While at Equine Affaire, I had the opportunity to hear Mark Rashid, the brilliant horseman, author and Aikido master talk about the “alpha” myth.

Here is a point that he made that I think is worth repeating (probably many times).  He said that many people think that when their horse does something that they don’t want them to do, something that we would consider disrespectful, in fact the horse is demonstrating respect.

Here is why.  The horse learns things through both intentional and inadvertant teaching.  Those “bad” behaviors are often the result of inadvertant teaching – the horse learning something that we are unconscious of, but inadvertantly reinforcing!  So when the horse does those “bad” things, they are in fact showing respect- they are doing what they have been taught!.

For me, still working to get softer, clearer and more successful with my complicated horse Amadeo, this felt like a big new window.  I am pretty sure that I have done more inadvertant teaching than intentional, or inadvertant masquerading as intentional.  And that what feels like intentional probably has a lot of unintentional lessons laced through it.

That got me to thinking about what I am inadvertantly teaching others – kids, students, even myself.  When I am not taking time to eat consciously, to do my yoga practice, or breathe, I am inadvertantly teaching myself that those things are not really important, as well as making those habits of oversight and carelessness stronger.  I am reinforcing my own “bad” – unconscious – behaviors.

How do you see it?