Ask.com describes that as having will power over obstacles.
It’s a great title but I’m not sure if that really has to do with my subject. I guess, in a way it might.
With age I notice I’m having trouble with my mind. It just doesn’t keep up with me anymore, and in most cases my friends are having the same problem. For those of you who are young, a warning, it stinks.
But this post isn’t about old age, it’s really about the minds of children these days.
If you’ve worked with children for any period of time you have noticed a big change in their attention span. Between working with the children at church and with the horses, it’s really becoming more of a challenge. We hear more about A.D.D. and A.D.H.D. When I was a kid, back in the stone age, we never heard anything about this stuff. For that matter, kids were kids and really didn’t have these problems. We were outside every chance we got, played hard, got tired and went to bed. Now a days, both adults and children have their nose buried in some kind of technological wonder. There is no eye contact with another human being, they will sit in the same room and text each other. Games are now all downloaded and played constantly. Things move so fast on the game board that children, when confronted with everyday life, find it extremely boring and slow. As with adults, they want everything now. Frustration comes in when things can’t be accomplished immediately and boredom sets in if the information isn’t passed along in a split second. So how do you teach something that requires patience and time.
Aghhhhh! I think that came from a stone age cartoon character in the comic strip B.C. More recently it’s become my way of voicing frustration with the computer age children.
Our horses didn’t know anything about instant gratification. They are still in the mind-set of walk around and find something to eat. We are now putting a clock in their heads, just like our children, by putting them on a feed schedule. They now paw at the gate or door if dinner is late, or if they want attention. To avoid this, keep hay or grazing available all the time. Keep them as close to nature as possible. We’ve conditioned our children and animals to become impatient and demanding, and truly, we do it to ourselves. When I was a child there was the lay-a-way plan (which is making a comeback in some form). If you wanted to purchase something, and you didn’t have the money, you gave the item to the clerk with a deposit and paid a little each week until it was totally paid for and then you took it home. Now you take it home and then pay for it.
It’s time we took back control of our children, animals, and our lives. We are so much in fast forward that most times we don’t even know what day it is. I think that’s why so many people find peace when riding their horses. To stay safe and enjoy we must slow down and stay in the moment. If you get on your horse with the “to do list” running through your mind, your horse will feel it and become worried. This could become dangerous because you are not aware of things going on around you.
Stop and smell the roses. They may not be there tomorrow. Take back control of your life and time. Show your children that there is life out there. Teach your horses to be horses again. Trust me your horse will be more receptive to the idea than your children will.
In order to work with a horse, or teach children about horses, they need to slow their minds down and connect with another living, breathing, being, not a computer. Horses don’t text, they need one on one time, and truthfully, so do we.
Life, right now, is like a run-away horse, take the reins, and take back the control, before it’s too late.
Stay in the moment, or you’ll miss life as it happens.