October 2007 • VOLUME 26 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

We are at a cusp in equestrian history where we have the opportunity to create a paradigm shift of unrivalled proportions. This paradigm shift equals one that we have not yet seen to date in the equestrian world on very many different levels. A paradigm of such proportions that it can make us change the very way, not only how we relate to horses, but how we relate to our dogs and even how we interact with our children, how we relate to each other in our human world.

A paradigm shift was called a scientific revolution by epistemologist and historian of science, Thomas Kuhn, in his book, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions."

"A scientific revolution occurs," according to Kuhn, "when scientists encounter anomalies which cannot be explained by the universally accepted paradigm within which scientific progress has thereto been made." The paradigm, in Kuhn's view, is not simply the current theory, but the entire worldview in which it exists, and all of the implications which come with it. There are anomalies for all paradigms, Kuhn maintained, that are brushed away as acceptable levels of error, or simply ignored and not dealt with. But "[R]ather," according to Kuhn, "anomalies have various levels of significance to the practitioners of science at the time."

Anomalies for all paradigms. In horsemanship, these anomalies are those horses and riders that the system fails!

“When enough significant anomalies have accrued against a current paradigm, the scientific discipline is thrown into a state of crisis," according to Kuhn.

We see that state of crisis today with so many preconceived ideas being challenged.

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