Most folks think that starting the day with their horse is when they are mounted and starting to do whatever activities they had planned whether it be work, schooling, relaxation or entertainment...
Your greatest responsibility is to have the horse trust you. Trust means not being afraid. It is the easiest thing to lose, it is difficult to regain once lost, and even if you do get it back it will not be as good as it could have been at the beginning...
First and foremost, the horse is, by nature, a flight not a fight creature. That is why he is built the way he is. He is also neophobic, which essentially…
It is not what you do to the horse that will make him better. It is what you do for and with the horse that will make him better...
The training and education of a horse is not a casual undertaking; it is not for the faint-hearted, and it is not for the inexperienced...
Backing up is not a natural gait for a horse. Horses are designed to go forward, but they can be taught to back up...
Almost all clinicians/instructors, regardless of the riding discipline involved, give horsing lessons rather than riding lessons to their students. This puts the horse at a disadvantage since it is the rider who forms the horse and not the other way around....
Communication with the horse is not verbal. It is non-verbal and tactile and extremely complex ...
Aids create and modify the actions of the horse; they are not meant to maintain them. So when you change or modify an action on the horse then leave it alone and whatever it was you did goes away, then you recreate it or modify it again...
True riding is an endless search for synchrony and harmony. You can get it today and lose it tomorrow. This search is no overnight affair but a progression of steps, measured in tiny increments of success in an endless journey of challenges and discovery.”