Training, means getting ponies ready for trains. Actually that isn't what training means at all, except in this one case. I am now going to be unbearably smug. My training system, the God Mother concept,(background) (blurb)really works. In many ways I would rather not have the proof the system works, because the proof scared Obama, and me, badly. I would NEVER deliberately test my system under these conditions.
But Obama and I survived unhurt and with no lasting problems from a scenario that was deeply unfunny. We were trying to get the Bannedwaggon over the top of the Bruce Tunnel, the high point of the Kennet and Avon canal. The track is narrow, stepped, steep and runs through a 40 foot long 6 foot by 6 foot tunnel under the main London to Exeter line.
I was bringing Obama past the Bannedwaggon which I then jammed across the tunnel behind us, ready to take Obama on up the steps to the top. As Obama emerged from the tunnel, I heard the express roaring down. I couldn't move back because of the Bannedwaggon, and couldn't move forwards because that meant pushing Obama towards the onrushing train, not a direction he wished to go. So I stood there, telling Obama everything was fine as he got steadily more distressed.
His nostrils were huge, the whites of his eyes blinding, his posture just screamed "get me out of here!", but he didn't move, he didn't pull, he didn't try to crash through me to safety, he just stood there because being with me seemed safer to him than the alternatives. The reasons are in the GodMother concept, but the reality is that Obama and I are both undamaged.
If anything was needed to convince me that whips and violence are outmoded and unneccessary, that tunnel did it for me.
I have included a video I shot almost immediately after of a nice slow goods train on the same line. Obama was just exiting the tunnel as the train arrived.
A training system that can cope with this sort of event, clearly works.
I am smug, but I have something to be smug about.
To see some of my marginally more organised rants, try these links. If all else fails, try hitting them with whips. It works with horses, doesn't it? http://sites.google.com/site/wehithorsesdontwe/ http://saddlechariot.comlu.com/index.php
Showing posts sorted by date for query godmother. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query godmother. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Monday, 30 August 2010
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Training with thanks to Temple Grandin.
No horse feeds another horse treats.
We all accept that in nature, horses, unlike dogs, primates, birds etc, will not feed each other. Well up to a point Lord Copper. Horses don't feed each other treats, the route is one way. Mother's feed foals.
I can't produce milk, but I can produce food out of my body, OK out of my pockets, but is this a significant difference to a horse, or a mule?
I am working with a rescue mule called Winston, who is very green, and very very scared. but feed him treats, and he likes you. Not only does he like you, he becomes progressively more babyish, and starts to headbut you, as foals headbut their mothers when he is scared, or stressed.
This gives an instant feedback of his feelings, and allows me to take him on towards new experiences, or back to familiar areas, according to his stress levels. When the stress is high, a lorry has zipped past, or even worse a strange person has approached; he is butting at me, eating treats like a lunatic. Under severe stress, 2 or 3 grassnuts every 5 seconds is required.
Serious hand pocket coordination is required here. As the stress eases, the feeding frequency reduces and he will start acceptinng scratches as a substitute and then, the curiosity returns, and he is ready to explore again.
Temple Grandin's phrase "curiously afraid" sums up the situation perfectly. He loves exploring, but the new things he finds, worry him while he tries to assess the risks, but tucked up against mummy, suckling, he feels safe.
Of course he knows I am not mummy, count the legs dummy, and since my ears are totally inadequate by horse standards, to a mule they must appear ludicrous. But his behaviour to me is becoming more and more babyish. Again I return to Garndin who quotes extensive research on the dog wolf relationship.
Basically dogs are Peter Pan wolves, adult in years, but children in behaviour and appearance. Domestication produces neotony, the continuation of infant characteristics into adulthood. By feeding Winston on demand, and particularly when he is stressed, I appear to be allowing his babyish character to be exposed.
He feels safe playing, and the minute we get back to known home territory, though he has only known it for days, he gives up the childish headbutting, and pretends to be a big savage adult, charging me with ears back, until that is, he is close enough for a handful of grassnuts.
Then he decides to be a proper mule, dig his toes in, and refuse to move, but a hand in my pocket and he comes forward, then remembers how grown up he is and attacks, until again he gets a scratch or a grass nut.
