MARTIAL ARTS and HORSEMANSHIP

Musings, Ramblings, and Opinions On The Direct Correlation Between Martial Arts and Horsemanship

 

For all my close friends who are martial artists and who are striving to

become good horsemen and horsewomen

As I travel, perform demonstrations, hold clinics, share and teach my philosophy, I am fortunate enough to meet hundreds and hundreds of people. I have noticed that I am meeting more and more martial artists who are also horse owners. Or in some cases, they are horse owners who have begun studying martial arts. Even well known clinicians are studying martial arts. Mark Rashid has been studying the Japanese art of Aikido. Pat Parelli studied Chinese Kung-fu. Thus began this brainstorm idea of writing a short article directed at this group of people…martial artists/horse owners...some of which are very close friends and students of mine.

This ‘article’ is difficult to write because it will seemingly be filled with contradictions and ramblings. Yet, when one finishes the entire article, one will find that they were not contradictions at all but rather lessons which give no direct answers but the answers that each individual must find themselves. In the end, one particular quote may have an effect on one person and may have quite the opposite on another.

I have been learning, training and/or teaching martial arts for over 30 years.
I began at age 11 with the very traditional Korean art of Tang Soo Do. I eventually earned my 3rd degree black belt while stationed in Korea. I taught traditional Tang Soo Do for many years. Fresh out of high school I enlisted in the military and did four years as an U.S. Army Ranger. Eventually, I moved onto the martial art of Kempo-Jujitsu Karate again achieving high ranking black belt. It was while I was studying Kempo Jujitsu that a fellow student introduced me to the Filipino art of Eskrima. In the last 10 years Eskrima has really come to the forefront of martial arts as a reality based weapons art as well as an effective empty hand art of self defense but in general it is primarily known for its full contact stick and knife fighting. I continue to teach the art of Eskrima in small private groups.

During the early 90’s the famous Gracie family from Brazil absolutely shocked and opened the eyes of the entire martial arts community by proving that their family style of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu was a superior grappling art. To see Royce Gracie, who at 6’1” and 180 lbs could submit much larger and stronger opponents with little difficulty was phenomenal. Once again, I took on the role of student and began training in earnest in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Along the way, over the years, I have studied principles and concepts of other arts as well, Aikido, Wing Chun, traditional Japanese/Okinawan Karate, Western Boxing, and Judo.

What I am driving at here is NOT to give you a resume of my training and abilities in case we get into an heated argument down at the local tavern, but rather to show that during all these years martial arts were (and are) my passion, and because of that passion it is necessary over the course of time to don the role of beginning student and begin learning once again.

Yep, go all the way back to square one…the letter A….step number one……

 

So it is with horsemanship….or should I say, so it SHOULD BE with your horsemanship.

 

Once again though, here is where I go against the grain and usually get hammered for my stand on horse training…

The current trend, if you believe it is a trend, is horse owners not sticking to any specific training program and sort of “taking a little from this trainer and a little from that trainer” as it is so oft quoted.

To defend their point, those with martial arts backgrounds will incorrectly quote the late Bruce Lee and state that they should “Add what is useful and discard the rest”. They look at me after repeating this quote as if I will automatically agree with that statement. This is an incorrect quote…it is completely out of its original context….we have to take the entirety of what Mr. Lee was describing.

Bruce Lee did in fact ‘take a little from here and a little from there’…but here’s the kicker…..he did not just watch a technique and then added it to his fighting philosophy….no….he studied everything he could about the particular art. Let’s take the art of fencing….Bruce Lee was fond of fencing. He studied not only the mechanics but the principles and concepts as well. He broke down the mechanics, analyzed them, and put them together again to better understand them. Likewise with the principles and concepts. He tested the principles and concepts and over again until he was sure of what they taught was correct. Then, and only then, did he add what was useful and discarded the rest. Using the art of Fencing, Mr Lee came up with the strong side forward fighting stance. In most fighting styles a strong right handed person will face an opponent with their left side forward. This is the case in western boxing as well as other arts…fighters also naturally incline to face their opponents with their ‘weaker’ side forward. Not so in fencing and Bruce Lee was able to use this and capitalize on it’s strengths. There were also fighting concepts, and not mere techniques, that he employed from fencing such as the concept of reposting.

