In "Riding Towards the Light" by Paul Belasik, at one point he is speculating about the great trainers under whom he has studied. They all have different methods, and each one insists that his is the "only" right one (and all the others are wrong). If *all* of them insist that all the others are wrong...how can they all be wrong?
He says:
"These masters are not all wrong. They are all right! There are great piaffes in Portugal, but there are great piaffes in France, Russia, England, Spain, Austria and Germany; and there are great piaffes in America. How could five, ten, fifteen horses be trained differently and independently, yet all be doing the exact same movement correctly? It is not clear to me that different paths can lead to the same result. In western education we are so steeped in our precious scientific method that it seems inconceivable that there can be more than one correct answer for a question or problem. In reality there are all kinds of correct answers existing side by side. You can take your pick. They will all work if correctly applied. There seems to be no such thing as only one correct answer, but there is only one correct way of answering."
No two people do everything exactly the same, and for some reason this so often leads to dissention...I thought this was a beautiful conclusion. Just because someone goes about doing things differently, doesn't mean he's wrong.
He says:
"These masters are not all wrong. They are all right! There are great piaffes in Portugal, but there are great piaffes in France, Russia, England, Spain, Austria and Germany; and there are great piaffes in America. How could five, ten, fifteen horses be trained differently and independently, yet all be doing the exact same movement correctly? It is not clear to me that different paths can lead to the same result. In western education we are so steeped in our precious scientific method that it seems inconceivable that there can be more than one correct answer for a question or problem. In reality there are all kinds of correct answers existing side by side. You can take your pick. They will all work if correctly applied. There seems to be no such thing as only one correct answer, but there is only one correct way of answering."
No two people do everything exactly the same, and for some reason this so often leads to dissention...I thought this was a beautiful conclusion. Just because someone goes about doing things differently, doesn't mean he's wrong.
