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The Heartwood Philosophy
(or "Celena's Ever-Evolving Approach to Horsemanship")
The Heartwood philosophy is the backbone of our training and coaching programs — the heartwood, if you will. It has been developed through my passionate (though some may use a stronger word!) quest to learn everything that I can about different horsemanship philosophies and techniques. By exploring different avenues of natural and classical horsemanship, I have learned a great deal about things that work well for me and my horses – and also things that don’t work for us, right now at least.
Foremost in the Heartwood philosophy is the relationship with the horse. I’m not looking to develop robots who will do whatever I ask instantly, every time. I appreciate each horse’s unique characteristics and abilities, and focus on using techniques that encourage them to try. I give them the time it takes, always finding something for them to be right about — especially when everything seems to be going wrong — and acknowledge the tiniest of improvements. That way, the horses really start to interact with people; it is exciting to see a horse start to problem-solve!
Tom Dorrance said that the three keys to horsemanship are feel, timing and balance; and who am I to argue with one of the masters? The concept of ‘feel’ is a seemingly never-ending discussion, especially in natural horsemanship. That intangible quality of ‘feel’ is what is needed for the rider to be able to find timing and balance; they are the three ingredients that every horsemaster possesses, making them able to effortlessly perform amazing feats with their horses without any perceptible cues.
Leadership is a hot topic, especially in natural horsemanship. Some horsemen maintain that you need to be the alpha horse — that is, the #1 horse. Other horsemen, like Mark Rashid and Chris Irwin, believe that you don’t need to be the alpha; you just need to be one step up from your horse. If your horse is #7 in the pecking order, you only need to be #6. Mark Rashid calls this “passive leadership,” and I believe that this is what the aim should be in regards to leadership.
Whether you’re talking about people or animals, it is much harder to learn in a stressful situation than a relaxed one. I want my horses to trust me to keep them safe — only then will they relax. I also use relaxation techniques, such as Endotapping, which I learned from Paul Dufresne. Relaxation is crucial in helping to develop a confident, versatile horse.
I believe in softness, not lightness – a concept picked up from Josh Nichol. Picture lightness as the hyper-sensitive horse who flies off of any leg command — yes, he’s doing the movement, but he is fleeing the pressure. In contrast, softness is what you see in the horse who actually accepts and yields to aids, calmly and confidently. I believe in developing softness in my horses, not lightness.
As a recovering perfectionist, I am a huge advocate of creativity. Why does creativity go with being a recovering perfectionist? Because it is impossible to be truly creative if you are terrified of making mistakes, which to me is the definition of a perfectionist. By giving myself permission to be creative and make mistakes, I've taken my horsemanship (and the rest of my life) to a whole new level. I mix and match philosophies and play with it all. I love working with people now because I can appreciate their take on things, their own unique angle on life. I love learning about other people's perspectives and I always get something out of it.
I don’t believe that any one horseman has THE ANSWER for every horse and rider; but there are a lot of great horseman out there with amazing knowledge to share. Take what works for you, and leave the rest. Explore, play, read, go on a grand adventure! Some great techniques may not work for you today — but, as they say, and as I am constantly being reminded, “when the student is ready, the teacher will come.” And never forget that your greatest teacher will be the horse.
Because of my horsemanship-knowledge-collecting-problem, the Heartwood philosophy is ever-evolving; it will continue to change and grow as I learn new ways to do or not do things. So check back soon to find out what new things I’m playing with!