Even though the Chinese art of Wing Chun was his base art, read through the book, “The Tao of Jeet Kune Do” and you will find a page listing over 27 different martial arts that Bruce Lee thoroughly studied at that time to come up with his philosophy of Jeet Kune Do (the Way of the Intercepting Fist). As he analyzed those arts, he looked for commonalities, things that seamlessly fit together within his personal philosophy. Sometimes he learned how NOT to do things more than how to do something. Sometimes he only took a principle or a strategy rather than the technique.

The point here is that Bruce Lee DID NOT just 'take a little from here and a little from there and added what was useful and then discarded the rest'. Okay, on the surface you could argue that he indeed did such a thing, but underlying that, he studied hard and he understood the ins and outs of everything he kept or discarded.

This is what made Bruce Lee a great martial artists…..one, he never took anything at its face value. He STUDIED the different arts so he could understand….two, and most importantly, he donned the hat of student over and over again always starting with square one….

And three, he was insatiable when it came to learning in order to perfect his passion.

Here is another shocker, if you read through his personal notes and writings you will find that he was NOT trying to accumulate a vast number of techniques. In fact, he strived to do the opposite. His goal was to strip away all the unnecessary burdens and unnecessary accoutrements down to their purest and simplest form. Getting rid of the excess. But this would seem to the contrary of what most people believe when they misquote Mr. Lee. They think of only adding more and more and amassing a huge plethora of techniques.

“The art of Jeet Kune Do is simply to simplify”
Bruce Lee
“The Tao of Jeet Kune Do”
page 13

Again, what made Bruce Lee phenomenal was not only his natural talent and skill, but his never ending willingness to study, learn, compare and understand.

 

“Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality”
Bruce Lee
“The Tao of Jeet Kune Do”
page 12

And so this should be with your horsemanship.

The difference between an okay horseman, a good horseman, and a great horseman (or horsewoman for that matter) is the ability to don the beginner’s uniform, step out onto the mat, forget all that you previously have learned and begin learning all over again. Studying the new subject for all it’s worth. Engrossing yourself in your studies and strive to make it all the way through to the end. Then, when you have completed that study, you find another subject to study, don the beginner’s hat and begin again. The more you learn, the better you will become.

At that point, you will be able to look at what you have studied and be able to “take a little from this and a little from that, add what is uniquely your own and discard the rest.”

You will be not only grounded in the mechanics and the techniques, but more importantly grounded in the principles and concepts as well…and its the principles and concepts which will perfect you in your horsemanship and give you great success in your horsemanship. Oddly enough, as you progress through your studies you will find that each horseman teaches the exact same thing. Oh, it might differ slightly in the method but overall it is the same. You will not have accumulated methods of horse training, you will find that you actually stripped away to the barest essentials those things that work consistently and then begun to refine them.

Now I have heard people state, read through posts on internet message boards or received through emails that they tried a certain trainer’s program and it didn’t work on them or their horse so they gave up.

I know, I know, you are about to spout off that every horse is an individual and that what works for one wont necessarily work for another....

hmmmm…..question: how is it then that John Lyons can handle any horse of any breed and have success with it using his system and going through his system from A-Z? Have you ever really asked yourself that question?

Why is it that Clinton Anderson can use his system on any horse at any time and have success with that horse? In fact, Clinton Anderson just recently won his second consecutive Road To The Horse Challenge.

How is it that Pat Parelli can use his 7 Games on any horse and have success with them over and over again?

How is it that Dennis Reis can do the same thing?

More importantly, how is it that YOU cannot have success using any of those systems with YOUR horse?

The real problem here is that the horse owners who spout off that they didn’t have much success did not have success because they “tried” it. They didn’t “study” the program, they “tried it”. And there is a HUGE difference. Remember, Bruce Lee never "tried" anything.

The fact that people use the above mentioned quote from Bruce Lee is a perfect example of not understanding what they are quoting or doing….they are just mimicking. And for the most part, it is these same people who continually run into problems with their own horses or horses in general.

Let me explain something ….

The reason why John Lyons, Pat Parelli, Clinton Anderson, Dennis Reis, Buck Brannaman and others have success WITH EVERY SINGLE HORSE THEY TOUCH is a tribute to their learning, understanding and being grounded in the principles and concepts of horsemanship. Buck can look at a horseman and almost immediately understand the underlying principles of the task being performed. He can then go home and get the same results almost immediately. Why? Because he has studied and he knows the underlying principles and concepts. The same goes for Parelli, Lyons, Reis and Anderson (and just about every other great horseman or horsewoman out there).

