How Do You Modify Horse Behavior?

     Any attempt to modify horse behavior must involve the owner/handler as well as the horse.  While I can work with a horse and quickly overcome behavior problems, this will not result in a long term solution without the involvement of the owner/handler.  After physical problems are ruled out, most behavioral problems are caused by either a lack of respect or fear, sometimes a combination of both.  Ninety percent of behavioral problems can be corrected with the Natural Horsemanship style of groundwork.  This ground work eliminates fear and earns respect.  Once the ground work is successfully completed then most problems under saddle go away or are vastly reduced.  The under saddle techniques of Natural Horsemanship mirror the ground work exercises and, over a relatively short time, eliminate any remaining problems.  

What is Natural Horsemanship?

    Natural Horsemanship is the method of communicating and relating to a horse using the horse's own language.  Instead of coercion, intimidation and fear, Natural Horsemanship uses the horse's own thinking ability and instinctual herd ranking order to achieve cooperation with the human.  The term "Natural Horsemanship was coined by Pat Parelli in the 1980s.  However, the revolution in Horsemanship is credited to a cowboy named Tom Dorrance.  Later, Tom Dorrance's methods were popularized by horseman Ray Hunt.  

    Are these quotes from Tom Dorrance familiar?

       Observe, remember, and compare.

       Make the wrong things difficult and the right things easy.

       Let your idea become the horse's idea.

       Be as gentle as possible and as firm as necessary.

       The slower you do it, the quicker you'll find it.

       Feel what the horse is feeling, and operate from where the horse is.

       Do less to get more.

       Take the time it takes.

       The Horse has a need for self-preservation in mind body and spirit.

       The Horse is never wrong.*

If they're familiar, you have been exposed to Natural Horsemanship.

    Natural Horsemanship compliments any riding discipline. English or western, hunter, reining, dressage, working cow, eventing, show jumping, or western pleasure; it makes no difference, Natural Horsemanship benefits any rider and horse and improves the riding team. Natural Horsemanship is promoted by clinicians such as Clinton Anderson, Pat and Linda Parelli, Chris Cox and Craig Cameron.

     Although the term "Natural Horsemanship" is a relatively recent addition, elements of the method have been around for over two thousand years.

"Anything forced and misunderstood can never be beautiful." 
Xenophon (430-355 B.C.), Greek general, statesman, philosopher and horseman

     Even thousands of years ago some horse people recognized that approaching training from the animal's perspective resulted in better cooperation with less resistance from the horse.

    *Tom Dorrance quotes from the book, "The Revolution in Horsemanship and What it Means to Mankind" by Robert M. Miller, D.V.M. and Rick Lamb, ©2005.