With the horses, you can’t let them call the shot part of the time and then you call the shot part of the time. They’re not really designed to be your leader, but they can be a great partner, but you need to lead, and they need to respect you and respond with respect. Don’t think of respect as a dirty word. You need to respect them as well.

With the horse I always consider that if I do too much in too little time and I'm not patient, he's gonna shut down and I won't get anything done.

When you first get started, you're the only one with a vision. When you become creative and use your imagination, pretty soon the things you imagined, you can get done. If you got a taste of it, if you got a taste of what I'm talking about, you'd rather do that than eat. You couldn't get enough of it. You'll hunger for it the rest of your life.

Some guys make their careers off one horse; kind of a trick horse, a wonder horse. I'm not knocking that, but for me I'm trying to get better and study. That means taking out new horses. It's a life study. When I've finished a horse, I turn him out and basically stop riding him, except taking him to the occasional branding so I can enjoy him.

All your horse looks for is the thing that matters most, peace and contentment. Give it to him.

Whether one was going to have a horse, or a dog, or a child, with that comes a great responsibility to raise them.

It’s not about how much pressure you put on, it’s how good you are at taking it off.