@Alterration, I do understand your perspective and I hope you understand that my main issue if the way the things are being said rather than the content itself. I do see that you are expressing yourself in way different to most of your communitity-fellows, you are disagreeing with me and I and have not the slightest problem. But there is a large gap between disagreeing in this way and the common way of expression around here - which is mocking at best and gives generally a very sad picture.
My best wishes.
I understand that the way you feel things have been said offends you. However, I would again urge you to get to know the board before you take too much offense and before trying to defend what you have brought up too much. We have had many people try to do that, and when our attempts at discussion fall on deaf ears, what is a group of people to do but to have fun with a thread.
Often we speak about margaritas or popcorn or boxed wine when we see a thread about to go into a strange space, just like this one. Sometimes they diverge into other topics like bringing up similar trainwreck threads or individuals who have tried (and failed) to push a narrative.
Though you are new to the board, we have had many many people come and proclaim to be masters or assistants to masters, and very soundly they have been found out as either complete scam artists or just very badly delusional individuals. Among our ranks here there are many who are or have studied directly with people who have truly earned their stripes, from Olympians, to natural horsemen, to professors of equine behavior and science, to breedersâŠand many more.
Once again I urge you to stay and learn for awhile. You will find that the boards offer much for those who are willing to read and be open-minded.
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OP is Nick Pâs better-educated cousin.
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Thatâs pretty funny. As far as I can tell, the only âquestionâ was âI would be happy to hear how others perceive this article.â I think you got a pretty good idea of peopleâs perception of it right from the beginning. You just donât like that perception.
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Oh, on the contrary, I believe we have considered the alternative viewpoints you have presented.
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Definitely. Another addition to the COTH Pantheon of Maestros.
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Mares?
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Oops! I linked the wrong video.
Mares and geldings. 
I think OP hired a ghostwriter.
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Itâs always fun when someone comes on and accused all us meanies of exactly the things theyâve done.
Like refusing to listen to what we say, and not watching the videos we post, and taking everything as a Personal Insult.
Itâs very rare for COTH to be unanimous on a topic. As anyone who followed COTH would know. Itâs a strong sign when all the posters say the same thing.
Itâs also telling that Humpfling is said to be reading and commenting on this thread
At first I was willing to believe that OP was a naive fanperson who just stumbled on liberty work while surfing YouTube. And that OP didnât have the horse sense to pick interesting or useful examples of videos, and may have misunderstood Humpfling.
But then The Master Himself reads the thread and approves presumably of Fanpersonâs comments.
The only way Master Humpfling could redeem himself would be to come on here in his actual persona and say something like:
âMy student is a lovely person but has misunderstood my teachings in saying ABC (insert naive or nonsensical things). In reality I teach XYZ (insert more intelligent things). Also my student has hacked my computer and posted video out takes that were never meant to see the light of day. Here is a link to my properly edited competent videos.â
Since Master Humpfling has not come here to defend himself against OPs version of things, I think we can assume he approves.
Also at this point the extreme defensiveness and sense of personal attack and hurt does signal that OP is likely Master Humpfling himself.
See hereâs the catch to doing that. You pose as a naive student rather than speak in your own voice and people tell you exactly what they think about those videos. Then when they realize that itâs actually you, they lose all respect and see you as a dishonest fraud and looking for clicks. Itâs the worst possible outcome
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@avjudge, this was indeed my question - about the content of the article not about the author. And the first comments have been solely on the general horse skills (which for me was not and is not in question) and video effects. Please aslo take into account that I was not at all expecting to be introducing a new figure to this experienced forum.
Always interested to realize that someone you think is famous is utterly unknown to an active audience, or their time has passed.
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The part with the wine and the pop corn is actualy the most friendly aspect of this thread - I have mine right here as well.
Alright, this might be the case. Though I certainly do not consider myself a delusional individual. You are referring here to the reputation of the people earned by achievements. As far as I understand you have not heard Hempflings name before as many others here - that is fine, as some here said he was probably more present in the horse scene some years back. However this doesnât change the fact that he is an author of bestselling horse books and it is generally known that the work he does with difficult horses is unique - it is witnessesed by thoughads of people in live demonstations and recorded on video. We are not talking about someone who entered the scene a year ago. These are just simple facts.
Respectively we must agree to disagree
From the material I see presented here, Hempfling appears to be a self taught horseman who came to horses late, at age 29. He invented his own ideas and theories without studying with other masters. He has had no accomplished students and has not been active in horses recently. The videos linked here are really crude and awful. He may have sold picture books in the 1990s but photography books were super popular before the internet.
Hempfling may have been ahead of the curve in playing with liberty work and bridleless riding. But that has become extremely popular in the last decade or so. As the other videos show, there are extremely accommplished trainers doing liberty and tack free riding today at a level way beyond anything Hempfling attempted or accomplished.
If you looked at the videos we posted youâd see that. Itâs really a whole discipline in itself now. Things are way beyond Hempfling.
