#'s 3 and 5 in a varying ratio.

I've had a string of coaches over the year, and am fairly dependant (in a good way) on my current one to help me deal with my green alpha mare.  Also, I was talking with the BO today about donating some or all of my magazine collection (twenty years of Horse Sport and Practical Horseman as well as some others) to the barn lounge so others can benefit from all the great articles I learned from over the years.

I seldom, if ever, look into these magazine forum topics and just noticed the nice comments from NWBucksinLvr and Spragueme which caused me to have an "Awe, shucks..." moment. Thank you!

I would be hard pressed to pick any dominant influence from the available choices. But, push come to shove, I guess it would have initially been a combination of #2 & #5.

#2- Friends, acquaintances and fellow horsemen over the past 30+ years have probably taught me as much about what doesn't work with horses as what does. And that included many different techniques that ranged from those that were merely effective to those that were and still are completely brutal and/or absurd. It was hard to tell the difference when first starting out. Sooner or later I acquired enough information to get the job done. Even if it was just mimicking what I'd seen or had been told to make the end justify the means. And it was very easy to get stuck in that mindset. Is that mentoring? I guess so. But it doesn't mean it was always GOOD mentoring.

#5- It was about 15 years ago I saw Monty Roberts demonstrate and explain Join-up and his principles of "Equus". I know many believe he remains a controversial figure for what I think are the wrong reasons; his alleged embellishments of his personal life. I couldn't have cared less about that and still don't. It was his interaction and success with horses that I was interested in. His physical techniques were no mystery among the traditional buckaroo crowd long practicing "hook-ups" and advance & retreat. But I was intrigued by his calm and quiet manipulation and knowledge of natural horse instincts to acquire true cooperation from a horse in all areas of training. He made me keenly aware that although I thought I "knew" horses, I did not truly understand them. I could already defensively read a horse for it's anticipated reaction. But it never occurred to me that I wasn't listening to what the horse was saying because I never before considered the concept of two way cross-species communication. I was always just telling the horse what I expected. And woe-betide his butt if he didn't learn or listen well enough to suit me. But Roberts got me thinking about how much I didn't know and put me on the path toward what most now call natural horsemanship. I did not become an exclusive Monty Roberts devotee. But I did explore almost all the popular so-called BNT natural horsemanship trainers and their techniques, testing each one on the most rank and hopeless horses I could find. The more I studied, learned about and applied horse psychology and physiology toward recognizing and manipulating natural horse behavior the more responsive and successful training sessions became. Eventually I no longer just imitated the NH training techniques of others. I came to understand what the horses were saying and asking. And I learned to answer them in a way they understood, training each one as the individuals they are. It was my personal horse training epiphany. And Monty Roberts pointed me toward it.

But with my newly discovered success there came an equal amount of sadness. To this day I cannot help but remember and regret all the horses I failed to do right by for almost 20 years previous. I have never been cruel or inhumane to any animal. But because of my ignorance in years long past, I know I had some bad horses that could have been good horses. And some good horses that could have been great ones. I had no idea I had been letting them down so badly. So.... as a humble apology to those horses my ignorance failed to help and with respect for the editors of H&R... I would like to add one more mentoring category.

#6- MY HORSES. The ones I now meet, listen to, get the opportunity to learn even more from and allow me to help make the bond between owners, riders and horses a true and better partnership of cooperation and pleasure. If we make the special effort to first truly understand them, our horses can then teach us all so much more about ourselves, if we let them. That's mentoring, too. ~FH 

FloridaHorseman:

But with my newly discovered success there came an equal amount of sadness. To this day I cannot help but remember and regret all the horses I failed to do right by for almost 20 years previous. I have never been cruel or inhumane to any animal. But because of my ignorance in years long past, I know I had some bad horses that could have been good horses. And some good horses that could have been great ones. I had no idea I had been letting them down so badly. So.... as a humble apology to those horses my ignorance failed to help and with respect for the editors of H&R... I would like to add one more mentoring category.

I know that feeling all too well, FH.  I can't tell you how many times I've thought "oh THAT's what that horse was trying to tell me" or "if I'd only known then what I know now I could've taught that horse to . . . " and I also felt like I had let them down, terribly.  But I think all we can do now to make it up to them is to continue to educate ourselves so that we can help as many as we can now, on their behalf, just as you are doing now.