Once again, I’m thrilled to share the brilliance that is the Thomas Herding Technique (as previously seen on ZATT Magazine)…
Behavior in Motion: A State Of Pace…
by Kerry M Thomas
“In reality, you are not training for distance, you are training for time in motion, making Emotional Conformation and focus agility of essential importance.”
The Thoroughbred was born to run and studying the Emotional Conformation of your horse will help to nurture the Natural Herd Dynamic and establish training protocols that enable your horse to perform at peak levels.
The mental capacity of the equine controls the physical output of the athlete.
Physical training of the horse is important, but, training only for that is training for mediocrity. Real athletic training means the act of training the mind to control and influence the body.
The importance of both physical and mental or Emotional Conformation cannot be overstated when it comes to developing the equine athlete. Speed is the by-product of pace and true training of the equine athlete must embrace the expansion of its mental capacity and focus agility while in motion so the horse doesn’t lose pace with the influx of stimulus – your athlete having the ability to focus for an extended period of time is your key to success.
Pace is determined by the mental ability to focus over a given space of time, speed is determined by the physical ability to react within that given space, motion thus becomes the collateral affect of the two combined.
Mental conditioning, therefore, must supersede physical ability in order to maintain both pace and accelerated levels of motion – speed in smooth transitions.
When you have mental soundness and maturity, you can attain tremendous pace.
Think of it this way; take a long distance runner as compared to a bullet from a gun. The bullet has speed, but it cannot have pace, for it is dependant solely on the influence from which it erupted for its time in motion. The long distance runner can have both pace and speed, because his time in motion is reflected by the pace he keeps, which is determined based upon mental recognition of both the motion itself and the stimuli affecting it. The runner’s time in motion then, is reflective of his speed controlled by the pace, which can go up or down. The bullet only having speed, is moving as fast as it ever will at the eruption of motion, slowing down ever-after because it has no pace to control or influence that speed.
