Why do most show jumpers have to haul on the reins to get their horse to check a stride when approaching a jump? Why do most team-roping horses fidget so much when waiting for the cow to be released?
One of the most common questions I was asked was whether they should get a young green horse that had almost no handling and was a clean slate and not messed up by poor training.
I believe perhaps the most important task I have in my role as a teacher of horsemanship is to help guide people to evolve out of their 2-D understanding of behaviour and transition into a 3-D world of understanding.
Training is a continuum. How a horse feels about being caught in part determines how well it stands when receiving its gold medal after winning the GP dressage test at the Olympics.
Horse people have only one job. And horses have only one job. It’s the most important job and it's the job that supersedes all other jobs. Nothing is more important when it comes to training.
I have never thought of good horsemanship as a discipline in itself. In my mind, it has always been a foundational element of everything we do with a horse.
