Mark Rashid > Quotes

“One of the primary ways horses communicate with us is through their behavior. Again, it is my belief horses don’t distinguish between how they feel and how they act. So if they act a certain way, their actions are reflecting the way they feel. A horse’s body then becomes a mirror for their emotions. So the body informs us of what is truly going on internally.”
― Mark Rashid, Whole Heart, Whole Horse: Building Trust Between Horse and Rider

“After all, the qualities required to be good with horses are the same qualities required to be good at life in general, and vice versa. Chances are”
― Mark Rashid, Horsemanship Through Life: A Trainer's Guide to Better Living and Better Riding

“One of the biggest problems I see when working with folks and their horses is that the vast majority of people have been trained to always look for the bad things their horses do. Because they’re always looking for the bad, they easily overlook the little tries and sometimes have trouble seeing the good in their horse, even when the good jumps up and bites them in the butt.”
― Mark Rashid, Horses Never Lie: The Heart of Passive Leadership

“Once I quit fighting with him and began rewarding his efforts to respond to my cues, he became extremely willing to do what I was asking. The fight and confusion just seemed to melt away,”
― Mark Rashid, Horses Never Lie: The Heart of Passive Leadership

“Work with the horse, not against him. Always listen to what the horse is trying to say. And always think for yourself.”
― Mark Rashid, Horsemanship Through Life: A Trainer's Guide to Better Living and Better Riding

“However, I don’t think that we should let the task or goal become the end-all to a training session, either. If things aren’t going well, maybe it’s time to listen to what our horse is trying to tell us. It could very well be that he has the answer to why things aren’t going well, and if we give him half a chance, perhaps he’ll tell us what that is. I have seen so many horses almost”
― Mark Rashid, Horses Never Lie: The Heart of Passive Leadership

“After working with that gelding, I made a much bigger effort to look for and find the tries that my horses offered during training or any other time, for that matter. In doing so, I quickly found just how much I had been missing in the simple communication between my horses and myself. For instance, I noticed that my horses often tried to respond to my cues much sooner than I’d ever imagined. Often times they would respond even before I had actually applied the cue, a pretty scary thought in and of itself. The other thing I noticed was that very often the try was so subtle that, had I not been paying attention, I would have missed it altogether. As a result, I was forced to become much more aware of what my horses were doing at all times, not just when I was asking something from them.”
― Mark Rashid, Horses Never Lie: The Heart of Passive Leadership

“We needed people who would give the horse the benefit of the doubt in most situations and who would think through a problem with a horse instead of just reacting to it. We wanted people who could think on their feet but who had soft hands and good hearts.”
― Mark Rashid, Horses Never Lie: The Heart of Passive Leadership

“It’s funny, too, because whenever we purposely teach a horse something we want them to do or know and are successful in doing so, we pat ourselves on the back and think we’ve done a good job. Yet, when we inadvertently teach a horse behavior we didn’t want (and more times than not, unwanted behavior has indeed been taught inadvertently), we blame the horse for learning it and then refer to them as being disrespectful. I don’t know . . . but it seems to me we can’t really have it both ways.”
― Mark Rashid, Whole Heart, Whole Horse: Building Trust Between Horse and Rider

“When he sees that you are giving him the respect he deserves, and the understanding he needs, he will start to trust you in return.” She took a sip from her milk glass. “When you have his trust, you’ll have the horse. Once he trusts you, putting the saddle on him won’t be a problem.”
― Mark Rashid, Out of the Wild: A Novel

“The emphasis was on “soft.” No matter what else happened, the wranglers were to stay soft while riding the horses. Soft hands, soft seat, and soft legs. There was to be absolutely no hitting, kicking, slapping, or yelling at any time for any reason. The penalty for doing such things was to be placed on a two-day suspension. A second offense would lead to termination. Neither penalty was ever needed. At times it wasn’t easy to stay quiet with the horses because so many of them had been “used up” over the years, dulled to any form of cue. However, we remained consistent in our focus and the horses responded. The wranglers were instructed to ride the horses with the softest cues possible, often using nothing more than a light squeeze to get forward movement and a shift of weight in the saddle, along with light pressure on the reins, for a stop. They were also instructed to look for, find, and then release their cues at the slightest try from the horse—something they all became very adept at doing. With everyone riding in the same manner from one day to the next, all the horses began to respond within a few weeks. Before we knew it, all of our horses, including the very old ones that had been in the program for years and years, became responsive to the lightest of cues. We’d taught our horses to be responsive to these light cues, but a question remained. How could we keep them that way, particularly with the hundreds of different people who would be riding each horse over the summer? The answer was simple. Everyone needed to remain consistent. So, instead of expecting our horses to respond to the conflicting cues that each new rider was bound to give, we taught each rider how to communicate with our horses. Each week when a new batch of guests arrived at the ranch, we held an orientation in the riding arena. During this orientation, we explained how our horses were trained and what was expected of them as a rider of one of our horses. We gave them a demonstration in the saddle of proper seat and hand position, so they could keep their balance. We showed them the cues for walk, stop, trot, lope, and turn, using a horse right out of the string. Once we had demonstrated how our horses worked, we got everyone on horseback in the arena and helped them to practice giving the cues, allowing the horse to respond, and releasing the cues so that the horse would remain responsive. Of note is the fact that after”
― Mark Rashid, Horses Never Lie: The Heart of Passive Leadership