So let’s get back to this article’s theme here…..actually, we never really strayed from it….

In my martial arts studies, I searched for the commonalities of the arts and held them up to my personal standards and philosophy. I wanted arts that would flow seamlessly from one to the other without there ever being a conscious thought about the transitions from art to the next. For me, this came in the form of Tang Soo Do, Kempo-Jujitsu Karate, Filipino Eskrima and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Each art developed attributes within me that carried over from one art to the next…in fact, they carried over throughout my martial arts life…carried over into my home life…and now they have carried over into my horsemanship. In fact, it wasn’t until I had the idea for this article that I began to reflect on how much my martial arts training has unknowingly influenced my horsemanship and the way I deal with horses. It would take volumes to explain it all in detail so I will use generalities here.

First off, the old style traditional Korean art of Tang Soo Do produced in me the discipline and the strive for perfection. Kempo-Jujitsu Karate was the first art which gave me an understanding of autonomic body actions and reactions. The bio-mechanics of movement. This helps tremendously when understanding how the horse’s four feet move with it’s body and how using my heel on my horse’s barrel will affect the hindquarters and how lateral flexion will also influence the hindquarters, how lateral work and side-passing aides in correct lead departures, etc.

The greatest epiphanies I have had concerning martial arts and horsemanship stem from my studies of Eskrima and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. The similarities in principles and concepts are closely related.

Of all the phenomenal BJJ professors on the planet, the ones that I have the absolute most respect for are The Machado brothers(Rigan, Jean Jacques, Carlos, John and Roger), the Gracie family (Rickson, Royce, Royler, Relson, their cousin Renzo and other Gracie clan members), and Professor Assou Hamdaoui from Illinois. There are countless great BJJ teachers but these are the ones who have taught me directly or influenced me over the course of my studies.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is very similar to chess…but not just any game of chess….at its highest level BJJ is a complex high level game of three dimensional chess.

As we look at Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and how it teaches me to be better in my horsemanship I will quote some of these great BJJ teachers…..

Let’s go back to a subject that we touched upon earlier….following a program and sticking with it….learning it inside and out, dissecting it and understanding the principles and concepts…also, how people tend to just see a technique and want to go home and try it out without ever really learning the true value of that particular method.

“One mistake that most beginners make is searching for “short cuts” - only to learn that there are no short cuts. You can’t learn a language without learning the vocabulary and you cant learn jiu-jitsu, or any martial art, without refining the basics.”

Rigan Machado

It seems everyone tries to find short cuts in the beginning. Myself included. It’s funny, someone will ask me for help with a particular horse problem and I will go through the time and effort to detail out a plan for them to work on. Some exercises to do and tasks and goals to meet …and yet…they never progress with their horse. Six months later they are in exactly the same situation they were the six months previous. Why? Because they wanted shortcuts to ‘fixing’ their horse. They did not want to spend the time to do it right. When I tell them that they have to apply the principles and concepts and work at …not just do it once and then hope the lesson lasts forever but continually refine and perfect it, they come up with excuses. “Yeah, yeah, I know, but I’ll just work it this way and see…” I sometimes want to just scream at them and ask them why in the world they ever came to me for help.

They want to achieve a high level of mastery but want to completely by-pass or overlook the basics. They don’t understand that for me to ride bareback and bridle-less on the trail with my horse, I spent countless hours working on, refining and mastering the basics. As far as the basics, it was strictly A to Z with no short cuts.

“All jiu-jitsu practitioners should accept the fact that mastering the basics is the only way to reach higher levels. Indeed, it is the key that opens the door to the advanced movements.”

Rigan Machado

 

What soon happens after discovering that their level of horsemanship doesn’t meet the needs of a particular horse, they begin to try to coerce and force their way through the training. They attempt to apply techniques with just enough knowledge of the principles and concepts to get some small measure of success but when they hit the wall, they begin to push through using physical force. When the horse’s forward progression in the training stops and the horse shuts down, they immediately abandon the principles and concepts and give up trying all together. And they then blame the program, training regimen or the horse.

“Never try to compensate for lack of technique with pure strength…using strength to accomplish the technique will eventually limit your future skills as a jiu-jitsu practitioner. Work on developing skill in technique and strive to understand the essence and principles involved in the movement instead of forcing your way through it.”

