Ask yourself the 'Why' question

After much thought and discussions with others, I am feeling like a problem with the Natural Horsemanship movement is that people see SOOO much stuff out of context. With the wide variety of trainers, methods, clinicians and disciplines around, it is very easy to acquire knowledge and ideas.

For example, a person may watch a clip about 'join up' or 'hooking on' and then go out with the ideas and subject their horses to it. They may do this with no understanding of the horse psychology behind that concept, no concept of the steps that may be involved before that point and what do do at the end- eg was it successful, if not….what next?

As many horsemen say, and I will quote Buck Brannaman, "everything you do with a horse ought to be a dance". There is often nothing elegant about the mosh pit that occurs when people take one idea in isolation and 'do it' to their horse.

Now I by no means exclude myself here. You do not know what you do not know and I am very much a ‘why’ person. I make it my business to learn as much as I can and try to work with my horses in a holistic* way- encompassing what the horse needs at the time, with my practical experience and theoretical knowledge.

So next time you are with your horses consider this idea. Through conversations I have with the people I teach, I often find their reasoning is not grounded in the fact of what the horse needs, rather something they saw (with no background knowledge or understanding) or were told to do. By all means experiment, that is often when the best learning happens, but do not become straight line thinking in your ideas. If something is not working, do not get mad or upset; just simply ask why. Or if you were Linda Parelli or a student of, you would say, “hmmmm, how interesting!”

*Holistic: analysing a whole system of beliefs and/or considering all factors when with a horse.

Bitless Bridles

From a post I started on Facebook. Join our Versatile Equines Discussion Group to see where our conversation took us!

I am having a discussion with a lady about bitless bridles, here is my opinion, would love to hear yours 

I don't like them because it doesn't release properly (no model I have seen to date any way), the horse always has some pressure on its face. People will try to tell you that constant pressure is called 'neutral pressure', bull crap, pressure is pressure. I want it to clear to my horse, no pressure is nothing, pressure is something.

Also the way you pull the reins does not put the correct pressure on a horses face, you have to teach them how to understand it. It is not as simple as putting it on and hoping for the best. It has a different feel to a halter and bridle, so it is not wrong, just different to what I prefer.

Also the horses can evade them much easier as it takes longer to get a clear message to them as opposed to halter/bridle.

Another reason, the way they fit on a horses face is more critical than with a halter, I feel to be effective they need to be designed specifically to the horses face shape, length etc.

Another reason, clip reins hang almost in mid air, so the pressure is like unclear....

I have other reasons too, overall any time I have used on, on a few different horses I have not liked the feel between my horse and I.

I also see people riding around in them, having trouble with their horses and it is simply because they try to ride in them like it is a bit and bridle and/or halter. A bitless bridle is different again so needs to be used differently to a bit or halter 

Any way would love to know what you think. Do not let my rant scare you off lol. I am always interested to hear a different side and I do not judge people by the gear they have on. You could ride with a bicycle chain in their mouths if that is where you are at in your journey, in this case I would judge privately  

All jokes aside if you have a success story to share please feel free to share it

GROW- Think of the Process

What I mean by this is...

Goal: Get Jazzy to put all 4 feet on the mounting block

Realities: Has never done it before, can be unconfident at trying new things, is a right-brained introvert by nature, horses have poor depth perception.

Opportunities: Make sure she can put her front feet on confidently, use a pattern to make putting her feet on the mounting block the comfort zone, have her walk over the whole thing not asking her to stop, stand with her back feet on but front feet off, do it at different lengths of lead rope, use a lower pedestal, use a bigger pedestal.

Where to next: get her to want to put her front feet on a low pedestal.


You will notice the acronym above spells GROW, so GROW your horsemanship and be aware of the process needed to achieve your goal. If you goal is seemingly out of reach or unachievable, go back through your process to find out what is missing.

So above with my GROW demonstration, I have tried to demonstrate SOME of the ideas that may be running through my head- eg the process.

So I will set a REALISTIC Where To Next, then once that is achieved I will choose another 'Opportunity' to work on, then eventually all of these things will come together and she will just put all four feet on and stand.

I encourage you to do this with your current goal. This GROW is a work in progress also and will change and adapt as you and your horse do. So do not see this as a rule, see this as a way of organising your thoughts.