Many wise people have said we must “know better to do better”. With all the discussion surrounding horse welfare and social license to operate I feel maybe we should discuss what good horsemanship looks like so we can reward that somehow. Winning, we all know, does not always equate to good horsemanship. And yet that is what our culture rewards and what people see as success. So what is good horsemanship? To me, it is having the horse set up for success. What is success? Not necessarily winning but being happy and content to understand and do the job asked of it, willingly and without undo force or coercion. To ensure this takes time, understanding, empathy, exposure to experiences, training, patience, trust, respect, timing, appropriate veterinary care, fitness, diet support, making sure the animal is suited to the job, is physically able to do the job and has the right support to do the job (competent rider or trainer). Good horsemanship involves the knowledge that as a rider or handler you are the horse’s leader, physical therapist, personal trainer, pilot and confidant. When the horse tells you something, you listen to this feedback and make appropriate adjustments. Older styles of horsemanship involved force and coercion and with the modern era of “natural horsemanship” people have begun to value a relationship more with the animals in training them. There is still a ways to go. How can we reward good horsemanship? Maybe give funds to barns that establish a basic horsemanship program before students get to show? The old Pony Club rating system was a way to build horse people and riders as well. Maybe for young riders there could be a knowledge and skills aspect to grant money or scholarships as well as just riding success. We need to incentivize good horsemanship that promotes the health, happiness and longevity of our equine partners. Winning does not seem to be doing that.
ETA I see drugging for sedation to train or show or to mask injury as coercion.
The horse always comes first. It’s fed properly (daily, in a timely manner), given unlimited fresh water, has shelter, has proper veterinary and farrier care, is safe and comfortable.
Trained and exercised in a kind, safe, educated manner.
Well, horse shows would be emptied out.
I think it would be wonderful if USEF could find a way to create something like a meaningful equivalent to BHS.
Our horse industry is so fragmented and unregulated. We have no good method to improve welfare apart from public regulation, which just doesn’t work.
I can’t wait till some of this firestorm starts hitting the reining industry.
Your definition is pretty narrow and would eliminate most ranching operations. Horses have to hunt up their own feed most of the year, are fed a round bale every few weeks in winter. Have to travel for water in summer to creeks and streams, so only water twice a day. And have to wait for water to be chopped twice a day in winter. No shelter other that what they can find in trees and brush. They are not always comfortable. Do see a vet and farrier as required. But they are seem to like their outside life.
While most people (in the US at least) don’t keep their horses this way, I’d say such a life is about as “natural” as you can get. And there will be people out there that call it abusive.
I just received a year-end award at my local Pony Club for Horseman Of The Year – and I have to say every person in that club is a wonderful horseman, so it was an unexpected honor.
Here is my definition of good horsemanship. You put the horse first.
Anything else can be too defined or narrow - for example, success. Defined by whom? My horse’s idea of success is breaking out of the paddock and eating grass. My idea of success won’t align with, say, a professional. And frankly, in the world of training horses, you are going to have failures and mistakes - those are meaningful if you learn from them. Not every ride is a successful ride. Some rides, you gotta get off.
But if you look at it through their needs, it’s a little easier to define, my two cents.
Horsemanship is fostered by barn culture. Change the barn culture, and the horsemanship will change. Right now, the stakes are too high and too focused on winning. Students emulate their trainers. If they see trainers saying “oh, he’ll work out of it”, or they see trainers lunging a horse for two hours before every class, they are going to learn that is the way to do things.
Put your[g] foot down. Even if you paid for the class, clinic, whatever. If it isn’t your horse’s day, say so and walk away. Yeah, it’s disappointing. You worked hard to get there. But, you save your horse for another day. Some people never got that luxury, because they rode a lame horse, or pushed an unhappy horse, or etc.
There are certain concessions that a horseman makes that can impact their competitiveness. For instance - I don’t do overnight shows. To be clear, I’m not saying people who do are bad horsemen. My horse does not thrive in those environments, so I don’t do them.
Most “bad” horsemanship is just well-meaning people putting their competitive needs above that of the horse. And to be honest, to be really competitive, you have to do this.
There’s thousands of decisions beyond being in the ring and riding that qualify you as a horseman, too. What about your horse’s turnout situation? What about his nutrition? His farriery, his other care? Do you keep him out alone because you don’t want to risk him getting hurt - is he happy with this arrangement?
To be a good horsewoman, you are never done assessing. Questioning. Constantly challenging your perception. Asking yourself if Dobbin looks 100% today, or if you should try XYZ, or if maybe you were wrong and you should have done ZYX – it’s a constant state of learning, and wanting to learn.
Yes this is what I call “listening to your horse” and evaluating that feedback and making adjustments. Whether they are adjustments in routine, what they will compete in, diet, who rides them, etc we need to always be open to listening to what the animal is saying in various ways and be flexible enough to decide if we can do something better for that animal.
But most of what makes you truly competitive is antithetical to good horse keeping. It’s not just about the riding and listening to what the horse says under saddle.
Where is the balance?
This is mostly a barn culture issue, but some of it is just the reality of horse care in the US. Most barns don’t have enough land to properly house herd animals - and who is going to risk putting their six figure horse in a (copacetic) group setting? But often, that is really the first step to putting the horse first.
@beowulf
From everything I have read by you on CoTH, it is a MOST deserved award!
