Simply put; I'm trying to see what I can get done with the horse without him being troubled about doing it.

Once I get the horse where he’s responding and working for ya and has a good frame of mind and a good attitude, it’s not just the horse that needs fixing. It’s the human that needs fixing and it’s the human that created that in the first place.

The horse saved my life, so that's kind of why I'll spend the rest of mine trying to help them.

You allow a horse to make mistakes, the horse will learn from mistakes no different than the human. But you can't get him to where he dreads making mistakes for fear of what's going to happen after he does.

My daughter's all grown up now compared to what she was, but I used to say, I’ve got to have my horse to where if she’s leading my horse somewhere, and she’s got a big armload of Barbies and drops something out of her hand, that son of a buck ought to stop and respect her while she’s gathering up all her dolls and not to walk on her or take advantage of her. And if I’ve done my work right, by gosh, that’s what they’ll do.

You want your kids to feel happy and good about themselves. The rest they'll work out on their own. You never know what your kids will be drawn to.

Once you have seen quality horsemanship and are exposed to the things you can do to help a horse be gentle and dependable, then why wouldn't you do those things? No matter what your horse's age, you are going to try to offer him the best that you can. If you adjust what you are doing, he will adjust too; horses have an amazing capacity to make changes. There is always hope.