Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Repetition

Hi there,

I know its been a long time. But absence makes the heart grow fonder! Right?
I just got in from teaching at the jail. It is so refreshing to me to teach the word to men who have just about lost it all. They often are at the bottom and want to make changes in their lives. There is nothing like teaching people the truth who actually want to hear it and learn from it. There is something about giving someone who is thirsty a glass of water and watching them enjoy it. My day has been a busy one with study this morning then the jail. I have my truck in the shop so still have to go get that tonite if it is ready.
I have been listening and watching a new DVD on installing an operating system on your horse. Well, the thing that really gets me, is that it takes so long. The teacher reminds me that it takes 3-4 hundred reps to teach a cue than another 3-4 thousand to actually to get the horse to be solid at it. In fact, he stated that you can teach a horse a cue this system in 60 - 90 days of 5 days a week training. And then another year for them to actually be solid at it. Of course, that is considering the rider is already solid at what he is teaching. Keeping that in mind with regards to teaching people or horses it is better to give little chunks, as my cousing reminded me, to sprinkle the salt on them rather than pour it on. So it was a good reminder to me to take it slow and easy and not move on til they have the teaching at hand down.
I have been working with Raven as often as I can teaching this system, which she already knows alot about. I started to teach her to kneel on command. My homework is to have her kneel 3x a day both sides everday for several weeks. Yesterday I did this with her in about 1/2 hour. We shall see how long it takes today. Hopefully as I progress, she will be kneeling on command in a few weeks. Now if only I could get Sharon to do the same. Ha! Ha! NOT! It sure didn't take her long to get me to do it when we first met though. She had me at HI!. But that's another matter. Maybe men are easier to train than women. How did I get off on that! Oh well. Back to the repetition thing. It gives us hope to realize that things in our lives don't change in us over night. It takes hundreds if not thousands of repetitions to change our habits of thinking and acting. So don't give up if you don't get it exactly right the first 3 or 4 hundred times you try it. Keep it up. It will come. It just takes time. Another thing is that it takes bite size trys to make it work. So don't try to bite off more than you can chew in changing a wrong pattern of thinking or acting. Just take it one bite at a time. The hard part is keeping it up and being consistent. It's easy to get started with good intentions. But eventually it is going to wear on you and you will want to take it easy. DON'T! Instead, fight through it and then rest. Come back later to it and keep at it. Then in a couple weeks look back and see how far you have come in putting off that temper of yours, or that depression, whatever it may be in your life. I am a different rider because of this process as well as person. And so can you.
God Bless,
Jeff