I'm not even using pressure release, it's body language, engaging in the games, playing grandmother's footsteps, until a car, or a person, or an echoing courtyard scare him and he headbuts for food and reassurance.
I don't know how the system will end, but I intend to go to London with him in about three weeks, from Exeter, with him in a standard Saddlechariot, and Obama in the Bannedwaggon. If my system is right, it's going to get a baptism of fire, but it works so far.
It is an update of the GODMOTHER concept which grew out of Grandin's explanations of Jaak Franksepps theories on the rleationship between PANIC and seperation anxiety. I will be trying to make sense of the theory, which is evolving daily, in this blog.
We all accept that in nature, horses, unlike dogs, primates, birds etc, will not feed each other. Well up to a point Lord Copper. Horses don't feed each other treats, the route is one way. Mother's feed foals.
I can't produce milk, but I can produce food out of my body, OK out of my pockets, but is this a significant difference to a horse, or a mule?
I am working with a rescue mule called Winston, who is very green, and very very scared. but feed him treats, and he likes you. Not only does he like you, he becomes progressively more babyish, and starts to headbut you, as foals headbut their mothers when he is scared, or stressed.
This gives an instant feedback of his feelings, and allows me to take him on towards new experiences, or back to familiar areas, according to his stress levels. When the stress is high, a lorry has zipped past, or even worse a strange person has approached; he is butting at me, eating treats like a lunatic. Under severe stress, 2 or 3 grassnuts every 5 seconds is required.
Serious hand pocket coordination is required here. As the stress eases, the feeding frequency reduces and he will start acceptinng scratches as a substitute and then, the curiosity returns, and he is ready to explore again.
Temple Grandin's phrase "curiously afraid" sums up the situation perfectly. He loves exploring, but the new things he finds, worry him while he tries to assess the risks, but tucked up against mummy, suckling, he feels safe.
Of course he knows I am not mummy, count the legs dummy, and since my ears are totally inadequate by horse standards, to a mule they must appear ludicrous. But his behaviour to me is becoming more and more babyish. Again I return to Garndin who quotes extensive research on the dog wolf relationship.
Basically dogs are Peter Pan wolves, adult in years, but children in behaviour and appearance. Domestication produces neotony, the continuation of infant characteristics into adulthood. By feeding Winston on demand, and particularly when he is stressed, I appear to be allowing his babyish character to be exposed.
He feels safe playing, and the minute we get back to known home territory, though he has only known it for days, he gives up the childish headbutting, and pretends to be a big savage adult, charging me with ears back, until that is, he is close enough for a handful of grassnuts.
Then he decides to be a proper mule, dig his toes in, and refuse to move, but a hand in my pocket and he comes forward, then remembers how grown up he is and attacks, until again he gets a scratch or a grass nut.
I'm not even using pressure release, it's body language, engaging in the games, playing grandmother's footsteps, until a car, or a person, or an echoing courtyard scare him and he headbuts for food and reassurance.
I don't know how the system will end, but I intend to go to London with him in about three weeks, from Exeter, with him in a standard Saddlechariot, and Obama in the Bannedwaggon. If my system is right, it's going to get a baptism of fire, but it works so far.
It is an update of the GODMOTHER concept which grew out of Grandin's explanations of Jaak Franksepps theories on the rleationship between PANIC and seperation anxiety. I will be trying to make sense of the theory, which is evolving daily, in this blog.
Saturday, 29 May 2010
GODMOTHER, The background.
Working with ponies and horses is pretty simple, it had to be, pretty much everyone used to do it. Deliveries, mining, docks, agriculture, railway shunting, factory machinery, it was all horsepowered, and operated by the cheapest labour, frequently child labour, that the bosses could find. So you can forget all the "horsey" background nonsense..
This is horsemanship for people who just want to do things with horses and ponies. It is a system for enjoying them, being safe with them and getting them to work with you, and it is a three stage process.
Since this is aimed at those who have never touched a pony, I assume you are going to start with a pony that is used to people and can be caught and handled. if you have never handled a pony, starting with a completely green pony, or one that is scared of people, is a challenging prospect, and I am not going to tell you how to do it.
So you have a pony that you can approach and talk to, in a safe secure enclosure, great. Now for stage one.
