Leadership with Horses is not about Self-Serving

My first lesson on leadership was when I was a little girl and was taught to me by a lizard.

In the olden days, the milk cartons had little tabs that you pulled up and made a little tiny hole in the corner of, so that when you turned it over, it would pour. It kind of made a natural spout and then you stuck the cork back into that little hole. They were little and cute. I liked them. I don’t know why we’ve ended up with what we have today because I can never get them to open up, but anyway, back to my story.

So I figured out that if I left the little tab open and left the carton outside, I could possibly catch something in it. Well, on the third day, I did! I went and looked in my milk carton and found I had trapped a lizard. I closed that tab really fast and was so excited. I carried that little milk carton around with me and showed it to my mother and said, “I have caught myself a lizard!”

She looked inside and she asked “How long are you planning on keeping that lizard in the milk carton?”

“Well! I was thinking maybe it’s mine now. It’s my pet and I’m going to keep it forever.”

“I don’t think the lizard is going to like being in that milk carton.” she said.

Well, at the moment, I wasn’t really keen on that idea and so I carried that lizard around with me all day. At the end of the day though I had to turn him lose and that was one of the hardest things I ever did. But it also helped me learn about self serving acts.

All day I figured that the lizard was going to be totally happy in the milk carton because I wanted him. But that wasn’t really the case, you see. So, when we are looking at leadership, let’s really evaluate how it is we are using our leadership if we are really being honest with ourselves.

So when you are using the Waterhole Rituals™, you are not looking to gain anything; that’s not what leadership is about. The rituals are only concerned with developing the relationship, the right sort of relationship between you and your horse and not one that is self-serving to you as the leader.

Carolyn Resnick

Natural Horsemanship from the Ground Up