07/22/2025
Care and management. Riding or work. Training and handling. These aren’t optional menu items. You don’t just pick your favorite. Every horse needs all three in order to live a safe, healthy, and enriched life.
It’s our responsibility as horse owners to meet those needs. Skipping the groundwork or skimping on care isn’t just a corner cut, it’s a disservice to the horse. These are socially complex animals, not tools for our enjoyment.
Riding is a privilege. And that privilege comes with the duty to show up fully - for their bodies, their minds, and their long-term wellbeing.
Horsemanship is not a buffet where you pick and choose your favorite skills "dish" or aspect of horsemanship. The diagram's triangle represents the three parts of horsemanship, (1) care & management, (2) riding - or driving, vaulting, etc., and (3) training. The What, How and Why is what instructors need to teach when instructing students.
Like a balanced meal with protein, starch and vegetables, horsemanship must be balanced. People might go to a buffet and load up their plate with one thing like mashed potatoes with only tiny portions of other offerings on their plate, but that is not a good way to think about horsemanship. Authentic horsemanship requires the discipline to maintain a proper balance of all the skills, something few people have today.
Most people today focus on one or maybe two of the care & management, riding or other equine activities, and training of the three aspects of horsemanship, which is the underlying cause of the decline we see in many disciplines. Authentic horsemen and women work on all three parts even if some parts don't interest them. They do it for the sake of the horses.
Many of today's top competitors are 90% focused on the riding part. They purchase a horse that is "right for them". They don't buy a horse wanting to become the right rider for the horse because that requires work, and that doesn't interest them. The usual result is they compete the horse for a while and the relationship gets real and suffers because the rider demands that the horse fit them, so the rider buys another horse.
Similarly, the usual pet horse owner, with their overweight horses with shiny coats, focuses only on care and management. While these horse owners love the care & management aspect, they often ignore the training and riding aspects of horsemanship. As a result, their horses often have no manners, some are dangerous, and most are very out of shape. Their horses have no future with anyone else except another pet horse person who has no skills, no riding having had little or no real training.
Few people today experience the whole horse. They will spend whatever it takes on vet care but won't spend a dime on a horse trainer who would make their horse safe and useful. They also won't spend the time and money to improve their riding, so their horse can have a better experience when they ride them.
I write this to protect horses. I understand that in an era of "everyone is entitled to their own "truth" this perspective might be socially incorrect and threaten some people's self image as horse lovers. But horses have their truth that requires respect. Care & management, riding or other work, and training are equally important to a horse in order for them to have a good life. All three are a horse owner's responsibility.
Just as horse owners spend significant money on good feed, vets and farriers for care and management, it is equally important that they devote their resources to quality horse trainers and instructors in order to serve all of their horse's needs. Owning a horse is not a buffet where you pick and choose.
