Ever get into a disagreement 

with a zealot?………….. of any variety?

The problem with those conversations is the more you disagree the more adamant (and often outrageous) they become.

Zealot: The world is only seen in black & white!!

BE: Actually……… I think there really are colors.

Z: No there are not, there are definitely NO colors. I don’t see any colors.

BE: Perhaps your vision is different than mine? I believe there is something called being color blind…….

Z: That’s NOT possible, YOU must be crazy!!

Far and above the most passionate & persistent of them………………. are the

newly converted.

I was once asked to give riding lessons to two young ladies whose rather unqualified instructor had moved away. They’d been taking English riding lessons for 3 or 4 months.  

During the first 5 minutes I asked them to flip the reins over in their hands.

They were both using a driving rein position (reins coming out under their thumbs.)

And while that rein position is certainly used at times………such as……………….. while driving………..

it’s not typically considered the place to start……..

The argument that ensued went something like this,

Bad Eventer, “Please hold the reins with your thumbs on top and the reins coming out above your pinky, like this.”

Students,” What?! That’s definitely wrong!!”

Bad Eventer, “Different techniques are not necessarily right or wrong. I like to think about some as having advantages over others. For example, a lot of the ways I’m going to ask you to do things might be safer than other ways you could do the same thing. Usually you’ll want the safer options. Please hold the reins like this.”

Students, “Our instructor told us that’s completely wrong!”

 
I was clearly losing ground, but I persisted, “Please try it this way, you may even find that you like it.”

By then I had two red faced very upset students who were CERTAIN that I was an idiot and their original coach had all the answers.

The horse world is awash………in people that think they have THE ONLY RIGHT WAY to do something.

But being rather old………..

and somewhat experienced in MANY different disciplines…….

I find the more someone uses “absolutes” in a conversation, the more likely they have……………

shall we say……a limited knowledge base????

“NEVER do this……….

ALWAYS do that………..

That is NEVER correct…………….

ONLY THIS WAY is correct………..”

It reminds me of know-it-all teenagers.
Didn’t we have ALL the answers when we were 16??

I know I did.

But now…..the more I know…… the more I know that I don’t know………….

Never stop learning.

Oh NO I said “NEVER”!!