True Horsemanship Through Feel

“When you can direct a horse’s movement through feel, then there’s understanding taking place between the person and the horse. That is the sign of true horsemanship.”

I’m rereading True Horsemanship Through Feel, and it is so mind-blowingly on spot. 

“When you have feel that goes both ways, you have that horse’s respect and cooperation. Really, it’s just that simple. Anyone with a sincere desire to achieve connection with a horse could develop this ability. They need to have the time to devote to it and someone to help them once in a while.”

That is why Katie riding Tumbleweed was such an important piece of information for me. She is a big believer in this feel that Dorrance is talking about. Each horse is different, and we have to understand and figure them out. 

We tend to think of what horses should be doing or compare them to others we have ridden, but finding our way with a new horse is a creative process with no shortcuts.

“When a person figures out how to present an understandable feel to a horse, then, I’ll say for the most part, that horse’s problems will be eliminated.”

After reading the introduction again, which is the most valuable part of the book, I saw how difficult it had been for me to open up and feel Tumbleweed when so much of my thought and emotion was on my dad passing and then my daughter and grandson’s situation with the divorce.

I sensed that I wasn’t available enough to meet the challenge, and that is why I asked for Regina’s help to keep us going even as I was somewhat sleep walking through life.

“Since feel is the horse’s language, our safety—and his, too—just really depends on us learning how to present what we want him to do, through feel.”

I inherently knew it wasn’t safe to be working without proper feel and connection, but I didn’t want to stop either.

Eventually, enough emotional space freed back up to devote to Tumbleweed, but I’d gotten ahead of myself in the mechanics. I was, at times, too firm, and at other times, too checked out.

“Even if the picture they have is okay, when they handle the horse with more firmness than he needs, they’ll get a wrong response nearly every time and think the horse is at fault. When that’s their thinking, they’re liable to apply a lot more pressure on the horse—which really mixes him up.”

After Katie rode him that first day it was obvious to me I had too much training mindset and not enough feel mindset. When we rode together and I put it to practice, I felt the connection as plain as day. 

I was riding the horse I had at the moment, not the horses I have previously rode or thought he should be. 

And, that feel was happening every second of the ride, not intermittently. 

With connection came courage, but the courage wasn’t rooted in a false sense, it was rooted in the feeling that I had gotten with him and we were working together.

“So many people ask if they’ll know what it’s going to feel like when it’s that better way. Well, there isn’t any doubt that you and the horse will know, because when you get that together feel, it’s not like any other feeling and you’ll know all right.”

I remember when I read this book while training Leah, and she had a big issue with opening and closing gates. (Tumbleweed, by the way, LOVES the gate stuff). But Leah would lose her mind, and once, she almost fell over on me trying to escape the gate.

Finally, I rode her bareback to do it, which allowed me to really feel her body respond. Her heart would just start beating against my leg with anxiety when we approached a gate, so I’d stop right there until she calmed down. We broke it down into small, small steps, and soon enough, we had overcome her fears. 

Enough cannot be said about this feel with our horses. It is the heart of the whole matter and what makes this journey so rewarding.

(To be continued….)