| y"> | | | | self-carriage. |
| Natural horsemanship provides a solid foundation for | | | | Use your brain when you think about these devices, |
| any horse in any sport. A horse is a horse is a horse. | | | | rather than blindly believing their marketing descriptions. |
| Though the jobs we ask of them vary from discipline | | | | Lower the head, engage the hindquarters, strengthen |
| to discipline, the biomechanics and psychology of | | | | the back, strengthen the neck, set the head, set the |
| horses doesn't change. | | | | head, set the head. The head and neck are the |
| Natural horse training methods bring results across the | | | | fulcrum by which the horse organizes all the energy, |
| board. I train young horses for one equestrian client | | | | movement, and forces of physics generated by the |
| who enjoys competing in a sport where training | | | | rest of the body: when it is "set" the rest of the body |
| gadgets are the norm. Straps and chains and other | | | | is compromised. When the horse is brought into natural |
| things are utilized by unknowing or unscrupulous horse | | | | self-carriage, the "look" is similar but the horse is able to |
| trainers to achieve results by force. Natural horse | | | | move with much more freedom, extravagance, |
| training methods apply just as much to these colts as | | | | beauty, and comfort. |
| any other! Furthermore, their initial natural horsemanship | | | | Xenophon observed around 400 B.C., "...what the horse |
| training sets these colts up to succeed in or out of the | | | | does under compulsion, as Simon also observes, is |
| horse show ring. | | | | done without understanding; and there is no beauty in it |
| Open any horse tack catalogue to the "Training Aids" | | | | either, any more than if one should whip and spur a |
| pages. The photos look like something out of a | | | | dancer." Leave the "Training Aids" in the horse tack |
| medieval torture chamber, while the descriptions | | | | catalogue pages. Develop the natural horseman's true |
| promise instant results. Martingales and specialty reins | | | | aids: your seat, your legs, your hands, and most |
| and name-brand horse "training systems" pull and push | | | | importantly, your mind. |
| and force horses' bodies into any but natural | | | | |