The horse can teach us about patience and boundaries.
There is an unexplainable reality that always demands us to be patient. I try to teach my boys to be patient, and I work with myself to be patient on a daily basis. The boundaries of our life are unseen. When we grow, people tell us that the sky's the limit and that we are all free to be ourselves, as if the boundaries set around us have a positive purpose in our life journey. The physical boundaries are one thing, but the internal boundaries are what I am curious about.
Working with horses, we constantly meet the fine line between patience and boundaries. It is all about reaching the end of their mental and physical boundaries while finding the patience to let them process what is happening.
What is patience?
Patience is the ability to be present in a moment and allow the time for the wished outcome to happen. Patience is always dependent on time. It is an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay. Patience is a virtue that is hard to learn. It is the human ability to let the energy around us fall into place without the ability to control it. When a person is being patient, they are allowing the control of their own time to the other—the horse, a human, Mama Nature, etc.
What are boundaries?
Boundaries are the framework that draws the line of the known and also where the “unknown” begins. The known represents the comfort zone in which the individual is living. It is a reality where we have no need to put in the effort to be in and live. It is a “safe” spot, the comfort zone, but in many cases, it can only help us feel the relief of pain but can’t help us overcome it. The limits of the individual's boundaries provide no feeling of relief but the opposite. It is a free choice of the human to feel a certain level of tension, but tension creates motion, and motion encourages change. The change is very much in the individual's interest once it is considered a positive change, such as growth or technical improvement.
However, here is the thing: we can strive toward the change that will lead to personal improvement, but the pace of the change is never up to the rider but the horse. The horse will control the pace of improvement, and the rider's responsibility is to draw the limits of the framework, understand the boundaries within which they are working, and consistently challenge them. But we must challenge them while mentally providing the time and the patience for the horse to learn, understand, and improve.
Comments