Why vs. How in Practicing Horsemanship | RES 061

I had the privilege of spending a week with Mr. Dorrance, watching and learning how he practiced horsemanship.  One night at dinner I said, “You know what? You’re worse than my grandad.” See, I couldn’t remember a single time growing up where my grandad gave me a straight answer to a question. He’d either ask another question or make a statement that I didn’t even think was related. Well, Mr. Dorrance told me if you went and asked ten different trainers how they did something you’d certainly get at least ten different answers. He told me if I asked him the same question ten days in a row I might get a different one each day. His point was this—the way you do something and how you do something might be infinite.

Key Takeaways

It’s the number one question I get asked. “Van, how do you this?” So, I think real hard about what they really want to know. But I have to say, again like Mr. Dorance, the answer might be different or change.

If there was just one cure-all for a problem people would have a little notebook to mark off the boxes one by one until their issue was resolved. But life doesn’t work that way most of the time, especially when horses are involved.

Focus on the why. When you truly focus on the why, the hows tend just fall in place like magic. So take time compare these with your own goals, the how vs. the why. Because guess what? Often times the how depends on the specifics of the why, just think about trying to correct a horse’s behavior without knowing why they are behaving that way. It doesn’t work.

Remember that the horse is always right. The horse is either doing what comes naturally, or what they think you want them to be doing. And if you can get the answer you want from them with different hows, all the better. Variety helps keep your horse from being “bored” and certainly yourself as a trainer.

A big secret is that there is no patented Van Hargis method. Don’t go around saying, “Well I did this the Van Hargis way.” There is no one way I do anything. There have been plenty of times where I saw a trainer do something and I swore up and down that I’d never be caught doing that—only to one day find myself doing it. Because my “way” is whatever works for the horse.