Rigan Machado

In Jiu-jitsu, new students tend to expend a vast amount of energy trying to submit the other students. Due to it’s grappling nature, they tend to view it as a form of wrestling. While wrestling is indeed a science, a lot of it’s techniques are based on strength…wrestling is an offensive aggressive sport and science, and the stronger opponent is usually the one who will come out on top. Not so in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. BJJ has been refined to the point where the efficiency of the art is accomplished through the mastery of not only its techniques but the principles and concepts. Although this may be a wrong analogy, wrestling would be more like the game of checkers, Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling perhaps more like chess, but Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is much more like three dimensional chess. It is that much more complex. New students tend to go at the basics with abandon trying desperately to submit their training partner with pure force and strength. In the end, the new student loses. The wind up wasting a huge amount of mental, emotional and physical energy and eventually get submitted. Some students never understand that the art is about finesse and perfection of technique along with the perfect application of principles and concepts, so they eventually quit the art altogether.

Those students who finally learn to soften and use less strength still get submitted by their training partner but something begins to happen. They begin to flow from one position to another very easily, and while they are still being submitted, the submissions are coming less frequent. One begins to see a fluidity in their movements and a certain grace beginning to develop. Eventually strength falls to the wayside and the utilization of principles and concepts within proper technique begins to materialize and they begin having more and more success.

The beginning natural horsemanship student is much the same…at first, relying on strength and only the physical means of applying a method to train the physical part of the horse. The new student a lot of times will find themselves wasting a ton of mental, emotional and physical energy and not really accomplishing much. In essence, they too are getting submitted by a training partner who thoroughly understands the principles and concepts and who can apply them with perfection.

This new horsemanship student then comes to a fork in the road. Turn left and quit and go back from where they came from, or turn right and continue to persevere and learn and apply the principles and concepts with perfect practice until they begin to develop the grace, fluidity and FEEL. Sadly, as with the new BJJ student, the new natural horsemanship student bails out and quits. Blaming the teacher, the horse, the equipment, the program, the principles, etc. In fact, they will lay blame to everyone and everything except the real reason for their failure….trying to go for short cuts and trying to manipulate their way through the training process. Not going back to square one and becoming a student again and learning to learn. Not truly learning and analyzing the principles and concepts and then applying them perfectly.

“There are always those who wish to run before they can walk. Then, when they fall, they blame the art of running for their failure instead of blaming themselves.”

Forrest E. Morgan
“Living the Martial Way”
page 299

 

They were oh so close, but gave up too soon. And who did they give up on and quit on? Well, more importantly than quitting on themselves and their future as a great horseman or horsewoman, they gave up on their horse.

They quit their horse!!! And that’s the sad part!!!

 

"No one can master a traditional martial art without having learned the entire system, internal as well as external”
Forrest E. Morgan
“Living the Martial Way”
page 299

As you read several of these quotes below, try to imagine how these statements reflect upon horsemanship in general and more importantly, your own horsemanship…

“The secret is “body feel” and “body mechanics” on the ground. These two attributes can only be developed through long sessions of drilling the basics….stated simply, drilling in the basics is the trick to mastering the art.”

Rigan Machado

“To progress in Jiu-Jitsu I tell my students you are going to learn isolated positions, but every one of them is connected with each other. It is like a puzzle and I put all the parts on the table; your job is to put together the puzzle and make your figure.”

Jean Jacques Machado

“Here is a secret: after some time in jiu-jitsu, you end up without the positions….constant flowing - nothing in isolation”

Jean Jacques Machado

“In the beginning stages of training, it is imperative to learn how to apply the basics. During this phase, you learn the essentials like changing the angle and positioning to suit your game plan. At the same time you learn how to prevent your opponent from controlling you.”

Rigan Machado

“Be relaxed at all times and feel your opponent’s intentions and movements. He, without realizing it, will “give you” the right technique to apply on him.”

Rigan Machado

“It is the utmost importance for you to choose the quality of training that you participate in carefully, not only the school and head instructor but also the training partners and advanced students. You must immerse yourself in an atmosphere of success and absorb that on all levels if you are to become a champion yourself.”

Jean Jacques Machado

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a personal thing…at its upper most levels, it is a PERSONAL ART. Just like great horsemanship.

At its best, horsemanship - great horsemanship - is an ART. There are techniques, but the principles and concepts are more important and those principles and concepts create an individual form of expression. That expression is, in fact, an art. Solely at the whim of the individual able to paint the canvas with whatever color, brush, technique and method that they choose.