Be nice to it.
Feed it.
Scratch it.
Rub it.
Massage it.
And guess what, if you do things it likes, it will come to you.
Patricia Barlow Irick's blog on making friends with mustangs gives loads of ideas for how to make friends with scared wild animals. It works with them, it will be really easy with a tame pony. So get out there and make friends.
Friends have an instant mathematical advantage to the pony, which is why it is so easy to make friends with a pony. A pony on its own, that meets a predator, is the prey. If there are two ponies, each will only have a 50% chance of being the prey. So friends are vital.
The Natural Horsemanship concept of sending a horse away isn't kind. It may not be physically violent, but the message to the horse is frighteningly clear.
"Die!
You are on your own, when a predator arrives, and it will, you, and you alone, are the prey!"
No wonder they want to join up. Death is the alternative.
Friendship is just another way of looking at the problem. Rather than threatening a solitary and terrifying death, you offer friendship and a 50/50 chance. The scenario is the same because the pony is still terrified by his ancestral fears.
With friendship, rather than threaten danger, you offer safety.
Don't carry weapons.
It is really dumb to have to make this point. There is no other animal where you have to beg people not to arm themselves. Lion tamers haven't used whips and chairs for years. Army dog trainers, and even civilian guard dog trainers don't use weapons, and they aren't at the cuddly end of animal training.
So please, please, please, don't use whips, don't use spurs, don't use bits and try not to kick the poor animal.
I assure you it is much easier to make friends with animals if you don't approach them armed to the teeth. Strange I know, but true
Don't use violence.
Gerbil and Hamster training manuals assume you won't lay into your pets, so why do horse training manuals go overboard on discipline and showing the poor beast who is boss.
I have been told endlessly (by horsey people) that i have to hit Obama for biting me. Now there is some logic in retaliation, so I give him a carrot or a scratch. Occasionally I shout, and sometimes I apologise. All these are forms of communication which make appropriate "retaliation" for Obama's communication.
I watched Nick Sanders' two stallions, Kevin and Ollie, endlessly squabbling with each other, snaking their heads at each other with teeth bared, and almost always failing to connect. Even when they did, there was no squealing in pain. A nip that would have me demanding an ambulance at least, is shrugged off by them as just communication, a prod in the shoulder..
Violence may be a valid response to violence, but most nips are communication attempts. Do you hit people asking you questions? And that is the joy of the internet, I can ask that question and even if your natural response to questions is to clock me one, I'm safe behind my keyboard.
I used to smack when nipped, because I saw it as legitimate retaliation, but one day, developing the row crop system at Ian and Theresa's Beacons veggie box farm, Obama chomped really hard on my wrist and wouldn't let go.
I punched him hard on the cheekbone, which pigging well hurt me, and he let go looking mildly offended. I found myself looking at what I was actually doing. I had hooked him up to piece of complex experimental equipment which needed at least two people to operate, on my own, in a vile mood, in driving rain, having just hauled him out of a field where his latest girlfriend was in season, and not surprisingly it wasn't working properly. So Obama bit me.
The message was clear. This is stupid, and it will all end in tears.
Once I stood back and looked at what I was doing, I dug out a carrot and gave it to Obama, left the equipment to get wet, and took Obama back to his girlfriend.. From then on the carrot/carrot principle was born.
Whatever they do give them a carrot.
Don't deliberately frighten the pony.
Because I wanted a system that I could take into inner cities with a pony, and use with anyone, it had to be simple, and it had to be fair. So no weapons, no violence, that is easy to explain. But lots of things can frighten ponies. Umbrellas, amplified music, cows, fountains and motorbikes have all terrified Obama on occasion.
I want people to be able to enjoy Obama, and any pony, so all I ask is that they don't DELIBERATELY frighten a pony. You do something that frightens him, don't repeat it. Though once he has calmed down, we might work together to get rid of the fear. But with no weapons, no violence, no deliberate frightening , I can let anyone play with Obama.
And since people like ponies, and ponies like people, this is a system that lets them get together.
Friendship is neutral, egalitarian, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours., but it is the bedrock of this system. If the pony doesn't see you as a friend, he won't want to be near you, if he doesn't want tto be near you, he won't follow you. If he won't follow, you can't lead, and stage two is Leadership.
