What you do today can improve all of your tomorrows!
The freedom of riding horseback has a place all its own, the companionship of a horse means you’ll never be alone.
Herman Geitboom
As with many concepts in riding, the principles at the beginning and advanced levels are basically the same; they just become more refined as one progresses. Riding a horse becomes more like conducting an orchestra. Each instrument must be played individually before they can be played together in concert . . . When all of this functions according to plan, the rider plays the horse between the aids. The result is a happy, rhythmic horse.
David Collins
There’s a variety of horse minds as big as there is among human minds. Some need more persuading than others, and a few of ’em, no matter how firm they’re handled, will have to be showed again and again that they can’t get away with this or that.
Will James, Smoky the Cowhorse
There are only two emotions that belong in the saddle; one is a sense of humor and the other is patience.
A horse loves freedom, and the weariest old work horse will roll on the ground or break into a lumbering gallop when he is turned loose into the open.
Never, never, never keep these 1,000 lb. beauties stalled. It ruins their mind, body & spirit in addition to their muscles and ligaments.
Yet when the books have been read and reread, it boils down to the horse, his human companion, and what goes on between them. Many professional horsemen scoff at anything that resembles a sentimental relationship between horse and rider. Yet I have heard these same men admit countless times that horses perform better for some people than others. They’re apt to attribute it to anything but what I think it is . . . love.
Horses don’t like living alone. Many will tolerate it, but all prefer to be with other horses. Like humans, horses are very social animals. In fact, in a way, horses are more social than humans, because for them, the company of their own kind is perceived as an issue of life or death. In the wild, a horse living alone is more vulnerable to predators. There is safety in numbers, and horses know it.
Horses also get very lonely without other horses around. Some experts have observed that among wild horses, young stallions driven from their family herds by older, more dominant stallions were visibly depressed and forlorn. These solo young stallions wander aimlessly, as if life isn’t worth living. Rather than go on alone, some of them join up with other outcasts to form “bachelor bands.” While the goal of every stallion is to have a herd of mares to call his own, stallions would rather live with other stallions . . . their potential rivals . . . than be by themselves.
Page 71 “Why do horses sleep standing up”
Horses have a great long term memory, (especially for places they were spooked)
Never try to knee, tickle, or scare a horse into exhaling – – this is painful and dangerous.