Another Book

Awhile back we shared Mark Rashid's books that we enjoyed and that influenced how we think about horses. Here's another book that has had an influence - "True Horsemanship Through Feel" by Bill Dorrance (told to Leslie Desmond).

First, a little about Bill. He was born near Enterprise, Orgegon on January 19, 1906. Bill spent 80 plus years working with horse, cattle and doing general ranching. He died at age 93, just before this book was published. Bill was still riding and teaching riding through feel at age 92.

The heart of this book is a quote from Bill, "I've always liked horses and I've always wanted to help them do their job better, whatever it is they had to do." He chose the title because he felt that 'feel' was the horse's true language. They communicate with each other through feel and, if we want to communicate with our horses, we need to do it through feel.

One of the difficulties of the book is Leslie Desmond wrote it as Bill spoke - with all of his ranch vocabulary and vernacular. Sometimes you have to read something more than once to fully understand what he's saying. Here's an example.

"There's some horses that will let you have all the chances you want. That kind of horse is just waiting for you to get things sorted out, and it's real helpful to be around a horse like this when you haven't got much experience. A fella's guesswork isn't a threat to a horse like this. And a horse like we're speaking about now isn't apt to bring your own feelings of self-preservation to the surface. The thing to remember is that there's all kinds of exceptions to anything that a person could say or show you about this."

Besides the concept of feel, one of the things I learned from this book is the importance of patience, or as Bill would say, "going slow."

"This approach has to be taught going real slow from the start and staying slow enough to where that slowness has some actual value. It can be done right or not, even if it's slow. But the chance of a horse remembering what he's supposed to be learning is a lot better when a person isn't trying to rush the results."

A good book if you have the time to read it - and sometimes re-read it again and again.

Today is June 4 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: Angelina Jolie (actress - "Laura Croft and the Tomb Raider"), Noah Wylie (actor - "ER"), Michelle Phillips (singer - "The Mamas and the Papas"), Dennis Weaver (actor - Chester on "Gunsmoke"), Rosalind Russell (actress - "Mame"), and George III (English king during American Revolution).