BFO -- Work With Tendencies, Not Against Them

Another recent BFO (for a definition of BFO, go here) that I had relates to understanding something that has caused much angst in my relationship with Gunny in the past. This thing was that in my efforts to become a good "trainer" of horses, I tended to always be focusing on changing the horse's response to things. My BFO really had two parts.

First, I realized that the reason I had reached a point of being burned out with Gunny a several years ago because I had been working against his (and my) tendencies, instead of with them. I had this idea that there are certain ways to train a horse, in other words, the "right" way to do things. And therefore in order to get the horse to do something or behave a certain way you needed to use those "right" ways.

Where the problem came in was that certain "right" ways of doing things went against Gunny's tendencies. And then I spent literally years trying to apply those "right methods" to change tendencies that are a part of who Gunny is. I did try different methods and techniques over that period of time but the underlying framework was still about making the horse change something.

Next, I realized that there are certain things about Gunny that have not changed no matter how many different things I have tried. So I started to look at those things to figure out how I can use them to help create more harmony and understanding.

I will give a couple of examples in my next post so you can see what I mean.