Small is Better

"As a horsewoman, I've come to see that so many theories that work with eliciting real learning and collaboration for horses, work magically with their human counterparts. The brilliant horseman and trainer (as well as second degree aikido black belt), Mark Rashid, teaches how to reward the try, which rewards a horse in response to any of his micro-tries towards the desired action. "Because we are constantly looking for the big thing (the flawless lead change, the effortless transition, the sliding stop), we often look right past the most important part--the try that tells us our horse is understanding our request," he writes. The more sensitive one becomes to the smallest of tries towards the right thing, and the quicker one rewards those tries, the quicker and more solidly the horse learns and grows. It's the same for us. The more respect we can give ourselves or each other for the 'micro tries', the quicker and more solidly we can grow." Kelly Wendorf shares more about the power of small in this insightful piece.

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