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Foundation Leadership™ The Feel – Leadership Connection

Have Humans Lost Their Senses?

Civilization has developed in a way that has upset the balance of how humans are taught and encouraged to communicate. People have come to rely primarily on the written and spoken word to interact. That leaves many of the natural instincts or tools in the human communication toolbox to collect dust.

This lack of balance can be a real detriment to a human who is attempting to lead and work with a species (horse) that finds little use for the spoken word and even less for the written one. Horses, unlike humans have managed to keep their instincts intact. Many people, on the other hand do not have the sense(s) they were born with.

Why Humans Struggle With Feel and Leadership

Tom Dorrance said it so simply and eloquently when he asked us to “listen and feel for the horse.” Since then mountains of information have been published, countless dollars have been spent and careers have risen and fallen based on the interpretation of that one little statement.

I believe humans that find feel natural and uncomplicated are those who have found a way to connect or remain connected with their foundation natural instincts and the sensual acuity that comes with them. Basically, these people for whatever reason, have not forgotten who they are by definition; human. The fundamentals of true human nature have not been lost to them. Those that find it difficult are those who have somehow consciously or unconsciously gotten disconnected. There is no blame or judgment here on my part, just observation. The good news is that humans can learn how to reconnect or disconnect; whichever they choose.

Communication (Feel) Happens in the Moment the Silence meets the Listening.

Notice how still a horse becomes when he is listening. Even if he is physically on the move, his senses get very still and focused as he listens with his ears, eyes, body, feet, nose, mind, intuition and instincts until he is clear enough to make a decision about whatever it is he is listening to. If a person is aware enough to catch and experience his listening, it might feel like there is a moment of complete understanding between horse and human. Everything seems to flow effortlessly in that moment. When things seem muddled and confusing, the connection of the feel is lost much like a dropped call on a cell phone. The human stopped listening.

An Exercise in Building the Human Feel-Leadership Foundation

Just like with horse training, new things are best learned in small pieces and grow out of that which is already familiar. It is common for humans to expect that they can comprehend more than their minds and bodies will actually allow in a given moment. This very assumption is also one people mistakenly make with their horses. It is a prescription for trouble in both scenarios and shows a decided lack of feel and leadership.

A person might be best served in learning the basics of feel and leadership by exploring each sense and the instinct that comes with it separately. It is a very simple, but very powerful exercise.

Put yourself in a safe place around a horse or herd and have a friend nearby to help out if needed. Get very still and quiet and isolate each sense (sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch), one at a time. Once you have quietly spent some time increasing awareness, make notes of what you experienced, include thoughts, emotions and examples of what you saw, heard, smelled, tasted etc. Keep your notebook handy for anything that might show up. For example, if you are trying to isolate the sense of hearing; cover your eyes, plug your nose, close your mouth and do not touch anything. It is important to simply be conscious, aware and focused on listening.

Pay special attention to the sense of touch. This is a big one. Be very clear that touch is not feel. It is a component of feel. Explore not only that which you touch, but that which touches you. Do not forget the little things like the wind on your face or the sun as it heats your back. This is still part of the sensation of touch.

The Forgotten Sense: Intuition

Intuition is the state of being aware of or knowing something without having to discover or perceive it. The instinct that comes with it is the ability to trust even if there is no hard evidence to back it up.

For those humans that find feel and leadership with horses uncomfortable or difficult, this exercise is crucial to the building of the human Feel-Leadership Foundation. Sit quietly in a place where you are not likely to be disturbed. Try to recall a time when you got a flash of a picture in your mind and you found yourself wondering where the thought came from. Try to recall a time when you felt something that you might describe as energy from a source you cannot pinpoint. Try to recall a time you may have solved a problem, but have no earthly idea where the information to act came from. It would be even more telling for you if those instances had something to do with horses.

Sometimes the little inexplicable blips come when you least expect. They started showing up for me every once in a while in those rare moments when I was quiet, aware and truly focused on the sensitive nature of a horse I was working with and when I had no sense of an agenda, an outcome or anything to prove. But when a moment felt right, I began to take notice. I tried to set myself up for those moments to happen more and more.

I tried a lot of things. One day, in one of those moments when I had (without much awareness of it), managed to tune myself in to the nature of the horse and all the senses and instincts that came with it, he sent it all right back at me. It stopped me dead in my tracks. I got the message loud and clear. That was the defining moment I truly understood how to ‘feel’. It all clicked. Listening and feeling for the horse is half of the equation. When you listen and feel for him, he listens and feels for you as long as you use all of your senses, including intuition to keep listening and feeling. It is a circle. If the circle gets broken, someone has stopped paying attention. I will wager that it is the human that disconnected, not the horse as he still has all of his horse instincts intact. It is not his nature to ‘not listen.’

Leadership

Leadership happens when a person consciously recognizes, trusts and listens to what feel shows them and uses it to the best of their abilities to help the horse. When a leader uses feel along with common sense respect and clarity, the horse will respond in kind.