Martial artist, and author of several great martial arts books, Joe Hyams wrote in his book, “Zen In The Martial Arts”…

“A dojo (practice hall) is a miniature cosmos where we make contact with ourselves - our fears, anxieties, reactions, and habits. It is an arena of confined conflict where we confront an opponent who is not an opponent but rather a partner engaged in helping us understand ourselves more fully…Technical knowledge alone is not enough. A martial artist must simultaneously transcend technique and develop intuitive action so that the art becomes an artless art, a way to physical excellence, a way to spiritual enlightenment.”

“The philosophy of the arts is not meant to be mused over and intellectualized; it is meant to be experienced. Thus, inevitably, words will convey only part of the meaning.”

Joe Hyams
“Zen In Martial Arts”
page 5

If we take what Joe Hyams wrote and replaced the word “dojo” with the word “round pen” or the word “arena”, the will find similarities between martial arts and fine horsemanship. For some, the round pen or arena is indeed our dojo or practice hall. We find that the horse we are working inside the pen is not the physical four-legged horse that we are moving around the pen, but the philosophical horse within each and every one of us. It is ourselves that we are trying to overcome and refine.

Ray Hunt also touched on this matter on page 2 in his book, “Think Harmony With Horses” …“To understand the horse you’ll find that you’re going to be working on yourself.”

When I read that quote I tend to think of how many good horses that were sold or traded and who never had the chance to be great horses with great partners because the human was too busy working on “training the horse” instead of working on themselves. The human spent too much time as an opponent to the horse instead of a partner engaged in developing a better way to communicate and understand.

Let me tell you a lesson that the late great Grandmaster Ed Parker used to use frequently. Grandmaster parker is widely known as the Father of American Kenpo and highly respected and regarded. He is a legend in the martial arts world. He was able to translate complex physics, and martial arts principles, concepts and theories into a very simplistic ideas capable of being understood by everyone. His contribution to the martial arts world is phenomenal.

Grandmaster Parker would draw a straight line on the floor about five feet long and then ask the students, “How can you make this line shorter?” Students would study it and give all sorts of answers. Erasing, cutting the line into pieces, etc., etc….GM Parker would then draw a second line parallel to the first only much longer. “Now how does the first line look to you?” Everyone immediately would yell out, “Shorter!!!” To this, GM Parker would simply state, “It is always better to improve and strengthen your own line. Make it longer. Make it stronger. It is always better to do this than try and cut your opponent’s line shorter.”

The Zen-like lesson learned here directly relates to horsemanship. As I stated before, people have given up on horses too early. Why? Because the horse was above their level of horsemanship. The horse’s line was too long. So they worked on erasing and cutting the horse’s line down to the owner’s level of horsemanship. They drag the horse down. Instead, had they tried to improve their own line…tried to better and strengthen their own line, the horse’s line would have seemed shorter. In simple terms, instead of raising their own level of horsemanship to meet and surpass the horse’s level, they chose to drag the horse’s level down to their own. Usually this means utilizing mechanical means (tie downs, twitches, bigger harsher bits, etc., etc)

Why do they do this? Well, the answer lies in the beginning of this article. They don’t go back to school. They don’t want to take the time it takes to become a student again and learn something new. They do the same old things, the same old way and yet, they expect different results. NOW THAT’S INSANE.

They do things because their grandfather taught them how and he was a champion at the annual county fair’s pickle slicing contest and the best horseman they ever knew….or because their dressage teacher does this with every horse ….yadda, yadda, yadda. In other words, they already put in their time and got their black belt in horsemanship and there is nothing left to learn. Basically, they are saying that they are lazy.

Grandmaster Parker said it best when he stated, “Knowledge is bound when one is compelled by tradition. Knowledge is endless when tradition is bound.....Traditionalists often study what is taught, not what there is to create....The intelligent man is one who has successfully fulfilled many accomplishments and is willing to learn more”.

My friends, I have news for you…..receiving a black belt in any art is not the end result. It is not the end of all the training and learning. It is the very beginning. Up to that point in time, it is similar to training for the Olympics. You work and slave and train letting nothing deter you from your goal. Then the day comes and you look up and you are in Olympic Stadium. But you still have to compete and you still have to work hard. You aren’t given a gold medal just because you qualified and showed up for the games. After all those years of training you are essentially back at square one.

