ideas that sound simple are often the hardest things to apply because they involve handling ourselves...the test is in the application -- from Ray Hunt's book Harmony with Horses

“the difference between wishing and hoping is effective communication”

"Only when the rider becomes quiet will the horse be able to hear the whispers of the finer aids."
Egon von Neindorff

"don't be so proud that you don't go back and change something"
Buck Brannaman

"My belief in life is that we can all get along together if we try and understand one another. If you find a friend before someone else you're real lucky."

Ray Hunt

"Should you choose to keep him and work through your difficulties, you are embarking upon an incredible journey. It will not be short, cheap, or painless. It takes a lot of "try." You have to make a commitment. You'll have to pay for your education, one way or another. And there WILL be bumps along the road. But there will also be rewards. Most of them will be of intrinsic value that only you and your horse will know."
Buster McLaury

"I want the horse to do my thing his way." Joe Wolter

You ask a stallion, tell a gelding but you have a discussion with a mare. cowboy wisdom

"A good horseman has to acknowledge the tough horses are often the best teachers."
Chris Cox

"as in all interpretive art forms, it is how the art is taught and transmitted by able communicators that is important." Bettina Drummond

"When I learned to be able
to ask the right questions
and to pick and choose
what I wanted to study
with him, it was fantastic."
Bettina Drummond

"Everything is information - everything!"
Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling

Riding was a full contact art like the martial arts. Full contact with the emotions, spirit and thoughts with the animal.
Bettina Drummond on Nuno Oliveira

"the inconsistencies in what you think you are doing and what you are doing, is what makes it seem like forever." Buck Brannaman

feel, timing and balance. I still can't improve on those three words, but there is so much that goes on within that.

Tom Dorrance

It is all about their responsiveness mentally not physically

Buck Brannaman

It only takes a couple of minutes
of sorry riding a day to make
a dull horse.

Buck Brannaman

The first lesson you must learn
is to look at yourself .... learn to look at things from the horses' perspective and see you from their point of view.
Adiva Murphy

Fear of loss is greater than the desire to gain.
Jeffrey Gitomer

"humans condition themselves to make simple acts more difficult"
Geoffrey S. Arnold

"People have to learn that whatever the horse does is right," he says. "You're the one who got into his life. He didn't get into yours. It's amazing what horse will go through to satisfy a human being." Ray Hunt - August 1929 - March 2009

"As with any dancing duo a lack of coordination by either will affect the flow of steps. So you have to perfect your own moves."
Frank Bell

"Horses don't care about what we think we should do or even why we think we should do it. They listen to the energy and intention."
Ariana Strozzi

"pleasure is fleeting while gratification challenges and asks more of us."
The Happiness Hypothesis

"You prepare to position for the transition." Ray Hunt

"It's not as bad as it was, not as good as it's gonna get."
Buck Brannaman

"After all a horse is the only expert on the horse. We can only have a second opinion, because the horse can't confirm what any of us think is absolutely right."
Martin Black

"Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing that makes you good."
Malcolm Gladwell