Re: Re Attitude(long)

[Susan Evans Garlinghouse <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

Hi Angie,

Regarding the idea of "shunning" endurance riders behaving badly--when I
used to train dolphins and whales, the only "punishment" we ever used
(and that rarely, only if the animal was really being bad) was to take a
time-out and ignore them.  We would just pick up the buckets, walk to
the back of the training platform, cross our arms and stare at the
horizon (even in the middle of a show, if necessary).  You're right,
it's a really devastating, though subtle, form of punishment.  Drove the
animals totally NUTS and always got them back to paying attention and
being good in a hurry.  The funny thing is that dolphins will use the
same form of punishment among themselves as well if they're mad at one
individual (a more mild form of punishment would be to just bash them
with a tail fluke at 30 mph).  If it works on as intelligent an animal
as a dolphin or orca, who knows, it might work on bad-behaviored
endurance riders as well (which I suspect are NOT as bright, but maybe
they'll catch on if done by the entire ridecamp)!

Susan Garlinghouse

Angela C. McGhee wrote:

> I've given this some thought lately, and I believe the Amish have the
> right idea.  I think we at AERC should officially adopt "Shunning".   If there is a really obnoxious person, SHUN them.  They can't protest
> it, they can't accuse you of "Doing" anything to them.
> 
>   Offensive actions on their part are often a part of their obsession
> with being the center attraction.  If this person is bad enough to have
> to call a meeting about her behavior, I think that if she spoke to me, I
> would focus on the horizon and keep going.  If she showed up at our
> campfire, I would refuse to acknowlege any comment she made.  It's really
> a devestating form of punishment, but it's got to be done right.  You
> don't just "not be friendly", you've got to refuse to acknowlege their
> existance.  I've noticed several ride managers who did their own version
> of this when forced to give an award to one of these types.  It's like a
> muttered, "First place goes to xxx", "2nd place...coming in with a horse
> that just looked wonderful, doing a great job of pacing and a fantastic
> person is:xxxxx".
> 
> Angie McGhee (Please don't ignore me!)
> 
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