What is intrinzen?
To me,
#intrinzen is a framework of
#horsetraining. It opened up a new world for me and I will be eternally grateful. To me, this framework has three pillars.
Knowledge about brain and body: Understanding the theories of learning, motivation, and pain. This leads to: the brain is always right, pain is always real, horses don't fake emotions and they are not out to get you. They always have a reason to do or not do anything. And maybe most central: Nature's pharmacy can make hard tasks easier than easy tasks. Horses can be intrinsically motivated. This is were the magic happens.
Guidelines for training:
Movement training with horses is based on modern movement science. This leads to these core elements: movement autonomy no coercion, self-organisation no micro-management, external focus, repetition without repetition variability is key. Because of this, the human becomes a task designer, offering movement puzzles to the horse. The most used methodology for this the
#constraintsledapproach (cla)
Goal:
The horse is the hero of their story. What the horse wants comes first. We train for real life, so that our horses can be the agile, proud
#badass warriors they would be in nature. I struggled with this a lot in the beginning. If the horse comes first, why do I own a horse? I now have found peace in this approach: I give my horse the best life possible so he doesn't need me. The things he needs to do, I train for as well as possible and I try and make them fun. Everything else is a bonus. If he wants to go on adventures with me: awesome! If not, so be it.
Intrinzen is not a method, it is not a toolkit. It certainly is not about being able to perform certain tricks or movements. You can do intrinzen without ever doing
#crunches or
#pantherwalk. You certainly don't need a poolnoodle. More importantly, you can very well have a poolnoodle, train crunches and pantherwalk *without* doing intrinzen.
#horses #pferde
