California Continuation Education Association Document

Title: A Horse Story

Author: Unknown

Date: Unknown

A HORSE STORY

Common advice from knowledgeable horse trainers includes the adage, "If the horse you^'re riding dies, get off!!" Seems simple enough, yet, in the education business we don't always follow that advice. Instead, we often choose from an array of other alternatives that include:

• Buying a stronger whip.
• Trying a new bit or bridle.
• Tightening the cinch.
• Switching riders.
• Moving the horse to a new location.
• Riding the horse for longer periods of time.
• Saying things like, "This is the way we've always ridden this horse."
• Appointing a committee to study the dead horse.
• Threaten to take away the dead horse's funding.
• Appoint a committee to study the committee that is studying the dead horse.
• Arranging to visit other sites where they ride dead horses more efficiently.
• Increasing the standards for riding dead horses.
• Creating a new test for measuring the ability to ride a dead horse.
• Comparing how we're riding now with how we did ten or twenty years ago.
• Complaining about the state of dead horses these days.
• Coming up with new styles of riding dead horses.
• Blaming the horse's parents. The problem is often in the breeding.
• Explaining to the dead horse that its behavior is not conducive to riding and therefore is unacceptable.

Copyright © 1997 by the California Continuation Education Association.
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