As a rider, you must slowly and methodically show your horse what is appropriate. You also have to discourage what's inappropriate, not by making the inappropriate impossible, but by making it difficult so that the horse himself chooses appropriate behavior. You can't choose it for him; you can only make it difficult for him to make the wrong choices. If, however, you make it impossible for him to make the wrong choices, you're making war.

Controlling your emotions is the biggest challenge for a horseman.

You might measure your approach to a horse the same way as your approach to people because there are going to be some horses, like some people, who might be inclined to tune you out.

You can't look forward and backward at the same time...........so I choose to look forward.

You can't make something happen with a horse, but you can fix things up and let it happen.

I take the horsemanship very seriously and I treat it with the same integrity that one would any of the fine arts.

In nature this animal would have nothing to do with you. "Natural horsemanship" is just words. It's not natural at all. There's an abundance of trust that must be developed for you. Imagine if humans were that pliable.