“Nothing educates quite like a horse. Without loosing the meaning by verbalizing abstractions, the horse silently sends his messages. The education prevails. His rider must, and will listen. He will become the better for it. For courage, wisdom born of insight and humility, empathy is born of compassion and love, all can be bequeathed by a horse to his rider. The rider becomes the humble recipient of the bounty only his horse can give him. Character improves, virtues multiply, wisdom deepens by the riders association with his horse.

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Ennobling character changes will follow. The rider’s attention span will lengthen, endurance and the tolerance of pain and discomfort will increase. They will be braver, stronger in body, mind and spirit. Their powers of concentration will deepen to a meditative state, oblivious to anything outside the harmonious absorbtion of their communion with the horse. Their focus will sharpen to cut the irrelevant details away, making them steadfast in body, mind and spirit. Wiser in analysis, more resourceful in synthesis, they find their task and do it with dispatch. Profound in empathy, born of love for the horse, tempered by respect, urged on by a growing tolerance, they become masters of the horse with enough humility not to displease him!”

Charles De Kunffy, The Ethics and Passions of Dressage

Horses are the best teachers. The life of a human is not long enough to learn all there is to know about riding.

Klaus Balkenhol