Pressure

Use as little pressure as possible; as much pressure as needed.

Recently I've been reading books on horse training and psychology. One if the main concepts is how you view pressure; an interesting thing both physically and mentally.

The books I'm referring to are "Nature in Horsemanship: Discovering Harmony Through Principles of Aikido" by Mark Rashid, and another book written by one of Rashid's apprentices (I can't remember the title; sorry).

We all know what pressure is; either in the form of being dragged across a slippery grass field by a horse, or that mental feeling where you *must* get something done and can't ignore it.

So, let me give you a tip for understanding pressure in relationships and also training. This is: Use as little pressure as possible; as much pressure as needed.

There you go. I've recently re-discovered this after the horse I have decided she would stop lunging by turning towards me; a position you can't drive a horse from. The solution? Watching the horse's hip *very closely* and getting after her with the lunge whip and strong verbal commands.

I didn't really like it. As folks who know me will say, I'm pretty softhearted and not very aggressive. But sometimes it takes aggressiveness to reach the point where both parties are safe and compliant.

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I'm double-posting this on my personal blog, take a look.