A woman cut her bacon in half before she put it into a big frying pan. She was asked why she did it that way. Did the middles cook differently if the pieces were shorter?
She shrugged. "That's how my mother did it."
Her mother gave exactly the same response. "That's how my mother did it."
Elderly Grandma had a simple answer as to why she had cut the bacon before cooking it. "So the pieces would fit. I only had a small frying pan."
Horsemen do this a lot. Something that worked for a particular horse or situation gets passed down through generations without question. Maybe later horses and trainers find it to be a more difficult method than is actually necessary, but by golly, we stick to our guns and insist, "That's the right way to do it!"
Some training methods and riding techniques have continued this way for literally thousands of years. We don't often ask "Why?" when we go to someone who knows more about horses or more about a particular skill than we do. We pay them to teach us. It only makes sense that we listen to what they say.
But listening and learning from someone we respect doesn't mean we shouldn't ask why something is done. Good teachers or trainers will actually encourage questions so they can be sure you really understand what you're doing and how it works. That's why an open, inquisitive mind helps you, the trainer you might be working with, and ultimately your horse. For now, though, we're concentrating on things you and your horse can do together.
Horsemanship Simplified
It doesn't really matter if you ride western, English, bareback, sidesaddle, are driving in a cart, or are just leading your horse in from pasture. Whether your goal is to win at reining's Snaffle Bit Futurity or Grand Prix Dressage, to make the Top Ten in Western Pleasure at Quarter Horse Congress, or to have a pleasant amble down a dirt road, good horsemanship is good horsemanship. Period.
When Reiner Klimke, one of the finest dressage riders in modern history, had an opportunity to watch reining for the first time he was fascinated and called his students over to see how well balanced and freely moving the horses were. While John Lyons was in Germany doing demonstrations, he watched German Olympic riders and came home with some good exercises for the rest of us.
Different people and disciplines may use different words, gestures, aids, techniques, or tack, but the basic methods of communicating with horses are universal, straightforward, and surprisingly simple. The principles that produce a safe, relaxed, and happy horse working willingly with a safe, relaxed, and happy rider are the same no matter what kind of saddle you have on the horse's back, what job or discipline you are asking your horse to do, or what level you are asking him to achieve.
This is good, because it's probably safe to say that most folks haven't gotten involved with horses to make their lives more difficult or to make them feel more uncoordinated, incapable, or stressed. But that can happen both to us and our horses when we make things harder than they have to be, especially when we're trying something new.
Anything that's complicated for us to learn is also harder for the horse. If something is simpler for us, it's also simpler for the horse. It's not that either of us can't learn a more complicated system of horsemanship or that a more complicated system won't work, but if we can get safe, effective results with an easier, faster method that is less aggravating for us and for the horse, let's do it!
Rather than make things more difficult, we're going to make horse training less complicated and easier for us and for the horse. This will bring results faster and is just plain more fun for everyone concerned.
