Amongst my endless chattering, I was speaking with a friend recently who works as a healthcare professional. They used the phrase, upstream prevention. Included in the idea is treating the economic and social issues rather than the just the resulting behaviors of individuals.
Do we have a conscious equivalent in the dressage industry? Do we have a forward thinking support system or a more reactionary approach? It seems lately we have lots of people fleeing towards an alternative path. Maybe that’s what is needed but can we afford a complete restart? Being rather suspicious I counsel riders to pause and think, are you doing better or just different. In aid of caution or the public perception of kindness, we try leaping into different and run the risk of reactive thinking. Riders tell me they’re going to take the pressure off or just concentrate on having fun which on re-examination often reveals avoidance of being detailed or lack of knowledge.
Dressage has made me examine how to not react. Check, feel and notice but not blindly react. I don’t always get it right but I’m comforted by the fact I’m searching for it instead of jumping from one pattern to another. If we can sit in the un-reactive phase we might just be able to pluck some threads from both historically tried and tested knowledge and new scientific based information. Use the useful but acknowledge what can be adapted and what needs to be thrown away. In aid of caution or public perception of kindness, in only doing different we risk that exact reactive thinking. Giving ourselves a comfort blanket, congratulating each other at “not being that” or “ being different” rather than examining the underneath. Let’s not apply downstream measures, let’s just do better.
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