Horses react appropriately while waiting for the human to get it right.

I had been riding horses before my memory kicked in, so my life with horses had no beginning. It simply appeared from the fog of infancy. I survived a difficult childhood by traveling on the backs of horses, and in adulthood the pattern didn't change.

The number one worst piece of horsemanship on earth is violence.

Trust is established by working around horses in an utterly predictable manner.

Everybody ought to be given a chance to do whatever they want, but be responsible for their own actions.

A boy is a long time before he knows his alphabet, longer before he has learned to spell, and perhaps several years before he can read distinctly; and yet there are some people who, as soon as they get on a horse, entirely undressed and untaught, fancy that by beating and spurring they will make him a dressed horse in one morning only. I would fain ask such stupid people whether by beating a boy they would teach him to read without first showing him the alphabet? Sure, they would beat him to death, before they would make him read.

It is not good enough to get your horse to do what you want. It is far better to cause your horse to want to do it.