“It’s the same with horse behavior. The behavior a horse offers up is just information until we put a value on it. The horse, on the other hand, has no stake in its behavior or how we perceive it. It is simply supplying us with feedback. The woman’s horse that needed to get to the other end of the arena before he could go to work was simply supplying us with information. Bill’s acting up on the trail was supplying us with information. A horse that wrings its tail, shakes his head, or paws at the ground is offering information. How we perceive that information—the value we put on it—will create our response. Of course, the good news in all this is that in the end, the choice is entirely up to us. We can either look at the behavior with a quiet mind and see it for what it is without judgment, or we can see it as something else. Either way, we will end up responding accordingly, and either way, it will dictate the level of success we will ultimately have.”
― Mark Rashid, Whole Heart, Whole Horse: Building Trust Between Horse and Rider

“Still, it’s an interesting dilemma . . . wanting to be trusted but not necessarily wanting to trust.”
― Mark Rashid, Horses Never Lie: The Heart of Passive Leadership

“It’s your attitude. It’s not what you say, it’s what you do, and it’s not what you do, it’s what you feel. You have to be connected to yourself, Henry, before you can connect with someone else.” She gently touched herself on the chest, above her heart. “It comes from here. If your heart isn’t right they’ll know it.”
― Mark Rashid, Out of the Wild: A Novel

“The key, then, is to find a way to get horses to see you as the individual who can help them when they need it.”
― Mark Rashid, Horses Never Lie: The Heart of Passive Leadership

“The woman sat up in the saddle, looked straight ahead, and began reciting a litany of steps. “I use a slightly increased pushing pressure with my lower leg and seat bone on the same side,” the woman said. “I sit slightly heavier on the inside seat bone, with my inside leg just behind the girth. Doing that should push the hindquarters forward and sideways at the same time.” “Okay. . . ” I started. “I apply that aid at the moment when the inside hind leg is lifted off the ground to start a forward-sideways step,” she continued. “I also put my outside leg in a guarding position behind the girth, blocking her from moving her quarters too far sideways and maintaining the forward movement at the same time.” “I see.” “My inside leg drives, while the outside leg controls.” She hesitated for a second, as if trying to remember the rest. “I guide the forehand along the wall with the outside rein. By supporting with the outside leg, I should be able to keep her from rushing away from the inside leg. The supporting outside rein prevents any falling out over the outside shoulder.” I waited this time to see if there was more. There was. “Ultimately, I’m trying to get her to be flexed away from the direction we are moving and her forehand guided in a shallow turn to align with the hindquarters.” She finally turned and looked back down at me. “Her inside legs should pass and cross in front of her outside legs.” She smiled. “Okay.” I nodded. “And how are you both doing with all of that?” “Not very well.” “Fair enough.” I nodded again. “So let’s try something a little different.”
― Mark Rashid, Journey to Softness: In Search of Feel and Connection with the Horse

“I just wanted to say how sorry I am,” I told him as he sat in his chair in the tack room, smoking his ever-present cigarette and cutting some thin strips of leather he would ultimately use for repair work of one kind or another. “I shouldn’t have done what I did, and I won’t make that mistake again. I’m sorry.” He sat for a few seconds, and without even looking up at me he said, “Did you learn anything today?” “Yes sir,” I said after several seconds of thought. In fact, I was going to expound by telling him I should have only worked with the colt in the halter and not moved ahead with the bit, and I should have only worked the ten minutes that he told me to in the first place. I was going to tell him I shouldn’t have pushed the colt the way I had and several other thoughts that were flooding my young mind. But as it turned out, I didn’t have to say any of it. Because before I could open my mouth to speak, he briefly looked up at me. “Good,” he said quietly as he slowly nodded his head. “Because if you learned something, then it wasn’t a mistake.”
― Mark Rashid, Whole Heart, Whole Horse: Building Trust Between Horse and Rider

“Oftentimes we get so hung up on accomplishing goals or relying on techniques or methods that we don’t allow that piece of ourselves—the piece that lets the horse know we can be trusted—to shine through.”
― Mark Rashid, Horses Never Lie: The Heart of Passive Leadership

“The better our communication, the more paths we’ll see to the development of true softness—in ourselves, and our horses.”
― Mark Rashid, Journey to Softness: In Search of Feel and Connection with the Horse

“True horsemanship is developed in the mindful quality of everything we do—not just in the quality of everything we do with our horses.”
― Mark Rashid, Journey to Softness: In Search of Feel and Connection with the Horse

“There’s something about horses that we all need to understand—their only real job in this world is to stay alive from one day to the next. Nothing else really matters.”
― Mark Rashid, Horses Never Lie: The Heart of Passive Leadership