'You've got to give something you never gave to get something you never had.' Ray Hunt (1929-2009) RIP

The horse knows...he knows if you know...he knows if you don't know....the horse knows......nuff said.

about being a good horse trainer - the horse doesn't speak English French, German - it speaks equine. The best trainers learn to speak in the horse's language. It's not for everyone to learn - takes lots of dedication, patience and reasoning. Knowing what they can understand and timing earns trust. sjp

Hi "Lance" I appreciate what you wrote, quoting Bill. Did you ever have the chance to meet the Dorrances? Bill or Tom? I spend too much time with people helping them understand that anthropomorphising the horse's actions and behaviors does not benefit their relationship with their horses in the short or long term. Horses are not stubborn, mean, out to get you, have ulterior motives etc. What they do have is a sensitivity, a sense of self preservation and an amazing ability to read a human, especially their intent. Horses keep us humble, at least they do me. Kathy

In the words of Bill Dorrance: "There is an amazing calm comes over a horse when he realizes we are going to try to present things to him in a way he can understand". Couple this with those words from Mr. Hunt and things should get a lot easier for you. Too often we put the responsibility of understanding on the horse, and that's the wrong way around. We are like immigrants in their world: -- it is not up to the horse to understand our language and customs; it is up to us to make ourselves understandable.

Amen to that....

"The human isn't near as interesting to work with as the horse. The horse is always wide open to you. There's no selfishness, no pride or ego in his way and a lot of times the human has things in his way to hold him back. I think most humans really want to get along with the animals. But what they don't know is that self-preservation is very strong in a horse. The horse is scared, doesn't know how to do something and wants to protect himself. He's telling us he has to be sure of what's taking place. We don't look at it that way. Most things we want to do with animals are good ideas, but our presentation isn't right. It's too demanding. We're not letting the horse learn it and not fixing it so HE can make it happen. The horse can figure things out, if we allow him, but we're taking his mind away from him and replacing it with ours." - Ray Hunt.