I am brand new to this forum and very excited to be here! I am new to riding too. I always loved horses, I was obsessed with them when I was a kid. Heck, when I was little I thought I WAS a horse! LOL.
Anyway, I do a LOT of reading of horses so I came across this website www.horsemanpro.com/. And it is eye-opening to say the least. The guy has some truth to his content but judging from his life events, he sounds quite bitter, harsh and dry on his commentary on several areas like dressage, training, horse owners, or horse personalities. I do agree on some of his points but what he also says about horses (check out this link) http://horsemanpro.com/training.htm is pretty sad. “Horses don’t think and don’t understand”??? Uhmm…..what?? I have never owned a horse but I have a feeling his is dead wrong there. After all the care and love an owner gives to a horse, the horse doesn't understand or respond to it? I doubt it but here is my question to all horse people: Do horses love back?
Of course they do! I've owned two horses and the longer you spend with them you really notice a difference. Trust me they love back and the more you do with them the more that they will respond to you. They know who you are and that you will always love them. Of course they have personalities 2!! Who would say they didn't???? Spend one day at a barn and you'll agree with all these points!
Yes horses think and respond and they have feelings.. I had a horse who figured out how to open the stall door.. if horses don't think how'd she figure out the lock?? Just spend time with a horse and you'll know they think, feel and respond. Any true horsman will tell you so. I think to be a true horse person you have to have connection with the horses you work with.. they are very smart and complex. you can know all the facts and all the tecnicalities of haveing a horse and working with a horse but you will have nothing without a understanding and a connection with the horses. you should look up Monty Roberts and Jhon lyons they are men who really know horses. I've seen both of them.. They are truly impressive when it comes to horses and working with them.
Thanks, theworldover, I got kind of a kick over this website. A lot of his views I agree with, being an old-school rider myself, taught in my youth according to the militay tradition by a former British Army cavalry horse master.
That said, I agree with you that he's quite over-the-top in his bitterness. Especially his hatred towards women, blaming "modern female" attitudes of analysis and questioning for everything that's gone wrong with today's horsemanship. He definately needs to get, ahem, "loved", by some saint of a woman who could stand to put up with him.
I do see his point about not treating your horse like your baby. Of course we love our animals, but we don't do them any favors by treating them like people. I agree with him that the only way to learn to ride is by getting on many horses and riding them, learning from the results rather than relying on videos and books. I disagree that the mistakes we inevitably make constitute "abuse", assuming we are willing to alter our approach when we don't get the results we want--based on how the horse responds to what we ask, rather than how some judge scores our ride. Horses are resiliant, just like we are.
He's also wrong that less horses were injured due to the way we rode them in the past--the best horses were cavalry horses and so many were killed in their prime in wars that there's no way to measure how many would have developed lamenesses later in life.
He's correct that warmbloods were bred for agriculture between WWI and WWII (did he forget about the several previous centuries when they were bred for the cavalry?), but so few warmbloods survived WWII, the ones that did survive were intensively crossed with Arabs and Thoroughbreds after the war, so his opinion that warmbloods are "dull and unresponsive" when it comes to riding today just doesn't hold up.
"Horses don't think and don't understand?" Hmmmmm...They don't think of things in the same way we do, they don't understand our petty chase for ribbons or our disappointmnt if we don't win them. But they do respond to us with love and form a bond with us if we treat them well.
I'm not up to his standard of having ridden 500 horses, but I have ridden at least 100 in my lifetime, and though I've made plenty of mistakes, I bet no horse would consider me abusive.
Still an interesting website, I think I'll go there more just to hear what he has to say--by the way, if he's so against today's values when it comes to horsemanship, why does his website sponsor ads for shows and breeders???
Wow, those articles are fairly intense. I notice though how he never includes actual stories of his own experience, suggestions or any photos of himself showing his more correct ways of riding..he mostly shows and talks of what he considers 'the bad' and that 98% or riders and styles of riding are bad. If he was so mad at the current world of horse riding, would he not try to help improve it rather then just 'bash' it? Also statments like this really make me wonder where he's coming from....
"I have yet to see a modern woman that is willing to obey another human being without asking question or without demanding explanations or justifications. Even if she would somehow manage to scramble up enough self-discipline to keep her mouth shut, she would be thinking about what she has done the rest of the day and half the night, while most men would simply go for beer and think no more. No thinking is often better than too much thinking. In the former, one does stupid things and hopefully learns from them, while too much thinking will without a doubt reward you with endless confusion about everything. Hence today dressage is where it is, confused; too many “thinkers” and no horsemen"
I don't even know where to start commenting on that... haha
I an owner loves their horse, the horse will love the owner back ten fold. Horses do their best to please their owners and they enjoy the company of a friend such as their owner. If an owner really makes their horse hapy, exspecially if it is a mare, the horse will sometimes claim the owner as their alone. One girl at my barn plays with her mare all the time, her horse is so happy. The mare nickers when she hears or sees her owner coming. when the owner goes to get her horse from the herd, the mare will come over to her and so will the other horses, however the mare won't let any other horse nuzzle her owner. the mare shows off her owner like a brand new foal. It is the greatest thing in the world to be "owned" by your horse, it makes you feel so loved.
LOL. 
