Let me first offer my apologies for my absence this
summer. It has been a tough summer and every
time I found time to sit down and write, everything sounded whiney and
petulant. Certainly not the attitude I
hoped to convey, although in its own right, for me it has been a fresh
perspective.
Things are finally starting to calm down again. Although we never found the root cause for
Nutmeg’s breathing difficulty, we have her on some Chinese herbs and they seem
to be managing the symptoms, at least sometimes. We will have a couple of good weeks where we
manage several full flatwork sessions and then she has a set back and we are
back to no lung capacity. The good news
is she is gaining some really nice muscle with all the walk work we have been
doing. Hopefully getting back into
jumping shape is right around the corner.
So what is all this about being a dilatant? What is a dilatant? Don’t worry; I’m not taking up spray painting
bridge supports in my spare time. For
those of you who aren’t chemists, a dilatant is a substance in which applied
force causes it to adopt a more ordered structure. What? Think
of playing with corn starch and water. You
can easily pour it from one bowl to the next, but if you hit it, you’ll just bounce
back. It is flowing until force is
applied. The force causes it to form up
and repel the force.
My parents introduced the corn starch and water mixture to
me as a kid as an example of a colloidal suspension and I loved it. If I moved
my hands quickly I could make it into a ball, but the moment I let it sit in my
hand, it would run through my fingers creating a mess all over the floor. Corn starch in water does make a colloidal suspension,
but it is also a dilatant. The more
effort you put into stirring it up or hitting it, the more resistant it
becomes. This is also the science
behind, what I personally believe are the most brilliant horse boots ever. Someday I’ll manage to buy a pair, but I
digress.
I was mid dressage lesson when it hit me, I should treat my
horse like the corn starch and water mixture.
If I’m constantly banging her with my legs or if my rein aids are sharp,
the only reaction I’ll get is a bounce back.
A hard aid gets a hard response and rarely the response I was going
for. If, however, I ooze into her, I can
manipulate her whole body. Think of Jell-O. If you tap it with a spoon, your spoon just
bounces and the Jell-O giggles. If you
put down your spoon and use your fingers to slowly push into the Jell-O with
little vibrations, the Jell-O will eventually split and let you in.
This may have been the most important revelation of my
summer and I started thinking about how this attitude applied to so much in
life. Rarely does hitting something head
on work well for me. When I run into a barrier,
I tend to get knocked on my butt, spring up, and try the barrier again from a
slightly different direction just to get knocked down again. It is only when I stop and spend some time
feeling out the barrier that I find a way forward. I have found that absorbing the obstacles
makes them a learning experience, where just finding a way around them leaves
me exhausted from running.
Whether it is an argument, a problem that needs to be
addressed at work, or a stubborn horse, keeping a calm head and soaking into
what is really going on works so much better than loud words, quick actions, or
whips, spurs, and more leg. In
researching the term dilatant, I ran across the term viscosity. It means the measure of the fluid’s
resistance to flow. In dressage we are
always talking about letting the energy flow from the hind legs forward. In life we are reminded to “roll with the
flow.” So I’m taking a Fresh Perspective
and reducing my viscosity and doing my best to be a dilatant. I’m going to ooze through life’s troubles and
always try the softer approach first.
However, if life tries to smack me with a pitch fork, I’m going to
bounce right back, baby.
