I was reading a FB post yesterday which started out by saying “Emotions are not behaviors. Behaviors are not emotions. Did you ever find yourself in the position of agreeing with something and then stopping up short and thinking, “Wait, no, that isn’t right.” Then thinking, “Well, yes it is.” And so on and so forth until your mentally exhausted. That is how I felt reading this statement.

At the end of the day I realized what bothered me. It was less about the intricate relationship between emotion and behavior and more about the conundrum we all face. We label and define things in order to communicate or share our understanding and experience. Every time we do that we lose something; information, subtly, richness. Language while necessary is, by its nature, limiting. I believe that this is the underlying dynamic which gives rise to my most common response to peoples’ questions about almost anything horse or human related… “It depends.”

We need clarity for common understanding. Carefully defined terms, ideas, variables, strategies, interventions, etc. help us to explore and grow in our knowledge and understanding. Science is one realm where we carefully apply this principle of clear definition. And, science provides for us a wealth of knowledge to guide our relationships with horses.

Let us not make the mistake of taking that perspective or approach and elevating it to a god-like status. Let us value it while staying connected to the richness and the magic of the relationship and experience we have with horses. At least then we will be aware enough of the limitations of our perspective to say, “It depends.”… Or does it?

~ Paul

PC – Erin Gilmore Photography

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