November 2008 • VOLUME 39 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

The Invisible Human

by Karen Rohlf

When Nadja at Horses For Life asked me if she could include an excerpt from my Book/DVD: Dressage, Naturally... Results in Harmony, I was surprised and pleased that she asked for this particular section, an exercise I call: ‘The Invisible Human’. It is the second exercise in my book, exercise one being to assess your horse. In order to get anywhere in life, we need to know at least two things: where we are starting from and where we would like to go. And that can be the easy part, if we are accustomed to making a habit of observing and dreaming. From there, proven strategies and techniques are valuable, but only if we have one more ability: the ability to honestly account for the effect that our mere presence is having on our horse.

Everything we do with horses is a result of both our ability to communicate to the horse about what we are asking for, and our ability to allow it to happen... to get out of the way. Sometimes allowing involves doing nothing, but most of the time allowing requires that we are athletic in precisely the way the horse needs us to be. We need to be able to do just what is necessary to sustain the movement, without a drop of unnecessary tension or conflicting signals. It is easy to do too much, but not so easy to do less. I love to play with the concept of having no influence at all (when that is my intention, of course!). It provides a clean slate, a blank canvas... a silence into which the art, the music can appear. If we can become invisible, at least have no negative influence, that will provide a more positive context into which all our conversations can flow. We need to practice effective communication, leadership, about what we are asking them to do, but just as important is our ability to follow them, invisibly... to be the most comfortable human to be with... to be the silence in between the notes.