Leadership is a trade off, I take the risks, I pick the direction. But it gives the leader power. I decide when we move and where to, but not by forcing the follower, it's just that if he doesn't follow he's on his own. But then so am I.
Leadership is positional. You lead from in front and from nowhere else. Check with any soldier. The leader is the guy who goes over the top, into the building, out of the plane, across the minefield...........FIRST .
Someone standing behind you, telling you to do it is a politician or a General.
You want to lead, well you go first.
Unlike soldiering, leading ponies is really pretty safe and pretty easy. The ponies primary fear is of large predators lying in wait to eat them. I don't know your neighbourhood, but the number of lions, wolves and hunting dogs in and around Exeter is pretty small. That doesn't mean it is safe, it means that the fears that Obama has inherited, are unlikely to be fulfilled.
Leadership isn't about dominance. Leadership is a two way process. You follow my lead, so I get the choice, and I get the first mouthful of anything really lush, but you get the knowledge that in any ambush, I am lunch and you are safe.
That is the trade off. The power comes from the leader being prepared to set off on its own. That may be because it is older and came this way last year and knows that there is good grazing the other side of a band of trees. The band of trees probably contains predators, but the grazing is very lush. These are the decision processes that are involved in the day to day leadership questions.
I can lead today, and you can lead tomorrow. But the fact remains, the first one into a potential ambush is dead, the folower gets to run away..
That is the risk the leader takes. That is why the SAFE option is to follow. Being left on your own is even more dangerous. Ponies are herd animals, and prey species. Their defence is in numbers, and speed.
As a side effect, if you lead often enough, and you are right, and manage to avoid all the lions in Exeter over a few months, your pony decides you are worthy of respect as a leader. This is the basis of the GODMOTHER relationship.
Leadership is walking in front. Er.......that's it.
Try it, and once your pony has followed you somewhere, next time he won't be frightened of that route, or maybe it will take two attempts, or three..............or seventeen. But is that really so much to ask to get a pony that will go anywhere you want?
But as you lead into stranger and stranger areas, your pony comes to depend on your judgement more and more. They love variety, they love new places, but new places and variety scare them. Temple Grandin uses the phrase "curiously afraid" to sum up the issue.
That curiously afraid status is the perfect training tool. As your pony moves closer, seeking reassurance, you can go from leader, ie the one who is in front today, to GODMOTHER. The one who is always right, always there, always ready to defend you, to the death if necessary, and always asks you to tidy your room.
Next we look at the GODMOTHER concept.
Any horse or pony training system based on talking horse language so you can be the boss horse, is doomed to failure. For a start, do you really want all the mares to yourself and the very best bits of grass. If you do, carry on. I want my pony and I to be able to enjoy ourselves in reasonable safety, unless we choose to do something terminally stupid like galloping across unknown rough ground with a chariot, when I want my pony to be safe, and I rather hope to get away with just bad bruising.
Obama knows I'm not a horse. Not enough legs. Extensive research has been conducted on this issue by P Cook et al in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Leg_Too_Few.
Follow link to research.
The lack of wiggly ears is another major problem, and you stink of houses and make really silly noises.
However these defects in a horse, are perfectly acceptable in a God. God's get away with behaviour that would have you flung out of the House of Lords, there are things even they find unacceptable, and you only have to look at Hindu temeples to see that mathematical relationships between body parts aren't too closely followed.
And the Great Spaghetti Monster, in his Pastaral capacity as the acknowledged Deity of us Pastafarians, has more appendages than you can shake a stick at. If we can believe in the Great Spaghetti Monster, I am sure you can persuade your pony or horse to accept you as omniscient, etc.
Then, you too can achieve the status of GODMOTHER.
There is only one minor problem. You will have to be sincere. And that means that the safety and well being of your pony MUST come first. If it does, he will believe in you.
The GODMOTHER concept works. I have been taking Obama into some really silly situations of late, and although frightened, he doesn't panic. The main problem is persuading him to get out from under my waistcoat which is where he feels safe. This is based on Tmeple Grandin's wok and that of Jaak Pranksepp, and mor edetailed explanations will follow.
