Use Metaphor to Gain Insights

Another tool that I have found useful to increase my understanding of my relationship with Gunny is to use the power of metaphor. I have found that as I am doing art I can often see parallels with my horsemanship. It is easier to see these things with the distance created by another topic. I think that this would work for anything that you choose. Pick a hobby, your job, cooking, housework, driving, you name it, anything can be looked at to glean information that will help you with your horse.

Simply take the topic that you chose and notice how you go about it, how you feel about it, what is easy, and what is hard, or certain occurrences within that topic. Then look for parallels in your horsemanship or your relationship with your horse and let that other topic inform you on another way to look at things, or a solution to a problem.

For example, I was working on a piece of art and the pen that I was using was not writing over top of my painting. I kept on trying to get the pen to write the outline and struggled my way through it, finishing the project. The next day I realized that even though the paint had felt dry, it was wet enough that it was preventing my pen from working correctly.

Later, I realized that I do the same thing in my horsemanship. When something is not working I tend to hang in there and muddle through instead of stepping back and "letting the paint dry". It was easier to see this in my art than in my horsemanship where I had learned to persist my way through. But now I can use this information to consider areas where it would be better to "let the paint dry".