A few years ago somebody was telling me they were adopting a more spiritual path in their horsemanship and they felt it was helping them. More recently, I heard a criticism directed at me and my work for not being on a spiritual journey.
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.