This is horsemanship for people who just want to do things with horses and ponies. It is a system for enjoying them, being safe with them and getting them to work with you, and it is a three stage process.
Since this is aimed at those who have never touched a pony, I assume you are going to start with a pony that is used to people and can be caught and handled. if you have never handled a pony, starting with a completely green pony, or one that is scared of people, is a challenging prospect, and I am not going to tell you how to do it.
So you have a pony that you can approach and talk to, in a safe secure enclosure, great. Now for stage one.
Be nice to it.
Feed it.
Scratch it.
Rub it.
Massage it.
And guess what, if you do things it likes, it will come to you.
Patricia Barlow Irick's blog on making friends with mustangs gives loads of ideas for how to make friends with scared wild animals. It works with them, it will be really easy with a tame pony. So get out there and make friends.
Friends have an instant mathematical advantage to the pony, which is why it is so easy to make friends with a pony. A pony on its own, that meets a predator, is the prey. If there are two ponies, each will only have a 50% chance of being the prey. So friends are vital.
The Natural Horsemanship concept of sending a horse away isn't kind. It may not be physically violent, but the message to the horse is frighteningly clear.
"Die!
You are on your own, when a predator arrives, and it will, you, and you alone, are the prey!"
No wonder they want to join up. Death is the alternative.
Friendship is just another way of looking at the problem. Rather than threatening a solitary and terrifying death, you offer friendship and a 50/50 chance. The scenario is the same because the pony is still terrified by his ancestral fears.
With friendship, rather than threaten danger, you offer safety.
Don't carry weapons.
It is really dumb to have to make this point. There is no other animal where you have to beg people not to arm themselves. Lion tamers haven't used whips and chairs for years. Army dog trainers, and even civilian guard dog trainers don't use weapons, and they aren't at the cuddly end of animal training.
So please, please, please, don't use whips, don't use spurs, don't use bits and try not to kick the poor animal.
I assure you it is much easier to make friends with animals if you don't approach them armed to the teeth. Strange I know, but true
Don't use violence.
Gerbil and Hamster training manuals assume you won't lay into your pets, so why do horse training manuals go overboard on discipline and showing the poor beast who is boss.
I have been told endlessly (by horsey people) that i have to hit Obama for biting me. Now there is some logic in retaliation, so I give him a carrot or a scratch. Occasionally I shout, and sometimes I apologise. All these are forms of communication which make appropriate "retaliation" for Obama's communication.
I watched Nick Sanders' two stallions, Kevin and Ollie, endlessly squabbling with each other, snaking their heads at each other with teeth bared, and almost always failing to connect. Even when they did, there was no squealing in pain. A nip that would have me demanding an ambulance at least, is shrugged off by them as just communication, a prod in the shoulder..
Violence may be a valid response to violence, but most nips are communication attempts. Do you hit people asking you questions? And that is the joy of the internet, I can ask that question and even if your natural response to questions is to clock me one, I'm safe behind my keyboard.
I used to smack when nipped, because I saw it as legitimate retaliation, but one day, developing the row crop system at Ian and Theresa's Beacons veggie box farm, Obama chomped really hard on my wrist and wouldn't let go.
I punched him hard on the cheekbone, which pigging well hurt me, and he let go looking mildly offended. I found myself looking at what I was actually doing. I had hooked him up to piece of complex experimental equipment which needed at least two people to operate, on my own, in a vile mood, in driving rain, having just hauled him out of a field where his latest girlfriend was in season, and not surprisingly it wasn't working properly. So Obama bit me.
The message was clear. This is stupid, and it will all end in tears.
Once I stood back and looked at what I was doing, I dug out a carrot and gave it to Obama, left the equipment to get wet, and took Obama back to his girlfriend.. From then on the carrot/carrot principle was born.
Whatever they do give them a carrot.
Don't deliberately frighten the pony.
Because I wanted a system that I could take into inner cities with a pony, and use with anyone, it had to be simple, and it had to be fair. So no weapons, no violence, that is easy to explain. But lots of things can frighten ponies. Umbrellas, amplified music, cows, fountains and motorbikes have all terrified Obama on occasion.
