3 P: Perception, position, precision

Perception, position and precision. These are three words that Maria and I have chosen as a recurring mantra. We often mention these words when we teach and you can see them in our ads. Here I will present the words and explain why we have chosen them. We have fond that it is fun and interesting to play with these words since they have multiple meaning and can stand for different meaning in different contexts.

Perception
The Swedish National Encyclopedia explains perception like this: "perception, take notice, mental interpretation of the sensations produced by stimuli from the outside world, the basic function by which living creatures are informed about their surroundings. Perception results in an inner image of the outside, which is organized so that we can develop appropriate actions. The ability to perception has developed in connection with the capacity for movement. "

We perceive things around us through our senses (eyes, ears, touch). Often we receive so many impressions that they have to be sorted. The sorting takes place in the brain. My brain and yours choose in any given situation which impressions that it should focus on. This means that two people can experience the same situation quite differently, and that they can come up with entirely different "appropriate actions".

Position
Position can stand for both positions in my own body, that is posture or non-posture. The Alexander technique have tools with which I can explore just what my ideal position is where only the postural muscles are involved and nothing else. Position can also mean the horse's posture. Like humans, the horse can have a good posture, or be disconnected or tense. Position can also stand for my relative position to the horse. Both in work from the ground (whether it is work in hand or (free-) longing), as well as in riding, my relative position to the horse is of importance.

Precision
Precision hardly needs any further explanation in itself. Both perception and position can be made and maintained with more or less precision. I see precision as the result of perception (I perceive that what I need to control a given situation), and position (my own, the horse's and the relative position between our bodies).

But not perfection
A word we have deliberately chosen not to focus on is perfection. Sure, perfection is something to aim for, but we believe that the path to perfection is not made easier by focusing on being perfect. It becomes too easy to focus on what is missing, and then it is to easy to start judging yourself. Instead, we suggest that you (and we) just focus on perception. Perception means that you strive to become aware of what is happening in your own body, the horse's body, with your communication, in the surroundings etc. It is impossible to focus on all at this at once. To educate one self as a rider consist, among other things, of learning to focus on that what is important in that particular instance. This of course is easier if your seat is good so you don't have to think about it, or that you are so used to handle the longe line you don't get tangled up in it.

Maria and I also thought we are extra clever for choosing perception, position and precision since these words are spelled the same in both Swedish and English. Imagine that :)