Are you a 'horseman' (or woman)

[SillyMare]

Right, for the sake of this post, let's assume the word 'horseman' is referring to people of either sex.

A couple of recent articles in H&H have got me thinking about what it means to be a 'horseman'.

Both the Chris Bartle Natural Horsemanship article and the article about breaking horses allude to the lost art of 'horsemanship' in a world where so many of us are (relatively) cash rich and time poor.

How would you define a 'horseman'?

How do you know whether or not you are one?

Would you class yourself as a 'horseman'?

Just interested in peoples opinions really.

 

[sillygillyhorse]

Not really thought about until now. Guess I would describe a "horseman" as a person with comprehensive depth of horse knowledge, able to handle any situation with any horse with empathy, able to gain a horses trust and improve its performance/manners without resorting to giving the horse a good hiding.

there is, IMO, no short cuts for gaining experience with horses, the knowledge comes with spending hours around horses whether that be riding, observing their behaviour in a field etc and asking those more experienced loads of questions, an open mind also helps.

Interesting topic that makes you stop and think.

 

[LEC]

For me it would be someone with a wide range of experience -Can deal with yearlings up to 20 year old horses of different breeds and sizes and know what they are doing. Its not necessarily competing but able to get a horse ready for different levels of competition.
I do not think they are disappearing I just think people are becoming market specific in the production of horses and I do think the comment about time/money is a big one. I never have the money so no chance of me getting a ready made horse so have to do it myself.

 

[magic104]

Ditto above

 

[SillyMare]

Do you think it an impossible goal for a non-professional horse person?

Anyone who does not ride horses full-time will inevitably be limited in the amount of experience they can gain and the amount of different horses they can ride.

Would your definition exclude anyone who has produced and competed to a high level on a small number of horses?

Or someone that focuses exclusively on a small sector of the market (eg a jockey) and consequently has limited experience of other breeds / types / ages / disciplines?

 

[LEC]

No not an impossible goal for a non pro - it can be gained in years. Some proffessional riders would not have ridden everything going and they stick to a certain type of horse which they like does that make them any more incapapable?
Things have become very proffessional its not that long ago only 25 years when Eventing/Dressage was very much amateur. People seemed to cross over more - I really do think you will never see eventers for example retiring then going to the top of other sports like Merely a Monarch and Willy Trout. I think this proffessionalism makes things harder and this is why the general title of horseman is shrinking but I think the skills are still there.