Attitude

     SINCE A LOT of a person's attitude, opinions, and beliefs are vital to a relationship with horses, attitudes are the first things we must examine and try to understand in Natural Horse-Man-Ship.
    There tend to be two distinct ends to the spectrum when it comes to a person's attitude in getting a horse to doing something. There's the stick attitude, used by the person who bashes the horse with the stick and make him do it. Such a person uses force and intimidation to make a horse perform.
     Then there's the carrot attitude, used by a person who sweet-talks the horse into doing something. Such a person is usually ineffective and begs the horse instead of asking for and getting respect from the horse.
     In between the two extremes is the person who is assertive. Such a person is neither aggressive nor wimpy, but balanced somewhere between the two.
     With horses, the natural attitude is to be as gentle as you can, but as firm as necessary. When you're gentle, be gentle without being a sissy. When you're firm, be firm without getting mean or and.
     The attitude of Natural Horse-Man-Ship is to do things for the horse and with the horse rather than to the horse. The idea is to use your imagination beyond the boundaries normal people do.
     The attitude of a Natural Horse-Man is that the principles are more important than the purpose -  that adjusting to fit the situation is more important than rules.
     Natural Horse-Man-Ship is an attitude for people who are positive, progressive, and who believe in the natural point of view of the horse, They have taken their quest to become a natural horsemen as a passion and want to move up through the 10 levels of achievement naturally.
     In Natural Horse-Man-Ship, there are no rules, only principles and gaols. Since principles are more important than goals. I myself find it hard to forget about the goals when my horse is acting up, I tend to forget about the important principles that make up a true horseman. We as humans are so much direct line thinkers, it's hard for us to be patient, and gentle. We no doubt love our horses, but human nature and human habits are a strong thing to beat. What we've been doing since we were born, and our innate personalities determine how easy it is for us to just let go of what nature programmed us to do. Just like our horses. So many people expect their horses to just let go of their instincts and put their undying trust in them as owners. We as horse owners need to respect these animals, not only is it our responsibility, but our duty to do so. Our horses are sacrificing so much every time we are with them, for all they know we could get their trust and just turn on them then. Life is a fragile thing, every time I see my horse I treat it and him like its my very last. My point is no matter what, we need to respect horses. They were given to us as a gift to over come our greatest challenges as a human being. Divinely horses are a gift from God.

Keep it Natural,
               Kaylee and Pride

PS
Check out Linda's blog! http://linda.parellinaturalhorsetraining.com/