I felt like his name was familiar without having content to attach to it. Frankly the videos here were so bad that now I have a very strong image of him and itâs not good
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Choosing this video just to give my impression - it would be similar to many others you have been suggesting. I have actually looked at most of them.
I am sure that getting to this is taking a lot of time and training spend with these horses, I am not saying it is not a result of hard work.
However when I am looking a the way each horse is moving it is not to compare to what you can see in the example with the collection of the stallion. None of the horses are collected, it is evident that all is trained by repetition - and this is fine if this the way you choose to do it and happy with it. But the difference in the apperance of the horse, itsâ aglity and development are striking if I compare to what I am used to see in Hempflings work.
Oh, now collection is the criteria?
The stallion rearing and prancing around with his dong flapping in the wind is not showing collection beyond what a pent up hot horse naturally shows when blowing off steam. This is not collection you can do anything with.
Collection is only useful if the horse will produce it on demand in a completely calm manner. Thatâs why piaffe passage levade and Capriole are taught last. They are meant to be done with calm strength and quiet. Every horse including my Paint mare can do piaffe, passage, levade, and something in between capriole and the Calgary Stampede Saddle Bronc competition if sheâs excited enough in a field. Not to mention sliding stops and barrel turns. Under saddle, we arenât anywhere near that. Because she only does them when sheâs super excited.
So pushing a sexually excited stallion around until he looks collected is not the aim of horse training.
That liberty video of the Arabians is superb. They are calm attentive and performing some complex moves all on liberty cues. BTW Arabians tend to float rather than collect. Itâs a different way of moving. But clearly sheâs not asking for collection. I expect if she was doing piaffe or passage in hand or at liberty youâd see some collection, Arabian style.
I love the calm, the cues for complex moves, the total trust here. Much more advanced than wrassling with a green horse
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I was referring to this post where you can see a development of a horse from how he is starting to how he looks after a few sessions and weeks. The appearance is changed to the extent that it nearly doesnât look like the same horse (just to be sure nobody needs your clicks, but this is the best way to show and example - and no my name is not Klaus). And this should also answer the rest of the agruments you are bringing.
I donât think we are talking the same kind of âcollectionâ there.
That horse seems like a Clinton Anderson scooting around discombobulated type horse.
Body parts swinging every place, leg mover, not put together and working in self-carriage, much less traditional collection at all?
A horse like that probably rides like he longes, bumpity-bump-bump.
To learn what is true collection as in traditional horsemanship you canât invent it.
You have to learn from someone that knows and with horses that help you get the feel for that, develop an educated eye, before you try to teach it, or we get into the old âdoesnât know what they donât knowâ situation, as here, maybe?
Or maybe that short video was not intended to be seen as getting a horse to move correctly, was just having fun running a horse around, look how pretty he is?
That too has value, horses are very nice to admire, no matter what they do. 
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I had heard of Hempfling before. You may be referring to some other posters who hadnât.
Parelli was a bestselling author, as was Monty Roberts. Then the horse community in general, learned that horses would perform join up with an RC car, and Parelli went off the rails with more than a few things.
Being a best-selling author means no more than âthis is someone who can sell booksâ. That doesnât imply skill necessarily.
I will say Hempfling appears to be a successful marketer, with an audience that largely appears to be beginner horsemen.
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There are multiple mentions of liberty training that is indeed quite common today and you see what Hempfling is doing as liberty because it looks similar to you. There have been some comments like âit will be very diffuclt to change this taught behaviourâ I think in the context of the rearing and turning horses. I understand why it looks similar to you - however this is a complete misunderstanding of how he is working with horses. There is no training or repetition - and therefore also no advice in the sence you have from other horse trainers in the pressure-release style. It is purely based on personality, on a level high enough to match and finally develop that of the horse. It is genuine leadership - it is not training by repetition.
The horses respond in the second they meet him - without prior training - which prooves with facts that it is not a taught behaviour (and therefore the claim that it is difficult to change is not realisitic). In the vidoe I link in the end, you can see that the horse taken out of the stable for the first time - there is an entire miliraty depertment watching, it is not setup (though you are free to believe so, if you prefer to igonre the facts). It is in a stud farm, so yes the stallion is excited, it is normal for an animal and this is absolutely not the main point - if you still choose to comment of this.
In contrast to this free communication and leadeship that contributes to the development of the horse the liberty videos you show and are common today are a result of training, teaching cues and repetition. It is in my eyes a circus act and to achieve this people mimic predator behaviour in one way or the other, frocing the horse phycologically if not physically to consistently perform.
Someone mentioned earlier that he might not be able to bring a horse to perform concistently for a show - and thisabsolutely true since there is not dressage and the horse is always allowed to express itself.
As for the students, if you would for a moment assume that what I describe is the case, it is difficult to transmit since it is the presence and the personality of the person that one needs to learn, and not technical movements. And this is not a short fix that most horse people are looking for and it takes more than most people are willing or able to invest.
