About 30 years ago I got a phone call from a teenage girl asking if she could come and work for me during school holidays as part of the work experience program run by her school.
Many people think the difference between driving and directing a horse is how much pressure we apply. This is not true. The amount of pressure is irrelevant to the principle of driving and directing.
It is almost unheard of that a horse has zero focus, but a lot of people are taught that a horse’s attention is either on or it’s off. There is a belief among some that a horse only has room for one thought in its head.
A horse is always trying to do what it is thinking. So when a horse thinks to do something you want, it looks like you did nothing. There is no more important principle in good horsemanship.
I try to watch as many horse people working with horses as my busy life permits. In particular, I am always interested in observing other professionals to see what they do that maybe I could adopt or do better.
