Right brain, left brain and our approach to natural horsemanship

I'm reading Centered Riding by Sally Swift. In it she talks about how we are left brain/right brain thinkers and how we are left brain dominant, which is the linear, analytical thinking side. She talks about how we need to embrace more of our right side thinking, which is intuitive and looks at things in a broader view. This got me to thinking about different approaches to horse training, specifically natural horseman ship training styles. When I look at how Clinton Anderson and Pat Parelli present their methods in a 1-2-3 step process, I see that as appealing to peoples left brain dominant way of thinking. Where as Ray Hunt, Tom and Bill Dorrance talk mostly in non specifics about how we need to use "feel", to me that's a totally right brain concept. I started out using CA techniques and then moved to the Hunt/Dorrance approach with much more success, I have to say I agree with what Sally Swift is saying.
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It is harder to transmit concepts clearly unless presented in the linear mode of the left brain. But I'm with you; I prefer the way things are presented in Dorrance/Hunt's teachings. I don't always "get" it. I dont' think it's supposed to be "get" able. You are supposed to go out and find it, with a bit of guidance as to what to look for, by yourself.

Can I just share this fun little test with you all???

Hope this works (it keeps linking wrong to me)

http://www.perthnow.com.au/fun-games...-1111114517613

I promise she is turning clockwise to me, and if I try really hard, she spins anti-clockwise.

Wow! That is SO cool! At first, she was totally clockwise for me. I simply could not get my brain to see it any different. Then I realized, all you have to do is change which leg you think is the standing leg from her right leg to her left leg and voila! She is turning counter-clockwise!

Mhm.. ! My brother can't make her go clockwise.. just goes to show how much of a left brained genius he is. He has no idea about feel or expression at all :/ But a goal everyone should work towards is seeing the dancer go both ways and being able to switch between feel and mechanics :)

I cannot, for the life of me, get that damn dancer to go anti clockwise!!!!

Woooah, Tiny your right! At first I tried really hard to see it anti-clockwise but just couldn't. I then blinked, looked at the legs and suddenly she was turning the other way! I swear I thought the computer had changed her! I then read your post and tried doing what you observed, and voila!

I'm definitely right brained though. ;) It takes me a while to see her anti-clockwise.

I know right Kayty?? It'll take awhile. You gotta train your mind to do it.

See tinyliny... that doesn't work for me on the first go! Haha I gotta try a little harder at it..

I've been starting at it for 10 minutes, clicking out, looking back etc. Covered the shadow, covered her head, tried thinking about her legs differently. Nope, just can't fathom how she could turn the other way :S

I first got her to turn after about 15 minutes and I screamed out of joy! Then I lost it again.. haven't been able to do it since.

But what was really mind blowning was the words used to describe the kind of thinker below the image. They were so bang on!

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Ahem, sorry about putting your thread off topic a little. But I posted this test for a reason. You need to have balance. You need to engage both parts of your brain and be able to switch between them easily. It helps SO much with tackling new things, or fixing old ones.. or riding in general.

I am a very "feel" person.. you can tell me you gotta do this and this and this. But I can't do it until I feel what it feels to be correct. Then it sticks with me and I can tell if I'm where I should be. Lately I've been doing a lot of left brain explaining to friends, on the forum, and for myself. And it's making me understand things so much better. I mean I even learned something new about trotting and something new about the mechanics of a rope to a horse.