I'm coming up on 11 years as an equine manual therapist, and something that has become increasingly clear to me is that there is one quality - or skill, since it can be learned - that stands out as the thing that allows me to be good at what I do.
You can have all the titles you can earn, take all the courses and learn all the modalities, hop on all of the latest bodywork and therapeutic gizmo trends - it won't get you anywhere near as far as this.
This skill is listening. If you're thinking "that's obvious", I ask you - is it really? In my experience, humans have a very hard time becoming good listeners. Not just listening to each other, but listening to animals. Listening to nature. Listening to tissue. Listening to the nervous system.
It is a quality some people are born with, and this work may come more naturally to them, but it is also something that can be learned with guidance and practice. So, so much practice.
Learning and education doesn't exist separately from listening, however. I'm sorry to say (because for some, it is not as exciting as learning techniques) that anatomical learning greatly enhances my ability to listen - in one sense of the word, anyway. Listening to tissue becomes second nature when you understand what the body is doing beneath your hands. The best education programs focus mostly on anatomy and theory. If you don't have a clear grasp of it, the techniques become empty, simply going through the motions with no depth. But you also can't develop the feel to listen without the hands-on practice, even if you struggle at first.
Listening in other ways can also be learned, but it is perhaps not as straightforward. This is where I've learned the most by looking inward, not outward to a course or book or modality. For me, I've had to learn to truly embody what it means to be a listener - not just in my career with horses, but in life. Listening to the rhythm of nature. The seasons, the weather, the insects, the birds, the sea, the plants, the mammals (including humans). It does not mean simply listening with your ears. It is a practice, something I strive to be better at every day.
Listening can also make you vulnerable. The better I get at what I do with horses, the harder it is for me to continue down this career path. I have so, so much coming in, and struggle with where to put it all. It’s something I think about every day, and work constantly to balance. I expect that most people won't understand what I'm talking about here unless you are a highly sensitive person, or also work in a way that requires deep listening to other beings.
I have no intention with this post beyond to give people something to chew on. There is so much negative discourse in the equine industry right now, to the point that my mental health sharply declines any time I come back to Facebook or Instagram to post or read something. So much feuding and black and white thinking and strong opinions, and very little listening. If these people can't listen to each other on the internet, are they really listening to anything else?
If you want to become better at listening, there is no better teacher than the horse in front of you.