"I See," Said the Blind Man

“I See,” Said the Blind Man….
By Kris Garrett

One of my many part-time jobs is helping Olympic Dressage Coach, Jane Savoie, with the “Expert Interviews” for her Dressage Mentor membership site. www.DressageMentor.com My work as host of The Wow Factor Radio’s “Hoof Beat” show led to this job of interviewing interesting horse people from all over the world. It’s great fun.

Yesterday I interviewed a dressage rider in West Virginia with a very interesting challenge. She’s totally blind. Has been since birth. That doesn’t stop her from riding. She shared that horses figure out pretty quick that she can’t see. Trail horses don’t have too much trouble being responsible for where they’re going and adapt to her challenge fairly easily. But dressage horses, used to being guided every step of the way, are a different story. How does one ride a detailed test pattern in an arena when you can’t see where you are, let alone where you want to be?

The answer is “Living Letters.” A person stands at each letter and calls out the letter, one movement prior to the rider heading that way. Yes, there's even someone in the middle of the arena, standing at the invisible X. It’s not easy, being a letter. You have to understand the test so you know when to call out your letter, and have to keep your voice and location consistent.

"Often people, especially non-horse people, back up when the horse gets close to them. Since I’m locating the letter by sound, it makes me change direction,” Marcia Springston shared while we chatted on the phone. People also unconsciously lower their voices when she gets close. That makes her think she’s father away from them than she really is.

Marcia told me that she started out with a young Arabian. She adored the horse, but he was very spooky and bucked her off on a regular basis. I thought about what I’ve learned from Tom, and found that I wasn’t surprised. A sensitive Arabian who understood he was responsible for seeing for both himself and his rider, was bound to be hyper-vigilant and flighty. He’d naturally take over the leadership role in their "herd" of two. If there was a tiger in the forest about to leap out and eat them, it was his job to spot it and get them both out of harm’s way. That attention to what was happening outside of the ride was bound to show up as spooking. I had to agree when Marcia commented that she’d probably have been better off with a quieter breed of horse.

Marcia practices on her own by putting a radio at each end of her arena. She can tell where she is by the level and direction of the sound. She catches her horse by leaving a thin leather (so it will break if caught on something) halter on all the time. It has multiple jangling metal rings that make enough noise for her to hear and zero in on her horse’s location. Even so, her horse has learned how to hide from her by being very still. It’s become a game. Who says horses don’t have a sense of humor?

I enjoyed our chat and hope to meet Marcia someday. I admire her pluck and determination. She didn’t let a huge challenge stop her from doing what she loves. Makes my weight issue seem pretty minor. I hope I can learn to be more like her.

-Kris