I want people to be able to enjoy Obama, and any pony, so all I ask is that they don't DELIBERATELY frighten a pony. You do something that frightens him, don't repeat it. Though once he has calmed down, we might work together to get rid of the fear. But with no weapons, no violence, no deliberate frightening , I can let anyone play with Obama.
And since people like ponies, and ponies like people, this is a system that lets them get together.
Friendship is neutral, egalitarian, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours., but it is the bedrock of this system. If the pony doesn't see you as a friend, he won't want to be near you, if he doesn't want tto be near you, he won't follow you. If he won't follow, you can't lead, and stage two is Leadership.
Leadership is a trade off, I take the risks, I pick the direction. But it gives the leader power. I decide when we move and where to, but not by forcing the follower, it's just that if he doesn't follow he's on his own. But then so am I.
Leadership is positional. You lead from in front and from nowhere else. Check with any soldier. The leader is the guy who goes over the top, into the building, out of the plane, across the minefield...........FIRST .
Someone standing behind you, telling you to do it is a politician or a General.
You want to lead, well you go first.
Unlike soldiering, leading ponies is really pretty safe and pretty easy. The ponies primary fear is of large predators lying in wait to eat them. I don't know your neighbourhood, but the number of lions, wolves and hunting dogs in and around Exeter is pretty small. That doesn't mean it is safe, it means that the fears that Obama has inherited, are unlikely to be fulfilled.
Leadership isn't about dominance. Leadership is a two way process. You follow my lead, so I get the choice, and I get the first mouthful of anything really lush, but you get the knowledge that in any ambush, I am lunch and you are safe.
That is the trade off. The power comes from the leader being prepared to set off on its own. That may be because it is older and came this way last year and knows that there is good grazing the other side of a band of trees. The band of trees probably contains predators, but the grazing is very lush. These are the decision processes that are involved in the day to day leadership questions.
I can lead today, and you can lead tomorrow. But the fact remains, the first one into a potential ambush is dead, the folower gets to run away..
That is the risk the leader takes. That is why the SAFE option is to follow. Being left on your own is even more dangerous. Ponies are herd animals, and prey species. Their defence is in numbers, and speed.
As a side effect, if you lead often enough, and you are right, and manage to avoid all the lions in Exeter over a few months, your pony decides you are worthy of respect as a leader. This is the basis of the GODMOTHER relationship.
Leadership is walking in front. Er.......that's it.
Try it, and once your pony has followed you somewhere, next time he won't be frightened of that route, or maybe it will take two attempts, or three..............or seventeen. But is that really so much to ask to get a pony that will go anywhere you want?
But as you lead into stranger and stranger areas, your pony comes to depend on your judgement more and more. They love variety, they love new places, but new places and variety scare them. Temple Grandin uses the phrase "curiously afraid" to sum up the issue.
That curiously afraid status is the perfect training tool. As your pony moves closer, seeking reassurance, you can go from leader, ie the one who is in front today, to GODMOTHER. The one who is always right, always there, always ready to defend you, to the death if necessary, and always asks you to tidy your room.
Next we look at the GODMOTHER concept.
Any horse or pony training system based on talking horse language so you can be the boss horse, is doomed to failure. For a start, do you really want all the mares to yourself and the very best bits of grass. If you do, carry on. I want my pony and I to be able to enjoy ourselves in reasonable safety, unless we choose to do something terminally stupid like galloping across unknown rough ground with a chariot, when I want my pony to be safe, and I rather hope to get away with just bad bruising.
Obama knows I'm not a horse. Not enough legs. Extensive research has been conducted on this issue by P Cook et al in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Leg_Too_Few.
Follow link to research.
The lack of wiggly ears is another major problem, and you stink of houses and make really silly noises.
However these defects in a horse, are perfectly acceptable in a God. God's get away with behaviour that would have you flung out of the House of Lords, there are things even they find unacceptable, and you only have to look at Hindu temeples to see that mathematical relationships between body parts aren't too closely followed.
And the Great Spaghetti Monster, in his Pastaral capacity as the acknowledged Deity of us Pastafarians, has more appendages than you can shake a stick at. If we can believe in the Great Spaghetti Monster, I am sure you can persuade your pony or horse to accept you as omniscient, etc.
Then, you too can achieve the status of GODMOTHER.
