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codydeering
Jan 02, 2021
In Bill's Book Discussion
Q: How do I know if my horse is feeling of me? Bill: It’s easy to tell. You’ll know by the way that horse is responding, by his looks and everything about his whole appearance. If he doesn’t go where you want him to go, or if you see that his feet are moving when you want him to stand still, then he’s not feeling of you. When he stops feeling of you, it’s liable to be because you’re presenting the feel to him in a way that he doesn’t understand. If that happens, then you better go along with him. If you travel with a horse and then allow him to join you, then he can learn to feel of you as you both travel around together, and we might call it traveling the long way around. We’d call it that because the shortcut way might not fit [Pp. 322-323] the horse you’re working with. It won’t fit most of them, anyway. There’s really no telling how long it might take to get things straightened out if a fella ran into trouble spots trying to go straight at something above where that horse could understand. Where it concerns a horse, just about anything could happen. But when a person goes along with the horse, that’s how a horse will get ready to go along with the person. Naturally, he’ll want you to get with him and do what he thinks he should do, but if he’s wanting to take over, that doesn’t fit a person very well, and that’s the thing I guard against all the time. I give that horse a feel that says, “stay with my feel.” It’s not a harsh feel. I like to do just as little as I possibly can, and always be thinking ahead to a spot in the future, but not too far away in the future — because on the spur of the moment, I may need a spot where that horse can have the room he needs to maneuver, so he has a better chance to stay with my feel. As soon as he learns to get with your feel, he’ll be under your control. If you haven’t had an opportunity to learn this, then you’d continue to think you have to make the horse do something, instead of helping him do it. Before that can come through, he has to be reassured that he can find what you want without being forced. From: "True Horsemanship Through Feel" by Bill Dorrance and Leslie Desmond Note: To compose and PUBLISH, or comment to this post click the "Comment" or "Following Post" button (above right) to JOIN FOAH free. Thanks!
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codydeering
Dec 23, 2020
In Bill's Book Discussion
Q: Which is the most important of feel, timing and balance? Bill: For over thirty years I’ve been wondering about this myself. I’ve had many opportunities to think it over, and I still haven’t been able to find out which of the three you can do without, or which is the most important. I did finally come up with balance [Pg. 300] as maybe the one you couldn’t leave out because without that, maybe you wouldn’t even be able to get up on the horse. And if somehow you did get up there, why without much balance you’d just fall right off when he started moving. I know that happens. I can’t help but think though, that if you are learning how to feel of a horse, your balance will improve. Then your timing [Pg. 361] could come in there, and it’s a lot easier to get the timing if you can feel of the horse. And the timing, well, even when a rider’s timing isn’t the best a horse can understand it after a while. And he can do all right. So I’ve been thinking that the way a person presents a feel [Pp. 318-322] to the horse is pretty important, because that way a horse learns to feel of the rider and then the two can go together. When the rider and the horse are together, it’s got a better feeling to it for them. And it’s real attractive. You really can’t get too far up the line without this good feel working for you, not in a way that’s pleasing to the horse anyway. From: "True Horsemanship Through Feel” By Bill Dorrance and Leslie Desmond Note: To compose and PUBLISH, or comment to this post click the either the "Comment" or "Following Post" button (above right) to JOIN FOAH free. Thanks!
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codydeering
Dec 21, 2020
In Bill's Book Discussion
From: "True Horsemanship Through Feel” By Bill Dorrance and Leslie Desmond Note: To compose and PUBLISH a reply or comment to this post, click either the "Comment" or "Following Post" button above to JOIN FOAH. Thanks! Q: I’ve been told that the horse understands when I try to make the wrong thing difficult and the right thing easy. Can you explain why you don’t use this in your approach? Bill: Making the wrong thing difficult isn’t going to be a fitting approach for the horse, because so many people only do that part. They forget about the part of making the right thing easy for the horse. They just get to that making-it-difficult [Pg. 339] part and then they put the horse up after that. Someplace, maybe, they’d heard that it was all right to make something difficult and that gets to be their way, all the time. I’ve seen quite a lot of this, and it’s real pleasing to me when a person can get this part switched around in their mind. To my way of thinking, instead of making that horse do anything, trying to help [Pg. 327] the animal is a better way. I’m in hopes that a fella could think of helping the animal, because without help that horse won’t know what he’s supposed to do, and really, that’s what a fella’s main job is here. Just helping that horse. A person could start trying to help the horse to understand the right thing, through feel, even if he hadn’t done much experimenting [Pg. 317] with it before. It might even bring out something a little different in the person, to not try to make things difficult for that horse. I’m sure that helping a horse understand is more fitting to that horse — any horse. It might be more fitting to most people too. Note: To compose and PUBLISH a reply or comment to this post, click either the "Comment" or "Following Post" button above to JOIN FOAH. Thanks! Questions About Feel Q: Can feel be taught? Bill: Some people say they don’t think it can be taught and in a way they’re right. Maybe it depends on who’s doing the teaching and who’s doing the learning. I think feel can be taught. But there’s preparation [Pg. 344] you need first, before you can learn how to feel. There isn’t any mystery about that to me. Because it’s there, that feel, in the person and in the horse. And with help from someone who’s more experienced, why a person can sure learn how to feel of the horse [Pp. 318-322], if they want to. That’s an actual fact [Pg. 297]. Note: To compose and PUBLISH a reply or comment to this post, click either the "Comment" or "Following Post" button above to JOIN FOAH. Thanks!
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