Quiet Riding

Horses and Riders Working in Harmony


Horses in the Fog

Emotions

[As additional resources, links to book reviews and book purchasing information can be found beneath the quotations when this information is available.]

"Above all things, the rider of a difficult horse should never lose his temper. When a horse deserves punishment, he should get it with an amount of severity which might be regarded as the outcome of anger, but which should be proportionate to the offence."

James Fillis, Breaking and Riding
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"Now, I'm not saying that everything is milk toast, fuzzy, and warm when you are working with a child or working with a horse. But at the point you become angry or you abandon your sense of reason and logic and become ruled by resentment and anger, by spite and greed and hate and all the other negative feelings that seem too run the world these days, you aren't going to be any more successful with your horse than you would be with our child."

Buck Brannaman, The Faraway Horses
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"A rider who becomes irritable, losing control of his faculties, can do nothing well."

Nuno Oliveira (translated by Phyllis Field), Reflections on Equestrian Art
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"Since you've made a conscious decision to be patient, there's less anxiety than if you felt pressured to fix everything in one day."

Jane Savoie, Cross-Train Your Horse, Simple Dressage for Every Sport
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"If the path we have embarked upon is good, and we have conquered the need to be bigger and better than everyone else, that is marvellous! Then there is no more stress, everything we do is always fun, is always beautiful and the goal has become irrelevant. It will never be reached, anyway, even by the most talented."

Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling, Dancing with Horses
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"...it is so immensely important that it becomes part of your very being to constantly, consciously control yourself and always reflect upon your actions."

Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling, Dancing with Horses
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"...the ignorance and bad temper of certain riders produces more vicious horses than does nature."

François Robichon de la Guérinière, The School of Horsemanship, Part II
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"A frightened horse is a dangerous horse; a trusting horse is a partner, even unto death."

Sylvia Loch, The Classical Rider
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"...the very same physical pressure, applied dispassionately with no intention of hurting or paying back the horse, could be a legitimate training technique that would produce the desired submissive response."

Robert M. Miller, D.V.M. and Rick Lamb, The Revolution in Horsemanship
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"You can get a lot more done by being calm, reassuring, and confident, than you ever will by losing your temper and hollering like a banshee. The thing to remember here is easy: if you lose your temper, you'll lose the horse. Simple as that."

Mark Rashid, Considering the Horse
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"...horses tend not to give their best when being ridden isn't enjoyable for them."

Kathleen Schmitt, The Seamless Seat
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"Our thoughts, moods, imaginings, hopes, and fears to influence us physically, and therefore influence the horse."

Kathleen Schmitt, The Seamless Seat
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"A rider's unintentionally defensive riding can easily tell a nervous horse the rider is concerned, too. This can put the horse on an even higher level of alert, so it spooks when it would otherwise be confident."

Kathleen Schmitt, The Seamless Seat
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"Many people don't realize that they can also ruin a horse through 'love' for the animal."

Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, Balancing Act
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"You can only ride well when you have your emotions under control."

Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, Balancing Act
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"[A horse's] natural reaction to anything that is not understood or appears to be a threat is to flee."

Magali Delgado & Frédéric Pignon, Gallop to Freedom
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"A horse seems to know whether our minds are concentrated on what we are asking him to do...."

Magali Delgado & Frédéric Pignon, Gallop to Freedom
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"...how do you impose these rules without breaking all the precepts I have been laying down? You do it with firmness but without getting angry."

Magali Delgado & Frédéric Pignon, Gallop to Freedom
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"Horses are by nature curious."

Magali Delgado & Frédéric Pignon, Gallop to Freedom
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"...the chief enemy of curiosity is fear."

Magali Delgado & Frédéric Pignon, Gallop to Freedom
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"Every day, and this is still true for myself, there are moments of disappointment and self-doubt. It is not an easy path and it never will be."

Magali Delgado & Frédéric Pignon, Gallop to Freedom
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