A lot of times, rather than helping people with horse problems, I'm helping horses with people problems.
Buck BrannamanRead
I've started horses since I was 12 years old and have been bit, kicked, bucked off and run over. I've tried every physical means to contain my horse in an effort to keep from getting myself killed. I started to realize that things would come much easier for me once I learned why a horse does what he does.
Interpretation
Understanding the behavior of horses is crucial for effective handling and safety.
This quote emphasizes the importance of knowledge and understanding in dealing with complex situations, represented here by the relationship between a horse and its handler. The speaker reflects on their personal journey of learning that mastery comes not just from physical techniques but from comprehending the underlying nature of the animal, suggesting that true wisdom brings ease and effectiveness in any endeavor.
In practice
In a training seminar for new horse handlers, this quote can illustrate the value of knowing animal behavior.
A lot of times, rather than helping people with horse problems, I'm helping horses with people problems.
It is not the skills we actually have that determine how we feel but the ones we think we have.
To demand that others should provide you textbook prognoses is like asking a strange woman to give birth to your baby. There are insights that can be born only of your own pain, and they are the most precious.
Young people have a right to optimism, and rightly so; human beings have grown and developed and accomplished wonderful feats in the world. But what mires me in pessimism is the fact that so much of life is pain and sorrow and willful ignorance and violence, and pushing back against that tide takes so much effort, so much steady fight. It's tiring.
Even as a youngster, though, I could not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presented danger, the solution was ignorance.
Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment - that which they cannot anticipate.
We have to embrace the good over the bad. That has to be one's personal project.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.