> I've been following this only with half my attention. Which Dorrance and > which book please?
True Horsemanship Through Feel, by Bill Dorrance and Leslie Desmond. http://tinyurl.com/3bcrlw Here's an interesting post from the BillsBook list: >From Billsbook, in the study of True Horsemanship Through Feel: Something just hit me up side the head. This is about not hanging onto the mouth for balance again. Some things have deeper meaning to me personally than others in my horsemanship journey and this is certainly one of them. I make use of the mane quite alot and climbing those steep mountain sides in the Ozarks a month ago it was clearly the only way to go, giving my mare her head and onward! But as I listen intently to CD 6 Track 1 Mentors Who Make a Difference I found I just had to hit pause and share my excitement with you. And I quote Leslie as she explains some of the philosophy of one of her mentors Ivan Taylor. He says, "...respect for the horses' mouths and frequent use of the mane for learning to get your balance so that you did not expect the horse to catch you in a way that would throw him off." My epihpany is the realization that the horse can be thrown just like we can. When we get unsettled we get grippy and clingy in a blink of an eye. Can you see that the very instant we get grippy on the mouth we do far more than set up for a hard mouth, a dull mouth, we scare the bejeebers out of the horse. It is no wonder they don't all just high-tail it every time they see us coming with that bit'o torture. Hauling on the mouth, then, is not all about a hard mouth. That comes later, after the horse would like to put our lights out for scaring him to death. Jeanne the student ________________________ Judy http://icehorses.net http://clickryder.com