This is what it means to be a black belt. After all the years of blood, sweat and tears…after all the years of aches, pains and bruises, you finally receive your black belt and find that now your martial arts journey is just beginning. Everything else was preparation. Colored belt rankings in martial arts is a tradition which is less than a hundred years old. This tradition was founded by the late Gichin Funakoshi. Originally the belt was only used to hold the kimono top closed. It was white in the beginning and a student was never allowed to wash it. Over time, it became black. After many years this black belt would fade to grey and eventually be white again. In the coloring and fading of that belt lies the Zen lesson I explained above. The student becomes the master who eventually becomes the student again. It is a never ending cycle of learning and mastery. And again, and so it should be with your horsemanship.

In the Filipino art of Eskrima that I studied and now teach, when a person reaches a point where they are going to be introduced into the inner-circle of brotherhood (similar to receiving the black belt and becoming an instructor) they are stripped away of everything that they have, after a lengthy ceremony where a thick black belt is knotted heavily and each senior ranking instructor now takes a turn at striking the new inductee across the abdomen, the seniors now accept him into the fold. But this is where the new learning takes place. It is a new beginning. Now the teaching intensifies, the learning intensifies. It IS NOT a time to come to class, don your new black belt and strut around the mat barking orders at all the new beginning students. It is a time of personal reflection and decisions. Decisions concerning your future learning and will you eventually make a commitment to become a master in the art. It is in this inner circle that you are re-taught the principles and concepts of the art, but now you are taught the hows and whys of teaching them. Stick fighting matches are no longer with protection. Bladed weapons training is now done with “live blade” (sharpened weapons). But a student at this level now becomes aware of more than just fighting. It is about balancing one’s life with the external as well as the internal. They no longer “speak” about honor and discipline, they “are” honor and discipline. It goers above and beyond "technique" and the "ART" finally begins to develop.

There is, or should be a balance. Every old school martial artist understands this. But unfortunately with all the fast-food martial arts schools popping up on every street corner, these values have been lost and replaced with the need for greed. Money. Balance too, has been lost. And so it is with good horsemanship. With the fast-food microwavable horsemanship, people are losing the balance.

There is a common saying among old school martial artists who were brought up in the way of balance and constantly learning and evolving in their art. It was a maxim of old samurai which read, “Zither, Chess, Book, Painting, and Sword”. These things symbolized versatility. The zither represented music as sacred and beyond entertainment. Chess (or actually what is known as ‘GO’) symbolized strategy. The book represented literature and all academic arts from sciences to poetry as well as calligraphy. Painting symbolized all visual arts. Finally, the sword represented not just the ability to fight and defend oneself, but also indicated athletics being a person of action and heroism. BALANCE.

This is what it means to be a horseman or horsewoman. Let me give you a personal example….in the beginnings of my natural horsemanship journey I studied the early version of Parelli Natural Horsemanship. As time went on I became more and more adept at that program. I thought of myself as becoming quiet the horseman. I had decent enough success. So eventually I get to a point in my life where I think I have learned it all….I gained my black belt….what else could there be, right? Or so I thought.

Then I read several books. One was “Think Harmony With Horses” by Ray Hunt…the second was “Dancing With Horses” by Klaus Hempfling…and a few others were “Communication Through Cues parts 1 - 3” by John Lyons….”Horse; Follow Closely” by GaWaNi PonyBoy… “True Horsemanship Through Feel” by Bill Dorrance and Leslie Desmond…Mark Rashid’s “Considering the Horse” and “A Good Horse Is Never A Bad Color”….and eventually “True Unity” by Tom Dorrance.

All of a sudden I realized that although I had learned so much and had come so far, I was still just a student. There was tons more to learn. All the time and years spent studying PNH didn’t teach me, it prepared me for the lessons that were to eventually come. It gave me the base, the foundation for the future training and growth.

Now let me back up a minute…I can hear some of you yelling at your monitor screens right now saying that that is exactly the point you have been making when you say that you study a little from this trainer and a little from that trainer. It was what we discussed at the beginning of this article. Okay, let’s go back….I also stated that even Bruce Lee studied other arts and became the student once again….HOWEVER…he had a foundation…a base….from which he could work from. His foundation was Wing Chun. I also had my base…my foundation. Now I was ready to begin to explore and learn again.

