What is Horsemanship? It is most simply defined as the art of riding, training and managing horses. This obviously encompasses every aspect of owning or caring for them, from nose to tail, inside and out, mentally, physically and emotionally.

Aside from the care and management, "Horsemanship" refers to 'the way you go about things. Here is the best definition I could come up with:

"...The Art of Gaining Compliance from the Horse without Bringing out his need for Self-Preservation (without troubling, confusing, scaring, blaming, offending, or hurting him)..."

So it is a skill acquired through a combination of awareness, knowledge and practice. It is really all about your feel and your timing. The more aware you become, the better the 'feel' you will offer to the horse and the quicker your 'release'. You will start to get in time with the horses' feet, something you will continue to get better at for the rest of your life. This is the secret to softness, lightness and unity.

It is possible to be a very competent, technically correct rider but an incompetent horseman!! For example, the person who punishes his horse for not performing, or the person who just won the red ribbon but who cannot get his horse into the trailer. Sometimes these people just lack knowledge, other times they are completely devoid of any real feeling for the horse. In the latter case the sooner they take up another hobby, like motor-bikes, the better!!

Horsemanship applies to every encounter with every horse and every discipline. It is not a separate discipline as the word 'natural' implies. The horsemanship we're talking about here is universal. As long as it is a horse, it works!

The art of fine horsemanship is something you get hooked on. The more you work with horses and understand them, the more intelligent they are. Words like 'naughty', 'resistant', 'pig', 'bitchy', 'no dirt', and so on will simply disappear from your vocabulary. In fact you will cringe whenever you hear them. You will come to realise that horses are NEVER wrong and you will strive to make a connection with even the most aloof and disturbed horses.

Most of all, you will realize it is more about working on yourself, so that you can stay completely calm (not react) no matter what they do, no matter how scared or reactive they get. Then they will instinctively feel that they can take all their troubles to you, because you are going to take care of things for them. It is all about how you are with horses not about what technique you use, or whether you ride english or western.