Congratulations!
A good horsemanship gets along with there horse and they can catch groom and get on without you knowing they are there if they are the otherwise of the door.
The bad horseman you can hear them. They are not quiet. Usually throwing stuff as well.
It’s every time my daughter has spent entry fees, stabling, sometimes drive time and gas and motels - and withdrawn her entry - before or during an event - because the horse doesn’t feel right, is running a fever, is slightly off, had a touch of cellulitis. Time, $ and heartbreak but she chins up and always makes the decision and never complains about it.
my youngest daughter at age 9 returned to the stabling from the warmup ring before her class saying she had told the ringmaster to withdraw her horse from the class after watching the other kids in the warmup ring, she said those kids are dangerous and she did not want her horse hurt by them
Horsemanship - it’s when your 11 yr old kid comes to you in stabling and says you won’t believe what someone is doing in warm-up (smacking their horse between the ears with their crop to keep it from raising it’s head - western pleasure - at the State Fair in front of all the other kids and the public, the trainer at the rail God Forbid!) and we go to the show office together to voice a complaint. The lady there, and the ones chatting with her, immediately lowered their heads and wouldn’t look at us but she HAD to go do something about it.
I think it is hard to reward good horsemanship, because shows in general are rewarding mediocre horsemanship.
To be able to reward good horsemanship, you need to be able to see what they are doing when no one is watching. You need to see them at their home barns-
Are the horses happy?
Are riders getting crops and spurs to get the “serviceably sound” horse to make it around a course?
Are the horses getting aced to ride because they are going out in a mini paddock with 10 other horses for 20 minutes a day, or not out at all because they are too valuable?
Are they jumping 3’6" everyday to get ready for the next show?
These are just a few things I would look for. I consider myself a good horseman- there are things as a border that I do not have 100% control over, but I always put my horse and her happiness first. I go slow and listen to her. I make mistakes, and she tells me that LOL but I do my best not to repeat them. I am always researching and learning because I want to do right by my horse 100% of the time.
I think the best horseman know they do not know everything and are always looking to improve.
Good horsemanship is the same as good leadership - identify what inspires your team, and then set them up for success. When they balk at something, try to negotiate a compromise, but respect hard limits.
The minute you think you can “make” a creature do something, you are eroding trust.
I’ll admit that I learned this the hard way. My introduction to riding was not true horsemanship but my first horse was extremely emotionally intelligent and a very clear communicator. He set me on my ass whenever I was disrespecting him (I spent a lot of time on my ass during our first few years together).
Perhaps I should have specified more what I meant by “older styles”. I really meant prior to the last 100 years when horses were primarily used as vehicles or labor and not much thought was given to them being sentient beings. I agree as well with your above statement. And the Dorrance fellows really changed thinking related to horses in this country especially.
the first horse we bought for our kids was to be their English Pleasure horse as we wanted them to learn to ride saddleseat. Horse was purchased as a long yearling from great lines of English Pleasure producing stock, nearly everything that had been produced on those lines was an award winning horse
The yearling we bought the closest she got to doing what we Wanted was Huntseat, she did become a nationally ranked Western Pleasure and Competitive Trail horse and was a beautiful highly regarded Hunter.
We just learned to adjust our desires to the abilities of the horse. We never really had a must do a specific discipline need, We have ended up with a building full of tack. But we never have had a Saddleseat specific horse in forty plus years we have been raising stock.
Current young stock has been purchased with a desire to excel specifically in Dressage however we do introduce all disciplines to these horses to see if there is something they prefer
Current actually working Dressage horse has been kind of liking her western saddle work in Ranch Horse stuff, be she will be the first to inform you that She has several national and world championships under her saddle as a Dressage and Sport horse mount.
The current long yearling is possibility the best horse we have ever had, he is just a pleasure to be around and has been from day one.
I think on a very basic level the best horseman is someone who understands that there is no reason on earth a horse has to do what we want it to whether it be carry us their backs, pull our carts or win our ribbons. And in knowing so, that we need to strive in all that we do, from how we care for the horse to how we train the horse, to earn the privileges of their partnership, their trust, and their acquiescence to our leadership. I feel like this is regardless of your background or discipline.
I like that simple definition of good horsemanship as putting the horse’s needs first.
But then it gets complicated and you get to the next ingredient/obligation: You spend your whole life learning to read and interpret horses better and better. You can’t “answer” a horse or meet his needs or, as is the wonderful result, make him feel seen and hard and regarded or taken into consideration/taken care of if you suck at inferring his thoughts and feelings.
What I have always loved about the show hunters was the inherent horsemanship built into it: I wanted to gallop and jump a horse who took almost no physical effort to ride because he was relaxed and happy to do what I suggested. And his relaxation, even at an adrenaline-producing task, came from his education. He was confident because he understood his job.
I don’t care what I do with a horse, but this is still my goal: I want to be around a horse who “buys in” to the job I am asking him to do. Thus, I have to make my way of riding and handling him attractive to him.
No horse is born wanting to work for us. And, really, we will use up their body prematurely almost no matter what. So we ought to ask ourselves just what is in it for the horse. If you are going to do anything with horses at all, then a good horseman cares about preserving the horse’s soundness and he bothers to make an educated horse. That horse is one who, if he has to have a job anyway (and he does), he is treated in a thoughtful way that makes his work interesting and beneficial to him.