Then I learned a very important lesson……are you ready?…..this is the Zen lesson we have been leading up to…..(well sort of)

As I studied Clinton Anderson’s methods I found that his were almost identical to that of Parelli’s. He just calls his exercises a different name from Parelli’s 7 games. I noticed that all of John Lyon’s principles and concepts were exactly the same as Mark Rashid’s….who principles and concepts were the same as Pony Boy’s….and so on and so on and so on….in other words, “A rose by any other name is still a rose”!!! so whats the Zen lesson? Well, Bruce Lee once said, “When I first began studying martial arts, a punch was just a punch. As I studied and learned more, I learned that a punch was more than just a punch. But when I finished learning I found that a punch is still just a punch.” (loosely paraphrased)

What that means is…..when I first began learning about horse psychology and natural horsemanship I just thought horses and horsemanship was simply that; just horses and horsemanship. As I grew in my horsemanship studies I learned that they were much more than just horses and horsemanship. As I have grown through the years I have come to the realization that they are only horses and good horsemanship. Then the ART began to show through. And the ART became the teacher to me. Refining as we went along.

“At a certain level practicing any art - be it movement, painting, music, poetry- the art itself becomes the principle teacher. Once I have a variety of skills to draw on, it is up to me to use them. No other person can do that for me. However feedback from other practitioners/ artists is valuable. What is art, if not communication….?”

Janet Aales
“Each Sparkling Strand: Honoring the Self Teacher and Student”
from the book: Martial Arts Teachers on Teaching” by Carol Wiley
page 14

 

So where shall we begin again? How about at the beginning? Let us find a suitable AND CHALLENGING endeavor to study. Perhaps you have never really taken a good long look at Parelli Natural Horsemanship…or didn’t know that Dennis Reis has his own horsemanship study program…. or Frank Bell’s 7 Step System…..or Clinton Anderson’s program….maybe you are a Western Pleasure rider….how about learning Centered Riding? Or some basic dressage?....perhap you are an English rider who has never ridden Western or roped a cow.

Whichever you choose, STICK WITH IT. No, you don’t have to get caught up in all the hype (and believe me, ALL the trainers have their own brand of hype). And never ever worry about what your friends or barn buddies will think. This is not about them, this is about YOU AND YOUR HORSE.

So to all my martial artist friends who are striving to be good horsemen and horsewomen and striving to be true to their horses.....See you on the trail, in the arena, or on the mat in the dojo soon….

Yours In Horsemanship and in Budo….

Michael

P.S. as I end this rather lengthy and rambling article, I will leave you with some quotes from Bruce Lee as well as other martial artists. I leave it up to you to find the correlation between these martial arts quotes and horsemanship. Sometimes it is as simple as just replacing one word with a word pertaining to horsemanship. Other times it is an implied meaning. I leave it to you….

Happy reading…

“Self-cultivation requires discipline. If you want to be great, work hard daily at what you want to do. It is only with discipline and perseverance that you will reach your goals.”

Deng Ming Dao
“Scholar Warrior”

“Hanashi, ‘letting go’ means that when one strategy does not work you let go of it and try something new.”

Frederick J. Loveret
“The Way and the Power: Secrets of Japanese Strategy”
page 213

“If someone asked me what a human being out to devote the maximum of his time to, I would answer ‘training’. Train more than you sleep.”

Masutatsu (Mas) Oyama
Great Karate Master and founder of Kyokushinkai Karate

“There is one additional necessity - adaptation. The ability to adapt your tools or plans according to how the situation is changing is essential”

Hanho
“COMBAT STRATEGY - Junsado: The Way of the Warrior”
page 13

I will end this with great quotes from the late great Bruce Lee:

“Learning Jeet Kune Do is not a matter seeking knowledge or accumulating stylized pattern, but is discovering the cause of ignorance.”

Tao Of Jeet Kune Do
Page 208

“But in classical styles, system becomes more important than the man! The classical man functions with a pattern of style.”

Tao of Jeet Kune Do
Page 18

 

"Classical forms dull your creativity, condition and freeze your sense of freedom. You no longer ‘be’ but merely ‘do’ without sensitivity.”

Tao of Jeet Kune Do
Page 19

“Always train in good form. Learn to move easily and smoothly”
Tao of Jeet Kune Do
Page 53

“If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow - you are not understanding yourself”

Tao of Jeet kune Do
Page 17