The Equinist: Articles and Commentary by Susan Kauffmann

Josh Nichol represents a historical tradition of horsemanship, a thread that can be traced back through centuries of time and many world cultures. Yet never has the approach to horsemanship which emphasizes softness, communication, and seeing things from the horse's point of view been common. What you are about to read is a clear statement by a talented young practitioner of the deeper art, and the greater way, of horsemanship. Here are keys which you may have been missing. They relate to what is going on inside the horse, and at the same time they call on you to clarify what may be going on inside of yourself. Deb Bennett, Ph.D., Director Equine Studies Institute Livingston, California JOSH NICHOL: Moving Towards Softness text by Susan Kauffmann Anywhere you look these days, there are people with all kinds of opinions about the best way to work with horses. Amidst this cloud of information, the relationship with the horse is often lost to techniques, equipment and dis...

JOSH NICHOL ARTICLE TWO: BEGINNING THE CONVERSATION text by Susan Kauffmann In article one of this series, we introduced the idea of softness – that state of flowing responsiveness free from any mental or physical resistance – which is our ultimate goal with our horses. That kind of responsiveness requires both horse and human to be mentally present and participating in an ongoing conversation. This article will show you how to get the brain of the horse present so that this conversation can begin, but first, we need to look at our own end of what is definitely a two-way street. Before you can begin communicating with a horse, you need to put aside any preoccupations or negative emotions and just focus on being with the horse. Horses live in the moment, and if you want to keep pace with their thoughts, you must do the same. I know this is easier said than done, but horses read much more from us than most people realize, and they are easily affected by our state of mind. Emotions ...

The Round Pen: It’s The Thought that Counts Text by Susan Kauffmann One of the questions I am frequently asked on the road has to do with the purpose of the round pen. If I turn that question around and ask people what they think the round pen is for, it becomes clear that there are a lot of misconceptions about why and how we should round pen a horse. Used well, the round pen is a wonderful tool that can help deepen the understanding between a horse and a person, but used poorly – as it so often is – the round pen creates fear and only forces a horse to give up, give in, and comply. A horse worked in this way may do the things you ask of him, but his heart will never be in it, and he will therefore never reach his full potential. When I work with a horse, I want to feel that horse trying his hardest for me because there is a joy in it for both of us. I don’t want a horse who is just doing what he has to in order to avoid punishment. Therefore, in this article, I will talk about w...

JOSH NICHOL ARTICLE 4: THE MEANING OF THE REIN Text by SUSAN KAUFFMANN In the previous three articles, we talked quite a bit about the importance of having your horse’s brain with you, and how to start creating a foundation of softness through ground work. We’re now going to move into the riding realm, specifically into the meaning of the rein, but it is important to realize that if you haven’t yet established a true and solid foundation on the ground, doing anything under saddle is going to be a whole lot tougher than you or your horse want it to be. If you have successfully used your ground work to build a relationship in which your horse trusts your leadership, thinks that following your thought is a good idea, and softens willingly when you ask him to move his feet, you are in a great place to start communicating with your horse through the rein. Why is it, then, that even people who get their horses working really well on the ground often have so much trouble when they climb ...

ARTICLE 5: SOFTNESS CLEAR THROUGH In our last article, we talked about the importance of taking your ground work principles with you into the saddle, and we emphasized the idea of connecting the rein to the brain in order to ask for and receive softness. For those of you who may not have read the previous articles, I define softness as a state of flowing responsiveness free from any mental or physical resistance. In this, our final installment in this series, I would like to take the thoughts from article four a little deeper to show you how using your rein to achieve softness clear through can improve not only the relationship you have with your horse, but every aspect of your horse’s performance, as well. The longer I work with horses, the more I believe that most of the actions we want from our horses come best when we ask a horse to do something, get ourselves out of the way, then allow the horse to do it. Of course, this requires a horse that responds freely and willingly to h...