own horse became upset has experienced this. So by learning to feel that NQR, we are listening to our horse better than we ever have before. And they really appreciate that. On the flip side, when we are going through life with our horse and not hearing those NQR's, the horse can become resentful because either they feel you are not listening to them or they have to "yell" with their behavior to get you to listen.
Another reason that is so powerful is that it provides a "crystal ball". We can take appropriate action before we have to take action. This then heads off the behavior before it happens because we dealt with the reason the behavior was happening, not the behavior. If we deal with the behavior after it happened, really it is already too late. It already happened and there is nothing you can do to erase it. The general idea with training is that you are going to do something to make sure that a certain behavior doesn't happen again. But this usually goes down a road of creating some form of mild or more severe consequence for that behavior. And that can end up creating tension, defensiveness, or a desire to outsmart you, in the horse.
A third reason listening to NQR is so powerful is because it makes things easier. You get to deal with things while the horse (and you) are still in a good frame of mind. The energy is much calmer, reactions are slower and smaller, and things are much more peaceful.
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