BONUS Book Reading: Diana Mukpo & Dragon Thunder

Welcome to a bonus feature of the Inscape Quest podcast - to accompany an episode Dressage Unbridled- A candid conversation with Diana Mukpo. In this episode, we dive into a short personal reading of Diana Mukpo’s autobiography, Dragon Thunder, and her incredible journey with the discipline of dressage. Listen as Diana brings alive some fascinating moments that help define her riding career.

Discover the challenges, triumphs, and the transforming experiences Diana underwent during her training at the Spanish Riding School. Listen to her recount the strategic resilience she employed when faced with criticism, the role her instructors played in shaping her career, and her intriguing perspective on the teaching methods employed at the school.

She also details her moments of realization, the electrifying moments when everything 'clicked' into place, evoking a sense of unity between her mind and her horse's body. Get your mind enveloped in the thrilling feel of the discipline of dressage as seen through Diana's eyes. She also offers profound insights into the role of a rider's state of mind in determining their performance and deriving the best from their horses.

Sit back, delve deep into Diana Mukpo's recollections, and allow the narrative from Dragon Thunder open avenues for personal reflections on your intimate relationships with horses. Don't miss out on this opportunity to understand dressage as an exhilarating Shambhala discipline through the words of an expert rider, dressage coach, and a wonderful storyteller

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to a special bonus feature of our InScapeQuest podcast,
Horsepower with Heart Episode 3.
Here we take a dip into the captivating world of Diana Mukpo's autobiography, Dragon Thunder.
Join us as we share a glimpse into the pages of her remarkable life story.
Diana herself will treat us to reading an excerpt offering a glimpse specifically

(00:25):
into some moments of the dressage training experiences that have shaped her riding career.
So sit back, relax, and let the words of Dragon Thunder begin to invite some
reflections of your own intimate relationships to horses through your own individual
and cultural histories.
Music.

(00:48):
I had been waiting for so long to study at the Spanish Riding School,
And after one day, I was feeling deeply discouraged and humiliated.
However, I was determined to go forward. I remember thinking,
if I want to get the training and I want to learn this properly,
I am going to have to take my personal feelings out of the situation.

(01:13):
I'm going to have to take nothing personally and try to take only the good out of this.
I have to use my time to learn. I must try my best to not become upset with
anything that anybody says.
Amazingly, I stuck to this. And this attitude helped me in good stead the entire

(01:33):
time that I rode in the school.
Rinpoche had given me the basic advice that I needed when I started riding with Katas.
And now I found that I could give myself the advice to persevere at the Spanish
riding school, knowing that this was a precious opportunity that would not come again.
There's definitely value in the approach they follow at the school.

(01:55):
Putting intense pressure on people creates such sharp edge that people have
to push themselves very hard to absolutely do their best.
On the other hand, sometimes that approach can have a demeaning and degrading aspect to it.
When you are trying your best and the teacher is still relentlessly criticizing
you, you ultimately may begin to loathe your instructor. In fact,

(02:21):
I think this method encourages that.
I definitely went through periods of that when I was training in the school.
The mentality is that you will get good in spite of your instructor.
You feel that because they are so demeaning, you're going to show them.
When I'm working with my own students, I try not to rob them of their self-esteem.

(02:42):
When people are learning a discipline, it's essential at times to put pressure on them.
I had witnessed Rinpoche using this approach with people, including myself, many times.
You have to inspire people to perform at their best.
However, if you make people feel worthless, you create aggression between teacher and student.

(03:03):
I feel that 99% of what I learned in the Spanish riding school was fantastic,
but 1% was, for me, about learning what not to do as a teacher.
This is just my opinion. I don't feel qualified to pass judgment on the methods
they use at the school because they produce brilliant riders and brilliant horses.
It is my personal feeling, however, that we should always work with students in an uplifted manner.

(03:29):
As time went on, my experience in the school became more and more enriching.
I think I earned respect by sticking with the program and not by being overly reactive.
I was given exceptional horses to ride, and I had exceptional instructors. instructors.
I also had the opportunity to broaden my knowledge about dressage and horsemanship
in general by reading books in a wonderful library at the school.

(03:52):
At the Spanish, I also began to understand dressage in another way,
as a true Shambhala discipline.
The discipline of dressage is a very direct way of harnessing windhorses.
At times, when I was training there, my riding would completely click.
When everything clicks clicks into place, the experience is unbelievable.

(04:13):
You feel that nothing whatsoever is happening, in a very positive sense.
How do you realize that? Your mind and your horse's body become as one.
You experience a regal, uplifted feeling, the Rinpoche would describe as the
experience of a universal monarch.
At times, it goes beyond even that. You can have experience of non-thought, mind beyond mind.

(04:38):
The horse also shares some of this experience, I believe.
The horses get absolutely hooked on the energy and the discipline if the rider is good.
Recently, I was listening to one of the top coaches in the United States talk
to his students before they went around the ring at a horse show.
He said, pull yourself up. Let them know that you're there. there.

(04:58):
Radiate confidence when you go around the ring. Make the judges say, look at me.
From my perspective, he was basically explaining in his own way how to raise windhorses.
He had obviously had this experience himself, and he was trying to communicate it.
I believe that the best riders all understand this.
So much of riding is working with your own state of mind. If you let your mind

(05:23):
get in the way, you can't work with your horse.
I see that in terms of my own development. And I see that in watching other
riders and working with students.
To be a good rider, you have to go beyond your conceptual ideas about it.
You've got to constantly question yourself, to question your state of mind,
to push yourself to constantly be looking at yourself.

(05:46):
Otherwise, you don't get any better. There's never a feeling of having mastered the discipline.
You can never master dressage. Anybody who's any good is constantly learning.
There's never a sense of having arrived at the ultimate destination.
Dressage also teaches you the ability to focus. If you're riding well,

(06:06):
even at the most basic level, you don't think about anything except what you're
doing. You're completely focused.
You have to have control over your mind. If you can't control your mind,
you definitely can't control your horse's mind.
I learned this over and over again while I was training at the Spanish writing school.

(06:26):
Thank you so much, Diana. That was wonderful.
Thank you, Trudy, very much.
Thank you for tuning in today to this special bonus feature of the InScape Quest
podcast with my special guest, Diana Muckpuff.
Music.