My philosophy of teaching horses is to learn first. We have a great deal to learn from horses about them and about ourselves. Being predators, humans need to understand that horses are prey, and they do not live in our world unless we engage with them. A predator engaging with a prey in a violent manner will always result in the prey fighting, fleeing, or being beaten into submission. It will never result in a relationship of mutual trust and understanding, the only relationship that results in horses truly yielding to us as leaders who have earned our right to be head of the herd. Horses teach us how to be calm, empathetic, patient, giving, and yielding because that is who they are. This is how they are in the herd, and this is how they are with us, and we with them, if we can learn what they have to teach.
Schools of horse training such as Buck Brannaman, Parelli’s Natural Horsemanship, Monty Roberts, and the lessons of Jim Masterson, Mark Rashid, Linda Tellington-Jones, and Dr. Stephen Peters are teaching us new techniques for engaging with our horses in non-violent and more effective ways.
Most of the words on this website are based on my own experiences in teaching humans and horses how to communicate and how to yield. I get confirmation of my ideas and directions from the results with the horses and people with whom I work and from some of the greatest horse teachers listed above. There is a resources tab pointing to books, articles, and videos that are useful if you want to go more in depth into the philosophies and techniques of these teachers.