Articles

A Different Perspective - 28.11.2008

How often do we forget that people with disabilities have a different experience of the world than we do?

I have been teaching children with special needs for 34 years. Many of my students are non-verbal, or have poor language skills and so are they dependent on body language to communicate with the world around them. Many have sensory issues that can be overwhelming. However, it wasn’t until I started riding, training and partnering with horses twelve years ago that I understood how to be a truly effective, empathetic teacher to my students.

At the time I started Giddyup!, our therapeutic riding program, I realized I needed to find a more effective way to communicate with my horses — especially if I was going to put somewhat vulnerable clients on their backs. Fortunately, I found a trainer who introduced me to natural horsemanship.

Natural horsemanship requires us to communicate and understand the horse from the horse’s own perspective, which is very different from ours. Horses see the world from a sensory-based, detail-oriented point of view. Despite their size they are prey animals and as such they feel vulnerable especially in unfamiliar environments. Words are meaningless to a horse. Their communication is based on body language. They are masters at reading our non-verbal communications and their own body language is quite clear – if we pay attention.

Learning ‘horse language’ was a challenge for me partly because I had “important goals” and my horses and I needed to reach them. I felt I didn’t have time to stop to listen to what the horse was trying to tell me. So, instead of understanding my horse’s issues/messages, I found myself judging his actions and responses from my own perspective.

It was a long and frustrating experience but my horses eventually taught me to slow down and listen, step back and pay attention and, most importantly, step outside my own frame of reference and understand that there is another perspective. People visiting our therapeutic program comment on how calm and well behaved our horses are. This is because everyone who works here is required to learn about horse behavior and psychology. We speak and understand ‘horse’.

I didn’t make the (now obvious) analogy between my horses and my students, until I attended some workshops on understanding sensory issues. It was then I realized that I was making the same assumptions with my students that I had previously made with my horses. When any one of my students was dealing with sensory or learning issues, I couldn’t just talk them through it to make them see things my way.

I am still learning to listen and pay attention to both my horses and my students. I’ve learned that they are bright and capable and sensitive and that I must continually step outside of my own perspective to see these qualities. To that end, my teaching methods and my programs must be customized to suit all of their unique needs and abilities.

In the two worlds that I spend most of my time, I often hear “ This horse doesn’t listen”, “This child is stubborn”, “This horse is being lazy”, “This child is not motivated”. These statements tell me nothing about horses or children but everything about the people making the statements.