There is only one minor problem. You will have to be sincere. And that means that the safety and well being of your pony MUST come first. If it does, he will believe in you.
The GODMOTHER concept works. I have been taking Obama into some really silly situations of late, and although frightened, he doesn't panic. The main problem is persuading him to get out from under my waistcoat which is where he feels safe. This is based on Tmeple Grandin's wok and that of Jaak Pranksepp, and mor edetailed explanations will follow.
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
The Godmother Concept
I have spent hours discussing behaviour with Nick Sanders, a really great horseman, and the inventor of the Magic Rope. ( I can sell you a cut price version, if you are interested) and we came to the conclusion that horses and ponies just weren't fooled by us pretending to talk horse. We are clearly missing a couple of legs and proper ears.
Given these deficiencies, trying to pretend to be the alpha male, while being the human equivalent of a unidexterous deaf mute, is going to be exceedingly hard work. But pretending to be God is a lot easier. Gods always look a bit weird, and their behaviour is not what you would expect in polite company.
Try asking your host to sacrifice a couple of virgin daughters and throw a few thunderbolts at the slightest provocation, it doesn't go down well in Notting Hill.
So the trick is to persuade your pony that you are omniscient, all powerful etc. This is done on a regular basis by parents, throughout the animal kingdom. For some considerable time, children believe in the magiclal power of their parents.
But there is another factor. Richard Dawkins in the selfish gene looks at the selfish interests of the gene, and the concept that from a gene's point of view, sacrificing your life to save the lives of three of your children, makes sense. This is based on each child having half of your genes, therefore three children is one and a half of a parent.
It is this logic which makes parents defend their children, even at great personal risk. The fact that you like the little creeps might factor somewhere as well. But parenting is not about dominance for the sake of it, or for the extra food and sex as in alpha male dominance. Parents use force to keep the brats safe, not to establish dominance. They just are dominant.
By combining the attributes of a supreme being, ie being allowed the wrong number of limbs and wiggly appendages, like the Great Spaghetti Monster, and the loving, caring, but forceful if necessary attributes of a parent we get
THE GODMOTHER
Then tacking on another complete layer of complexity, the PANIC concept from Animals Make People Human, (Grandin's book), which suggests that PANIC is separation anxiety, we have a really useful training and working tool for ponies. Stand close and be kind, and positive, and occasionally ask the pony to tidy its stable, and you are THE GODMOTHER. Therefore no separation anxiety, therefore , although fear may be present, PANIC won't be.
Given these deficiencies, trying to pretend to be the alpha male, while being the human equivalent of a unidexterous deaf mute, is going to be exceedingly hard work. But pretending to be God is a lot easier. Gods always look a bit weird, and their behaviour is not what you would expect in polite company.
Try asking your host to sacrifice a couple of virgin daughters and throw a few thunderbolts at the slightest provocation, it doesn't go down well in Notting Hill.
So the trick is to persuade your pony that you are omniscient, all powerful etc. This is done on a regular basis by parents, throughout the animal kingdom. For some considerable time, children believe in the magiclal power of their parents.
But there is another factor. Richard Dawkins in the selfish gene looks at the selfish interests of the gene, and the concept that from a gene's point of view, sacrificing your life to save the lives of three of your children, makes sense. This is based on each child having half of your genes, therefore three children is one and a half of a parent.
It is this logic which makes parents defend their children, even at great personal risk. The fact that you like the little creeps might factor somewhere as well. But parenting is not about dominance for the sake of it, or for the extra food and sex as in alpha male dominance. Parents use force to keep the brats safe, not to establish dominance. They just are dominant.
By combining the attributes of a supreme being, ie being allowed the wrong number of limbs and wiggly appendages, like the Great Spaghetti Monster, and the loving, caring, but forceful if necessary attributes of a parent we get
THE GODMOTHER
Then tacking on another complete layer of complexity, the PANIC concept from Animals Make People Human, (Grandin's book), which suggests that PANIC is separation anxiety, we have a really useful training and working tool for ponies. Stand close and be kind, and positive, and occasionally ask the pony to tidy its stable, and you are THE GODMOTHER. Therefore no separation anxiety, therefore , although fear may be present, PANIC won't be.
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