The Two Sides of the Horsemanship Coin

I have no claims to being a genius, but you might think twenty years of exposure to any subject would be adequate to make you an expert. It took me twenty, long years of being with horses to find Natural Horsemanship. Over all that time, I did try consistently to enhance my pony sense and my horsemanship. I now know I just wasn’t making the type of progress I should have been, notwithstanding all the time I spent with varied gurus and trainers.

I wasn’t conscious of all this when my man advised it was time to get a stallion, and I heartily concurred. That stallion taught me just how little I knew. He was 3 years of age when we purchased him, and gave us no issues at all until we started him off on the mares. He became temperamental, and became far worse as time went by.

We went through one or two Parelli tours and purchased the kits. We were well into that program when it struck me that we need to do something much faster in the interests of our peace of mind and safety. I started to work with Mario Rossi, a natural horseman in the neighborhood. I needed to improve my capability to engage with and handle horses. Rossi started me off slow and simple.

Things took a rapid turn for the better once I had got deep into Mario’s coaching. The progress was striking. I learned all that’s valid about horse psychology from Mario. He taught me all about balance, feel and timing. I had heard or read quite a lot of what he was teaching earlier, but this hands on experience was a completely new revelation. In the initial days, as I progressed from horse to horse, I was surprised by the improvement in their behavior. It took me a bit to realize it was not my horses, it was I who had improved. Mario was teaching me well.

Unfortunately, my workout with Mario came too late to help with our stallion. We had him gelded and began to treat him like every other pony. He now had to learn to cope with the other horses, something he had not bothered to do before. That is when we learned quite how much we had been deluding ourselves about our horse experience.

Horses are Heather Toms
passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of
articles with other horse lovers visit HorseHorses

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