Natural
Horsemanship
Horsemanship is about a lot more than just "making a horse do something", in fact it could be said that it is nothing to do with that at all. Properly speaking horsemanship is an art not a competition, the art of (two way!) communicating with the horse.
Our first experiences with horses were at the local riding school where we were presented with a tacked up horse each week on which we sat and tried to do what the instructor was directing with varying degrees of success. We often found ourselves wondering what the horse thought of this experience, especially when we were told to "use more leg" or "back it up with the stick". After Lorraine was bucked off and knocked out by a horse that was fed up with this (presumably), we started to explore some other options and over the years have discovered a myriad of professionals around the country teaching partnership, communication, listening and effective gentleness in a variety of ways with horses. Having been interested in complementary medicine and wholesome living for many years, when we took on our own horses for the first time, it was natural to us that this should be our preferred way of keeping them.
Through natural HORSEMANSHIP magazine and our own personal connections, we are now connected to a worldwide network of like-minded individuals which is a great treasure for us on our journey.
However, we recognise that there are many folk who feel isolated with their "different" ideas. natural HORSEMANSHIP magazine goes some way towards building bridges but the Natural Horse Gathering physically brings people together for a day and has been acknowledged as a unique and rich day of opportunity for everyone - professionals and horse owners/lovers alike.
This is of course where "natural horsemanship" has (re)entered the public eye, as a very necessary reaction to... well shall we just say a tendency towards a less two-way relationship.
Natural horsemanship encourages us to get the horse's mind involved with what we're doing.
Natural horsemanship does not suggest that everything will be luvvy-duvvy and we'll never need to stand up for ourselves.
The horse (desparately) needs a leader. If no-one else steps up to the plate then the horse will take the lead. That's rarely a good enough idea, enough of the time for it to be a sensible option.
Funnily enough, when the horse is frightened she gets frightening, even the smallest horse is pretty strong. So learning to allow them to be safe usually allows us the same thing.
The first element of horsemanship is nothing to do with getting on a horse's back. It's about finding a way to communicate with the horse so that he is clear what's going on and is not frightened. Then when she feels safe she can get interested enough to participate rather than object.
You will notice that I said that natural horsemanship has "re-entered" the public eye. If you read some classical horsemanship literature, particularly the by French authors, you will find many of the same ideas expressed; allowing the horse time to understand, letting the horse be free, being extremely light.
In fact this is not as surprising as it may at first sound. When the American cavalry was looking around for a training model to follow, they settled on the French tradition. There is particular reference to the garrison at Fort Worth (?), and you will also find Bill DorranceHailed by many as the founder of "Natural Horsemanship", Bills book, True Horsemanship Through Feel, is definitely a "must read". In fact it's a "must re-read and re-read and re-read" referring to a French book by Francois Baucher, one of the giants of the French tradition that he had read.