Stress Free Horse Training (well almost)

Horse Time Should Not Be Chore Time

chore
CHôr/
noun

1. a routine task, especially a household one.
   synonyms: task, job, duty, errand;
   • an unpleasant but necessary task.

My mother was a skilled and talented gardener.  Flowers of all varieties bloomed spring, summer and fall in the borders and beds around her house;  a vegetable garden overflowing with tomatoes, lettuce, beans and herbs helped to grace the dinner table.  She was also a gifted artist, and flowers were among her most favorite subjects; she painted big colorful bouquets of iris, poppies and hydrangea.

You would think this opportunity to nourish such beauty would bring her joy, but frequently that wasn’t the case.  The garden always needed tending;  weeds needed to be pulled, shrubs needed to be pruned, mulch needed to be put down, vegetables needed to be harvested – it was stressful for her and made her discontented.

There was no one telling her that she wasn’t doing it right, or that she needed to work harder at it, in fact she received many compliments, but still – it was a chore that somehow robbed her of something - it couldn’t be just fun for its own sake, there had to be a price to pay.  For me, the saddest part of all is that this was self-inflicted:  she wielded full control over her situation and she could have chosen to be joyful, but she didn’t.  She CHOSE to make flower gardening, of all things - stressful.

In our current century, in our First World lives, horses are not a necessity for most people.  Unless we are old time farmers or cattle ranchers, horse ownership is a hobby or a sport.  Like flower gardening, participation is 100% voluntary. 
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So why do so many people get angst-ridden, frustrated and even angry about something they could stop doing at any time?

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