The definition of horse back riding from a Realistic & factual point of view

By Ferdinand Santana

August 2006

The definition of horse back riding from a Realistic & factual point of view. I will give my definition & then we will break it down to clarify everything. Here we go with the definition, Constant adjustment to the emotional needs of the individual horse that we are on from moment to moment. Now lets break it down & explain things. Constant adjustment because we are riding something that breaths, is highly emotional & is constantly on guard to what is going on around itself in order to survive & get the hell out of Dodge if the need arises. It also wants to fulfill its own wants & desires. This means that we must constantly be monitoring the horse underneath us & making the proper adjustments to keep him in between our legs & our reins. Some of the signs that you should be aware of are is the head elevated, is he supple through the neck & loins, are his ears flopping & off to the side, or are they constantly moving around like a radar. Is he snortty & does he have that wild eye worried look? We are not on a man made machine that is predictable & when it breaks or has a melt down it just stops & you quietly get off & go reaching for your tool box & make the necessary repairs. The repairs on a horse are more like when a plane is going down & you don't have very much time to make the adjustments before the plane hits the earth & wrecks. In other words our adjustments have to be instantaneous before we allow things to get out hand & have a CRASH LANDING!! The horse isn't an automatic transmission like in our vehicles & it makes all the shifts happen for you, we have to make them happen, more like a manual transmission. The horse being a prey animal, makes him a highly emotional animal using the reactive side of his brain when he perceives danger. This means that he flees away from the situation & when he feels that he has put enough distance between himself & what he perceived the danger he stops & looks back at it & finally starts to use the thinking side of his brain again. The emotional level differs with every individual horse. A horse lives in the present & here & now, he doesn't think about what happened to him 15 minutes ago & he doesn't think about what will happen to him 15 minutes from now. So our adjustments have to come within a 3 second window of opportunity in order to communicate the emotional support needed by them in the moment. I am amazed at the number of people that I run across that think that horse back riding is just like sitting in a car & expect to be in total control in the cockpit without having to work at it. The best advice that I can give anyone is to increase their own personal horsemanship knowledge so that they can develop their feel & timing & make these adjustments as necessary to keep their horses & themselves SAFE!! A lot of people don't realize how much work it takes to deal with horses nor do they have the skills necessary to deal with certain types of horses & I would not want anyone to get HURT. A lot of people end up getting un started horses or green horses without having the skills or time to devote to the horse to make him a quiet finished horse. We ourselves have to be realistic about our abilities & experience level in dealing with situations & horses that could possibly kill us. We most also be aware of our physical & mental & emotional condition in order to work with horses. If you are passionate about horses & excited about honing new skills that will eventually turn into art over the years then you don't mind the rewarding  work, but none the less it is still work & fatiguing at times. Sometimes we acquire a horse because he was free or cheap & didn't realize that we were making a mistake because of inexperience & we lacked the skills necessary to make a real using horse that was quiet & SAFE. Sometimes a bargain isn't such a bargain, this doesn't mean that just because you got an older or expensive horse that you are going to be ok. Lets face it there are a lot of older expensive horses out there that are very UNSAFE. It used to be that 150 years ago people dealt with horses out of necessity on a daily basis & had much more experience with them whether they liked it or not. Horses were viewed as tools & livestock. Today people lack the experience due to mechanization & the internal combustion engine which in reality replaced the use of the horse as a beast of burden. Hence they have become pets & yard art in most cases. 150 years ago horses used to get a tremendous amount of daily work & that would help keep them mentally, emotionally, & physically in a yielding frame of mind. Since when did a horse's life become more important than a human life?     Even though there are some good BLM Mustangs out there that are productive equines I believe that our government has no business selling cheap FERAL horses to an un qualified public. A lot of people don't realize the time & monetary commitment that it takes to make these SAFE useful animals, that is why a good percentage of them end up being returned. Then you have hundreds of clinicians out there today saying that you could do it if  you attend their clinics & buy their training videos. One of the problems that I see with this is that a lot of people that attend these clinics think that after a 2-3 day clinic that they are HORSEMEN, There is no substitute for experience. You cannot acquire several years of experience over a short amount of time at a clinic. In a lot of these cases the clinician is well qualified & has tried to prepare you the best that he could during that short period of time for your new quest, but in reality he has fed you just enough information to get yourself into trouble. Another failure that I see with these situations is that there isn't any follow up after the clinic. If you get yourself into trouble there isn't anyone you could call upon to help you straighten things out. The clinician has gone on to a different location & on to his next clinic. I once asked a famous clinician about this & he said all they had to do was buy his videos & follow them, in reality all problems & feel & timing cannot be addressed by the video. I have seen people that claim that they can ride a horse & offer the support , but in reality couldn't ride a stick horse & were unwilling to WORK to improve their skills to keep themselves SAFE!! My advise to these people is to get out of horses before they get seriously hurt or killed. Even a person such as myself hits the ground every now & then. I have a lot of answers with horses but I don't have all the answers. Horsemanship is a thinking man's game. When I don't have an answer I reason it out & will go to the ends of the world to seek the answer & gain knowledge in my quest to be the best HORSEMAN that I could be.  Education & knowledge are the key to success & confidence with horses. Go out & learn as much as you can from qualified people & remember that the learning & training process never ends. You are RESPONSIBLE for your OWN SAFETY, LEARN!! Until my next article, Ferdinand Santana.