CRAFTS is a philosophy that we use all over the farm, and particularly with the horses. It’s an acronym for Communication Respect Acknowledgement Trust and Setting good boundaries. It is the way we train our horses and teach our students. As instructors, we preach CRAFTS all day long, but we wanted to find out what the kids thought about it. One student wrote a piece about CRAFTS, and it was interesting to get her take. Some of her interpretations were different from what I have been teaching, and it made me think about all the other ways I can utilize this great method of partnership.
CRAFTS
by: Iris
Crafts means a lot to us here at Spence’s. They are the things we need to have, make, or do to not only build a good relationship with your horse, but to have fun and not get hurt while doing it.
Communication: Communication is one of the biggies. If you don’t communicate with your horse, or with the people around you, something is almost sure to go wrong. It takes a lot of communicating to train, interact with, and ride a horse.
Respect: Horses can read your mind. If you don’t respect them, and know that they are much more powerful than you, then you could build a bad relationship with your horse, or even get hurt.
Acknowledgement: To acknowledge is another way to communicate, only always in a positive way. When you are training or even riding and being around a horse you must acknowledge them for working with you and doing the right thing.
Friendship: To build a good relationship with your horse you must develop 4 major things (along with others): Trust, forgiveness, patience, and friendship. Becoming a friend to your horse is not easy, it takes some time. But if you do it right you can get a great result: your horse not feeling scared or suspicious around you, and much more including you and your horse having a good time!
Trust: Trust is very important in the world of horses. If you don’t trust your horse while you are riding it, are are likely to get scared. When you get scared, your breathing changes and you get tense. When that happens the horse can sense it and will get scared, too.
Setting good boundaries: This is the final, and one of the most important parts of crafts. Setting good boundaries means not to push yourself, only do things when you are ready, take your time, and make sure you are ready. One example of setting bad boundaries is that you decide you want to canter when you have not perfected your sitting trot. Not setting good boundaries can end very badly. You could get both mentally and physically hurt.
CRAFTS has helped me and every one else at Spence’s have a better time not only with the horses but with my friends and other people.
2horsegirls
