Teaching to Train

My EDGE project was to teaching my brother and dad how to train horses. I chose to do this project not only because I love training horses, but also because I like to teach and help others train horses as well. Riding horses has always been a passion of mine, though it wasn’t until I started to learn the art of training horses that I truly became ‘horse crazy’. Every person who has ever rode a horse knows something I do not know. I do not know every horse or every reaction a horse can have. As such, a trainer never truly knows everything there is to know about training. I learn from others just as they learn from me. Through this project I became a better horse trainer. I taught my brother and dad how to ‘finish’ a horse, which encouraged all of us to become better horsemen and women.

For my EDGE Project I taught my brother and dad what I know about finishing a horse. Finishing is the fine tooth comb of training horses. My goal was for my brother and dad to know the basics of finishing a horses by the end of our time spent training this horse. To complete this project, I spend nearly every day with my father, brother, and our horse Doc. I rode while my father and brother watched and learned. I taught them many things such as spins, stops, arcs, and the beginning steps of barrel racing.

The learning outcomes I had hoped to achieve through this project was: to successfully teach my dad and brother what I know about training and finishing horses and to learn from them in order to become a better horse trainer myself. Because we only worked with one horse, I was not able to teach them everything I know. This is due to the fact each horse is different and created different learning opportunities. What I did hope to achieve was teaching my dad and brother the basics of training, such as spins, stops, rollbacks, circles, moving off leg pressure, and arcs. By the end of this process I wanted the horse to be ready to start training for barrels and/or roping. I also wanted my dad and brother to know the basics of how to get a horse trained to that point.

Through my project of teaching my father and brother how to finish training a horse I have gained many new insights and leadership skills. The biggest lesson I learned is that just because somethings has been carefully planned out, doesn’t mean everything will go just as planned, detail by detail. In fact, things never go exactly as planned. A skill to go along with that is flexibility. The flexibility to be able to bend and change things even when things do not go as planned. It’s okay to vary from a plan when it is for the greater good. This also taught me how to lead through these changes. It’s not easy to be a leader at these times, but when changes are pushed through with a positive attitude, plans work out.

 Another insight I gained is to fake it until you make it. I didn’t always know what to do when training the horse this summer. There was a lot of trial and error. Sometimes the horse would do things that I had no idea how to react to. It was helpful to have my father and brother there to help guide me along the way, even though I was supposed to be teaching them. That I a huge part of leadership, the skill to be able to be led. A leader cannot always be in charge. Sometimes others have to lead and show the way. This happed a lot over our training period. I’m honestly grateful for it, it made me a better leader.

 

EDGE: education designed to give experience, Suu implemented this program to encourage students to get out and get experience.