2fp,
You are absolutely correct. The year was 1944 and grandpa had just brought his 16 yo bride home to the ranch. He had one team but needed another to make hay that summer. He bought a belgain mare and a percheron gelding that were available. That belgain mare was balky, lazy and about half mean. She was always looking to hurt someone. Bite, kick, run over, she had no real preferance. But grandpa had hay to mow, rake and get in the stack. He also had a little dingo dog. She would bite on command either man or beast. Between dingo dog, grandpa and a good horse on the other side they made hay. That mare was sold the day that the last hay went in the stack. Grandpa would never look at a belgain after that.
I am not saying there were not problem then and there are now. But when you concider the number of horses being worked then to today you can see that the percentage of idiots was not any worse and they had half the breeding. Most of grandpas stock for work were the result of a heavy horse on the local range mares. For riding a TB stud on the local range mares. It was the local range mares that were the weak link. Basicly every horse broke was a step from feral. How many of todays trainers could get a team of mustangs going in 30 to 60 days? These horses were handled until you could get them hitched. That sometimes invloved twisting ears, blindfolds and twiches. But once in harness that horse was hooked in with one to 5 others and put to work. It didn’t take long for them to conform. Now I don’t like that method entirely. I think the horse needs to know what you are asking for. Long lining and ground work are the key. I won’t hook a horse until they have the ground work done but at that point I think it is time to show them work.
One of my sons little grey horses had a phobia of water. ALL water had horse eating beasts in it. I tried all the stuff trainers suggest then finally hooked him as a pair with the paint mare. She out wieghed him 200 lbs and she made the desisions. She is also honest and dependable. If you point her at something you better mean that is where you want to go. It rained hard one night and we awoke to puddles everywhere. I hooked then up and we drove. He tried jumping the water, skirting, shieing and the rest of the tricks. In the end he was drug through the water. He found out that A) the other horse isn’t scared and B) fighting it is useless. Ty is now a point and shoot horse. He will go where pointed and not much bothers him. I would still be fighting him if we hadn’t just get it done.
Ever see a child fall and look to mom to see if it should cry? I think our pussy footing around horses not making them do anything is the same thing. They look to us to see if they should be scared. Once they learn to be scared you have wreck. Training the horse is the easy part training the person is a B!tc#. 
LF
