The Revolution in Horsemanship: And What It Means to Mankind

by Robert M. Miller, Rick Lamb, Hugh Downs (Foreword)

The story of how the ancient art of horsemanship has been transformed over the past few decades and its effect on training, riding, tack, medicine, and more. Most significant, it presents that the communication skills involved in this remarkable change can be used to facilitate human relationships. Illustrated with 100's of photos

Genres: Horses, Animals

370 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Robert M. Miller was an American equine behaviorist and veterinarian, best recognized for his system of training newborn foals known as imprint training. Miller is also one of the early adopters and promoters of relationship-based horsemanship. His work is often referred to by equine clinicians. He has served as a judge in the annual Road to the Horse competition, and also was a co-founder of the "Light Hands Horsemanship" concept and annual clinic.

Reviews

[Yenta Knows · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of chaff to read through. I found about five pages of useful information. The rest — biographies of natural horsemanship advocates, stories (of dubious authenticity) about historical horsemanship practices, discussions of horseshoeing techniques, and much else — was of only passing interest.

I do agree with the authors’ oft-repeated statement that natural horsemanship requires patience, calmness, and maturity. And I also agree that it would be a better world if every human developed those qualities and practiced them consistently.

However, I think these tenets could have been stated just once or twice. Every five pages strained my patience. Ahem, yes, I get the joke.

For quick reference, I summarize these principles of horse psychology.

Horses are flighty. They are prey animals. They run first, ask questions later.

They have excellent senses. They hear and smell much better than we do. They can see slight movements and have better side vision. They are highly tactile. They can feel a fly land on their backs, a riders change of position.

They react quickly.

They learn quickly, both bad and good.

They remember everything.

They crave company.

They read and communicate with body language. A horse signals submission by lowering his head.

They want to know who is in charge.

They can be rapidly desensitized. They may be afraid of something new, but once they realize it’s harmless, they ignore it.

They are precocial. They are fully formed and functional at birth.

They enjoy being stroked and rubbed.

[Dona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent...borrowed from a friend and decided to purchase my own copy before half-way through it!