A reader of my short story books (Old Men and Horses, and Changing the Tide) wrote to ask that I post about hindquarter disengagement and forehand yields since they are mentioned in the books several times without an explanation as to what they are or how to do them.
Evolution and Shoeing
The hoof is designed well enough to support the frame of a horse and allow movement. But it fails in other ways. Just because a mechanism such as a hoof is the culmination of many thousands of years of evolution, does not mean it is perfect and could not be improved with a little assistance from humans.
Teaching Responsiveness To Pressure
Learning and Un-Learning
Trust and Obedience Discussed Further
The thing that separates good horse people from second-rate ones, is this idea that the best horse people are always working on expanding the ‘contract of trust’, whether it is a first-time experience or the horse has done it a thousand times. The second-rate horse people are just satisfied with obedience and are okay with a horse working to simply avoid trouble.